2" Body Lift Installation on 99 Ex. | Page 3 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

2" Body Lift Installation on 99 Ex.

Another Aussie here, I've just got a 40mm suspension lift as in my signature (oops that's my new X there, my old one was a 98 XLT with EFS shocks all round & re-set springs + an extra leaf at the rear) below & am looking at doing a small bodylift of just 1" (Mrs is a short type person of 4'11" & already *****es about how:p: high the 4b is) & muddies hit the top of the wheel arch when doing any big jumps.I was just wondering what would be involved with that.
Also I haven't seen anything on interior airbags here, I've read somewhere that these can be an issue when doing a bodylift.
Anybody know about this at all, any info will be muchly appreciated.
Thanks:D
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.











So i assume since the 792 2" BL for the 90-94 worked on this 99 it would also work on a 2000 as well right?? Dun wanna do the 3" just wanna get the old girl 2" higher ;) ;)
 






Bump.....
 






Ordered my 2" Body Lift yesterday, Can't wait till it comes in...... :D :D :D
 






props on the '99, got one myself.
i want to put a 3" BL on but i want to do a 4"-6" SL too.
anyway here's the dumb question" does it matter which lift i do first? And by matter i mean make the job harder. also hows the off-roading in AUS?
 






Will This Same Kit (Performance Accessories 792 2" Body Lift Kit made for 91-94 Explorers) work for a 2001 xlt?
 






also hows the off-roading in AUS?

I'd hazard a guess & say the same but different, we're a country roughly the same size as the U.S. but with only about 20 million people & 95% live around the coastline of about 32000klm. Which means some of our 4x4 treks are well over 1000klm long with bugger all in between. From our high country in our south to our deserts in the middle & from east to west & then our monsoonal north we have it all.
We have about a dozen or so "must do before you die" treks which cover all you could want.
There is a lot of Oz that people just wont take X's because its to hard to get parts anywhere let alone when the nearest town/community is over a couple of hundred klm's away. I have fun with mine but always in company, as should everyone.
If your curious here's an Aussie 4b magazine address that you should find interesting
www.4wdaction.com.au
Happy reading. :thumbsup:
 






Hello everyone, bringing back a dead thread to see if I can't get some answers. I'm halfway done with this project as we speak and I've hit a couple roadblocks. I have 8 of 10 pucks in, just need to get the front two core mounts and I'll be ready to start torquing all 10 down.

P5210107.jpg


The front two core mounts are assembled such that, from bottom-to-top, there is a bushing, frame, another bushing, and a washer that covers the top bushing, all stacked on the stock bolt. Here is a picture of the passenger side mount...

P5230104.jpg


and the driver's side...

P5230105.jpg


Obviously, the bolts have been removed from their body nuts found in the engine bay, but for whatever reason, the factory bolts (15mm) won't unscrew from the large washer that covers the top bushing. I tried using a strap type oil filter wrench, which actually held and gripped really well, but had no luck getting it to budge despite torquing both the strap wrench and the ratchet in opposite directions. If I could find a better way to vice the washer I could most likely put a lot more force into it however. Both bolts are soaking in PB Blaster right now. Only other solutions we've considered are angle grinding and/or taking a sawsall to it, which I'm not opposed to, but in the end I really need those bushings and the washer. Worst case scenario, how awful would it be to torque down the 8 that are in and take the vehicle somewhere where it could be more easily done like a shop?

So I couldn't get that done tonight, but I was able to mount the radiator shroud exactly where it needs to be, and even used both drop brackets provided in the kit by clipping off the tab on the shroud so it can clear the upper radiator hose on the passenger side, then mounting the drop bracket diagonally and drilling a new hole in the shroud. I'll loosen it up again when we finally need to separate body from frame one last time for the core mounts, but for tonight I did make that much progress. While I was poking around in the engine working on that, I noticed that the steering column shafts had also separated a slight fraction of an inch after lifting. I removed the steering column bolt prior to lifting but I wasn't anticipating this. Is there an extension I should be ordering or a way to remedy this?

Many, many thanks in advance.
 






Bump.
 






Try and lower the body down, put a plate or something in between the body and the bolt and put pressure on the bottom of the bolt and then hold the washer and see what it does...
 






I can't lower the body again without taking out the 8 pucks that are already in. I'm gonna try taking an angle grinder to the hex nut part of the bolt tonight and hammering it out from the bottom.
 






