3 quick body lift questions so i can finish this

[mysticclam]

Its my birthday! (as of an hour ago!) I bought myself a body lift and took the day off work so I can install it as a sort of present to myself. I also ended up gifting myself a cordless drill cause I forgot to borrow one
Anyway, my questions
1. Ive got it up on one side with the rear 4 blocks in but I dont know exactly what Im supposed to drill out up front. I took the bolt out from the bottom and got the nut from above do I take the threaded tube off and drill it? Can I just drill it while its on the truck or is that bad for some reason? Or is that tube supposed to go bye bye and Im drilling something else?

2. Do I locktight the body bolts too or just the steering extension.
Ive never used it before If I use it on the body bolts do you get the body and blocks lined up the way you want and tighten them up a bit to hold everthing in place and then pull them out and locktight the threads and reinstall one at a time or does the stuff cure slow enough to put it on all the bolts and then line up stuff and cinch em down.

3. Any idea how tight I should torque the body bolts to?

thanks!

 

[Albino 94LTD]

Happy Birthday Although your profile says it's Jan 1st

1. I drilled mine while they were on the truck (front only)

2. I used Blue Locktite. It cures slowly so put it on when you put the bolts in.

3. I went to 75ft lbs. Been on there several months and nothing loose yet.

I went 2" BL and didn't need the steering extension.

Have fune with the bumpers. Did your kit come with bumper brackets? When I made mine, I took out the trim piece under the grill surround and raised the bumper all the way plus about 3/4" forward.

 

[mysticclam]

shoot, I already bought the red stuff.
lucky me there is an auto parts store 5 minutes walk from here
Yeah, I got the PA kit with the bumper brackets. I traced them and my friend is going to make a couple copies and connect the tops of them to make a boxed type bracket and then he will weld them on for the front. Dont know about the back.

 

[mysticclam]

nothing like talking to soon. Bumpers are lame lame lame.
Lift part is done though
the bumper bolts are hooked together by a thin piece of metal, the bracket holes are to farther apart. Had to cut the metal to move the bolts. Luckily the frame holes are slotted. This makes the brackets lean forward a tiny bit. I guess thats cool to have the bumper that much farther from the tire. Its only a tiny bit.
However, with the bumper in the right spot with the brackets as high as they go, the lower hole isnt above the frame all the way so I cant install the bolt. What is up with that.
Also, my buddy who helped, used a lot of his tools, he hung out and helped a tiny bit, dropped my 18 MM socket into the body where the second from the rear body bolts are. Its like a cavity the runs accross the truck. Can see it or reach it so its gonna roll around in there all the time. Gonna put a big magnet on a string and drop it in there to try and fish it out. Otherwise all is well in explorer world.

 

[Albino 94LTD]

Ummm, wont the magnet stick to the chassis?

Sounds like you're gonna have to go fishing with a coat hanger.

 

[mysticclam]

I can push the magnet with a coathanger a lot easier than i can get the socket with it Its a fishtank magnet, it has a string attached for getting it back out. He tried to fish it out with just the hanger forever, you just cant get it cause of the shape and not being able to see. Bumper brackets are a nightmare though. Took me awhile to realize they move it more than 3 inches. Probably to try and have the lower bolt above the frame. Looks too funny as high as i can move it now and id have to remove the plastic bit under the grill and make it higher to fit that way. I just gave up and moved the adapter bracket down, bolted the top bolt and am now drilling a new hole in the lift kit bracket and the bracket on the bumper. I think my 1/2 bit will be done after going through an inch of steel.
Ill notch the rear bumper with the cut off wheel and the rear should work ok.
The irony is ill have spent more time on the bumpers than the body bolts. Ill probably have spent more time fishing out that socket, more time walking to shucks to buy stuff, and will probably spend more time getting the seats back in than the body bolts. They were the easy part LOL. Course I lock tighted them before they were all torqued with the torque wrench when someone lost the socket that fits them The front 4 may have to come out and get re locktighted and reinstalled so that would change things.

 

[Creager]

the bumpers are definatly the irony in this project. It took me a year to 'fine tune' my bumpers, esspecially the front.

Have you tried driving with the steering extention? If its kinky/tight, you are in for some more fun .

The Redlocktite should work fine. I trust it over the blue.

 

[mysticclam]

The steering is just a tad stiffer than it was before. No binding though. I think I will leave it alone. The bumpers however are soooooo lame. I drilled new holes in the front brackets (kit and actual bumper) unfortunatly when I tightend everthing up, its not level (as viewed from the side) Any ideas how to elongate the hole in the bracket? I have a dremel grinder but I think that would take ages.
Also, I needed to drive my truck so I stuck the rear back at stock height, ugly!
Noone ever said the factory bolts dont fit in the bracket. ARG
seriously though, the bumper hitch plate is in the way of me notching the bumper so I have to get that off and need a torx socket thing so it will have to wait a bit. Im thinking of just doing a custom bumper since the old one connects at the top I could just bolt the bottom of my custom to it and it should look ok and actually work like a bumper.

