Need help with 3" Body Lift

[nekrozon]

1) I recently bought a 3" lift kit from JcWhitney. All I have run into is trouble. Every bolt has been rusted over and has been a pain to remove. An air impact wrench doesn't even come close to remove them. Penetrating Oil has worked for 6 of the bolts. Heat won't work for some of the bolts because they are near the gas tank. The bolt at the rear deck (not the one farthest at the rear) cannot be accessed at the bottom, because some things are in the way, such as the gas tank. I need to access the nuts so they can be held with a wrench while the bolt is unscrewed from the top. Any ideas?

2) Also, anyone who has done a lift, what kind of wires and steering linkage has to be disconnected? If you just disconnect and reconnect, do you even have to disconnect anything at all?

 

[udmsvt]

only thing disconnected was battery and e-brake.

i dont want to sound like a jerk but there are 3 other people right now asking the same things on the board. please use the search button, as there have been several writeups on this. if you do a search of my user name and the words "gone sour", you will find that i had many problems with the bolts too. once you have read that, e-mail me and i will be glad to provide advice.

 

[splodo49]

hey i ran into the same problem as you when i did my bl i have a 94 xlt also and you can reach the nuts by the gas tank just come in from the fender well its kind of tricky but its possible i also had the bolts frozen in the bushing a air hammer with a fork,vise grips,hacksaw and some pb blaster and a day later and i finally got them out.as far as wires theirs a little plastic bracket thats above the transfercase that holds the wireharness to the transfercase undo that also watch the heatercore lines on mine they just had to be moved as the body went up and the engine went down, then trans collant lines i had to bend them down a bit cuz they were hitting the fan shroud.i cant say enough just pay attention to all the electrical you dont want to tear some wires.also my emergency cable bracket was wrong and my bumper brackets were all f$^# up.I had to fab them my self.i hope this helps.

 

[bipolarbob]

I know yoiu do not want to hear this now...I have done 2- 3' body lifts and what I did was spray all the body bolts with wd40 every day for 2 weeks.And I am not talking a little shot of wd40.I sprayed them untill it ran off the bolts. You have to jack up the back of the truck to do the one ontop of the gas tank.I would recommend spraying all the gas tank bolts too, as I still had to drop the tank on both trucks.That was the only one that did not come out like nothing.When you do your lift make sure your gas tank is near empty, too incase you have to drop it.you don't need to disconnect it from the lines, just the bolts and then lower it a bit.Sorry, I know this does not help you now....

 

[udmsvt]

hmm.....never heard of anyone having to drop the tank before. i ran out of wd40 and forgot ho heat the bolts up to get the threadlocl to budge...plus a 10-yo michigan truck, RUST.

 

[bipolarbob]

probably could have done it without dropping tank...Figured it would be esier cause I can't get my hand in there and that bolt was the only one to break on both trucks

 

[udmsvt]

not quite sure i understand you. all bolts, except for the front 2, came off from above (or were supposed to). the front was kinda odd, but eventually came off from the top too.

 

[bipolarbob]

The one by the gas tank broke and thebottom part was spinning freely.I took a pair of vice grips and put them on the big nut on the bottom that is soposed to be fixed thru the body

 

[udmsvt]

ah, i know the problem....but i didnt have it on those 2, i had it on a rear one and a #2 pos...ended up cutting them to shreds and replacing the bushings because neither a vice grip nor wrench could help me.

 

[bipolarbob]

It sucks spending all that time on one bolt.It really pi**ed me off

 

[udmsvt]

yeah...try taking a month to do a body lift that should only take 1 day!

 

[tomblin1]

Rust is obviously the Villian here. These body bolts take some muscle to get them off even without having to break them loose from years of corrosion.

I notice that everyone in the midwest has a load of problems with this.

I lucked out, my Ex has spent the last 7 years in Southern Ca, so a little elbow grease and they came loose.

Good luck,

udmsvt does have a detailed writeup on all the problems he recently had.

 

[udmsvt]

....including several hacked up sawzall blades and body mount bushings!

 

[nekrozon]

Body Bushings

Can someone point me to where I can learn about how the bushings are set up. And Also what they look like? I notice the black things are different for each pair of the body bolts

 

[udmsvt]

do a search for my user name and the words "gone sour". the body bushings are the black rubbery things on top and below each body mount that have metal in them. unfortunatlely, out of the 5 sets, there are 4 different setups. pretty much, the top drops through a hole and then the bottom has a piece that extends and goes up through the hole, then colt goe through the middle (of course if you are doing a body lift, the block sits on top and the bolt goes through that first). the fron ones are a little different though they actually have a nut. the others are threadded in the lower bushing.

IF you had to replace any of them, you would also find out that they run like 8-20 bucks each, and are not sold as sets and tops are sold seperate from bottoms. you would also find out that they were redesigned and that the old part numbers have been replaced. i found one or 2 mounts that i just had to use a generic bushing for the lower part and a nut because the combo of old and new wouldnt work right....you also have to drill out some of the bushings with a 1/2" drill bit to get the bolt through if doing a body lift.


hope this helps, and BTW tyhe dealer numbers the sets 1-5, starting at the rad.

1) either side of rad.
2) footwell of front seats
3) back of fron seats/footwell or rear seats
4) behind rear set/front of cargo area
5) rear cargo area, near hatch.


before lift (#2 pos):

after head broke off and after lift, but before block (#2):

after lift and block, but still needs bushings replaced (#5):

 

[nekrozon]

incredible post udmsvt, you answered absolutely every question I had! Thanks a bunch! You are a life saver!

 

[udmsvt]

no thanks needed. i just wish someone had all the answers i needed while doing my lift. i also found that a sawzall and grinder were a necessity for me...the grinder is how i got off those stubborn mounts and the sawzall helped with that, as well as taking about an inch off the front of the frame.

as always, i dont claim to be an expert but i help as much as i can.

 

[nekrozon]

Well all the blocks are in now, and she fired up with no check engine light, so I didn't snap any cables. Except now when I drive the steering is messed up, the steering wheel squeaks when i turn it, and the wheel kind of "sticks" when it reaches a certain position. Any ideas?

 

[udmsvt]

3 ideas:

1) get a steering ext
2) get the earlier model shaft with the u-joint (91-92) and replace the one that you have
3) put a few thousand miles on it, it'll start to losen up.

 

[nekrozon]

Resurrecting my post ... 7 Years Later

Wow, I did a google search for my online handle, and I came across this thread. I cannot believe it has been 7 years since I had posted. Wow.

I miss that Explorer. Had to get rid of her about a year and a half ago. The repairs outweighed the price of the vehicle.

All of the bushings were never put back on, and the e-brake was never reconnected, but she looked great lifted. And hey, thanks to everyone in this forum I was able to pull off my first lift kit install on a midwest rust trap.

To another 7 years living on in the Google SERPS!

-Ryan :exp: