How to: 3rd Gen BODY LIFT. Install.

[Mr Dubya]

You guys up north must be dealing with a lot of rust. When I did mine it wasn't half that difficult. Just a pair of vice grips did the trick for me..

Rust hits us pretty bad yeah, but I've noticed the Ex doesn't suffer from it nearly as badly as others around here (i think the previous owner garaged it mostly). Still didn't stop me from breaking off a bolt head on the driver's front body mount!

 

[Mr Dubya]

I'm wondering if someone could do me the favor of discussing briefly their process of getting the steering extension to fit. I planned on making a more detailed request with pictures but am strapped for spare time.

I understand that the male end of the extension either needs to be slimmed or the female end of the rack-side u-joint be widened to fit one over the other.

I'm curious to know how each is secured when all said and done. Can someone post a picture or two? I want to wrap my head around how I'm passing those bolts through before I grind away.

Thanks


[Edit] It turns out that there are two different steering configurations for models of the same exact year. I'm going to try and see the reasoning for this. I hope to make a detailed guide with both scenarios in the future.

 

[jfey2012]

coil spring spacers

I hear you are practically the only person that makes coil spring spacers for the 02 explorers... I have an 02 EB explorer 4.6. stock everything, looking to just level out the front end. looks to be about 2.5 inches lower than the rear. how much do you charge for your spacer kits? thanks josh

 

[Aluminum]

I hear you are practically the only person that makes coil spring spacers for the 02 explorers... I have an 02 EB explorer 4.6. stock everything, looking to just level out the front end. looks to be about 2.5 inches lower than the rear. how much do you charge for your spacer kits? thanks josh

Then you heard wrong

 

[Mr Dubya]

I hear you are practically the only person that makes coil spring spacers for the 02 explorers... I have an 02 EB explorer 4.6. stock everything, looking to just level out the front end. looks to be about 2.5 inches lower than the rear. how much do you charge for your spacer kits? thanks josh

Who's this directed at?

 

[Aluminum]

Who's this directed at?

I'm assuming RoadBully who has been banned for about 4 years.....

 

[Mr Dubya]

Completely forgot this was still his old thread.

 

[07mountainman]

Need Puck Help ASAP!!!

I have an 07 Mountaineer that I am working on installing the BL on. I got a set of roadbully's 3" coil spacers (before he was banned), and am installing a 1.5" BL. I purchased the 3" spacers and cut them in half. Removed the bumpers, guards, etc. Everything went great, but then trouble struck...

The issue I am having is with the dreaded hockey puck nuts...My buddy and I were able to get a couple of the mounts using a pipe wrench, vice grips, rubber oil filter wrench and a ton of PB Thread Blaster. The issue is the pucks under the back seats and the front seats. There is not enough room to get the vice grips up there and the pipe wrench is COMPLETELY out of the question! We tried heating them up but didn't work either...Does anyone have any advice or tips, right now I am driving around without a backseat or front and rear bumpers!!

P.S. I have read through the entire thread here and also looked online for any advice.

 

[HiImBrian]

Weld a piece of pipe to it and use it as a handle. Then just wrench the hell out of it. It's a pain but it'll go.

 

[Mr Dubya]

I spent from 11 at night to 3 in the morning with a buddy doing the exact thing for my 3" lift.

A quick weld is the best option, but if you want to try a fast and desperate attempt, take a grinder (with the shield off preferably) and try to give two sides of the puck a couple jagged taps. Just enough to give the pipe wrench enough 'teeth' to really hold onto the sucker.

 

[07mountainman]

Fan shroud now...

So got the mounts off (heated them up, hot as hell then they turned loose!) but now having an issue with the fan shroud. How do you take the bottom part out? We separated the top from the bottom but there are three rigid lines in the way of just being able to drop the fan shroud down...any advice would be great-going on day three of the truck being in pieces!!

 

[HiImBrian]

Just have to pull them to the side. They are annoying but they'll go.

