I hear a loud thump from the front end when the tires are unloaded (like driving off a cliff). My Al's a-arm's ubj contacts the spring 'pad' when the tires are unloaded like when the vehicle is jacked up. I'm thinking that when i hear the thump it is the a-arms/ubj's hitting that pad. Is this a normal occurence with the Frankenlift and al's a-arms? I want to get rid of this noise, but how? Remove the spring pad? It seems to do it most on speed bumps because of their abrupt drop off.

Check all bolts and ,make sure they are all tight(swaybar bolts and LCA cam bolts are famous for noises).Check for UCA contact on the lower portion of the UCA mounting pockets and check to see if your sway bar is contacting the LCA,mine is very close at full droop on mine and I'm still using the OEM top strut plates and not the Daystar which gives more droop..Those 3 area's would be the most likely causes of noises.

you might also investigate where the A Arm comes out of the engine compartment i had contact there.

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'06 Renegade Jeep Green in color
Frankenlift with heavier rate springs for bumper/winch applications
ARB, Warn Winch, full set of factory skids, JBA gen 4.5 A-Arms, LT245/75 R16 Michelin LTX AT2
Arizona Pinstriping, and desert dust custom paint overlay

Thanks, your post has given me some ideas. i have retourqued all the bolts with the exception of the LCA since i did not remove it originally. The sway bar does not contact the LCA when drooping when jacked up. besides the ubj contact i have also seen contact on the top of the CVs with the bottom of the strut when the ubj was disconnenected.

After looking at it further tonight I see that the ubj hits the spring and the uca hits the pad. Also the bottom of the uca has crushed in the bottom of the holder that tjkj2002 talked about. I think if i extend the pad out then the uca will hit the pad but the ubj will not hit the spring. Hopefully, this will fix the clunk.

Here are some pics i took.

This one shows general contact at full droop with pad and spring.


This one shows contact of uca and frame


This one shows contact area on spring where uca hits. Notice how worn the spring is there.


Possibly an extended pad here like this illustration shows would force the uca away from the spring.


General area shot.

Man you really have some issues there for sure, back at the pockets and with the ball joint / spring area looks like you need to tear it all aprt and do some major mods in those areas, that would give you some clunking noises !

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MUDD'S MOTORSPORT'S We do IFS lift installs ,
03 OVERLAND EDITION /Kilby-Skidrow-Mopar-4XGuard skids/ 2.5 inch TOTAL CONTROL JBA coilovers -JBA Arms/MOABS-31 FALKEN WILDPEAK AT3W / 4.10's etc, 04 Kilimanjaro Edition loaded, plus 05 KJ limited

Man, I am running the stock UCA's on my 05 kj with the frankie and when I took it out last week I had no thumps or thuds. I have checked and everything seems fine and dandy in there. I realize I should, and eventually will, upgrade to the JBA gen 4.5 arms but $$ is tight right now, but from what I can tell, you have more issues than my stock arms are giving me.

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My Jeep Build ----> Big Black

I am trying to think here why you do have so many problems, I am almost as high as any Frankenlift , have the stock arms and no where as close as you are? Did you add anything to the Frankenlift? Just curious, I put one on here a few months ago with the stock arms and they had all kinds of clearance???? interesting ....

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MUDD'S MOTORSPORT'S We do IFS lift installs ,
03 OVERLAND EDITION /Kilby-Skidrow-Mopar-4XGuard skids/ 2.5 inch TOTAL CONTROL JBA coilovers -JBA Arms/MOABS-31 FALKEN WILDPEAK AT3W / 4.10's etc, 04 Kilimanjaro Edition loaded, plus 05 KJ limited

keep in mind that this is at full droop. Driving around is fine except over speed bumps. It's just at full extension. Perhaps i got faulty parts though if no one else has this issue with the frankenlift. It was like this from day one. When i first installed it i got 3.75" of lift in the front and mine was already pre-lowered. The springs are super stiff with zero flex at first but have loosened up a little since. It seems to me the uca's are under tremendous stress from the struts and have no choice but to sag right into the pad and spring. There is a lot of force on the ubj at full droop. I don't think the ubj is supposed to hold the knuckle farther out. the ubj's have no choice but to rotate.

understand that the pictures are at full drop, but it looks like you have been hitting the springs a lot, do you take the speed bumps at 55 mph??

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MUDD'S MOTORSPORT'S We do IFS lift installs ,
03 OVERLAND EDITION /Kilby-Skidrow-Mopar-4XGuard skids/ 2.5 inch TOTAL CONTROL JBA coilovers -JBA Arms/MOABS-31 FALKEN WILDPEAK AT3W / 4.10's etc, 04 Kilimanjaro Edition loaded, plus 05 KJ limited

No i drive like a granny over speed bumps now because i don't like the noise. Perhaps it rubs a little during downtravel as well. It would be helfull if someone with the same combination of lift and al's a-arms posted a picture of their a-arms at full droop so we can compare. I have the frankenlift II premium with ome everything and al's a-arms generation IV (i believe).

I think that pad is there to allow for the knuckle to smack against it. But the a-arm contacts the spring as well in this combination.

Marlin from Jeepinbyal.com is sending me some replacement Gen 4.5 A-Arms to see if that fixes the problem. The new a-arms are supposed to have more clearance for the larger springs. Talk about great customer service.

icarl, any updates? I have had my lift for over a month and noticed the same problem. when i go over speed bumps i get a bad thump, passenger side only, also going through road dips it seems to spring up too quickly on passenger side only. Its almost like the strut has no rebound dampening. I spoke with All J's and they're going to look at it as soon as i can make it up there. Jimmy

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Sport - 3" catback - Frankenlift II - Moabs / GY Duratrac 245 75 16, hot tune, lift pump, provent (23kmiles)/silcone lines, ARB bumper, JBA arms, suncoast torque converter, Samco intercooler lines, silicone turbo inlet, hopefully inconel exhaust valves??
05 Ford E450 Class C w/ PSD - 4" cat back
First car - baja bug - still have it

I had an alignment done after install of lift and now hear a thump sound on left front. when I tighten the nut on LCA, it won't move the cam any? I'll go over all bolts again. I did shoot some silicon spray on LCA and UCA bushings, and other areas, seemed to help with a groaning sound from LF strut. lift settling in type sounds I guess.

i get a thump every now and again from my frankenlift.. i just always figured it was the bump stop of the spring hitting the UCA... had it for 10,000 miles and nothing has shown rubbing and nothing has failed so i dont let it get to me. not frequent enough to both me anyway.

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2006 Renegade. Completely stock.

I have received the new Al's Arms that Marlin was gracious enough to send me. I have installed one on the passenger side same as pictures above. Unfortunately it did not solve my problem. The new A-arms do improve things in that the knuckle hits the centre of the pad instead of the top. Also the arms do not rub on the tire at full lock anymore. However, a-arm still hits the spring. Actually, the nuts on the a-arm hit. I think the problem is there is too much droop in the system. I was wondering if there was a way to get less droop. Could something in the strut be loose maybe? I may have to take the strut apart and remove compents to get less droop. This would be undesirable as it would reduce my lift. I wonder if there is someway to reduce droop without loosing any lift.

Here are the pics with the new a-arm. If i install another pad between the knuckle and the existing pad that may also keep the a-arm from hitting.




Two sets of a-arms tell me that I don't think the a-arms are the problem here. With the factory A-arms it would be much worse. There is just too much droop. I would need something like the spacer-knuckle thingy on jeepinbyal's 4-6 " lift kit to take off some of the stress on the a-arm.