CV joint and CV boot problems on KK 3" or 4"

The_hiker · **Posted:** Wed Aug 08, 2012 8:53 am

Mikzor wrote:

The_hiker wrote:

By the way to all:
Have a look what our friends down under are doing with the KK's...: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ70piV5 ... re=mh_lolz

Hey mate, that's actually my car in the video you linked. Just thought I'd let you know that I'm just running the Mopar 2" lift and only have a set of 245/70/R16 tyres on some 16x8 AEV Rims at the moment. I've been impressed with what she can do even with that modest setup. I'll probably increase the tyres next purchase to either a set of 245/75/16's or splash out and go for some 265/75/16s and a ReGearing to run them but that would be as far as I'll ever take it for height.

I'm like you, in this is my daily work driver and with a young family I'm really just setting it up as a nice camping tourer that's still capable enough to have a bit of fun with the boys now and then.

Hi body, I am Panic853 the one who commented your vids. It was a real pleasure to see your movie. Hopefully you will put on some more!!!
I know that you only use a 2" lift but knowing myself I would like to get the max between performance and reliability in order to spend the money just once! Anyway the other KK-guy you went with to your last trip seems to use a Murchison 3" lift and 265 75 16 tires... am I right? Would be nice if we could get a foto of his rig too on this forum (let me try).
I guess that a 3" lift could still be on a save side as a family rig (as you are saying), but if you look at the rig of E2 (guy of the forum here) you really think twice!
Note to E2:
Your car looks great although I don't know how it performes...

The_hiker · **Posted:** Wed Aug 08, 2012 9:11 am

Lets see if this works: Our friends from down under using their KK's

The_hiker · **Posted:** Wed Aug 08, 2012 9:12 am

I 'll have to give it another try... sorry folks!

Mikzor · **Joined:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 7:28 pm **Posts:** 64

The_hiker wrote:

Anyway the other KK-guy you went with to your last trip seems to use a Murchison 3" lift and 265 75 16 tires... am I right? Would be nice if we could get a foto of his rig too on this forum (let me try).
I guess that a 3" lift could still be on a save side as a family rig (as you are saying), but if you look at the rig of E2 (guy of the forum here) you really think twice!
Note to E2:
Your car looks great although I don't know how it performes...

Yep the other KK on the same trip as I is probably one of the nicest KK's I've seen so far. He was indeed running a 3" lift from http://www.murchisonproducts.com.au had 265/75/16 tyres and was re-geared. He also had front and rear air lockers, a custom snorkel, an old TJM T-17 bullbar with winch, custom sliders and custom roof rails. Very Nice Rig! I basically also want to mimic his build with my own KK.... but since I already have the 2" lift leave it at that rather than pay again to take it to 3"

Here's a great shot of his rig.

Mine next to his.

The_hiker · **Posted:** Wed Aug 08, 2012 4:24 pm

That was what I was talking about.

Both look very nice!!! No doubt the 3" lift and the big tires fit very nice to your friends KK!

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Sun Aug 12, 2012 12:02 am

Ok, as soon as a update myself with the tread, I will post :wink:

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Sun Aug 12, 2012 12:10 am

As far as CV life goes, I find that my KK likes about 4 inches of lift in the front. For a period of time, I was eating CV boots every 3000 or so but I was at 4.75 inches of lift upfront.

Oh and with 48000 on my KK, i haven't had any steering rack issues

The_hiker · **Posted:** Sun Aug 12, 2012 7:43 am

Diggerfreek wrote:

As far as CV life goes, I find that my KK likes about 4 inches of lift in the front. For a period of time, I was eating CV boots every 3000 or so but I was at 4.75 inches of lift upfront.

Oh and with 48000 on my KK, i haven't had any steering rack issues

Hey Digger,
Thanks for your Input!!! Do I understand you right that you think that there shoudn't be an excessive wear of CV joints, CV boots nor steering rack when using the JBA 4" lift???

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Sun Aug 12, 2012 2:48 pm

The_hiker wrote:

Diggerfreek wrote:

As far as CV life goes, I find that my KK likes about 4 inches of lift in the front. For a period of time, I was eating CV boots every 3000 or so but I was at 4.75 inches of lift upfront.

Oh and with 48000 on my KK, i haven't had any steering rack issues

Hey Digger,
Thanks for your Input!!! Do I understand you right that you think that there shoudn't be an excessive wear of CV joints, CV boots nor steering rack when using the JBA 4" lift???

while I wouldn't use the term "excessive", I'm still going to say that there will be some accelerated due to pushing the parts past their factory engineered standard range of motion. While the new range of motion of the parts may still be with in the min/max specs, I can tell you that my KK has over 40,000 miles with it being lifted at various heights and so far I have had to replace the driver side CV and the driver side oil seal on the diff where the CV enters the diff

The_hiker · **Posted:** Sun Aug 12, 2012 4:42 pm

Got it Digger.... You wanna play you gotta pay!!!

Sound not too bad to me where as it is clear that you may/will notice a certain life time reduction on the parts.

Thanks a lot for you opinion on this!!! Help me out of the doubt's I had. Since I saw E2's picture gallery with the broken CV boots, I was really suspecious about the 4" lift. But as far as I understood it could have to do with the first versions of the JBA lift-fork, and also as E2 seems to had it up to 5" lift!!! Looks awsome with the big tires but this is just to much for the Indipenedent suspensions, I guess...

Thank's again ;-)

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Sun Aug 12, 2012 5:28 pm

From what I know, almost every KK so far with the JBA 4 inch kit likes different heights.

In E2 case, the new clevis forks were the problem. I still run a prototype set up that Marlin made that still uses my OEM forks.

The problem I had was the billows on the boot were making contact resulting in excessive heat then failure. By lowering my lift from 4.75 to 4.0, I solved my problem. I could raise my front again to 4.25ish, but I just soon not take a chance on that being to high up

The_hiker · **Posted:** Mon Aug 13, 2012 6:56 pm

Diggerfreek wrote:

From what I know, almost every KK so far with the JBA 4 inch kit likes different heights.

In E2 case, the new clevis forks were the problem. I still run a prototype set up that Marlin made that still uses my OEM forks.

The problem I had was the billows on the boot were making contact resulting in excessive heat then failure. By lowering my lift from 4.75 to 4.0, I solved my problem. I could raise my front again to 4.25ish, but I just soon not take a chance on that being to high up

Almost all of us would like to get as high as possilbe, even if in some situations out in the field it might not be recomendable. But I think I got you => Try to stay as close to 4" have a look at possible contacts between fork an boots and things should run fine. I guess practice will show at the end, what's the optimum ;-)

. Again thank you in any cases for your hints.

CV joint and CV boot problems on KK 3" or 4"

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