jmcgowan

The title pretty much says it all.1" bodylift on a 94 column shift AUTOMATIC Pickup. Here's some pictures and tips describing how I did it.

presoak everything (all body and cab mounting points+front bumper), days in advance. Multiple times. I really like this stuff:


remove front bumper:


remove the door trim pieces that hold the carpet:


pull back carpet to access cab mounting bolts:


loosen the shifter linkage:


try to lift one whole side at a time, I did the passenger side cab first:


then I lifted the drivers side very slowly and watched for anything hanging up.

buy quality tools:


another during shot:


1" billet aluminum spacer installed:


and finally before:


and after:


I didn't adjust my steering, I didn't adjust my radiator fan shroud clearance.
I'm not fully done I need to adjust the shift linkage a little more, right now I cannot go to the lowest gear. Park, reverse, neutral, drive, and drive 2 are fine.
I drove it to a doctors appointment, on city streets the highway, up to 75MPH, about 15 miles one way and everything is fine ! I would not go any higher than 1" it would require a lot more work and a few parts fabricated or modified to work. I did this for 2 reasons, to make more room for the bigger tires I'm going to get, and because I was told it couldn't be done. So far it's done. If anything breaks, or stops working I'll post it here.

jmcgowan

PS- Arizona summers are BRUTAL. I started at 8am and had to take a break at 11:30 because I was so dehydrated I was almost puking, plus I got a nasty sunburn on my back. Took a long cold shower, drank lots of water, and went back out 1:30-2:30

toyota4x4907

Loooks really good, man!!!! What size tires are you going with?

Also, I have broken so many sockets like that because I was given a cheapy socket set as a gift one time. I broke 4 in one day

1990mudslut

hmmm this is actually gonna help me do my 3 inch body lift on Tuesday going to pick up some 33x12.5 tomorrow

jmcgowan

14mm and 17mm... that's the two sockets I used for everything.
for a 3" you'll have to adjust steering, radiator/fan shroud clearance, gas filler neck, etc. Still easy enough to do in a day buy yourself, but quicker with a buddy.

jmcgowan

I don't know where that socket came from, but I think it was a gift !

Prolly going with some BFG AT, 31X10.5R15. I don't want to go to big and it's only a 2wd.

Ezrider_92356

your probably going to need 4 inches of lift for 31's on an 2wd. or 4wd front fenders.

jmcgowan

Front fenders will eventually be fiberglass, and I'm saving for 3" lift spindles.
In Off-Road magazine they built a 93 2wd, used the downey grand slam kit, and had 32X11.5's, but they hit firewall pretty bad, so they chopped and pushed back a section of firewall. The downey kit only claims 2-3" lift.

Ezrider_92356

fiberglass fenders, 3 inch lift spindles and the one inch body lift would do the trick.

right now im sitting at about 6 inches of lift. with 31x10.50's im far from hitting the fire wall but i had to massage the stock 2wd fenders a little with an bfh to avoid rub at full stuff with the tires turned fiberglass fenders and proper offset rims should make you clear easily


btw you have an nice looking truck

here is my ugly 2wd

jmcgowan

The lift spindles also increase track width 1.5" per side. I think I read somewhere to use rims with 3.75" backspacing or less.

Thanks for the compliment on my truck. The southwest is kind to trucks (minus the sun) and it's been resprayed by the PO.

what are you using to get 6" ?

Ezrider_92356

i have an 3 inch body lift (5 speed trans) low profile bump stops 1 inch home made bj spacers t-bars cranked not an ideal front end set up as i have about 2 inches of down travel. i have add a leafs in the back for a couple inches of lift in the back. my goal is to get 33by 10.50 under it eventually. iv been back and forth on doing an sfa 4wd conversion, if i stay 2wd im probably going to go to 3 inch lift spindles with 1.5 inch bj spacer i am not sure how the lower ball joints will like that setup however. with spring over Axel in the rear. to try to get about 5 inches out of the suspension then drop an inch out of the body lift and some stock 4wd fenders. my truck has spent all of its life other than about the last year in the so cal desert, so i dont have any rust issues just my clear coat is shot and i have about 100 small dings in the truck and my drivers side front fender is pretty kinked up, i plan on doing paint and body work on it over the winter.

jmcgowan

UPDATE:
so far no issues. I did it three weeks ago, and I've driven about 420+ miles so far. I've only been driving on road to work and stuff, my AC quit working again and I need to fix that before I can take to the desert and the mountains to play. I can't wait, my wife's civic isn't the ideal car for driving to campgrounds around here, and having to park and walk is no fun !

Justinlhc

Haha, gotta love the apartment complex parking lot body lift installs. AZ heat is brutal. I'd have to be pretty desperate to work on anything outside of my swamp cooled garage.

Just curious, why did people tell you a body lift couldn't be done?

PlugItIn

im thinking its because he has an automatic...

a4runnerfreak

It's the he has a column shift, automatic. You can lift a floor shift automatic with no problems up to like 2". I have a 1" on my rig, with a floor shift auto. Makes it more difficult to lift becuase the shift linkages go thru the firewall next to the steering shaft, so that has to be taken into consideration. And the linkages have to extended, or something has to be fabbed, I'm sure.

jmcgowan

Surprisingly 1" doesn't require too much. The fan shroud will need a quarter inch adjustment to clear the fan, and the shifter linkage has to be loosened or disconnected while you are doing it, but I had enough adjustment to make it work for now (all gears except "L"), and the steering was fine too.

jmcgowan

I'm on a pretty tight budget, my wife and I are paying rent, all our other bills, and saving $800 a month to buy a garage... I mean house as soon as possible. For now everything has to be done in the apartment parking lot.

The management got really pissed when my wife's car blew a radiator hose in our parking lot !

Justinlhc

lol I've done complete tune-ups in parking lots and once I even helped install a turbo on the side of the street in riverside. Even had an extension cord running down to operate the welder in the street.

jmcgowan

yeah I've had my share of bad places to work on stuff. I have some pics somewhere of me and a few friends using coleman white gas to reset the bead of a tire rally style.

abecedarian

Not bad for 75. But what about the rest of the hardware you need to install them... the parts that came with the Fabtech lift? Things like the control arm bushings and torsion bars? Okay, you don't need the t-bars to install the arms, but the kit came with them as well as bushings / stops for droop and compression.

For 400 (off Craigslist) I got the upper control arms with polyurethane bushings, sway-away torsion bars (part of the fabtech kit, about $200 from sway-away), AAL's for the rear and all 4 shocks, and a steering dampener... all brand new, in the box.

And keep in mind that the Fabtech kit requires removal of the front sway bar. If you don't, the ends of the sway bar hit the back of the brake calipers when you turn- not a good thing unless you want to come to a sudden stop just before you pull in to a parking space. Well, at least that's their recommendation. I've got the sway bar installed and working on my 91 with the Fabtech kit. It rides a little rougher but corners swell.

And you're finally figuring out what's involved in a body lift on a 2wd / column shift auto... things like "can't manually shift in to 1st / Lo" and such. I bet the steering is a bit stiffer now with the 1" lift since the steering shaft is binding against the bushing in the firewall, no?