Rear Air Springs
Installation
Installing the rear air springs is pretty straightforward. The old springs and shocks need to come out first. I also had to unbolt the bump stop hardware and remove the plastic spring spacers that sit above and below the rear coil springs. It also helps to disconnect the rear sway bar, and in my case I removed the track bar as I needed to put a relocation bracket on the frame.
Prior to removing the track bar I cut the end of the bolt off the track bar to frame mount. This bolt sticks out too far and would run the risk of hitting the passenger side air spring. I used a saw-z-all to cut this.
Here is a before and after picture of the bolt that needs to be cut.
The threaded hole in the upper spring perch where the bump stops was mounted needs to be drilled out to 3/8-inch.
The lower spring perches needs to have a ?-inch hole drilled in the centered in the bump on the spring perch. I do not have a photo of the top perch, but here is the bottom.
The rear air springs simply bolt into the two holes drilled into the upper and lower spring perches. The upper mount has a custom bracket that matches the contour of the frame. You can see the contour and the air fitting sitting with that bracket below.
The rear bottom mount stud slips through the ?-inch hole in the lower spring perch.
After sliding the air spring mounting studs into the drilled hose I tightened the top mounting nut down, but left the lower mounts finger tight. After the air lines are attached and the system is pressurized and the Jeep weight is sitting on the springs for them to seat, the lower nut is tightened.
Air Lines
Installing the air lines for the rear air springs is straightforward. I simply routed the lines and pushed them in. I did choose to route both lines to the drivers side, crossing over to the passengers side air spring by the rear gas tank cross member so as to avoid the heat of the exhaust system.
One precaution I took was to wrap the outside of the air line where it passes over the exhaust pipe with aluminum reflective tape. I am not sure this needs to be done as the line is plenty far away from the exhaust pipe, but it made me feel better to do this.
Here you can see the aluminum tape around the air line for the rear passenger side.
Here is a picture of the right rear air spring mounted on top with the air line installed
Shocks
The rear shocks are also Bilstien 5100?s with custom built in bump stops under the blue bellows. They bolt up just like any other shock.
Air Up
Once the shocks were on I re-installed the rear track bar (and installed a relocation bracket that my Jeep needed.) and re-connected the rear sway bar.
Then I put a few pounds of pressure in the air springs to get any deformities out.
After putting the tires and wheels back on I aired up to 40 pounds and lowered the Jeep to the ground. Once the weight was on the air springs and they seated, I tightened the lower rear spring perch nuts. These are accessible from a slot between the spring perch and the axle tubes.
What?s left?
Once all the hardware and the air springs are installed and the Jeep is sitting on the air springs I had to set up all the geometry, which included choosing a normal ?ride height?. setting the axle track, pinion angles, caster and toe on my Jeep.
I will write this section up a bit later.
Frank