Body lift HELP

[audiodude332001]

Hey everyone, I started on my 3" body lift tonight, and it is going pretty well, with the exeption of a few things. First, when I was trying to take the bolt off from under the engine compartment on the drivers side, the bolt broke in half, and now when i try at it from the bottom the bushing just spins and I cant get a good grip on it with anything. I think im going to end up using a sawzal and cutting it off right underneith the rubber bushing. Second, I had the bolt behind the rear seat on the drivers side break in half also. Is this bushing threaded like the front ones, or can i just punch it out or something? I am having a hell of a time with this bolt , and I dont know what to do. Besides that It is going pretty good. I got the drivers and passengers foot well bolts out, and the passenger bolt under the seat, and both the rear bolts. If anyone has any input on what to do about these 2 stupid bolts, I would really appreciate some input.

Thanks,
Andy

 

[TheRookie]

only the front most mounts are threaded. The rest just have that square nut type thing on the bottom. This will prevent you from just punching out the bolt. Jack up that side of the truck and remove the mount. Then battle with it to get the rest of the bolt out. The front bolts have nuts on top of them. look down through the engine compartment to see them. Use a crazy long extnesion to reach down to it. I hope you didnt remove all the bolts on both sides without putting new ones in. Did you read the directions?

 

[audiodude332001]

Yeah, I read the directions. I didnt remove all the bolts from both sides. just from one side, and then loosened the other side up.

But anyways, today i got almost the entire thing done. All I still need to do is put in the steering extension, the e-brake cable bracket, and raise the front and rear bumpers. I started on the front bumper, but am having a heck of a time getting the stuff to line up. I finally got it lined up, but the bottom hole that hooks directly to the bumper is in the way of the frame, so I cant stick a bolt through it. Has anyone had this broblem? and had to grind off a little of the frame?

 

[TheRookie]

If you lift the bumper 3 inches that wont be a problem as it will clear the frame. Some 3 inch lifts however only come with 2 inch bumper brackets. That could be the problem. If you are confident that you will never take out the body lift then grind away. If you EVER plan to remove it they you gotta come up with another idea.

 

[G-rigged]

I used a cut off wheel to remove the lower body mount under the driver's seat. (the bold broke off for me too) Sawzall didnt work for me. Also the drivers side front bolt on the radiator side broke off too. i just removed the nut on top and it slides out. As for the bumper brackets teh holes were too small for the factory bolt brackets to slide trhough so i drilled out the holes bigger to accept the factory bolt brackets.

 

[audiodude332001]

I finished the body lift today. I had the biggest pain with the stupid bumper brackets. I had to cut them a bit over and over untill they fit, and I also had to grind a bit off of the frame. The steering is binding like crazy even with the steering extension. Does it take a while to break in the steering, or is something wrong? Is it supposed to bind at first?

 

[G-rigged]

i gave mine a heavy dose of wd-40 and it seemed to help some. After about 300 miles it seemed to free up like it was before. But i still plan to drop the mounting position of the steering column on the firewall to help out the angle. Either that or put in an aftermarket steering universal joint.

 

[dougintahoe]

who sells after market steering universal joints ? is that something you can get from NAPA etc ... are the modified joints or to OEM specs ?
I dropped my steering column and it helped with the binding ttremendously . but steering is still a little loosy goosy and I would like to get it to be near to original as possible.

thanks everyone.

D in T