jimbo74

I jsut got a 3" PA BL... I have a 1985 4x2 pickup std cab, short bed, stickshift/manual

in reading the instructions it says i need to do a lot of modification the the steering system.. is this absolutely necessary? i know i need to modify it.. but the directions scare me... says something like this:Mark the splines on the steering shaft in engine compartment at steering box and steering column
Remove the shaft
Loosen the top and bottom clamps
Mark a line on the rag joint to the shaft itself, then remove the rag joint assembly
Remove the nuts on the long studs, then tap them out with a hammer
Then you can remove the shorter bolts
Remove rubber cap from end of shaft
Drill out both shaft locating pins on a drill press with a 1/8" drill bit
The pins do not go all the way through the shaft
Scribe a line on the inner shaft where it slides into the outer shaft
Extend the shaft from its original position an amount equal to the dimension noted in the first step
Optionally, you may reinstall the pins following these steps:
Drill a new 1/8" hole approximately 3/8" up from the bottom of the inner shaft
Using the original upper hole as a guide, drill out the upper hole to 1/8"
Install two 1/8" roll pins,then grind roll pins flush with shaft

this is actually info i got from the roger brown site... and seems t obe the same stuff PA provided me with....

is there a spacer i can use like the newer gens? or must i do it that way?

3.4v6

if your gonna wrench on you truck tell us norcal people so we can have a wrenchathon.

jimbo74

want to come and help me?

i know what im doign and it probably wont take too long... jsut the part about modifying the steering shaft scares me

3.4v6

yea ... ill help you out. send me a PM.

jimbo74

am getting some good info from roger brown of of 4x4wire.com

he is a cool guy... and since hes giving me free help and actually telling me that something is an easy mod and i dont need his product.. thats shows me he cares more about helping people and getting them to learn things than about padding his own wallet.. i will keep him in mind for other modifications down the line ....

jimbo74

ok everyone... going to do this in the morning.... anyone got any tips/tricks for it? any advice? suggestions?

will be heading to the store for some coors and bbq chips in the morning... cant work on an empty stomach got a couple pairs of hands coming to help too....

jimbo74

bump.... times getting closer

jimbo74

got a slight issue... not sure how to react to it..... there are like 1/8" thick rubber washers in between the bed mounts and the bed.... when i put the puck in do these just get discarded? also there are some thicker rubber 1/2" washers used on some of the bolts below the mounts.. i reuse those? the bolts should go like this correct: Bolthead, meatal washer, 1/8" rubber square [stock? reused or not?], bed,puck,mount,rubber washer [either the 1/8" square or the 1/2" round bushing], metal washer, locknut.......

or is there another way to do it?

jimbo74

i need to get the lift done... someone knows!

jimbo74

figured it off of rb site

jimbo74

still not done but here is a partial update pic of the bed so far.... before:


after:

jimbo74

and for comparison since you cant really tell with the wheel off.. here is is back on terra garage floor:

jimbo74

well the fornt end is on hold until i get a custom spacer from roger brown..... ran into some problems... the 4x2 shaft is not removeable like the 4x4, there is no upper clamp, its all one unit that cant be removed without taking out hte steering column completely from the truck..... i drilled out the holes, and the shafts still wouldnt budge..... so roger is making me a spacer....

jimbo74

ok the spacer is in my truck on the floor right now... my next day off it will get installed as well as the rest of the bodylift.... i will keep everyone posted... the roger brown spacer is top notch, looks good and tuff, the hardware is 8.8 grade as well, so thats pretty strong, i probably aint braking that

jimbo74

the rest of the body lift is on... still needs some fine tuning... now i get to deal with all the little quirks of having a bodylift... the shifter hits the body in sopts.... the radiator shroud is mounted lower, but i had to reengineer the shroud, i want to lower the radiator due to this and replace the shroud.... the steering spacer is in, however, i plan to somewhat re-engineer this as well... i want a new ragjoint.... so many little things.......

3.4v6

jimbo74

the pics will probably be up later today sometime.... i have a lot of stuff going on today, need to go to the doctor's office and then im going to see my dads band later [www.thehitmen.com] along with some fine tuning of my lift.....

4Hummer

Nice job... Im planning on doing a 3" Body lift on my 4Runner soon. Hopefully all goes aswell as yours did

jimbo74

4hummer watch out..... im done with the pucks... however, there is a lot of stuff i didnt think about... that now needs adressing.... the driver side hard brakeline is almost kinked right now, so i want to replace it with a soft line..... the clutch line i was suposed to relocate, i could never find it... the clutch still works.... however (could be unrelated) the master leaks into the cab now.. so i need to fix that... i dont like the way the steering extension [rb puck i got made] is setup... so i am going to modify it to my liking {the unit is top quality, i just have some personal engineering issues with the integrity of the rag joint} and some other lines as well, still also need the lift gap covers and some other stuff too