Gee whiz, can't a guy take a nap? Actually, I've been completing a hockey puck lift to help the clearance.
I've got a little over 7 3/4" between the top of the tire and the fenderwell right now but I had my torsions at 1.5" lift so I can move those up some more if need be.
Swaybar removed, I cannot get hardly any rubbing at all bouncing around as hard as I can in a rough field, but hitting hard offroad will be different. THIS IS STILL WORK IN PROCESS. I can get a very slight rub under hard compression if the tire is turned just enough to line the outside edge of the tread as close as possible to the back of the wheel well. Under full turn the tire just goes back into the well where's more room and doesn't rub. Driving hard in town flying over railroad tracks and jamming down on dips in streets I cannot get any rubbing at all.
What I did:
1)Torsion twist /shackle lift to start
2)Moved the front bumper forward: used three or four washers per bolt to space out the front bumper as far as the bumper bolts will allow, about 1/2 - 5/8".
3)Carefully trim the front bumper's bottom rear -- that fake chrome stuff --to follow the curve of the top of the fenderwell. I was able to remove over an inch to provide additional front clearance for the tire. Then I spent a long time finish filing the cut to smooth it out and retain the curve. It looks factory; you have to really look to tell that it's been altered.
4) The most problematic clearance remaining was the back of the front wheel where that Eddie Bauer running board comes up to the wheel well. Looking at it from the front, it was about five or six inches thick/wide. It actually bows wider at the bottom in a bell shape. The tire rubbed the entire inside half of the molding at the bottom and pushed it back a good inch during turns. But the tire doesn't touch the outside part. So I carefully trimmed the inside half off and rounded it off also at the bottom. Like the front, no one will notice unless they really look for it and know how the original shape was.
5) One inch hockey puck lift. I only had to replace two body bolts with longer ones (the D ones behind the back seat) but was still able to use the original ones otherwise. The front ones under the hood though were a real squeeze but I got threads through almost the entire nut. I'll keep it checked to make sure they hold. They are resistance threads and I doubt they will move. And get this bonus: I didn't have to drop the fan shroud! I didn't think the one inch body lift would help since most of my clearance concern is front-to-back, but that's the final thing that knocked off what little rubbing I was getting. As far as top clearance, I added 1 1/2" radius to my tire but 3" lift between the torsion twist and hockey pucks, so I've got more height clearance than stock.
I have to work Monday so I won't be able to make it to Kansas. I may join some J**pers for a quick day trip a couple of hours away to see how much more fenderwell modification may be needed.
Once again, most of the rub potential occurs when the rear outside edge of the tire tries to clip the molding at partial turn. Even with all that I have done, it comes VERY close. If the tire was another inch wider, I don't think anything could keep it from rubbing during hard turns, short of trying to move the body back a little during the body lift. If anyone tries this using a wider tire or an aftermarket rim with backspacing that places the tire further out it may not work. You'll have to trim out more at the rear of the front wheelwell, and my Eddie Bauer trim is hacked off as far as it will go already. With XLT trim you may get 12.5" wide in there, but you gotta be willing to trim even more than I did.
I didn't mention anything about the back tires because they're no problem at all (that I have noticed so far).
Gerald
[Edited by GJarrett on 02-03-2001 at 04:40 PM]
