CJ Bolt-on SOA for 1976 and newer

Thank you for your Rocky Road,llc purchase! We value your business and appreciate any input you might have on this product and/or its installation. Your SOA kit is one of the best off-road mods you can make to your CJ. Read these instructions thoroughly before beginning installation. If you ever have any questions on this or other modifications to your 4WD vehicles, please do not hesitate to call us.

This suspension is an off-road suspension system. Modification of vehicles for off-road use, especially suspension modification & oversized tires, will affect the center-of-gravity & steering or handling of your vehicle. By the sale of these products, we are neither recommending that you modify your vehicle, nor are we assuming any responsibility for the consequences of such modifications. Summit Off-road llc/Rocky Road Outfitters, has no control of how these component parts are installed or utilized in the operation of a vehicle on which they are installed. We, therefore assume no liability for any circumstances connected with their use. The purchaser of these parts should be aware that he or she acquires, installs and utilizes these parts at his or her own risk, and agrees not to hold Rocky Road Outfitters/Summit Off-road llc, responsible. By installation of our products, you are agreeing to the above. This suspension system should in stalled by those 4 wheelers experienced enough to be able to perform their own mild level of fabrication, or a professional installation shop. Particular interest should be paid to such systems as brake lines, steering, shocks, drive lines, & other components which may be affected by large amounts of wheel travel.
The SOA kit can be installed by anyone with medium level of mechanical skills. You should plan on having the vehicle down for a day and perhaps two depending on how meticulous you wish to be. Installation really is straightforward and hopefully our instructions will make the job flow more smoothly. Use your common sense as much as these instructions for a successful installation. Items you'll probably want to have on hand to complete the installation: A metric wrench set, hand sledge, drill, pitman arm puller, pickle fork, vice-grips, floor jacks and stands.
· Please note the following special considerations…
-Slip Yoke Eliminator (SYE)/ Tailshaft transfer case conversion required for Jeep NP231 transfer case -Rear CV type drive shaft required as with any lift at or over 4" for the CJ -Front driveshaft may need to be lengthened
-Rear axle kit is bolton for AMC20 axle only. If you have any other type of axle, you may need to modify the spring
perches to make them fit and should weld then in place as well.

-Note: Ubolts may be longer than needed. However, depending on your final drivetrain setup, you should wait to cut

the Ubolts short to determine if you will want or need shims for your installation.

STEP1: Park your vehicle on a flat level surface for installation. You’re going to be crawling under this thing for at least a day & you do NOT want it shifting and falling. It is best to straighten out your steering so the front tires face directly forward as well. Your steering wheel should be centered. Keep the steering wheel in this position throughout the installation procedures.

STEP2: Loosen your lug nuts, elevate your Jeep & support it with jackstands such that the wheels are off the ground. Remove wheels, shocks, and disconnect your sway bar links from the axle. Save all nuts, bolts, hardware.

STEP3: Remove the steering drag link from the stock pitman arm. This may require a pickle fork for the steering link. Save all bolts, nuts, hardware.

STEP4: Remove front brake lines. These have a mounting bolt up inside the top of the frame. Unbolt this for removal of the line. You will have two front lines and one rear. For the rear line, disconnect the top end of the brake line. Our extension will screw in on the top of the existing brake line when the time comes. You must also remove the parking brake cable from the frame, to be remounted with our new drop bracket. Pull the cables aside for later reinstallation. You will have 2 cables to remove at the ‘splitter’ assembly.

STEP5: Disconnect the axles. Since your axle is over the springs at this time, be very careful. Removing the Ubolts may allow the axle to drop. First remove the ubolts and ubolt plates. Once the axles are unbolted from the springs, you can either move the axles to locate them under the springs (instead of on top). Or you can remove the springs, then slide them under the axles, and remount the springs.

PLEASE NOTE you will want to flip the center pin on the springs. You will probably have to use some vice-grips to keep the round bolt head from spinning. Place that bolt head underneath the springs so they can now engage with the tops of the axles when mounted. You may also want to place a C-clamp around the leaf springs to keep them together as you remove that center-locating pin.

STEP6: Your kit automatically sets up the castor/pinion angles for you. Note that there are three different spring pad assemblies. The smallest 2 are for the rear. The fronts are marked with ‘P’ or ‘D’ stamps for passenger or driver’s side. They are side specific and cannot be mounted improperly. Slide the spring pads over the axle above the stock spring pads. You will notice how they ‘key’ into place. Our kit is a bolt on system so no welding is required. For those who do wish to weld in place though, now would be the time to weld the spring pads in place. You should clean the axles well before installation begins. You should also remove any factory weld splatter or other material that would interfere with the new spring pads sitting tightly on the axle.

