The JKS J-Flex adjustable front lower control arm is for those of you that have a 2007 to
2018 JK with 0 to 6 inches of lift that are looking for an adjustable front lower control
arm that's going to allow you to set the caster angle and the pinion angle of your Jeep as
a well as a control arm that's going to be much stronger than factory and offer a lot
more articulation.
That's really what adjustable control arms are all about and this one from JKS is a great
example of it.
This is going to be a two out of three wrench installation but it's a very easy two out
of three wrenches and I'm gonna show you how to get these installed in just a second.
So I mentioned a couple of things right up front.
Now they're all reasons that you might want to purchase an adjustable control arm.
Now the biggest reason is going to be for setting the caster angle and the pinion angle
of your Jeep.
So as you lift the Jeep, it is no surprise that some of your suspension geometry is going
to change and some of that can cause the Jeep to not drive or ride the same way that it
did when it was factory or may also cause some of the driveline components to wear out
prematurely or end up with vibrations and I'm talking specifically about your caster
angle and your pinion angle.
And by adding an adjustable control arm and adjusting it properly, you can get those angles
back into spec so you don't have any of those issues we just mentioned.
Now that is going to be the biggest reason to install a new adjustable control arm on
your Jeep, whether you're talking about lowers like we're talking about today or uppers or
a pair or all eight control arms on the Jeep.
Now the other big benefits to a new control arm is that a lot of the aftermarket ones,
especially those adjustable ones, are going to be a lot beefier.
This is inch and a quarter threading down here.
This is a huge DOM tubing control arm.
It's very, very strong.
It's not going to bend, flex, or create any headaches for you down the line when you're
in an off-road situation really beating up the Jeep.
This is going to be very, very strong and it's going to hold up very, very well.
The same cannot be said for those factory control arms.
And the last reason that I already mentioned, that new control arm is going to be a benefit
to you is additional articulation.
So up here on this end of the control arm, you're going to have a factory style rubber
bushing but down on this side, you're going to have a heim style bushing and what that's
going to allow is for a ton of articulation, a lot less binding, really independent movement
of one side of the axle from the other, giving you the ability to roll over very large obstacles
while keeping as much weight on as many of the tires as possible, giving you the maximum
amount of traction and that's what it's really about when you're wheeling your Jeep.
So again, whether you're just getting a set of front lower to set those angles we talked
about or you are doing lowers all the way around or a set of all eight, a set of adjustable
control arms is going to be a very nice option and these ones from JKS are incredibly high
quality.
Now you can step up to some other control arms that are going to have heim joints on
both ends and of course, they're going to give you even more articulation because you
have zero binding there.
However, these ones are going to be a little less expensive than some of those but still
be a very, very strong option.
That's one thing that JKS does very well, is they build things that are very strong,
very well engineered, very well built, but they do it at a price that is usually very
fair when you compare it to some of the other options out there.
Now, that being said, you can step down to some other control arms that are gonna be
a little bit smaller when we talk about the material and the build quality isn't going
to quite be there.
And you are gonna save yourself a couple of dollars but with something like a control
arm, I think that going with something that's very strong from a reputable company like
JKS is a good idea.
I mentioned price already.
These come in right around $350 for a pair of lower control arms.
Again, I think that's pretty fair for the quality that you're gonna get here and for
all of the things that these lower adjustable control arms are going to do for you on your
Jeep.
So we said before two out of three wrenches here but pretty straightforward.
Let me show you how to get these installed.
For this installation, we used a half inch drive pneumatic impact, a small half-inch
extension, a 21-millimeter socket, and a 21-millimeter wrench, as well as a dead blow hammer.
So there are gonna be a couple of different ways to accomplish this installation.
One is with the Jeep under its own weight on the tires sitting on the ground and as
long as you're only doing one control arm at a time, that's going to be just fine.
We're going to be doing this up on a lift and you could certainly do it on jack and
jack stands if you chose to.
Again, we're going to only do one control arm at a time but when it's up on a jack and
jack stands, you can pull the tire off, that's gonna give you a little bit more room for
work in here and it's going to allow you guys to see what we're doing so that's why we're
doing it this way.
So the first step in our install was, of course, getting it up on the lift and then we're gonna
go ahead and pop the tires off.
