Shane

Facing a little dilemma here, wanna get some input. As soon as I get my full-floater rear axle installed it's time to move on to my dual-cases, planning on mid-february. I'll also be using a BudBuilt crossmember, but what I'm trying to decide is wether or not to add in a 1-2" body lift so I can lift the drivetrain and gas tank up out of harms way a little bit. The downside to this is I'll have to cut my rocksliders off and reweld them higher, and the ARB front bumper will need lots of work to redo the brackets although with the right tools it's not that terrible. The Stout rear bumper will remain unmodified as I eventually want to do a flat bed and the bumper will move to another truck as soon as I can afford one. The other thing is I want to (if possible) do an over-the-engine brace (similar to AOR's kit) on my front shock hoops when I do my SAS, which will require a body lift to fit but I won't be able to lift the engine cause that'll negate the space made by the body lift. :confused: So can you lift the tail of the tranny a couple inches while leaving the engine at stock height, and not screw up the driveshaft angles too badly? Should I even bother thinking about doing this? Am I crazy? er... don't answer that last one...

Also, did any of that make any sense? I can't tell anymore

jx94148

Refresh my memory... Do you have an 84, or 85? If so do suspension lift and leave it alone.

IMHO body lift is only good for fitting bigger tires. Drivetrain and fueltank lifts seem like a lot of work to me. Dosen't the motor have to be lifted with DT lift? Then you have the fun of driveshaft vibes and stuff. With EFI tank lift you have to try to bend the fuel lines without kinking them correct?

Body lift is not worth the trouble unless you are fighting tire rub.

Shane

'86, and I want to be able to fit a 36" SX minimum, possibly bigger at some point. SAS is in the forever-drawing-closer future.

That's the standard way of doing it, but this is exactly what I'm wondering: is it possible to lift the back a little without touching the front and without totally killing driveline angles. I guess I could always run CVs on the driveshafts front and rear, and rotate the axle housings to the correct angle which should take care of any vibrations... The other thing I just thought of is is that going to be enough angle from designed tolerances to interefere with proper lubrication in the transmission? I don't think it would hurt it...
No, there's soft lines to the frame that are more than long enough to drop the tank to the ground on a stock truck without disconnecting them. Had to do that to weld in the front mounts for my current Alcan rear springs, lots of slack. cutting a 2" section out of the tank brackets on the frame and rewelding is pretty simple, it's just the cab and bed clearance that stops you from doing it without a body lift and getting it up even with the frame rails makes it all that much more invulnerable.