finished my 3" BL...almost

[sean4385]

oh ok i see now. so this should be a piece of cake if i go to a metal shop and have them help me.

wait 3 guys? 2 to hold the brush gaurd?? pfft, i would hold that brushgaurd up with my left hand and weld it with my right. hehe jk
Well not really, but stupid me always tries doin things like that and end up kicking my own ass.

Ok you guys have been a huge help so far. i pretty much got everything i need to know:

1) i guess i can live with it. and apparently the extension not being installed the way the instructions call for doesnt really matter.

2) may modify the front bracket from the 853 kit to work on rear, if not ill have one fabbed using the blueprints

3) use washers to move bumper out and not effect the frame

4) im gettin used to it...."its a mans truck now!"

ok i think thats it for this thread. My Q's have been taken care of for the most part, but feel free to keep postin with more info or Q's

Thanks alot guys.

See you on the trails

 

[sk1er17]

hell yea dude- u cant miss the next trip. I just posted another pic in my album - you can see the jeepers staring at me in the backround

 

[sean4385]

LOL. theyre prolly like "damn, wish my jeep could do that." That trip looked like alot of fun. i was upset when i realized i couldnt make it. the BL took way longer than i had ever expected. but oh well, ill definately go on the next one, and all the ones after that. I plan on going to Mahwah on the 9th. dont remember seein you on that thread, but i hope to meet you there. Same with you Sapo, and all you other NJ wheelers!

later

 

[Nate1]

How long did it take?

 

[sean4385]

got up at 9am sat mornin to start, worked until 11 or 12pm thanks to my friend bringing over some working lights. Then sunday mornin from 9am till about 5pm.
sounds to me like about 22 hours total. but i still have to modify both bumbers and the grille gaurd so who knows.

waaaayy too long is my final answer

but you must keep in mind i wasnt working as hard as i could have been the whole time. i am by nature a lazy-ass, so alot of sitting around was factored into that time frame. Not to mention i dont know squat about **** and was basically doing the whole thing based on what i read here....and to make it worse i lost the instructions that came with the ranger kit, AND have no comp to use at my parents house....so i was basically going off of what i had remembered at that time. And i was stoned the whole time

anyway im goin to sleep now, im still all sore and tired from all that work.

later

 

[Premier]

LMAO That is great

 

[sapogmxr]

That last part was pretty funny.. HAHAHAHA

 

[Nate1]

Hopefully you weren't using airtools. I bought some tools in hopes of speeding the process along, becuase I'm trying to keep it to two days, tops three, but I have little experince in bodylifting, so I'm giving myself some extra time. Still it will be a pain if I go over three days, but it sounds like I can make it driveable in 3

 

[sapogmxr]

you can do it in 1 with the right tools.

 

[sk1er17]

Originally posted by sapogmxr
you can do it in 1 with the right tools.

AND more than one person! I had all the right tools and my friends were supposed to give me a hand but bailed at the last minutes because someones parents went away for the weekend so they wanted to party.

It took me 27 hours- ALL BY MYSELF except for the brush guard relocation. That time does include running around to stores looking for bolts too- mine was a PITA, ended up drilling out 8 of the bushings with a .5" bit and using standard sized bolts from home depot! uuuhhggm, memories!

 

[sapogmxr]

Mine took about 22 hours total. Thats including bumpers and brushguard. I would have to say for me, that dealling with the bumpers was worse than theBL!!1

 

[ammo troop]

I experienced similiar prob with my steering after the body lift, Didn't want to spend more money so looked at shadetree fixes (as my wife calls em) What i did was move the whole steering column down to what amounted to 3/4" There are about 5 bolts that surround the column as it passes thru the firewall. Remove those bolts, unstick the soundproofing tape, Push the steering shaft south from under the hood, Block it in that position, under the dash, re-drill the holes for those 5 bolts you removed. Like I said the relocation is good for about 3/4 inch, but it worked like a charm for me. I used asphalt sealer to reseal the firewall plate. Cheap fix, I guess that would make me cheap as well!

Note: Installed my 3" B/L in 5 hours, start to finish

 

[sapogmxr]

5 hours!! Nice. My BL took me about 8. The rest of my time was spent in confussion over the bumpers and grill guard. I had to support them myself...

 

[sean4385]

This will help for whoever is doing a 3"bl on a '97(other models maybe?) and hasnt done it yet.

The kit came with 4 shorter bolts. these bolts are exactly the right length so that you can just screw them into the bushings of the mounts. that will save you the trouble of having to drill out the bushings and use nuts for 4 of the middle mounts(the 6 middle mounts are the same length). The two rear mounts are longer, and it turns out that the two longest size bolts will thread into these bushings perfectly. So basically youll only need to drill out the bushings and use nuts on 4 of the mounts. For the remaining two middle ones use one of the medium size bolts and a nut. Same for the front but youll have to use a bunch of washers cause that mount is a bit shorter. Also youll have to buy the nuts, 4 total if you use my tips, cause the kit doesnt come with any for the mounting bolts. use locktite too.

I didnt actually use the longer bolts to thread into the rear mounts, so i could be wrong on that part. i didnt realize that would work until after i had drilled the bushings out, so i had to go to home depot and get two .5"x10" bolts (.5" is a bit wider than a metric 12mm, but since your using a .5" drill bit it should fit, just hammer it down. And 10" was a little long, i had to use lots of washers, but that was the only size bolts that home depot had that would work) and 2 extra nuts.

hope this helps

if you have any questions feel free to PM or email me.

 

[Robert]

Originally posted by sapogmxr
did you grind down the little piece inside of the shaft. You have to do this inorder for it to fit in all the way.

You should not have to grind down the shaft to get it to fit if you used the one from kit #853 for '95-'97 and #883 for '98 and up. The problem comes in when you try and use the steering extension from kit #883 on a '95-'97. There is a bump on the steering shaft that will prevent the steering extension from going on. The extension from kit # 853 has a groove ground in it to allow it to slide on. Mine slid right on and didn't change my steering feel a bit.

 

[sean4385]

Just as a final note:
the front bumper brackets from PA kit#853 DID work on the rear BUT it took alot of modification to the bumper, frame, and brackets themselves. On each bracket your gonna have to make at least 2 new holes if you want the holes to line up with the ones in the frame. Then your gonna have to do some cutting of the frame and lower lip of the bumper in order for it all to fit together. I cant really explain it. you basically have to keep trying to fit it, figuring whats making it not go together, then cut the **** out of something until the problem is gone. All i can say is that i didnt connect the brackets to the frame in the exact way they were intended, and project was a huge PITA.....but at least it had a happy ending.

I fixed the front bumper sag problem using the washer suggestion. It was fast and easy.

Im getting my grillegaurd welded back on tomorrow at a local shop. Then the body lift will be entirely complete.


If anyone has any further questions feel free to post or PM me.

later

 

[crooqed]

Just Finished Mine

Took about 5 hours and 2 of my buddies.