Body Lift Difficulty?

[DeMo8361]

I'm looking for someone to tell me how difficult installing a 2-3" body lift is to do yourself. I'm good with a wrench, but I have never attempted it. Is it like a weekend, or more like a week?

 

[YourmamaISSOL]

this should be only a weekend job its only 8 bolts for the actual body. the toughest part is going to be getting the old bolts OUT. other than that it just pulling out the stock bushings jacking up the BODy not the frame and pushing the new bushing in fairly simple......

Now the stering extention is a pain but do able. do a search and you will find fixes for the stering extionsion. shouldt take to long, as long as you do your home work.

Gary

 

[XplorerKid]

Got air tools? Know how to remove the seats? i did mine in approx. 6 hrs, but i would allow soem extra time, as i had 2 other poeple helping.....

Hints-
Spray down all the Body mounts with some wd-40, PB blaster or the like

 

[DeMo8361]

appreciate it, thanks

 

[Dre]

start working those bolts about a week before you perform the install. Spray a little every day.

You might end-up braking some bolts anyway. Tools? A good braker bar and a long pipe (cheater) for the stubborn bolts. Be prepared to go to the dealer for new body mounts. I replaced 3 out of 8 with my 3" BL install. The worst one is the one above the gas tank. Strip this one and most likely you'd have to drop the tank to replace it.

Scared enough? now you're ready to do it.

 

[N2FORD]

The front 2 are the worst but not bad. I spent more time getting my bumbers looking good again than I did on the lift. Good luck!!!

 

[Texplorer]

Don not removoe stock mount, the body lift mounts go on top of the stock mounts. It took me a whole weekend to do mine. Lubricate those things for at least a week. The front two mounts were the hardest on mine, I had to drill them out to make the bolt go through. Just make sure to read the instructions, when your done, read them again. Ok, now that youve done that read them once more just to be sure.

 

[Brandon4AU]

Like they said its a real pita. But worth itStill havent gotten by rear bumper back in place.

 

[Arnie897]

Yeah....the body lift doesn't take that long....it's just those dang bumpers...

 

[toad]

I did it by myself in a day, then fixed the bumpers the next day.

Hers one more hint, I cut the excess bolt that was sticking out the bottom off then there was less length to back out.

Todd

 

[Dre]

It all depends on the age of your truck and the amount of salt on roads in your neck of the woods during normal winter.

Some of the mounts can start spinning with the bolt (the worst case), some bolts snap (good thing but you still have to replace the mount) and some will come out easy. You can probably do it all in one day.

If it was me it would take me a week... why?

I would probably: clean and paint the frame at the same time, drop gas tank and check sender unit and fuel lines, replace what I broke during the dissasembly process, install some rock lights under the truck, cut front fenders in anticipation of new, bigger tires... and do some more unnecessary things that I always do while working on my truck... believe me.

 

[Bronco_bill]

I am in the middle of doing one now and it sucks. I am putting on new poly mounts since almost all of my bolts snapped off. Even with the bolts being broke I still cannot get the mounts apart to replace the bushings. good luck

 

[Blee1099]

having impact tools & a hydraulic lift helps.. I think me & ExplorerNJ did mine in less than 4 hours.. probably be quicker if we didn't run into problems with the steering extension.. damn metal bur on the steering shaft had to be grinded off..

 

[kenr74]

Well, I think everybody else pretty much said all that can be said. The one thing I would stress is to start spraying those bolts a week in advance. I sprayed and started removing mine a week early. Pulled them out until they didn't want to come out anymore and sprayed some PB Blaster then put them back in. On the actual day of installation the bolts came out like they were in butter. No broken bolts or mounts. Did it myself in 8 hours and half of that was messing with the damn bumpers.

 

[DirtDemon85]

I found the Easiest thing to do is go out and buy a 20 dollar propain torch, heat up the bolt from under the explorer for about 1 minute and that will loosen the bolt up so it comes out EXTREMELY simple! But if you dont want to get the torch wd-40 works well as long as you have time to wait

 

[Dre]

nothing beats the torch though... that and a long braker bar (with extension)

 

[DeRocha]

nothing beats the torch though... that and a long braker bar (with extension)

Agreed... I used to be leery of reaching for the torch, but now it is always an arm reach away... In addition to rust many bolts have been installed with red loctite.. Blue loctite is meant to be removed with tools, but the red stuff needs to be heated to 500F to burn it off. If you don't you're in for a long painfull experience...

 

[DeRocha]

I am in the middle of doing one now and it sucks. I am putting on new poly mounts since almost all of my bolts snapped off. Even with the bolts being broke I still cannot get the mounts apart to replace the bushings. good luck

I'm in the same boat. I am having a VERY hard time driving the lower flange pieces out after the bolt has been removed. I folllow the directions and removed the bolt from the mount and thread it slightly from under the mount. I then sprayed the crapp out of the joint from the top with PB blaster and let it soak for a few hours... I then use a 7/16" drift and beat the pi$$ out of it trying to drive the flange off, but the flange doesn't seam to budge... I then remove the bolt from the botton and reinstall it (loosely) so I can drive to work the next day.. Obviously any suggestions will be welcome as I will employ them in getting this job done.

So far I have only removed the L bumper mount by driving it out. The other mounts #3LR, and #5R were so rusted they fell out when removing the bolt. ... I am thinking to just brake out a saws all and go to town on these mounts... I'm thinking the #4 mounts might be a real pain to get out... When working on the fron mount I removed the front wheel and a piece of the pastic wheel well. I then hit the top nut with the torch until it was glowing red (make sure any wires are removed and out of the way). A problem with the front mounts is that they are threaded within the entire flange piece, not just the top nut. I would back off the bolt as far as I could then hit it from underneath with PB blaster and then re tighten it back up. I would keep doing this until it was loose enought to power off.. Once I got the bolt out I used a 1/2" cobalt drill bit to ream through the flange to make way for my new 1/2" grade 8 bolt.
Here is a pic of mount #3R (under passenger seat) that fell apart as I applied my 1,000ft/lb air gun to it

 

[DeRocha]

I was searching the web and found this little gem.
Bronco Body mount removal & install

 

[Bronco_bill]

Here is the trick that I wish I new before I started. Get a drill bit (think I used a .5") that fits inside the sleeve from inside the cab and drill down about .25"-.50" into the lower sleeve. The lower sleeve will just fall out or come out with a little tap. The upper and lower sleeve lock together and do not come out very easy once locked. I used a grinder to clean the area that I drilled and everything went back together perfect. Also if you buy new hardware the design of the lower sleeve is different for position 3/5 so the bolts that came with the body lift are to long. I used the new bolts that came with the lift for position 3 in the position 5 spot. I recut the treads on two of the old bolts and used them in position 3. I have a few new rubber ford mounts I was going to put on e-bay if anyone needs some let me know what ones. Let me know If you need any more info.