RCD lift kit PURCHASED!!!!! no more tortion bars 4 me!

[BigDave!!!]

i think r37 is MIA, oh yeah and BUMP

 

[r37ribution]

i think r37 is MIA, oh yeah and BUMP

I'm here just been busy.

Dec. 9th - I purchased the front 4.56 gears and rebuild kit for the D35. I've decided to leave the front diff open to keep it road friendly, for now anyways.

Today - The last piece I need to order now is SOA perches for the rear; however, I'd rather not weld anything to my rear end. I was very interrested in Super Lift's SOA kit for my X. I just got off the phone with them and the rep I spoke with was anything but helpfull. After being transfered blindly, before I could even explain what I called about, the most I could get out of them was a "No, sir.", about 5 of them actually. Don't expect much friendly customer service if God forbid you have a question for them.

It seems Super Lift only made an SOA kit for the 1st gen X. I got a "No, sir." to my question of compatibility with the 2nd gen and another "No, sir." after asking if there were any plans on making a SOA kit for the 2nd gen.

I'll be looking into how different the stock perches are on the 1st and 2nd gen. If anyone knows of SOA adapters for the 2nd gen that don't require welding the info would be much appreciated.

This is the last decision and purchase needed before installation begins...I'll worry about buying leafs after I get the front installed and take measurements as somone recommended earlier.

 

[410Fortune]

dude arc the new spring perches to the 8.8 axle tube.

The Stupidlift SOA kit is a piece. It works, yes, but you are FAR better off jsut welding new pads. the Stupidlift kit also does not account for pinion angle.

They dont do the second gen likely due to the traction bars and additional stuff added by Ford on the 5.0L trucks, who knows.
The rear of a Gen II is pretty much the same as the rear on a Gen I as far as the 8.8 is concerned

My leaf perches have been welded to my 8.8 for a LONG time, it cost me a 30 pack of Coors Light and about 30 minutes of a friends time with a truck mounted arc welder.

I left the old pads on the bottom of my 8.8, they are a PERFECT place to put a jack.

 

[William Schumacher]

No Sir



37 :, weve been getting worried man !!
when the time comes in a few months,I'm going to get a set of those leafs that someone posted a link about ?
they seemed like the price was right ?
so if this is a 5"lift {over stock}then 5" rear lift springs
would be in the ballpark,but doing the front 1st and measuring like your doing you can't go wrong !

do you have a time frame on the completion ?

I wasn't planning on regearing ?,just don't have the funds
I run the stock 410's
will 33x12.5x15's give me any problems with the stock gears ?

also ,do we need to do anything to thew driveshaft {replace or lengthen} with this lift ?

good luck !!

 

[r37ribution]

410Fortune-
I see your point and it's sounding pretty good to me. I'll just need to find someone to give a 30 pack of beer to I was looking at Dead Link Removed. They are the same 7" long ones Nick26 used he noted they should prevent axle wrap and there 1/4" steel. Nick noted that the spring mount holes needed to be drilled out from 1/2" to 5/8" to fit.
From what I understand I need perches that are 2.5" wide that fit a 3 1/4" diameter tube on the 8.8 (this is correct?).

If anyone has better perches to use please let me know. I'll be ording these tomorrow probably.

William Schumacher~no worries bro im not goin anywhere!
leafs - If yer talkin about deaver leafs 410Fortune posted about earlier in this thread yea from what I read there awesome. A lot of prerunners use them.

rear soa lift - I have a basic idea of how much stock springs would give me with SOA from reading on here-around 6"- which is just about purfect. I'd like the rear to be a max of 1/2" taller than the front but no more.

timeframe - I'm taking several days off to work on this right after New Years, I'd like to have it finished end of January.

regearing - As far as regearing goes, your probably fine. The stock tire size is 29", according to my gear calculator you will need 4.24 gears to run 33" tires, pretty close to your 4.10. Theres really no point to goto 4.56 as I am, but my stock gears are 3.73

driveshaft - The driveshaft will most likely be an issue with SOA. When Nick26 went SOA the perch (same one I'm looking at) had 3 spring peg mount holes, he used the furthest to the rear hole to give the driveshaft the slack needed. Another option is to install a driveshaft spacer. I'm kinda leaning towards the spacer at the moment.

 

[Nick26]

410Fortune-
I see your point and it's sounding pretty good to me. I'll just need to find someone to give a 30 pack of beer to I was looking at Dead Link Removed. They are the same 7" long ones Nick26 used he noted they should prevent axle wrap and there 1/4" steel. Nick noted that the spring mount holes needed to be drilled out from 1/2" to 5/8" to fit.
From what I understand I need perches that are 2.5" wide that fit a 3 1/4" diameter tube on the 8.8 (this is correct?).