STEP7: Starting with the rear axle, you should cut off the original shock bolts from the Ubolt plates. You will reuse the Ubolt plates. Each spring pad should sit snugly on the axle with only a minimal gap, over the top of the original spring pad. The Ubolt plates go up top and the Ubolts point upward now. The new shock mounts are integrated into our spring pads.

Note the picture above, the placement of the springpads, top spring plates, Ubolts, and shock mount bolts.

IT IS IMPORTANT to check the Ubolt tightness after 100 miles.

STEP8: Brake lines. Install rear brake line extension hose. MAKE SURE and bleed your brakes before you finish up and drive away!!!

Rear parking brake extension. Release the cables at the equalizer (the place that joins the two cables together). The drop bracket is for the rear passenger’s side parking brake. Undo the bolt that holds the parking brake cable support and install the drop bracket. You may need to slide a little cable thru the clamp to get the slack you need.

See picture to the left.

STEP10:

PLEASE NOTE FOR THIS STEP: The muffler may need to be adjusted in position, or heat taped if it appears the cable will be resting on the muffler.

Remove the nuts from the threaded end of the main cable and remove the equalizer plate. Screw on the cable extension to the main cable about an inch. Place the equalizer plate on the other end of this extension piece and bolt on using the 5/16” bolts supplied. Now mount the equalizer extension. Mounting holes will need to be drilled to mount the new extension bracket. Line up the holes as pictured for drilling. You will use the 2 – 3/8”x4” bolts to mount this piece to the vehicle. The cables will then feed thru the equalizer, thru the frame mount, and onto the newly extended cable. Use the photo to the right as reference for the complete setup. Make sure to replace the cable clips and adjust the length if necessary.

STEP11:

The transfer case drop consists of 6 spacers and 6 longer bolts/washers. Simply support the tcase crossmember with a stable jack. Remove the bolts, lower slightly, insert spacers, use new longer 2 ¼” bolts to remount the crossmember. You are done with this.

STEP12:

Front spring perches. Same procedure in removing the front axle as on the rear. Make sure your swaybar and steering linkage is disconnected. Please note that the spring perches are different for each side, as are the bolt patterns on the spring plates. The sway bar mounting points should be pointing forward and out. The driver’s side top spring plate has the steering shock mount facing forward and in. You will not be using the stock shock mounts anymore so cut those off of the axles.

Note in the picture to the right (shows the driver’s side) the placement of the lower skidplate, top spring plate, springpads. You can also see how the Old Man Emu steering shock mounts to the plate as well as placement of the lower swaybar disconnect mount.

STEP13:

For those with the OTT steering will refer to those instructions for the steering mounting.

Mount the Zlink steering. You may need to fine tune its length after getting the Jeep back on the ground and driving. For now, point the wheels forward, steering wheel straight, and adjust the Zlink to length as needed. It mounts directly in place of the original factory drag link. Customer who upgraded to OTT steering will have separate instructions for the steering system.

Steering shock will mount from the Zlink to the driver’s side top spring plate…. Top or bottom doesn’t matter. This kit is designed to use the Old Man Emu steering shock for Jeeps. Highly recommended as it is the top steering shock on the market for this size Jeep.

Straighten your steering wheel after the fact. Once you have the wheels/tires remounted and everything has been checked and double-checked for tightness, you can adjust your steering wheel from the steering drag link. Simply extend your drag link adjustment until the steering wheel is straight. You may have to fine-tune it a bit over a couple days as you drive the vehicle. You can do this by adjusting the drag link to length.

STEP14:

Steering shock. Our kit is designed to use the Old Man Emu steering shock. You can purchase this as a separate optional item thru our website or our regular store. The steering shock will mount on the wheel end as pictured above. The other end will need to affix to either the OTT steering system, or the mounting point included on your Zlink.

Shocks will mount to the lower skidplates on the front axle, and spring pads on the rear axle. Make sure you use ½” sleeves with your shock bushings. Many shocks come with a number of sleeve in a hardware pack. If you chose the incorrect sleeve, you may have rattling as a result.

STEP15:

Front brake lines. Our brake lines fit a few different vehicles. If yours are shipped with an extra bracket, simply remove that piece. The brake line needs to be installed same as the factory line with one critical exception… you will need to put a twist in the brake line to pull the hose AWAY form the tire.. If you do not put this twist in, the brake line can reach out and contact the tire which can cause failure. Make sure and put a twist in the line to pull it away from the tire. Bleed the lines as per vehicle manufacturer’s recommendations.

STEP16:

Put your Jeep back together, tires, wheels. You should go over every single item you touched to double check that all bolts and fasteners are tight. There are no drips in the brake lines. The steering system is mounted securely. Double check everything. Make sure and re-tighten your axle mounting bolts after a few hundred miles and with each oil change to make keep it all nice and snug.

STEP17:

Go 4wheeling and have some fun!