Finally got the lift installed. I was able to install it by myself last Saturday - started at 6 am and finished at 4 pm. Sunday I spent about a couple hours checking every bolt for proper torque and to make sure everything was correct.
before:
Lessons learned:
1) solo install took a long time. There were many instances where I would grab the wrong socket or wrench crawl under the frame and then curse when I had to crawl out from under to get the right socket. Also found the slight incline of the driveway was very annoying - every once in a while I would drop a socket and I would watch it roll away thus prompting the shimmy from underneath the jeep to play fetch.
2) the AEV instructions were about 80-90% complete ( online version). The printed copies with the lift kit and drop brackets were outdated.
Rear:
1) the rear installation went pretty quick and was straight forward vs. the front
2) I had to pull the fir tree zip ties from the frame for abs sensor harness, the locker harness from the diff, disconnect the axle vent tube and loosen and drop the parking brake line bracket to get enough slack to drop the axle low enough to put the springs in. To give a little extra Slack in the park brake bracket I installed a new m6 nut and washer as a spacer. This lowered the bracket about 1/4 inch and gives just a hair more slack for the park brake line at full axle drop.
3) the AEV insructions say to clock the rear springs, but there is no detent like the front spring perches. I just payed attention to how the old ones were installed and clocked the new to match - this is when I discovered the paper instructions I had were not up to date as the latest instructions online show that the end of the spring coil needs to clocked such that it is at the rear of he vehicle. put naturally this was after the rear was done. I clocked relative to the OEM on the axle perch which is 90 deg off from their instructions. The jury is out if I will go back and change.
4) the instructions just tell you to remove the brake line bracket bolts. When I started to drop the axle it started to bend the lines. I stopped and then test fit the drop brackets and carefully bent the line down. Figured it was better to pre bend them thus reducing possibility of kinking the line.
5) the instructions don't tell you what to do with the axle or abs harness after the install. Putting back to oem looks like it will not provide enough extension at full flex, but leaving them disconnected seems to have too much slack. Should be easy to fix by moving the hole locations on the frame and for the axle lock harness I already fixed by putting in a couple of zip ties looped to still anchor to the original spot.
6) the trackbar bracket included an extra nut. This is used to replace the oem nut which has a tab on it ( factory assembly aid). This wasn't quite spelled out clearly, but made sense once the bolt is flipped from original orientation.
Front:
1) printed instructions were as stated earlier off from online.
2) instructions online do not mention that the frame side of the upper control arms have heat shields. They are held in place by two bolts. I could not remove the top bolts on either the left or right control arms. I was able to get the bottom ones out which allowed me to bend the heat shields out of the way to gain access to the control arm bolts. I ended up just leaving them in place and trimming them around the AEV drop brackets.
3) a short and deep 21mm sockect were my friends. In some instances the short worked better and vice versa.
4) I did not see the point of disconnecting the front driveshaft. I did it, but did not see the value. The process was easiest from the wheel well. I put into 4wd and loosened two then put in 2wd, clocked to access the other two and put back in 4wd to keep it from turning. Used zip ties to hold it out of the way.
5)I followed the instructions for the front brake line bracket, but do not like at all their final direction of using zip ties to hold it to the shock - this seems very cheesy and cheap. I am surprised the did not provide a me bracket. I am researching alternatives at the moment.
6)Again it says to remove the harness for locker/speed sensor but doesn't say to leave it disconnected from the bracket. Again looking for ideas as it seems to have too much slack.
7) to drill holes for the bump stops and install springs I found that raising the axle, putting a jack stand on one side of the axle, then lowering the axle caused enough tilt to allow for the drill to clear the upper bump stop tower. This also made it easier to install the spring.
8) sway bar extension brackets - AEV instructions no good. First in order to see the issue you have to reconnect the track bar. Since you use the oem track bar the result according to the AEV forum is that after the lift the axle is offset 6mm. Trying to push the axle over and get the axle side track bar bolt lined up is a major PITA when solo. Once I finished struggling with that I went on to reconnect the swaybar end links to the new brackets and found the passenger side looked way off. In the AEV instructions the show the bracket installed inboard of the OEM tab. This was ok for the drivers side, but I had to move it outboard on the pass side to get the end link to connect to the bracket.
9) upper front shock bushings - AEV instructions no good! I could not for the life of me get the bilstein supplied bushings to work at all. First the ended up being too thick and I could not get enough thread to get the nut started and second the bushing and washer would not fit due to clearance with the battery tray on the passenger side. I spent time looking up this dilemma for a while on the Internet and found that others reused the oem bushings and nut. I ended up going that route which would have saved me a bunch of time. The oem went back on just as easy as they came off. This really seems to be an oversite with the AEV instructions.
10) the online instructions include a torque table while my printed copy did not.
11) the drop brackets - online had updated instructions which explained the cam bolt replacement. I did not have a cam bolt on the front of the lower control arms. So I ended up using the thick washers on the rear lower control arm bolt.
12) I noticed after everything was done it appears the driveshaft boot makes contact with the exhaust shield at full drop. I purchased the exhaust spacers, but did not get to install them yet. That will be done in two weekends.
For the most part it was a pretty easy install asides from the few grey areas where the instructions were unclear or wrong. After everything was checked out I took it for a test spin and was surprised how well it felt. The alignment was really not that far off. On Monday I took it to air park jeep and had them check the alignment and they said it was very close an required minimal adjustment. I did notice a slight difference after and was very pleased with the end result.
What i also realized after uploading pictures to this write up, i found that i totally did not take very many pictures. I was very focused on the work and took far less pictures than i thought. Again when doing this solo it is difficult to multi task. I either wrench or take pics, but cannot do both.
Now I need to get front and rear bumpers and then figure out if I want to replace the rims and tires now or later.
Will re edit with pics once I get a chance to upload.
. My new rubicon arrived last weekend - absolutely love it! Next weekend I start the AEV 2.5" lift kit. I have already installed:
