Jeep Renegade Daystar 1.5" Lift Kit Installation Write-Up

How long did the install take?

 

Any update on the alignment and negative toe

 

Hey Eddie - Where did you buy your wheel spacers? ~ JiMO

 

Great write-up.. I'm currently waiting for my Daystar lift. Supposedly Daystar ran out of brackets..lol

 

Mine is supposed to arrive on Monday with the new brackets. I've been waiting for over a month, but that's ok. I asked the shop it's shipping to, to make sure it's the new brackets with the long welds...

 

Please send here a picture of the new brackets.

Thanks

ible

 

I sure will, as soon as they come in

 

That's for a great write-up Eddie! It was extremely helpful to use with the installation manual. Those pictures were especially helpful in identifying parts. I used this template and borrowed a few tools to do the work myself. Took about 12-14 hours to complete for a novice Jeeper.

 

Daystar 1.5" lift on Black Renegade TrailHawk (Makes the cherokee limited look wimpy)


MY INSTALL NOTES ARE BELOW.

There are a few things i noticed when i did the install. (THANK YOU FOR THIS TUTORIAL THOUGH) Metta: Installation tutorial, daystar 1.5" trailhawk installation how to, daystar 1.5" installation instruction jeep renegade.
(READ ME BEFORE INSTALL)

• I sheared the top strut bolt when trying to reach 70ft/lbs, i set the TorqR, to 50ft/lbs and it still didn't click before i was afraid of breaking another. It added about an hour to the install time, for tapping to remove, luckily autozone had the same thread pattern until i can get another from mopar.
• (TRAILHAWK VERSION ONLY) My metal cutter wasn't powerful enough to cut through the skid plate steal, so we had to remove it and use the bench grinder, which gave a better result, but still took 30 minutes of grinding.
• MAKE SURE TO HAVE A BOLT ALIGNMENT TOOL - This saved our lives, we sometimes had the vehicle up for a while and i think it caused the springs to decompress more, making the strut just a hair longer, which made it even harder.
• The EVAP relocation mount has to be set after removing the passenger rear strut, also make sure to use the factory bolts to secure the brackets then the NEW bolts to secure the EVAP canister. In addition this is very tricky to fit on the new mounting brackets, it almost needs to be put in place then bolted
• Make sure to have a 1 inch x 1 foot wooden dowel, this will help you hammer in the spacers over the new mounting bolts in the rear, it's almost impossible to hammer them in without something like this.
• The new control arm brackets for the rear were too tight to fit the control arms so we had to mount them, bend them wider with a pry bar, unmount them, install the control arm, then mount for the final time
• Getting the rear support spacers in was a CAP B B****, you almost have to remove all the bolts to the point where they are barely hanging on, then remove 1 at a time, us a pry bar to insert each spacer, put the new bolt in just barely, and continue around all 4 corners.
• AIRTOOLS WORK BEST... The install took 13 hours so plan for 2 days, we finished in the late evening, only stopping for 5 minutes breakfast and 5 min lunch, working with 2 people.
• Also my sway bar links came loose after the first trail so i need to remove them put on better loctight and reinstall, ( i don't plan to disconnect them on the trail because for what i do, it doesn't seem to provide any benefit)
• UPDATE 6/29/2016************ I forgot to add that while there are very few uses for GATOR sockets, (which SUCK) this is one of them, get a large one to tighten the rear upper spacers that must be secured to the top strut mount before the rubber spacers can go on over them. Honestly there is no other wrench/socket that i know of that will work to do this job, the space is so tight that a open sided box wrench wont fit to get it tight, and a closed box wrench will not work because the way the bolt is made. Maybe an articulating open ended box wrench would work, but in my opinion thats a specialty tool. If someone can tell me what they used i'd be interested to learn about that tool?

This is all for now, my email is cksagherian@gmail.com, if you have any questions about our install. I'll be happy to help anyone looking to do this.

This kit is awesome, on my trailhawk version it makes all the differance for the trails i go on. I used to touch constantly, so far, I barely ever touch.
I plan on putting dynapro 29.3" tires on the stock wheels so after that it'll be beast. It makes the renegade look much more aggressive.

I also installed the wheel spacers recommended here, which help a lot too, i don't have any comments on that because it's fairly straight forward.

 

Good write up it good to see problems that means truth in instructions. I never trust anyone were that say fit like a glove. These are man made parts prone to error. Anyone know of a dealer around Vegas that sells and installs lift. I see chapman is a daystar reseller of parts. There's so any wrangler shops in Vegas no renagade. Someone who has a 2 bay plus shop in Vegas can make some good money just doing renagade installs. So if anyone knows a dealer who installs lifts and new jeeps let me know

 

Chapman will install your lift, I had mine done there

 

Thanks sorry for late reply I'll check them out do you have a salesman you went threw or just bought it threw parts counter. If you don't want to post price please pm me with lift and install price or was it included with new jeep

 

They have a mods shop right next to their regular service dept so I just bought it through them, it was $800, $400 for lift and $400 for install

 

Thanks that's fair just above retail list at $400. And labor did that include a 4 wheel alinment. If so 400 is a good price.

 

Yes that included alignment

 

Thanks for the write up. Nice to know little tricks before hand. Just got my kit in, cant wait to get it installed. Got the updated bracket too.

 

WayoLife, do you think 235/75r16 would fit?