[venom]

ok so after tearing into Zack Massey's 2012 Rubi for a Poly stage 3 lift and a few other goodies, I learned some things that they did different on the gen 2s.
Thanks to Zack for trusting me to take a plasma cutter, welder, grinder and cutoff wheels to a new Rubi with less than 2000 miles on it!

Anyway, changes to note....

front brake lines are routed drastically different and have a big metal bracket glued to them.
If you spray a little adhesive remover in between the bracket and the line, wait a minute then spray in some WD-40 - the brackets will slide off of the line leaving a MUCH longer line than the gen 1 JKs. Aftermarket longer front brake lines/VSS wire extensionss arent needed with a 3" lift if you remove the bracket and route the lines "normally".

The exhaust that everyone is so worried about - the trumpet doesnt hang THAT low, but I'd definitely put a skid over it. Waiting to hear back from JCR on why we had to cut 3" off their skid to clear the DS.
Teraflex's spacers take care of the driveshaft/crossover pipe interference issue - simple solution that works.
You no longer have to cut the bolt to remove the passenger side upper arm!

Evap can now has a factory "skid" over it - well, i f you call being wrapped in metal only slightly thicker than a beer can a skid.

Passenger side upper shock bolt SUCKS! The bottom of the fuse box sits right on it and getting to the nut on top is almost impossible. Especially getting the nut on top of a fox shock started. You can "clearance" some of the hard plastic out of the way to give yourself some finger room to get the nut started and its a little easier.

New steering stabilizer clamp on the tie rod is a pain to remove to install a poly/fox setup. The old double u-bolt deal on the first gen JK tire rods has been replaced by a metal wrap around deal - cutoff wheel is your friend to remove it, its actually pretty thick metal and straightening it enough to get it off the rod is pretty hard because theres no good way to pry it open that far.

otherwise things are pretty much the same as working on the suspension of a first gen.

The vacuum booster pump is in a stupid spot on the frame rail and interferes with most recessed winch bumpers, but is relocatable.

And poly's stage 3 kit is STILL amazing!

If I remember anything else- I'll add it.

 

[jeeperjkj]

Good stuff.

 

[JKCTAZ]

These are all intricacies on the 2011 too. The brake lines are the same on the 2011. Same with the fuse box. The only thing that wouldn't affect a 2011 person would be the exhaust. :gluging:

 

[Zack Massey]

I have learned that putting a poly stage 3 kit on a 12 is a pain in my ass, But well worth it!!!! :thankyou:

 

[oz97tj]

The JCR exhaust loop skid was prototyped on my jeep when it was brand new and still stock. Since I've done a lift, I ran into the same issue as you did with driveshaft clearance. I removed the skid with plans of modding it, but haven't got to it yet. I also did the Teraflex eshaust spacers to push the crossover back to gain some more room as well. Did you address the crossover in your install? If you still have the stock front driveshaft, you WILL contact the exhaust crossover.

On my brake lines, I unbolted them from the axle mount and let them float and haven't had a problem. My plan is to get some braided lines anyway so I didn't bother messing with them. Good to know I can remove that bracket though. I thought about removing them for about a minute, but figured I'd have to bend the bracket some to actually get it off. You said it slid off. Do you mean you could wiggle the line out of the small gap, or you had to remove one of the ends of the line and slide it off that way?

 

[venom]

Teraflex eshaust spacers to push the crossover back to gain some more room as well. Did you address the crossover in your install? If you still have the stock front driveshaft, you WILL contact the exhaust crossover.

Teraflex's spacers take care of the driveshaft/crossover pipe interference issue - simple solution that works.

The brake line brackets will slide out the slot in the the bracket sideways.
No need to uninstall/bleed the system. I was afraid that big metal chunk would wear the line or get caught in something and yanked.
Biggest thing is its glued on.
Some 3m adhesive remover got it loose, then some WD made it slide through the crack without damage.

That jcr plate hit so bad I can't believe it would clear stock!

We cut about 3" off the front and still only had about 1/4" of clearance!

 

[TEXASKEV]

What, no pics

Looking forward to seeing it Zack!

 

[oz97tj]

The brake line brackets will slide out the slot in the the bracket sideways.
No need to uninstall/bleed the system. I was afraid that big metal chunk would wear the line or get caught in something and yanked.
Biggest thing is its glued on.
Some 3m adhesive remover got it loose, then some WD made it slide through the crack without damage.

That jcr plate hit so bad I can't believe it would clear stock!

We cut about 3" off the front and still only had about 1/4" of clearance!

Good to know on the lines. I loosely ziptied them to the shock to prevent them from snagging, but otherwise I've had no issues. Knowing this though, I'm going to take those brackets off now!

When my jeep was stock, at full droop the driveshaft had maybe half and inch of clearance.

 

[militaryman4455]

New steering stabilizer clamp on the tie rod is a pain to remove to install a poly/fox setup. The old double u-bolt deal on the first gen JK tire rods has been replaced by a metal wrap around deal - cutoff wheel is your friend to remove it, its actually pretty thick metal and straightening it enough to get it off the rod is pretty hard because theres no good way to pry it open that far.

This sounds exactly like you're describing the mount on my '10 JK. I believe they changed it well before '12.

Oh... And you didnt have to cut the bracket to get it off... All you have to do is remove either tie rod end and it slides right off

 

[venom]

Oh... And you didnt have to cut the bracket to get it off... All you have to do is remove either tie rod end and it slides right off

when its getting thrown away and replaced by a poly clamp and the angle grinder with the cutoff wheel is laying right next to you.....

 

[militaryman4455]

when its getting thrown away and replaced by a poly clamp and the angle grinder with the cutoff wheel is laying right next to you.....

I would have cut it off too

 

[BADGER]

I can add to this as well.

The front upper frame-side control arm mounts are boxed in by semi-rigid heat shield material on 12s. They are held on with 2 bolts, on on the bottom of the bracket and one on the top. You can loosen the bolt on the bottom side with a 10mm, but the top is pretty much impossible to get to even with a box-end. If you take out the bottom bolt and try to bend it out of the way, you still can't get a socket on the UCA bolt even with a universal joint (you can get an adjustable wrench in there but it sucks and I'm a stickler about torque specs).

The factory thought it was pretty important there and I wanted to leave it.

I dealt with it this way - unbolt bottom heat shield bolt, cut heat shield with a razor blade along the right-angle bend of the upper edge, and get that thing out of the way. Use some aluminum ducting tape to seal that edge back up when you're done.

Yeah, I'm anal-retentive.

 

[Freshmeat]

Thanks for the tip on the brake line bracket. I have the full RK 2.5" Max Flex in my garage (only installed springs so far) and I plan to compare the brake lines from the kit with the stock brake lines. If the stockers are longer I'm thinking I'll just leave them and call it good.

So far I've just had it hanging loose since the Jeep was a week old, but I should get that bracket off and loosely zip-tie the line out of the way of getting damaged.