Yeah thats the size i got and they worked prefect, even with the same stock u-bolts. Some people said they unbolted the pin and nut on the spring pack and switched the nut to the top, if you did this then you wouldn't have to re-drill i believe. I just didn't feel like taking the whole leaf pack apart.

driveshaft - The driveshaft will most likely be an issue with SOA. When Nick26 went SOA the perch (same one I'm looking at) had 3 spring peg mount holes, he used the furthest to the ear hole to give the driveshaft the slack needed. Another option is to install a driveshaft spacer. I'm kinda leaning towards the spacer at the moment.

another advantage to moving the the pin to the rear-most hole was that it slightly angled my pinion up too which helped prevent vibrations. I'm actually realy happy with my setup now... when i first did it I drove around with it bolted in the middle hole for a day and the vibrations were horrible. Switched it to the rear hole and it was very smooth... to me thats the perfect formula of a little pinion angle and closing the distance on the slip joint.

 

[William Schumacher]

410Fortune-
I see your point and it's sounding pretty good to me. I'll just need to find someone to give a 30 pack of beer to I was looking at Dead Link Removed. They are the same 7" long ones Nick26 used he noted they should prevent axle wrap and there 1/4" steel. Nick noted that the spring mount holes needed to be drilled out from 1/2" to 5/8" to fit.
From what I understand I need perches that are 2.5" wide that fit a 3 1/4" diameter tube on the 8.8 (this is correct?).

If anyone has better perches to use please let me know. I'll be ording these tomorrow probably.

William Schumacher~no worries bro im not goin anywhere!
leafs - If yer talkin about deaver leafs 410Fortune posted about earlier in this thread yea from what I read there awesome. A lot of prerunners use them.

rear soa lift - I have a basic idea of how much stock springs would give me with SOA from reading on here-around 6"- which is just about purfect. I'd like the rear to be a max of 1/2" taller than the front but no more.

timeframe - I'm taking several days off to work on this right after New Years, I'd like to have it finished end of January.

regearing - As far as regearing goes, your probably fine. The stock tire size is 29", according to my gear calculator you will need 4.24 gears to run 33" tires, pretty close to your 4.10. Theres really a point to goto 4.56 as I am, but my stock gears are 3.73

driveshaft - The driveshaft will most likely be an issue with SOA. When Nick26 went SOA the perch (same one I'm looking at) had 3 spring peg mount holes, he used the furthest to the ear hole to give the driveshaft the slack needed. Another option is to install a driveshaft spacer. I'm kinda leaning towards the spacer at the moment.

37 :, my stock tires were 255-70-16's (30"),I'm now at 265-75-16's (31.8"), 4.10 gears,
according to the calculator,my gears should be 4.51 for the 33" tires ,is there a huge difference from 4.1 to 4.51 ?
thanks,

 

[r37ribution]

...Some people said they unbolted the pin and nut on the spring pack and switched the nut to the top, if you did this then you wouldn't have to re-drill i believe. I just didn't feel like taking the whole leaf pack apart...


another advantage to moving the the pin to the rear-most hole was that it slightly angled my pinion up too which helped prevent vibrations...to me thats the perfect formula of a little pinion angle and closing the distance on the slip joint.

Well, I'm ordering all new leafs as mine are shot so I guess I wont ask them to drill out the holes.

Moving the leaf pin actually angled the pinion huh? sounds like it wasn't too much. The only reason I was worried about moving the pin was that I did not want my tire off center in the wheel well, I did see pics of yours and I couldn't tell if it moved...I guess 5/8" isn't much now is it

37 :, my stock tires were 255-70-16's (30"),I'm now at 265-75-16's (31.8"), 4.10 gears,
according to the calculator,my gears should be 4.51 for the 33" tires ,is there a huge difference from 4.1 to 4.51 ?
thanks,

I was thinking you had stock 29" tires, I guess that makes since with your lower ratio.

Put it this way, I have a 4.0OHV with 3.73 and 29" stock. When I went to 31" tries I needed ratio 3.99 (0.26 different from stock) but I stayed stock and it was significantly different. If I were to stay stock ratio and upgrade to 33" tires I would need 4.24 to maintain stock ratio (0.51 from stock) and with my motor it would be doggin.

