89 Islander Lift

[Bill M]

My son has an 89 Islander and is thinking about lifting it a couple of inches. The budget is tight and the jeep is only driven on the road. Any words of advice?

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

Avoid longer shackles, look to a full-length add-a-leaf kit or make your own using 2 used front leaf packs. Cut the spring eyes off and use the top 2 longest leaves of each pack, adding 1 leaf to each of your current packs. Adds about 1.5" without stiffening the ride, and no other mods needed.

TJ flares also work well to clear larger tires.

 

[jps4jeep]

89 YJ... thats a daily driver. I would suggest avoiding a lift for now, and take what ever funds are available and look into some type of fuel injection. a lifted jeep might look great, but when it runs like crap because of the plethora of broken vacuum lines and crappy carb, kinda money wasted. there are a number of EIF kits, some are very affordable that use a chevy TBI set up, I know a number of people that run this with great success. PLus EFI will really wake up the 258.

 

[Bill M]

Thanks for the answers. The Jeep is setup with a MC2100 so only a couple of vacuum lines and it runs pretty well. Will the TJ style flares let him put a little larger tire on when the time comes? The flares on it are pretty sad and could stand to be replaced, two birds one stone?

 

[jps4jeep]

yes. TJ flares will allow for at least a 1 inch tire increase.

I run a 3" spring lift and TJ flares and fit a 36" tire on my YJ, with out those flares, I was limited to a 34" tire.