SOA on a CJ worth it?

callaway · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:50 pm

My cj currently has a lift comprised of 4" superlift superride springs and 2" shackles. This is strictly an offroad vehicle and will not be driven on the street.
I've heard SOA only really helps if doing hard core rock crawling or in sever off camber situations - is it worth it to make the change? What would I need to do so?

jeepkj02 · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2008 9:12 pm

With a SOA you get about 5-inches of lift. That would net you 11-inches of lift. I would probably get rid of those shackles. What tires/axles are you running.

callaway · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2008 10:32 pm

The shackles came with the cj when I bought it

There are 36" tsl's on there now, a dana30 in the front and amc 20 in the rear.
I'm not all that confident in the 20 handling the tires... looking at putting a dana 44 in the front and a corporate 14 bolt in the rear

jeepkj02 · **Posted:** Thu Sep 11, 2008 9:21 am

callaway wrote:

The shackles came with the cj when I bought it

There are 36" tsl's on there now, a dana30 in the front and amc 20 in the rear.
I'm not all that confident in the 20 handling the tires... looking at putting a dana 44 in the front and a corporate 14 bolt in the rear

With one-piece axles a AMC 20 is similar in strength with a Dana 44. It should be able to handle those 36's".

Dana 44 has a ring gear diameter of 8.5", and
the AMC 20 has a ring gear diameter of 8.875".

I would ditch the Dana 30 front.

callaway · **Posted:** Thu Sep 11, 2008 9:39 am

What gearing would be optimum?

The 14 bolt has 3.73 gears and is a full floater... I have to check and see what the 44 had...

Would I gain much swapping the amc 20 for the 14 bolt?

jeepkj02 · **Posted:** Thu Sep 11, 2008 11:17 am

callaway wrote:

What gearing would be optimum?

The 14 bolt has 3.73 gears and is a full floater... I have to check and see what the 44 had...

Would I gain much swapping the amc 20 for the 14 bolt?

The 14bolt is MUCH stronger than the AMC 20.

Here is a gearing chart. http://www.4lo.com/calc/geartable.htm

5.13-5.29 for more power
4.88 for factory gearing.

The lowest gears you can get for the AMC 20 is 4.88's.
You can get up to 5.38 with the 14 bolt
You can get 5.89 with the dana 44

Gears: http://www.4wheelerssupply.com/catalog/ ... 470_496_23

callaway · **Posted:** Thu Sep 11, 2008 11:26 am

Thanks for the links!

scrambledKJ · **Posted:** Fri Sep 19, 2008 8:08 pm

Going SOA is awesome. I have had one on my scrambler since 2000. I used 2.5" wrangler springs and new shackles that were only 1/2 inch longer. Use a Cj rear spring hanger from Warrior Products for the front. Bolts in. I ran 35's with lotsa room. I had 4.56 gears in my dana 30 and amc 20 with one piece axles and lunchbox lockers and had a blast in tellico and other places.

Switching to the chevy axles will be a little involved, as you will need to put outboard hangers on the front. There are a couple of kits out there. I used a Blue Torch Fab one a few years ago.

I never broke an axle till i got 39" boggers and a dana 44.

Travis

SOA on a CJ worth it?

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