You are going from needing a 4.10 to a 4.51 (0.41 different from stock). I see you have 4x4 so you either have 4.0 SOHC or OHV. If you have the OHV I would definately upgrade gears, I can't imagine loosing much more power than I did (it would really suck). A tune from Doug helped a lot and I came close to stock, but it's still not the same on 31s. But you might wanna ask someone who has ran 33s on a 4.10.

I'm gonna go order those perches!

 

[410Fortune]

when you weld the perches on you set the pinion angle, dont just go flat based off the old under the axle stock perches, measure the angle its cheap and not too tricky.

A local drivline shop can likelt extend your driveshaft amnd re-balance for under $150.

 

[r37ribution]

So with the shaft connected to the rear, measure an angle so that the pinion is correctly facing the t-case tack, then use that angle on the other side and tack, remeasure double check and triple check, and weld?

 

[Nick26]

when you weld the perches on you set the pinion angle, dont just go flat based off the old under the axle stock perches, measure the angle its cheap and not too tricky

Well I got conflicting messages on this, some people say not to angle the pinion because it causes the u joints to be out of phase which causes a lot of vibration, and if you do it too much you have to worry about the fluid not lubricating pinion bearings...

I CAN tell you that my perches are parallel and I don't have any vibrations. I think moving the axle forward one hole really just helped make the slip joint gap smaller which is what cause all my vibration problems at first. So i dunno, maybe it is better to angle the pinion on some trucks but I'm really happy with my setup and I know that works. If I were to do it again I would do it the same way.

By the way I think the holes were 1" apart not 5/8" but I could be wrong. and the tire moving in the wheel well is not noticable at all because is so far off the fender anyway.

 

[Nick26]

Put it this way, I have a 4.0OHV with 3.73 and 29" stock.

Thats what had stock too and with my 32" tires i still have the 3.73 gears and its perfectly driveable. Then again i have a 5 Speed manual so maybe thats where I make up the power needed.

 

[410Fortune]

A properly set pinion angle with a SOA will get the driveshaft, CV joint and U joints BACK into phase. You are tkaing it out of phase when you keep it straight.
You will not be turning the 8.8 up enough to run into any lubrication problems, we are tlaking like 4 degrees of correction.

Instead of moving the axle forward 1" (yes yes it doesnt really hurt) it is BEST to have the rear driveshaft re-built to the new and correct length, I personally would love to move my 8.8 back an inch or so and I plan to eventually. An 1" may not be huge to a 4 door ex but it can make a big diff on a short wheelbase BII (espeically when my front beams go forward 2")


IMO driveshaft mods are part of any lift and should be expected. They are not expensive really and are typically the best route to get a vibration free lift.
Now there is some room for error, hell my pinion angle was eyeballed when I converted my 8.8 to spring over, if I would have known better I would have gotten the magnetic gage from Sears and measured just to be sure, so thats how I would tell people to do it, because its the "best" route.Kind of like Chiltons will tell you the "proper" proceedure, we all know their are shortcuts here and there.

Yes guys with the Superlift SOA kit or who do not measure their pinion before welding and guys with stock shaft length might never pull the shaft apart or have vibrations, but thats is not the BEST way to do it and I know plenty of people who do pull their driveshaft apart after going SOA, and dont do anything to make up the extra length needed. usually it comes apart on the first major wheeling trip nce the sway bar is disco'ed and this is the WRONG time to learn you need another 1.5" in your d shaft

Spacers, moving the axle forward, they can work too, and they are part of why every single lift is different on every single truck

 

[r37ribution]

I just got off the phone with MORE...perches should be here in a few days...

 

[TheFox88]

Awaiting patiently.

 

[r37ribution]

Awaiting patiently.

you and me both my friend...you and me both

 

[TheFox88]

you and me both my friend...you and me both

LOL!

 

[Nick26]

Yes guys with the Superlift SOA kit or who do not measure their pinion before welding and guys with stock shaft length might never pull the shaft apart or have vibrations, but thats is not the BEST way to do it and I know plenty of people who do pull their driveshaft apart after going SOA, and dont do anything to make up the extra length needed. usually it comes apart on the first major wheeling trip nce the sway bar is disco'ed and this is the WRONG time to learn you need another 1.5" in your d shaft

Fortunately I have never pulled it apart on the trail, the only time it came apart was when i was setting it all up in the garage and both leaves were at full droop (i didn't bother disconnecting the driveshaft when i did the SOA). And even then I believe that was with the axle located in the middle hole. I've come pretty close to full flex too and haven't had any problems.

 

[AMMO_HOOAH]

Ok so where are the updates and PICS!!!!!

 

[mechanix]

Did you get the perches welded on yet?

Pm me if you need some help with that.

Eric