pgrey
Active Member
- Joined
- September 18, 2002
- Messages
- 60
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- San Francisco, CA
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '92 XLT
Hi all,
I wanted to give you a review of the installation of the James Duff 2.5” lift kit.. I should say that I’ve been working on street cars, race cars and motorcycles for 30 years. I’ve also designed and fabricated a fair number of parts for my street and (winning) road race cars. My daily driver is a Volvo wagon with a 347 Ford V8 and Tremec that I installed (not using a kit). I have a lot of experience working on cars.
A couple of weeks ago I ordered the 2.5” lift for my ’92 Explorer and earlier this week I started the process of removing the old suspension components and replacing them with the kit. In all my time working on things automotive, I can’t remember an installation that has been more frustrating.
The bolts supplied with the kit, while of good quality, were too short to use with washers. Since they didn’t include any washers I suppose this made sense… There were no washers to be found in any of the bags of fastening hardware. Since the bolts supplied were often undersized for the factory holes, not using washers made even less sense than it normally would.
The bracket that bolts to the passenger side frame rail and serves as the mount for the left side of the IFS needed to be trimmed so it would clear some spot welded protrusions, and needed a spacer made so that it could sit flat on the frame rail.
The procedures outlined in the instructions made little sense. They were just horrible – some of the worst I’ve ever seen.
The radius arm bushings didn’t fit properly. I don’t know what vehicle they were supposed to fit, but it clearly wasn’t a ’92 Explorer. I used the poly bushings that I bought recently and was going to return.
The supplied u-bolts for the back axle and springs had to be squeezed with a C clamp to get them through the holes in the lower shock mount. They weren’t even close to fitting. I used the stock u-bolts. The upper rear shock mount “T-bone” was missing on one shock. Since the shocks that are coming off the truck are aftermarket, the “T-bone” isn’t transferable and won’t work with the shocks they provided. I’ll have to fabricate or buy a mount.
The parts supplied are strong, but little attention seems to have been paid to how well they fit, or to the pieces required to install them properly.
The folks at James Duff didn’t seem particularly interested in dealing with my problems. Good customer service and a good attitude can smooth over a lot of problems. Even if a company has screwed up, copping to it and doing what they can to fix it goes a long way towards making the customer feel better. That certainly didn’t happen here.
If I weren’t so time constrained, I’d rip the kit off my truck and send it back. The James Duff stickers have already been removed from the new pieces.
I sure hope this kit works better than it installs.
Regards,
Peter
I wanted to give you a review of the installation of the James Duff 2.5” lift kit.. I should say that I’ve been working on street cars, race cars and motorcycles for 30 years. I’ve also designed and fabricated a fair number of parts for my street and (winning) road race cars. My daily driver is a Volvo wagon with a 347 Ford V8 and Tremec that I installed (not using a kit). I have a lot of experience working on cars.
A couple of weeks ago I ordered the 2.5” lift for my ’92 Explorer and earlier this week I started the process of removing the old suspension components and replacing them with the kit. In all my time working on things automotive, I can’t remember an installation that has been more frustrating.
The bolts supplied with the kit, while of good quality, were too short to use with washers. Since they didn’t include any washers I suppose this made sense… There were no washers to be found in any of the bags of fastening hardware. Since the bolts supplied were often undersized for the factory holes, not using washers made even less sense than it normally would.
The bracket that bolts to the passenger side frame rail and serves as the mount for the left side of the IFS needed to be trimmed so it would clear some spot welded protrusions, and needed a spacer made so that it could sit flat on the frame rail.
The procedures outlined in the instructions made little sense. They were just horrible – some of the worst I’ve ever seen.
The radius arm bushings didn’t fit properly. I don’t know what vehicle they were supposed to fit, but it clearly wasn’t a ’92 Explorer. I used the poly bushings that I bought recently and was going to return.
The supplied u-bolts for the back axle and springs had to be squeezed with a C clamp to get them through the holes in the lower shock mount. They weren’t even close to fitting. I used the stock u-bolts. The upper rear shock mount “T-bone” was missing on one shock. Since the shocks that are coming off the truck are aftermarket, the “T-bone” isn’t transferable and won’t work with the shocks they provided. I’ll have to fabricate or buy a mount.
The parts supplied are strong, but little attention seems to have been paid to how well they fit, or to the pieces required to install them properly.
The folks at James Duff didn’t seem particularly interested in dealing with my problems. Good customer service and a good attitude can smooth over a lot of problems. Even if a company has screwed up, copping to it and doing what they can to fix it goes a long way towards making the customer feel better. That certainly didn’t happen here.
If I weren’t so time constrained, I’d rip the kit off my truck and send it back. The James Duff stickers have already been removed from the new pieces.
I sure hope this kit works better than it installs.
Regards,
Peter