So now that we have the tire removed, we're going to remove the bolt on the frame side
of the control arm.
That is a 21-millimeter bolt and we're going to use a large impact to remove it.
Now we can remove the bolt on the axle side of the control arm in the same way.
As you can see, once the bolts are out, the control arm will just fall right out.
So as you can tell, the control arm that we removed from the Jeep is not a factory one
but if it were factory or if you're replacing an aftermarket control arm like we are, this
step is going to be the same.
What we're going to be using this control arm for is length.
So, of course, the new J-Flex control arm is adjustable just like this one is.
All we're going to be able to do is turn this one end in or out here to get the length set
properly and because we're not changing anything else about the suspension on the Jeep, we
don't want to change the pinion or the caster angle, we want this length to be the same
so we're going to match up the length here.
You could, of course, grab a tape measure and measure to the center of hole to center
of hole but what we're gonna do because we have them on the table here is just line them
up and that will give us a really good way to make sure that these are gonna be the same
length.
So, we'll bring this out just a little bit more.
Once you have this set at the proper length, you can go ahead and tighten down your jam
nut but you're not really gonna be able to crank on that jam nut while the control arm
is on the table or in any way not attached to the Jeep so once you do have it attached
to the Jeep, it is a very important step to crank down the jam nut.
But again, don't try and put this thing in a vise or fight it any other way.
Just wait until you have it in the Jeep, that way it will be held very firmly on both ends,
then you can really crank down on that jam nut, making sure it's very tight.
So now that we have the length of the control arm set properly, we can pop it back in the
Jeep.
Now that we have the length adjusted, installing the new control arm is very simple.
Just do it in the reverse process that we removed the other one.
Pop it up into the frame side bracket here, push the bolt through, and just get the nut
started by hand at first.
Then we'll do the same thing on the axle side before we go back and tighten up both of those
bolts.
Now we can just go ahead and swing the control arm up into the axle side control arm mount.
You might wanna have a dead blow handy to tap it in place.
A pry bar can also come in handy here.
Once you have the bolt holes aligned, you can start the bolt going through.
Make sure it's lined up on the other side, drive it home.
Now that the nut and bolt are started on both ends, we'll get the impact and tighten them
down.
We'll follow the same steps to do the other side.
Just a few final notes on the installation, this bushing here, being that it's a factory
style rubber bushing, should really be tightened down when the Jeep is at ride height under
its own weight.
So you can leave this just a little bit loose, put the tires back on the Jeep, get it back
on the ground or take it off the jack stands, however you're doing your install, before
you tighten this down completely.
That's going to ensure that the bushing is at a nice neutral position when the Jeep is
at ride height.
That'll keep everything nice and quiet and will keep that bushing from wanting to bind
up on you.
If you do live in an area where you have a lot of salt on the roads in the winter like
we do or you're otherwise worried about rust, greasing up the control arm adjuster here
is a good idea.
Maybe you change your lift kit down the line, you wanna change up the length of your control
arm and you wanna make sure that you can actually lengthen it or shorten it should you need
to, putting some anti-seize on there is a good idea.
However, you wanna make sure you don't get on any anti-seize underneath where the jam
nut sits.
That will make the jam nut not tighten fully down and if the jam nut is loose, this whole
piece here can move.
You can get some wear on the threads.
I've even heard of some companies not warrantying their control arms because the jam nut wasn't
tightened.
I'm not saying that's the case with JKS, what I am saying is make sure you don't get any
anti-seize underneath the jam nut and make sure you tighten the jam nut down.
Some people think, "Oh, I don't have a tool large enough or I'll just make it hand tight.
It doesn't really matter."
It does matter.
Make sure you torque that down and make it nice and tight.
And finally, there are going to be a set of grease fittings, one per side on the heim
side of each one of these control arms.
Of course, make sure you use a grease gun, get a good bit of grease in there and grease
those with every tire rotation, every oil change, whatever you decide to do.
Just make sure you don't neglect those.
That way you're going to make sure that your control arm holds up for a good long time,
you don't have any wear or any unnecessary noise.
So if you are looking for a very high-quality set of adjustable front lower control arms
for your JK, I would recommend this option from JKS and you can find it right here at
extremeterrain.com.
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