Trail Master 4" lift install and questions 1994 XLT

[SBJ420]

started the lift yesterday, just about down now, have taken lots of pics, will post everything when I am done

its going good

 

[Mr.Wink]

I can't wait to see this...I need to get started on mine.

 

[SBJ420]

Alright so I live in Vancouver BC Canada, if you have been here in the winter its a 99% chance of rain on any day.... but not today!

First to come off is the shocks, brake lines, sway bar, and if you have them radius arm rivets.

I used a cut / grind wheel on a 4.5" angle grinder. Only took a few min. The rivets might not fall out right away, thats fine, just watch yourself so it does not fall on your legs!!!
Next I took off the I beam bolts, once both I beam bolts were out I just let them drop and then the radius arm bracket fell out of the cut rivets

 

[SBJ420]

before you drop the axle down take off the front drive shaft from the diff. also before you drop the axle take off the pit man arm, you will need a pit man arm puller for this, $30 and Canadian Tire, I tried to use a 3 arm gear puller but it would always slip off.
After everything from the axle is off the truck slide it back under the truck. I have placed jack stands under the front frame.

 

[SBJ420]

once the axle is pulled away I stated to take off the I beam brackets. The passanger side will unbolt, I used a 18mm and a 21mm

after that one is out go take the drivers side off. Mine was riveted on, so it needed to be cut out. Agian I used the angle grinder with a cut / grind disk, went easy, about 20min. The rivets stayed in the bracket, this was the biggest pain. I ended up using a small drill bit and drilling out the rivets and heating them up and punching them out with a hammer and punch. I did need to apply heat.

here is the drivers side bracket out

here is the new drop bracket that it goes on

 

[SBJ420]

I put the passangers side bracket on and the radius arm brackets

now these might be the most shot radius arm bushings ever..... I did not bend or bang these up taking them off

 

[SBJ420]

after I got all the brackets on I put the new radius arm bushings on and then put the radius arm bracket back on the arms. I put the I beams back on the new brackets. Now this part can be tricky, when you try to line up the radius arms with the new drop brackets I used jack stands and a jack under the axle. Leave the I beam brackets loose until you get the brackets bolted on.

 

[SBJ420]

once everything was tightened down and loctite was applied I set up the brake lines and the coils, this agian can be alot of fun! Put on your new extended shocks, I went with the pro comp ES3000's, only $38 each

this is a good feeling once the coils are on and the front end is complete

I had to adjust my wheels once I got them on, the tires were pointing in so I loosened the tie rods and turned them until both tires were straight.

 

[SBJ420]

Now I did not take any pictures of the rear.
here is the difference in the leafs

Its very straight forward, the only thing I can say is make sure you put the leafs on the right way! I made the mistake of ASSuming that they were the same either way they went. I bolted everything down and put the tires on and noticed that the rear axle was about 1 foot extended toward the rear of the truck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I went to pull the truck ahead a few feet and the drive shaft fell out,.... this set me back a good 4h's
all done and said it took me 22h's on a 3 day weekend with no help at all.. I did have a inpact gun witch was a HUGE help. And after the lift and shocks and brake lines it came too $1100 CDN

here it is done

I will post some better pics of after, and of some wheeling this weekend!

any questions or tips please add!

 

[manaen]

Looks really good!!!

but I have one question, why did you drop the entire front end to do the install. when I did mine all I needed to do was remove the brackets and replace with the new ones?

 

[SBJ420]

well the pit man arm needed to be changed for the drop arm, so there goes the steering, than the radius arms needed brackets so those came down, and the I beams...... anything that was connected to the truck needed either to be longer, like the shocks and coils, or it had drop brackets......... I think its way different in a IFS. than a TTB

 

[91exploreron37]

No I think he was asking why did you remove the whole entire TTB assembly from the truck instead of just unbolting it from its brackets, replacing the brackets with drop brackets and then bolting it back up.
I guess it makes it easier to grind off the rivets? When I did my lift I left my TTB where it was and just replaced the brackets even though it was kinda hard to get to the rivets with the ttb still there.
Also did you relplace the radius arm mounts?

 

[SBJ420]

ahhhhh yeah it made it very easy to get under at the rivets. All of the rivets only took around 10min or so. And the radius arm mount you mean the whole bracket that runs from one side to the other? If so not at this point, I am going to do that soon.

 

[lifeguard379]

looks great! howdoseit ride?

 

[manaen]

well the pit man arm needed to be changed for the drop arm, so there goes the steering, than the radius arms needed brackets so those came down, and the I beams...... anything that was connected to the truck needed either to be longer, like the shocks and coils, or it had drop brackets......... I think its way different in a IFS. than a TTB

I am sorry I should have made myself clear, I was talking about a 95 ranger that I did, with the TTB not my current 01 merc. I guess I just did everything in steps on mine and never really ended up dropping anything. I was also doing it by myself and was a bit worried about being able to balance the TTB on a jack and line things back up.

 

[SBJ420]

it rides very well. MUCH better than before. before it drove like **** due to the radius arm bushing being so shot.

I also had no help with this, its not so hard balancing the axle alone when you are putting it on, other than the radius arm brackets!

 

[SBJ420]

I drove it on the ramps today to see if anything was getting in the way before I go wheeling tomorrow, seems ok. Body is nice and straight when its on the ramps, will take some pics of wheeling tomorrow

 

[turbomustang]

looks good and where geting snow in abbotsford so stave or davis lake should have lots i went up there a couple weekends ago and there like like 2 feet of snow.

 

[SBJ420]

nice, I think I will head up eagle ridge, but its snowing here like crazy so we will see what happens. Come along with us if you like

 

[91exploreron37]

Was your front swaybar disconnected in those pics?