conflicts with lift info that need to be straightened out

[MountainMonkey]

so my vehicle is a 93 xlt with a 3" body lift, 31" mt's a flowmaster exhaust system custum knn high flow air intake and thats all the mods besides the stereo and leather seats from a 98 and a bed built into the back lol anyways i've been using it as a camping/ daily driver so i didnt want much lift but i just baught a 08 fj cruiser (toyota i know) ive decided i want to lift my x a bit more. anyways my question is will aal actualy lift a stock rearend with out a soa? i'm asking cause i had the x at midas having the stearing gearbox/ pump replaced and i asked if it would lift at all from an aal and they said it wouldnt lift it at all and it would just make the ride stiff. so i wanted to know if this is true because lots of people on this ite say it will give like 1.5 or 2 inchs of lift. i know this has bin ansewered many times but a bit of clarification would be good. also i know i can easily do an soa in a day or so for like 50 bucks but the problem is leveling the front to the back afterwards. is there anyway to do this without getting a lift kit for the front? i was thinking f150 coils and some 2" coil spacers might work but im not sure an alignment could pull it back to center. i would in a mine and im at camp right now so i cant upload pics cause there at home on my desktop so ya srry

 

[IZwack]

One of the many lessons to be learned in life is: never go to Midas.
However, if you do somehow wake up one day (heavy parting the night before?) and find yourself in a Midas: dont listen to whatever Midas says.

 

[MountainMonkey]

ya i the only reason i go to midas is they have set prices for everything.... i used to go to the ford dealship to have work done but 100$ an hour for labour and not knowing how long its going to take to have a job done ussualy ends up costing a small fortune for minor repairs. so basicly what your saying is an aal will lift the rear end? also im looking at some 2"lifts on ebay, they consist of 2" coil spacers and aal but it says will not fit special xl models... does this mean they wouldnt fit an xlt or is this refering to the eb x? i have asked the seller 2 times with no responce so i assume he doesnt have an ansewer.

 

[ZTraz77]

yes an aal WILL give you a 1.5-2" lift on the rear end of your ex and u could do coil spring spacers or new springs on the front of your truck to get the 2" up front.. a complete set of skyjacker coil and add a leaf springs is $239 on summitracing.com right now.. i have a set im looking to sell for $125 if u are interested in them tho

 

[Dora The 4x4'a]

yes it will lift it. yes it will make it ride more stiff. the only way i could see midas making sense is because with all of the sag (due to age) that your leafs h have suffered it will "make up" for that sag. so essentially it will not lift it beyond stock ride height. but it will make a definite difference compred to what your looking at now. a "true"-er 2 in lift could be accomplished by replacing the rear leafs w/ brand new ones then adding the AAL.. but this would make no sense! an SOA would give you roughly 5 in in lift. so this is aHUGE difference compared to your 1.5-2in approximation for AAL.. Also, you drive it everyday. an SOA will drastically change the ride of the truck. not sayin for better or for worse but it will certainly change. do some searching on the forum to get better insight. ( i am also selling a 2 in lift. 2in polyurethane coil spacers up front & a set of stock leaf springs painted and refitted w/ poly bushings and procomp AAL) PM me for details

 

[MountainMonkey]

ya i baught a lift from ebay like a week ago, im in canada and its coming from california so im not sure when it will be here. most likely in a couple of weeks. its 2" coil spacers in the front and an aal in the back. and im just wundering how does the aal lift without doing a soa? does it just make the leaf packs have more of an arc?

 

[Palmer7]

more arc and think about it kind of like stacking 3 blocks on top of eachother then stack another block and its higher. look at warrior 153 shackles too they are cheap and a good way to lift the rear also.

 

[MountainMonkey]

anyone have any pics of an x with just an aal and spacer lift?

 

[MountainMonkey]

hey guys, my lift came in today and i started to do the intall but ran into a few problems... i removed the back tires and the bolt that holds the shock onto the axel and i cant seam to get the shock to swing out from the mount on the axel. any suggestions on how to get it out? i asume banging it with a hammer will damage the shock. also i wanted to know if the aal goes on the very bottum or ontop of the flat leaf and under the other 3?

 

[Maniak]

The AAL goes under the curved leaves, but above the overload. The overload is the flat one on the bottom assuming you have an overload spring (stock you should have one).

As for getting the shock off the lower mount, there isn't really anything to it.. But, if the weight of the axle is being held up by the shock it will make it hard to pull off AND the axle will drop once the shock is no longer limiting the down travel.

~Mark

 

[MountainMonkey]

so maybe if i jack the axel up a bit it might come off easier? right now its just hanging there as low as the leaf pack will allow it to go

 

[Maniak]

Yes, you want the weight of the axle to be held by the jack stands/jacks and not the springs OR shocks. Once you have the shocks and springs loose you don't want the axle to jump as the parts come off.

~Mark

 

[MountainMonkey]

i jacked up the axela bit and got the shock off the mount. it seams im going to have a bit of trouble getting the nuts off of the u bolts. but some liquid wrench should have that fixe by tomorrow. when i finaly do have the aal in the pack do i tighten it down untill the aal's full lenght is touching the leaf above it? or should there be a space inbetwean them in the middle of the aal's arc?

 

[MountainMonkey]

so i have the shocks off and the u bolts off and now im trying to get the bolts out that hold the leaf pack together, but one problem the top of the bolt is round and i cant get a good enough grip on it with vice grips to stop it from spinning when i turn the nut on the bottum. any suggestions?

 

[Maniak]

I just used a grinder to cut the bolt off and I replaced it with a bolt from the hardware store. I can't remember what size, or even if it was SAE or metric that I put in there.

I went with a new bolt since I was adding a leave and knew my spring back would be thicker..

Also, a trick I found was to use a vice, or at least some c-clamps to clamp the pack together. It makes installing the bolt easier. I did use an impact gun to tighten the bolt down which also helped.

~Mark

 

[MountainMonkey]

i cant believe i never thought of cutting the bolt... my aal came with longer bolts so that should have been a no brainer.

 

[MountainMonkey]

so i got the install of the aal finished. but im kind of dissapointed with the results. it seams to have only raised the rear about an inch on the one side and a little less then an inch on the other.

 

[MountainMonkey]

well onto the coil spacers. im thinking this should be easy but i've never removed coils before so i geuse i'll find out.

 

[MountainMonkey]

to remove the coil do i just need to take the nutt off of the bolt in the bottum center of the coil? the sway bar and shock are dissconected. also anyone know if a shock is garbage if you can fully compress it by hand then need to pull it back out so it decompresses?

 

[Maniak]

Yes, stock explorer spring is held in by the bottom bolt only. If your brave, once the bottom bolt is out (and shock and sway bar are disconnected) you can just stand on the axle beam and the spring should spin/pop out. If your not quite that brave, grab the spring and rotate it and it will come out. This is assuming you have no tension on the spring though (no jack under that beam).

As to the shock, most shocks are gas charged so they should pop back out. Not all shocks are gas charged and the non gas charged ones need to be pulled back out, but it should be pretty darn stiff.

~Mark