About lifting '94...

[Mainfraim]

How does the SkyJacker lift compare to the James Duff? If they're roughly the same lift, then what makes the James Duff worth spending the extra ~300?

 

[Isles4evr]

Blake- on your alignment question... it isn;t impossible to align it, you just need to goto a good shop. Basically since you are changind the ditance between your axle and your frame without droping the axle down to "normal" hight your camber is going to be way positive (top of your tires lean outwards). This can be corrected by adding an aftermarket bushing. I do alignments at work all the time and the bushings we use are from a company called specality products. They are relativly inexpensive... the labor is the killer... i believe we charge .5hr on eather side which would roughly be 66 bucks to install the bushings plus the alignment. The spacers work real well... i have them on my rig, and are easy to install. You don;t have to worry about new shocks or extenders, but the travle of them is limited, nor do you have to worry about the brake lines.

I hope this helps a bit
Chris

 

[Blake D]

I found out that the alignment would be $60 extra a side for adding bushings. So total of $170 ish. Seems really expensive. Is there anyway I can buy and change the bushings myself. What level of difficulty are we talking here and are all bushings the same?
Thanks for the replies,
Blake

 

[ld50]

Sounds about right!
I didn`t want to do mine myself, and the alignment shop is still shafting me right now, I paid 600cdn and it`s worse than before! They made me buy new lower ball joints. Check out the "Quick alignment help!!!"
to see how these slimeballs are treating me

I wanted it done professionally because I don`t know much about the "camber adjustment kit" you need. There are different sizes, I don`t know what they used exactly, but I`m wondering if it wasn`t aligned with a fisher-price tape measure afterwards.

-Jim

 

[Blake D]

That is what I'm worried about, what good is a lift if ya can't drive it? And what good is a lift if you have to pay 3x's the lift price for the alignment?
If I could do some of this myself, then mabye I could justify the price, the labor is the killer.

 

[Isles4evr]

Yeah we change 66 bucks labor plus like 15 a bushing or so plus 55 for an alignment so thats about $140 total. You can install them yourself but you need an alignment machine to know the exact degree bushing and where to put it inorder to do it right.

Chris

 

[thedirtyneck]

2"drop pitman arm?

Hey Chris, would installing a 2" drop pitman arm be easier than fooling wiht the camber adjusters? Woudl this even work? I found this at 4wheelparts.com

Part # SKYSPIT

Description Power Steering Pitman Arm 2" Drop

Price $86.95

Dead Link Removed

Granted its a bit expensive but it might be cheaper than buying the adjusters and paying for the labor. Let me know what you think. Thanks

Brian

 

[thedirtyneck]

Any thoughts anyone?

 

[ld50]

You would need to lower the Dana mounts because it is the increased angle of each side of the front axle that puts the tires off camber, so you would need new brackets for that AND the longer pitman arm since you would be moving the axle away from the frame.

Make sense?

 

[ld50]

what good is a lift if ya can't drive it?

You gotta pay if ya wanna play buddy

For a small lift I still recommend the 2" suspension since it is less of a headache than a body lift and it gets some ground to frame clearance. It will cost more tho`, but just try aligning yer bumpers after a body lift and see how much fun it is.

 

[thedirtyneck]

yeah that makes sense, it will probably jsut be easier to buy the camber adjusters. thanks Jim

Brian