Rusty's 6" lift MULTIPLE PROBLEMS!

[dent-techs]

1.I bought a Rustys 6" lift and the front springs have sagged and the bushings are shot. The kits been on since june. I don't think 5 months should kill my bushings. They been crap for a while now, but they are completely junk now. Anyone else have problems with a Rusty's kit.

2.The kit had poor instructions

3. All the brake lines where wrong. The rear line had to have an adapter and the front lines had to be drilled out to fit the caliper mounting bolt.

4. More on the front spring sag. When I first installed the kit the shackles got hung up the first trip out. When i figured out that the springs were hung up by the shackles I popped them free and the front seemed to have lost about 2" of lift. I made custom front shackles to raise it back up and prevent the shackles from getting stuck. This lifted it back up about 2 inches and leveled it back out. now 5 months later the front seems to be going south again. It could be because the bushings are split but I'm still pissed!

5. The rear shocks had to be mounted upside down to fit. I called Rustys and they told me to mount the shock right side up and put the bolt in the axle mount first and them BEAT THEM IN PLACE WITH A HAMMER CRUSHING THE SHOCK BODY IN TILL THEY FIT! I talked to Rusty himself and he said that he did it that way on his j-10.

6. I was told no drive line mods were necesary! WRONG! The front drive shaft hit the exhaust and caused my cardin joint to fail. Solution: new front drive shaft and completely new exhaust! P.S. the drive shaft still hangs up a little when fully flex. It bottoms out on the u-joint, eventually I will probably break it!

Conclusion: I think Rusty need to get his act together if he values his reputation! This lift kit was crappy and I wish I had bought a BJ's for the same price. If I had it to do over I would get a 4" kit and go SOA at the same time. Better flex and more lift.

[JERSEY JOE]

I feel your pain but I know that other lift kits have similar issues. On the rear the way the shock mounts are designed from the factory there is little extra room for rotating. The lift kit rotates the rear diff to correct the driveline angle and does not take into account the shock. Yes I have also beaten rear shocks in but eventually they fail. Two soultions: I have made extensions and welded them to the factory mount, and I have also cut the mounts off and welded new ones on. Some of the cheap kits with rear blocks have offset holes in the blocks that move the diff forward an inch or so. This results in the rear tire sitting close to the front of the opening and far from the rear. Still you need to end up getting longer E Brake cables. Never had any problems with spring sagging so soon like you have.

[Stuka]

1.I bought a Rustys 6" lift and the front springs have sagged and the bushings are shot. The kits been on since june. I don't think 5 months should kill my bushings. They been crap for a while now, but they are completely junk now. Anyone else have problems with a Rusty's kit.

My Rusty's 6" springs are 5 years old and have not sagged at all once they got broke in. Springs WILL sag about an inch after they are broke in, when brand new they have 'fake' lift untilt hey get good and broken in.

2.The kit had poor instructions

I never used them, so I cannot comment on that bit.

3. All the brake lines where wrong. The rear line had to have an adapter and the front lines had to be drilled out to fit the caliper mounting bolt.

This is a common problem with all lift makers, including BJ's and the like. Its not a lift maker problem, its the fact that there is two different brake hoses that are said to work for the same application.

4. More on the front spring sag. When I first installed the kit the shackles got hung up the first trip out. When i figured out that the springs were hung up by the shackles I popped them free and the front seemed to have lost about 2" of lift. I made custom front shackles to raise it back up and prevent the shackles from getting stuck. This lifted it back up about 2 inches and leveled it back out. now 5 months later the front seems to be going south again. It could be because the bushings are split but I'm still pissed!

This again is common with every 6" spring kit out there for FSJ's. The fix is to run longer shackles. A spring with that much arch is very long, so when it flattens out during flex, the shackle is not long enough to take that much movement. You may have bent the springs driving with the shackles stuck forward. As for the bushings, do you have rubber or poly bushings?

5. The rear shocks had to be mounted upside down to fit. I called Rustys and they told me to mount the shock right side up and put the bolt in the axle mount first and them BEAT THEM IN PLACE WITH A HAMMER CRUSHING THE SHOCK BODY IN TILL THEY FIT! I talked to Rusty himself and he said that he did it that way on his j-10.

This is an issue with most all 74+ FSJ's, its especially bad with 80+ J-Trucks. The only fix is to move the shock mount. This effects any lift out there, it is not a lift makers fault. You can thank AMC.

6. I was told no drive line mods were necesary! WRONG! The front drive shaft hit the exhaust and caused my cardin joint to fail. Solution: new front drive shaft and completely new exhaust! P.S. the drive shaft still hangs up a little when fully flex. It bottoms out on the u-joint, eventually I will probably break it!

