Rock Krawler 3" X Factor JT System

[19JL]

What size tire are you running? 40s?

Yes with Skyjacker 4.5” springs.

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[RH 67]

My RK 3” No Limits Pro-X is going on today!!!!!
One last thought before I start wrenching.
If we’re supposed to use red loctite on the jam nuts and check torque again after about 500 miles and all has settled in, won’t it be a b!tch to retorque or give you false readings with the loctite already set?
And if you don’t use the loctite at first torque then you have to loosen the jam nuts to apply it.
Chicken or the egg?

You can mark the nuts and bolts and just check them every now and then. It is sold on Amazon.

 

[Duke56]

Well...... It’s finally done. The kit is installed.
When driving my Gladiator home and taking some paved and unpacked roads I noticed an immediate difference in better handling and on road ride quality and all I can say is WoW!!!! WHAT A DIFFERENCE! A big THANK YOU to Rock Krawler for creating such an awesome kit.
My Gladiator no longer rides like a truck. I think it rides as good if not better than my Ram 1500 which always received compliments by passengers who couldn’t believe how IT rode. The Gladiator rides as though it’s floating on a cloud. It’s like a luxury car ride. (Insert Big Smile HERE)

The Installation Experience..........
First of all, I absolutely thank my best friend ever, Jim, for lending his time, hands, and knowledge in helping me get this done.
Also important is a big shout out to Gearheads in Waterford MIchigan for continuing their hoist rental service.
I wouldn’t do this install again without a hoist. It would have taken 2 days of crawling around and it would have been a bitch busting a lot of the nuts loose that way.
And I must also give a BIG THANK YOU to a mechanic named Tony who was there buying a couple of used hoists from Gearheads to be replaced with upgraded new ones. Tony jumped in and helped out on the rear install and had us jumping following his lead. I think he wanted our asses outta there cause we were on one of the hoists he was buying. But honestly, he was a tremendous help and demonstrated his knowledge and passion as a mechanic and caring human being.
I had predicted the install time on a hoist to be 4 hours with a helper but it actually took 6 hours since we ran into some minor snags during the front install.

THE ISSUES:

1. Somehow, we couldn’t get the driver side of the front axle to droop enough to put the spring in because it was hitting on a crossmember.
   Les who was the former founder and owner of Gearheads happened to be there and saw our problem and suggested we disconnect the driveshaft. Life became easy again. THANK YOU Les!
2. We also couldn’t get enough droop in the front axle because the brake lines were getting scary tight.
   Les came through again and pointed out that removing a lower brake line bracket that is mounted under the spring perch area would give us an additional few inches of slack. It is held in by a 10mm screw on the side and a tab that engages a slot on the other side. Easy peasy.
3. Head scratching! This was our first time ever doing anything like this so a bit of that took place even tough we had the instructions printed out and at hand.
4. Jaw jacking and story telling. Gotta allow some time for that.
5. Breaks. We didn’t take many of them and they were short at best.
6. Goofing off, telling jokes. Mix in a little bit of that too. Helps break up the day.

So, today I am going to adjust the drag link to recenter the steering wheel because it’s off center by about 70 degrees clockwise.
We didn’t do it yesterday because of time constraints and we were tired and wanted to go home.
The Jeep doesn’t like you driving with the steering wheel off center because it was complaining about servicing the traction control system and it disabled the cruise control as well. Picky picky picky. So I’m hoping this was due to the steering wheel not centered and the built in high tech given to us by Jeep engineers. I had disconnected a wire going to the axle and thought maybe I didn’t have it seated firmly enough but I rechecked it and it was good so I’m hoping the recenter will clear it up. I’ve heard elsewhere that this can cause other issues because of sensors not being in sync. We’ll see.
I’ll also be checking Toe, Caster, and centering of the axles as well. It drove home OK but I want to know where it’s at and make corrections if needed.
While I’m under there, I’ll check that all the nuts and bolts are match marked with a paint marker. I think I forgot a few. I’m a big fan of match marking and we do it all the time in the auto factories on production tooling to serve as a visual aid to detect tampering. We used to safety wire socket head cap screws so they couldn’t back out but now have “PatchLok” screws which are like using blue loctite but it’s built into the threads.

