Front tire wear

1of1547 · **Joined:** Wed Oct 06, 2010 9:32 am **Posts:** 15

Hi all, I've been lurking and finally joined today. We have a 2003 Liberty Limited that has 191,000+ miles on it. It's been a very good little DD for my girlfriend. No real problems at all. I'd like to lift it, but the mileage and bigger tires scares me. I've been looking and it looks like the lower ball joints wear pretty bad on these. Her inner front tires are shot!!! I'm assuming that this is the problem. I want to put it on the lift this weekend. Is there any other "problem" areas that I need to look at? How hard are the ball joints to repair? Are they press fit or bolt in?
Thanks,

VMKJCRD · **Posted:** Wed Oct 20, 2010 12:30 pm

Has it ever gotten an alignment?

long_tall_texan · **Posted:** Wed Oct 20, 2010 12:41 pm

Upper Ball joints are made into the upper control arms. Not replaceable. you have to replace the whole UCA. And yeah, they are a common wear item. Also LBJ wear out frequently too, especially the cheap OEM ones. It is highly suggested on this forum to replace the LBJ's with Moog ones. The Moogs are at least greasable, so they will last longer. After 191k miles, I would assume both your upper and lower are shot. Inner tire wear is probably from alignment, worn shocks, and front springs sagging so much, which adds to need for an alignment.

Suggestion:
Replace 4 Shocks - Rancho, Bilstein, OME are very popular recommendations
Replace 4 springs - OME on all 4 corners. Even if you didn't plan to lift, OME springs are a huge ride quality and handling improvement over stock.
Replace UCA and LBJ's
Check Steering Tie rods too. May need replacing. If so, replace them with greasable Moogs too.

And have fun doing it!

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Wed Oct 20, 2010 1:52 pm

Tie Rod's as well

1of1547 · **Joined:** Wed Oct 06, 2010 9:32 am **Posts:** 15

Thanks guys, I jacked it up last night and everything looks good. No wiggle in the tire what so ever. No other smoking guns. I've heard that the springs go soft on them. I really don't know the history of the Jeep before I met her. I know that it was dealer serviced up until a year or so ago. I'm gonna take a better look this weekend.

long_tall_texan · **Posted:** Thu Oct 21, 2010 3:15 pm

You can tell how much your springs are sagging by following the measurement procedure over in this post: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=43472 For reference, a new KJ, no sagging, measured right at 19" on all 4 fenders.

tommudd · **Posted:** Thu Oct 21, 2010 3:47 pm

What type of lift are you going with? With that many miles hopefully a full OME spring lift and new shocks all around. Spacer would be a complete waste of money with 191,000 plus miles
If everything else checks out ok , get it lifted and aligned right away and I'll bet it rides and drives WAY better than it ever did when new!

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Thu Oct 21, 2010 4:40 pm

just fyi

at um.. 70ish? i replaced springs etc, 80ish i replaced uca's/lca's

I had inner tire wear/cupping prior to the lift and new uca/lca's

still have inner tire wear

thus why i said make sure ya do Tie rod ends, rack bushings can be a culprit too

i've been riding around for a good 15-20k with TRE's in the cargo area - mostly because I hit a really bad lazy streak i guess

still getting tire wear

1of1547 · **Joined:** Wed Oct 06, 2010 9:32 am **Posts:** 15

Thanks for the information guys. What rate springs springs are you guys using?

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Nov 03, 2010 8:41 am

front are OME 927s rears are 948s
thats what most use and also what is used in the Frankenlifts

Front tire wear

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