Again, a common issue. The exhaust issue only effects certain drive train setups. I had to do it on my '75 cherokee with a T18/D20, the shaft was going to go right through the Y-Pipe. But it does not require a whole new exhaust, it only requires changing the y-pipe a bit. An chances are, your u-joints were already worn out, running the extra lift makes that wear really show up. I ran a 6" for several years on my cherokee and the u-joints never failed. Same goes for my J10 with a 6" kit on it.

Conclusion: I think Rusty need to get his act together if he values his reputation! This lift kit was crappy and I wish I had bought a BJ's for the same price. If I had it to do over I would get a 4" kit and go SOA at the same time. Better flex and more lift.

Almost every single issue you listed effects every single lift kit out there for FSJ's. As for the 4" + SOA, that would have cost you close to 2k once everything was said and done. Cost of the lift, custom drive shafts, custom steering, plus you would then need larger axles toc lear the tires that you would need to run with that much lift (about 11").

[Dmntxn77]

Almost every single issue you listed effects every single lift kit out there for FSJ's. As for the 4" + SOA, that would have cost you close to 2k once everything was said and done. Cost of the lift, custom drive shafts, custom steering, plus you would then need larger axles toc lear the tires that you would need to run with that much lift (about 11").

Thats probably even a conservative guess...


Like Stuka said, those are all common problems that SOME people MIGHT run into. It just sucks that you got the short end on all of them..

[Kali]

wow yeah that sucks. most people only get 1 or 2 of those problems... you hit the jackpot ;)

[Tad]

...
Almost every single issue you listed effects every single lift kit out there for FSJ's. As for the 4" + SOA, that would have cost you close to 2k once everything was said and done. Cost of the lift, custom drive shafts, custom steering, plus you would then need larger axles toc lear the tires that you would need to run with that much lift (about 11").
I agree also.
We are essentially running (or trying to) 30+ year old rigs.
It's not like lifting a '04 rig.
There's no magic in lifting these.
Every time we do something, another dragon rears it's ugly head.

[dent-techs]

I run a auto and offroad shop so I must be lucky to have all my FSJ lift issues hit me on my rig.... Right! Its cool just wanted to know how many issues were common! Heres the thing though. All these issues are easy fixes.

1. poly bushings would have fixed the rubber bushing blow out. Rear leafs don't blow out because they're not subjected to the side forces front springs are. ( chevy's have rear shackles, and militray wraps, CJs miltary wraps=less side to side and different shackles that don't get hung )

solution= military wrap front springs, poly bushings, and longer shackles with poly bushings. This would solve all my front end issues!

2. brake lines: If the instructions would even mention this posible issues it wouldn't take an expert to figure out the solution. I do this for a living and I was thinking man these instructions suck! Someone who just bought a simple 4 leaf spring kit thinking "how hard could it be" would be screwed!

3. REAR SHOCKS: beating the shock on! That is unnacceptable and I know rusty will read this later and remember me telling him this! Why not just put in the instructions that a shock relocation kit is required or you must cut and relocate shock mounts. Really its that easy!

4 As for the driveline issues I thought hell yah, long wheel base fixed yoke out puts, finally an easy 6" lift. Come on any one who installs lift kits knows what I mean! I specifically asked Rusty's and they were like NO prob man no drive line issues. Come on smacking my exhaust y pipe is pretty good. Of course on the high way everything was fine it was just those darn potholes that the kit was not designed for. I understand some setups are different but I have a plain old 78 J-10 and the exhaust is OEM 4" lift no problem. 6" lift big problem. If you paid nearly a gran for a long arm kit on an XJ and had these problems Rustys would be out of business! They don't give a crap about the FSJ's any more! Ghetto rig for the old beaters is good enough!

5. instructions said taKE OUT OLD LEAFS PUT IN NEW LEAFS, INSTALL SHOCKS AND DROP PITMAN, GO WHEELIN DUUUUHHHHH! fACTORY SPRINGS WERE CENTERED ON THE PIN, LIFT SPRINGS OFFSET. i FIGURED IT OUT BUT ****! HOW BOUT NOT LETTIN ME FIND OUT HOW STUPID I AM ON MY OWM, LET ME KNOW AHEAD OF TIME...ATLEAST THEN WHEN I DON'T READ THE INSTRUCTIONS AND DO IT WRONG ITS MY FAULT! Sorry the kit was just junk, and is becoming one of the many reasons my favorite truck has become my favorite junk!

[Stuka]

If its any consoleation, BJ's sells front springs individually if you wanted to replace your front ones (in case rusty wont cover them under warranty).