1" Body Lift Questions

[Explorin'VA]

I'm looking into making a custom 1" body lift for my 94 Explorer and I had a few questions.

What dimensions should the lift blocks have?
What are the stock bolt lengths?
How will this lift affect my steering and will I need a steering extension?
How can I raise the fan shroud so the fan is not hitting against it after the lift?

I'm most likely going to use hockey pucks. I attempted to trim down some 3" blocks I had laying around but I wasn't able to get a perfectly even cut. I measured the body mounts and it looks like a 3" diameter puck will work. It looks like on the fan shroud I can unbolt it and drill new holes an inch lower on it and bolt it back up. Most of all I'm looking for the bolt sizes.

Thanks

 

[Anime]

The lift blocks should be about 3 inches in diameter, with either a 12mm or 7/16" hole (if re-using the stock bolts).

Stock bolt lengths are about 115mm (4.5 in.) for the front, 130mm (5 in.) for the middle three mounts, and 175mm (7 in.) in the rear.
the stock bolts are long enough that you could re-use them if you just added a one inch lift.

You might not need one, but lifting the body will put stress on the flexible parts of the steering assembly, so it'd be a good idea, at least. You could probably just use the same spacer as for a 2 in. body lift if you don't want to make something custom for a 1 inch lift.

You don't raise the fan shroud - you unbolt it and leave it where it is, then make 'drop brackets' so the fan shroud stays where it is and only the body moves up. You can just use some scrap metal for this.

Don't use hockey pucks. They'll fall apart and are unsafe for use in an automotive application.

Either get some 2-3 inch body lift spacers and cut them up for a 1 inch lift with a chop saw or band saw to get an even cut, or just get a bunch of dock washers and stack them up an inch high.

The biggest problem you're likely to run into is in removing the stock body mount hardware, it's likely rusted on there and might even be rusting apart. Then you'll have to come up with a plan on what other stuff to use. Might also be a good time to get a Daystar body mount kit, then you just need to lift the body 3/4 in. since the mounts already give another 1/4 in. lift.


DayStar Body mount replacement & Custom 3/4" lift (1st Gen):

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122116


How To: Replace Body Mount Bushings with the Daystar Kit KF04009:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=389677


Why hockey pucks are a bad idea:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13267
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=385851