 

[07mountainman]

Can't really pull them to the side, they are rigid lines (three of them) at the bottom of the radiator...thinking it may be easier/possible to go through the top...pulling the overflow, air cleaner box and windshield washer reservoir? This is on a mountaineer so I think it may be slightly different than the explorer.

If I have to remove the lines all the fluid will come out (think it is the transmission cooler line and one other line) would prefer not to have to drain the system...

 

[Mr Dubya]

I don't mean to diverge from the issue we're discussing mountainman, however I want to bring to light a potential safety issue I just discovered.

For those of you who have this type of steering shaft (there are two versions):

Recall how we had to grind some of the male end of the extension bit to fit into the U-Joint.

After a few weeks of steering issues (tough to turn at certain increments and easy to turn between them), I stopped driving it until I solved the problem for fear of safety. Upon trying to diagnose the issue yesterday, I began cycling the wheels trying to identify the source. All of the sudden the steering wheel gave loose following a loud crack and spun freely.

Fortunately this discovery was made in my driveway with the car off rather than on the highway doing 70. I can foresee almost no survivable way to make it out of losing my steering completely at that kind of speed.

ANYWAYS, it appears as though the male end of the steering shaft was unable to bear the load of turning the tires with such thin sidewalls (because of the pre-drilled hole for the ranger and my grinding the edges off more.

Those of you who have done this kind of griding, please inspect your shafts and make sure everything is okay. I'm having my friend machine a new solid one without that center hole for the ranger. I'm drawing up simple CAD plans for it and will post them here if anyone has interest.

 

[HiImBrian]

I'm drawing up simple CAD plans for it and will post them here if anyone has interest.

I'll take one. Good catch.

 

[Ronin8002]

Wow, that thing is pretty rusty. Mine never got like that...wonder if they started using a different type of material.

 

[07mountainman]

So...from what I have heard and everyone I have talked to they all seem to think that the fan clutch needs to be removed in order to remove the fan shroud. I didn't see that info in the write up so it may be useful to somebody so they can rent the tools if needed.

Gonna give it another try on Saturday and see if I can't get this thing wrapped up! If I get the lift on I will post up pics, but I don't want to post up pics of my failure!

 

[Mr Dubya]

So...from what I have heard and everyone I have talked to they all seem to think that the fan clutch needs to be removed in order to remove the fan shroud. I didn't see that info in the write up so it may be useful to somebody so they can rent the tools if needed.

Gonna give it another try on Saturday and see if I can't get this thing wrapped up! If I get the lift on I will post up pics, but I don't want to post up pics of my failure!

For explorers, I can guarantee there is no need to remove the fan clutch. I'm also very confident the same goes for mountaineers. Pardon if I'm wrong, but your avatar-info notes you have a 2007 Mountaineer. Are you doing this 3" body lift for a 2007? Because the writeup is for a 3rd Generation Explorer (2002-05) where 2007 falls into 4th Generation (2006-10). If that's the case, you'll be dealing with different (albeit similar) procedures.

 

[07mountainman]

For explorers, I can guarantee there is no need to remove the fan clutch. I'm also very confident the same goes for mountaineers. Pardon if I'm wrong, but your avatar-info notes you have a 2007 Mountaineer. Are you doing this 3" body lift for a 2007? Because the writeup is for a 3rd Generation Explorer (2002-05) where 2007 falls into 4th Generation (2006-10). If that's the case, you'll be dealing with different (albeit similar) procedures.

Well crap! That may have just solved all my delimnas! So has anyone done a write up in a 4th Gen body lift?

 

[Mr Dubya]

Well crap! That may have just solved all my delimnas! So has anyone done a write up in a 4th Gen body lift?

A quick search for 'body lift' in the Fourth Gen forums yielded this post in a thread with a brief write-up. Looks like he just cut the shroud accordingly with a dremel while under the truck. Use caution and measure a nice line 3" vertically down from each point in the curve, instead of 3" outward from it radially.

I recommend using the 4th gen forums your primary resource. Lots of good people in there ready to help.

Good luck sir!


-Dubya