sn0border88
Master Apprentice
- Joined
- June 27, 2005
- Messages
- 4,195
- Reaction score
- 6
- City, State
- Souderton, PA
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1992 XLT
Superlift Install Tips (Pics are UP)
Wel yesterday we began my superlift 5.5" install. I ordered the kit from rockey mountain suspension, with new shocks. I got extended brakelines and all other parts needed or so i thought. Im hoping to shed some light on superlift install issues, and all that stuff.
A day before i hit everything numerous times with a rust penetrator called PB, it worked really well. Then i pressurewashed everything and PB'ed it again. We started as per the superlift instructions disconnecting things, ext at 11am sunday morning.. Radius arm brackets were first, luckily mine we already bolted, instead of riveting. If you want to save some time then i reccomend replacing the rivets with bolts sometime before you start the install, its quick and painless and will enable you to complete the install in less time (good if its a daily driver)
Then we took out the axle piviot bolts and began grinding the rivets on the axle brackets. Superlift says to do one at a time, but if you take both off and drop them down its soooo much easier to get in there with a grinder. Now there are many ways to take the rivets but we ground the heads off on some and punched them out with an air chisel, the others we knocked off with an air chisel, it took some effort, but they came out.
Then its time for the coils and shocks, and honestly if you dont plan on using them or selling them for a god amount of money, just cut the shocks out and save yourself the time. Now here is where we screwed ourselves, IF YOU HAVE F-150 COIL SEATS, GET STOCK ONES to use with the superlift kit. You will NEVER get it aligned otherwise. Somewhere in here go ahead with the brakelines and get them installed. Install shocks and springs, j-clips, ect. Dont forget the pitman arm, definatly get a pitman arm puller, its cheap and i had the arms changed in under 3 min. Then bolt on the brackets like the instructions say. And put it all back together. There you have it, your new front end.
Moving to the rear, disconnect driveshaft, brakelines, parking brake cable, shackle (only one per side, as long as it same two dosent matter which one), shocks, swaybars. At this point you can remove your swaybar mounts caus for some reason if you are using the superlift supplied rear end kit it will not work with your swaybars. Then again you may be able to make it work, every exploder is different. Them roll out axle, and reinstall leafs, then position axle and mount with supplier ubolt kit, or weld you own perches on. I used the superlift kit and am going to weld them on later. now you can reuse you stock shocks or use new ones, whatever you prefer. Bolt it back up as the instructions say, careful not to over torque the ubolt nuts. Now when installing a new rear brake line BE CAREFUL. Breaking one (linds) is a real day killer, but its not hard to find another, unless its 10pm in pottstown on a sunday. Anyway, after youg et everything reconnected, (the parking brake cable may not be long enough, still working on a solution to that) its time to bleed the brakes. Again becareful with the bleeders, shearing one off at the cylinder is a real pita (me) and trying to find another at midnight is impossible. Bleed the brakes, put the tires back on, and you are done!
3-4 people can do this in a day, as long as they have some idea what is going on and things go smoothly. We could of done it in about 14 hours total if we would of had coil seats and hadnt ficked up the brakes twice. If you havet aligned it already, DO SO ASAP. It is scary driving even a very short way very slowly.
Well, there you have it. Pics to come soon.
Wel yesterday we began my superlift 5.5" install. I ordered the kit from rockey mountain suspension, with new shocks. I got extended brakelines and all other parts needed or so i thought. Im hoping to shed some light on superlift install issues, and all that stuff.
A day before i hit everything numerous times with a rust penetrator called PB, it worked really well. Then i pressurewashed everything and PB'ed it again. We started as per the superlift instructions disconnecting things, ext at 11am sunday morning.. Radius arm brackets were first, luckily mine we already bolted, instead of riveting. If you want to save some time then i reccomend replacing the rivets with bolts sometime before you start the install, its quick and painless and will enable you to complete the install in less time (good if its a daily driver)
Then we took out the axle piviot bolts and began grinding the rivets on the axle brackets. Superlift says to do one at a time, but if you take both off and drop them down its soooo much easier to get in there with a grinder. Now there are many ways to take the rivets but we ground the heads off on some and punched them out with an air chisel, the others we knocked off with an air chisel, it took some effort, but they came out.
Then its time for the coils and shocks, and honestly if you dont plan on using them or selling them for a god amount of money, just cut the shocks out and save yourself the time. Now here is where we screwed ourselves, IF YOU HAVE F-150 COIL SEATS, GET STOCK ONES to use with the superlift kit. You will NEVER get it aligned otherwise. Somewhere in here go ahead with the brakelines and get them installed. Install shocks and springs, j-clips, ect. Dont forget the pitman arm, definatly get a pitman arm puller, its cheap and i had the arms changed in under 3 min. Then bolt on the brackets like the instructions say. And put it all back together. There you have it, your new front end.
Moving to the rear, disconnect driveshaft, brakelines, parking brake cable, shackle (only one per side, as long as it same two dosent matter which one), shocks, swaybars. At this point you can remove your swaybar mounts caus for some reason if you are using the superlift supplied rear end kit it will not work with your swaybars. Then again you may be able to make it work, every exploder is different. Them roll out axle, and reinstall leafs, then position axle and mount with supplier ubolt kit, or weld you own perches on. I used the superlift kit and am going to weld them on later. now you can reuse you stock shocks or use new ones, whatever you prefer. Bolt it back up as the instructions say, careful not to over torque the ubolt nuts. Now when installing a new rear brake line BE CAREFUL. Breaking one (linds) is a real day killer, but its not hard to find another, unless its 10pm in pottstown on a sunday. Anyway, after youg et everything reconnected, (the parking brake cable may not be long enough, still working on a solution to that) its time to bleed the brakes. Again becareful with the bleeders, shearing one off at the cylinder is a real pita (me) and trying to find another at midnight is impossible. Bleed the brakes, put the tires back on, and you are done!
3-4 people can do this in a day, as long as they have some idea what is going on and things go smoothly. We could of done it in about 14 hours total if we would of had coil seats and hadnt ficked up the brakes twice. If you havet aligned it already, DO SO ASAP. It is scary driving even a very short way very slowly.
Well, there you have it. Pics to come soon.
Im glad I did the extended rear line, it looked tight with the stock line and 4", I'm sure it was really tight with your 5.5".
dont forget to put f150 spacers on there also