Is it spinning on the existing mount? If so try grabbing the existing mount bushing with a pair of vice grips or something and try to use a impact gun on it.
 






Negative, it only appears to be locked on the washer that covers the top bushing. I tried gripping the top bushing with the strap wrench as well and the washer spun with the bolt
 






In the event that I end up destroying one or both bushings, what can I use in their place that I could easily find at the local Home Depot or Autozone? I can only work on this project at night after work and being anxious about this is starting to take up a lot of my time during the day.
 






Nevermind all... The bolts have been removed with an excessive amount of force. I'll post pictures later for people considering doing this project now, 7 years after it was originally done by the OP, but the bolts were rusted beyond recognition in the middle. Not sure if soaking the PB blaster helped, but we ended up vicing the top of the washer and the roof of the top bushing together, then putting a 4 foot pipe over a breaker bar and "rowing" a few times to get the ball rolling, then we let an impact wrench on it for a solid minute or so.
 






Glad you got them out....
 






Just did this project again a second time on the new Ex. Much, much, much smoother/faster the second time around. I HIGHLY recommend buying, renting, or borrowing a powerful impact wrench to punish the factory mounts with (preferably compressed air; I used electric which worked great but steer clear of the cordless kind). For anyone considering doing this, I also highly advise keeping your sideskirts on until after the lift to see if you like the look, especially if you're going with the 3". Taking them off and then installing the lift leaves an ugly scar and exposes more of the post-lift undercarriage "gut". Not sure if that concerns anyone else, but I'll toss in a couple picture to show the difference...

1st Ex RIP
P5200105.jpg


2nd Ex
postlift.jpg



Other information missing from this write-up I'd like to add...
-Factory carriage bolts are 18mm, new bolts are 19mm
-You don't need to unbolt the ground wire running up the center of the firewall or the ground wires found on either side of the frame around mid-cab, there should be more than enough slack for all three

-When referring to different body mounts I use the following classification...
mountlocations.png

o 1 is located in the engine bay. You’ll need to hold these mounts in place from above to loosen them from below
o Remove interior plastic moldings. Carpet will need to be pushed out of the way for access to the remaining body mounts.
o 2 is located below the carpet where the front passenger’s/driver’s feet would rest.
o 3 is located below the front passenger/driver bucket seats
o 4 is located behind the bench seat after folding the bench over and lifting up the hinged flaps
o 5 is located towards the back of the cargo area closer to the middle of the vehicle from the corners



The 792 kit comes with 6 180mm bolts, 2 200mm bolts, and 2 220mm bolts. With that said, Passenger/Driver "3" needs a much smaller length bolt than the rest of the bunch. You can use the bolts that come with the kit (180mm's) for only the front mounts ("1") and for "5". Other than that every bolt is entirely too long and you'll need to buy your own. The thread pattern is an M12-1.75, and I recommend picking up a couple 100mm's, a couple 120mm's, and a couple 140mm's. Unless I'm mistaken "4" can use the 140's, "2" uses the 120's (or you can re-use the factory carriage bolts from "5"), and you'll want the 100's for "3". Bear in mind that I'm only recommending 100mm's for 3 because I have a 120mm in it right now and it's still just barely too long by a few hairs; if the 100 is too short I'd still rather not use every thread in the mount and actually have pressure on the body than have a bolt that's too long and not really doing anything because it bottomed out.

And finally, some dissertations...

Location of body mount bolt under seat. Shown with seat removed.

IMO You don't need to remove the seats to access this mount. You can still access it after removing the interior moldings, moving the seat forward as far as possible, and pushing the carpet/insulation out of the way. Although, in the OP's defense removing the seat would make this process a lot easier if you would like to take the time to remove and later re-install both front seats.

This is the front body mount, shown with the 2" spacer installed. Please note that this mount has to be drilled out with a 1/2" drill bit as it has a thread inside it and the new bolt won't go through.

I didn't have this issue but I suspect it's because I removed the funnel-shaped threads (that description will make a lot more sense once you are staring at this mess) and replaced it with a large washer to make up for the couple of mm's lost by removing.

The rust OP mentions in "1" will definitely ruin your day if not handled wisely. Both installs I've worked on have required excessive force to remove these mounts, and 4 out of 4 times the bolts were corroded beyond recognition around the middle of the threads. Oh yeah and I live in Southern California so I'm doubtful anyone else's situation outside of socal will be much brighter.

Good luck to you if you plan on doing this. Feel free to send me any questions you have while this event is still fresh in my memory.
 






Back
Top