Well, I took the Jeep in to the dealership for an alignment after I finished installing all the lift components.
Lo and behold, the dealership ended up breaking/cracking the tie rod adjuster:
(bad photo, sorry)
Next day, when I took time off of work to pick it up, they tried to charge me for parts and labor for the adjuster. *sigh*
Reason #A LOT as to why I try to avoid working with the dealership.
Dealership fixed the break...and then tried to charge me for it. Yeah. I do not think so.
Driving the Jeep has been awful without the high steer kit installed. Talk about "darty"! I white-knucked it on Hwy 78 out to Tiddy Springs/Murphy area to go wheeling and learned that my max top speed to drive safely was around 45mph. Ugh. Had to drive back to civilisation with my emergency blinkers on while on the highway since I was going so slow.
Since I had stock wheels on the Jeep, I could not install the high steer kit. Therefore, new wheels were due.
I decided on the Cragar black soft 8 since they have the 4.5" desired backspacing to fit my high steer kit. In my excitement for new wheels, I also got 35s (315/70/17) in Cooper Discoverer ATPs since my Maxxis Bighorns were wearing down so quickly and I was not overly happy with them.
I chose the Discoverers since this is also my daily driver and I saw no need to get M/Ts for something that will spend the majority of its time on pavement (sadly). I forgot how quiet A/Ts are!
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Now that I have my wheels, I could finally install the Synergy high steer kit!
Worst part of the install was trying to get the old drag link off. I despise trying to get those friction-induced bolts out. Took a few hours, patience, pounding of the hammers and some acetylene torch to get them off, esp at the Pitman arm. Here it all is, happily installed:
I discovered that I could not get the cotter pin in the passenger side castle nut due to the extra height from the tie rod end adapter that I had to use for the new drag link. I'm hoping over time the bolt will settle in there and I can eventually get the pin in. In the mean time, blue loctite will have to do.
Also, if I ever have to do this install in the future, I plan to use the reamer rather than the drill bit for the Synergy TRE adapter. Frankly, a drill bit that big in an awkward position with little maneuvering room sucked. A lot.