One last question I have for Rock Krawler is how can we get a cool zippered hoodie that Jeremy is sporting in the YouTube and E3 videos?

 

[Duke56]

UPDATE:
I adjusted the drag link to center the steering wheel and that got rid of the message to “Service Traction Control” and the lights for the Traction and Cruise Control. The axles are both remarkably centered. The toe in is at 1/8 inch. The caster is 6 degrees on the left front and 4.5 degrees on the right so I need to add about 1.2 degree of caster to the right but it feels fine driving it on the road with no pulling to either side so it may be my garage floor is not level enough (I zeroed my angle finder next to where the center of the tire sat on the floor) or my measurements are not accurate enough. I’ll have the shop check it and tell me what they find and maybe pay em the $80 for a full front and rear alignment. I checked the rear pinion angle and was really surprised and happy to find it at 2.6 degrees. Spec is 2 to 3. Sometimes even a blind squirrel finds a nut.

 

[Rock Krawler Suspension]

Bump @Rock Krawler Suspension

thanks

Sorry guys, I've been in the R&D shop for far too long working on 5" JT stuff and long arm JT stuff and one ton swaps etc...

On the spring pads, we didn't change the coil end winding pattern with the spring seat so, logically, they should fit anyone's springs. We do use the seat to account for the asymmetrical load of the vehicle so if you're pairing them with springs that have that loading built into them, you could cause the jeep to lean.

 

[19JL]

Sorry guys, I've been in the R&D shop for far too long working on 5" JT stuff and long arm JT stuff and one ton swaps etc...

On the spring pads, we didn't change the coil end winding pattern with the spring seat so, logically, they should fit anyone's springs. We do use the seat to account for the asymmetrical load of the vehicle so if you're pairing them with springs that have that loading built into them, you could cause the jeep to lean.

Thanks for the reply. I’m hoping to get 1/2” lift out of them and correct the awkward bow in my rear springs. This is just a temp solution until you release those 5” springs you’re working hard on.

 

[Rock Krawler Suspension]

Thanks for the reply. I’m hoping to get 1/2” lift out of them and correct the awkward bow in my rear springs. This is just a temp solution until you release those 5” springs you’re working hard on.

Give us a shout and we will get you set up with a pair of short ones rather than one tall one short.

 

[19JL]

Give us a shout and we will get you set up with a pair of short ones rather than one tall one short.

I ordered one small and one large last week from Northridge. How much lift will a gain from the larger ones? In all reality I’ll need one small and one large when the 5” springs come out, correct?

 

[Rock Krawler Suspension]

Yes, you will need one of each when you get the 5" springs. In the mean time, the correction height difference is roughly .75"

 

[desertrecon]

With the 3" X Factor can we deactivate the sway-bar on the rubicon?

 

[Duke56]

Yes, absolutely BUT make sure you purchase the “No Limits” kit because it uses specific front sway bar links for the Rubicon models.
They are beefier and are black powder coated. I had ordered the wrong kit initially but Adam from Rock Krawler caught it and helped me get it right.

 

[desertrecon]

Yes, absolutely BUT make sure you purchase the “No Limits” kit because it uses specific front sway bar links for the Rubicon models.
They are beefier and are black powder coated. I had ordered the wrong kit initially but Adam from Rock Krawler caught it and helped me get it right.

Thanks for the info. Is it good for dune bashing?

 

[Duke56]

I can’t comment on that because I just had my Pro-X kit installed. I’m taking it easy on any extensive new install until I’m confident everything is settled in and secure. Maybe others here can chime in?

 

[jjmstang]

Ordering my Pro X No Limits today. Going with Go Rhino black Armory wheels and Toyo open Country RT's 37x12.5x17 and Fox ATS stabilizer.

 

[Rock Krawler Suspension]

Thanks for the info. Is it good for dune bashing?

With a well tuned shock, absolutely. As with all high speed offroad activity, you'll probably want to run a nice air bump like a king or fox or radflo, depending on how hard you like to push the limits.

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