 

[Albino 94LTD]

Pictures!

 

[mysticclam]

Well, I was going to take some pics at work but our digital here requires you to lighten everything and they look washed out.
Still need to figure out a rear bumper solution and some washers I think will fix the front-or elongating the holes with the dremel grinder- depends on how lazy I am. Also the wiring for the transfer case doesnt reach unless I pull out the gromet under the truck so I will have to figure a way to lengthen that.

 

[Albino 94LTD]

looks good!

Interesting, I didn't have any of those problems, should've gone with the 2"

When are you putting the SL on?? Go straight for the extended radius arms. There's gotta be some coming available. PM all the SAS guys. I swear there were 2 sets for sale in Oregon and 1set in Alaska (smolt). Then you''ll be ready for the 10th Anniversary gathering in Moab in May

 

[mysticclam]

yeah, id like to go but that may be too soon
I think its going to be just lift coils and shackles for awhile so i can get my tires
then gears then when I have a chance to fill the old piggy bank up again, I will get the duff stage 2 kit. I will definatly get the extended radius arms. Thats been my plan. Im guessing getting the bracket rivets out probably is easier than some of this body lift stuff was.
There is also still a 18mm socket inside the body of my truck, I cant hear it roll around so it might just stay there LOL.
I will look out for some used stuff.

 

[dreamr]

If you ever do run into to steering bind there is an easy fix posted on the PA website

 

[mysticclam]

The gap was so large I thought the extender might be too short at first. But in the end it seemed like it might have been a hair too long. The steering, brake, fan shroud and shift adapters were all a great fit and easy to put on. (save my screwing up the shifter). The bumper brackets were useless the way they came.

 

[Albino 94LTD]

We need more stocker/slightly modified/NO body damage participants. There's trails for everyone (or so I'm told).

You gotta go, then we'll have a 6 rig caravan : :navajo: :exporange :exp: :roll: :exporange : :navajo:

 

[Creager]

i took the die grinder route on the front bumper brackets. After two days of probably 8-10 hours of straight grinding/test-fitting, they look great... yes it took that long. A drill press can make short of the work.

i actually couldnt get the fan shroud bracket sent with the kit to work. I made something up with some stuff i had kicking around in my parts bucket.

If you look under the dash, right above the petals, you should see the steering tube. At the end of the tube where it meets the firewall, is there a brass ring clamped around the tube? Removing this ring really freed up my steering... but mine was horrid. I still have problems with looseness and play until this day. Performance Accessories wanted me to elongate the bolt holes on the steering flange, which bolts the steering tube to the firewall. This didnt help me, but letting the bottom few bolts stay loose allows the tube/flange to move forward and back with the steering shaft. This keeps the tightness/kinkyness to be at a minimal. The steering extention on my truck really needs to be replaced with a new steering shaft in my opinion.

 

[SkidMarkSteve]

mysticclam, nice lookin' lift! I had a 91 XLT and I put the 3" body lift on like a year ago. My bumper had the same issue as yours. Just have a friend come by, loosen up the bolts, and press the rear of the bumper up. This can also be done with a floor jack and a piece of 4x4 wood.

Hope this helps!

 

[Boomer79]

Hey I just got my 3" BL in the mail along with my shackles. I am hoping to do this lift on sunday at my friends shop because he has a lift. How long do you think it will take to get the truck back to drivable with the lift and a shop full of tools? I need to be at work at 6 monday morning. Sounds like the bumpers are going to have to wait till another day. Some one should design and produce the right brackets for explorers. They would be cheap for someone to make and i know a lot of people would pay well for them.

 

[mysticclam]

Most of my time honestly was spent messing with the bumpers, trying to figure out how I messed up my shifter and trying to get the socket out of the body that fell in.
I started on a saturday and finished the next sunday(as in 8 days later). I never put in more than 3 hours in a day and only a little during the week days. All in all Id say 14 hours and I was doing it all myself. My friend "hung out and handed me tools a few hours and the one single time he helped was when i needed to hold the nut on the bottom of the 2nd from the back body mount bolt and he was supposed to tighten it and he dropped my 18mm socket into the body.
An honest real time for seats, body bolts, jacking it up, putting in the blocks, doing the radiator and brake cable brackets plus steering extension (which I think would get it back to drivable took me under 7 hours. I also wasted a bunch of time going to the parts store for
18mm socket
blue locktite
a 1/2 drill bit that had a 3/8 in shank for my drill.
I had airtools and all my body bolts came out easy. If any had broken or Id even had to have held the nuts (only had to do that on the one putting it in) such that I couldnt do it myself, it would have taken longer.
I could have done it all in one weekend if I had 8 hours each day to do it. But we have an 18 month old a few hours at a time was all I could get before it was my turn

 

[ryf]

so when you do a body lift, do the body bushings stay in or go??? never seen one go in, just wondering