I installed the front bumper brackets. Only pain in the ass about that was that you needed a big alan wrench socket to tighten the supplied bolts. Taking off the lower radiator shroud took me literally 1 minute. There are two clips, one on each side. Slide those off, and then piviot the bottom of the shroud downward. It comes right off. Its a very small peice of plastic. Do this before you lift the vehicle.

I didnt have to do any trimming after that.

I took the two bots/nuts out from the sterring extension before I lifted it up too. I physically pulled them out all the way. Beforehand, I moved my steering wheel while in park/key out and locked it up. This way I didnt have to worry about making sure the steering was aligned.

Since I had to put in a 2" spacer, I lifted the truck up about 2.5". This gave me plenty of lee-way to slide the S.E. in w/o a problem. Once in, I dropped the vehicle about 1/4" and hand tightened the new longer nuts and bolts (including the SE). Once all the way rested on the spacers, I used my air wrench and tightened all the way.

I'll get some more pictures up today.

 

Oh and yes...

I lifted the drivers side up 2.5" and slid the sterring extension in first on that side. I just did it with all the other drivers side spacers.

 

sweet, thanks for the info - get more pics up

 

haha, I just used the stock screw jack in the wheel wells and lifted the body away from the tires.

did you drop your radiator as well? Reason I ask is that in the middle of the way back from Houston last Sunday (to Greenville) I ended up having to pull over on a back dirt road in Louisianna, pull the lower hose, cut off 1.5" off each end, reinstall it and fill the cooling system back. the lower hose was kinked and in the middle of my trip decided to cut off flow completely and boil all the coolant out of the radiator and reservoir and precede to overheat the engine. so my suggestion would be either shorten the hose or lower the radiator. I tried locating a shorter hose the day I installed my lift, about 2 months ago but couldn't find one and took some bad advice that it was ok. Well, on a back road off I-10 between Lake Charles and Lafayette isn't were I would have chosen to do that, especially in the pouring down rain. Just a little warning of what could happen. luckily I had a bottle of coolant and 5 gals of water with me as well as my tools.

 

EeeK. Thats scary. No, I didnt drop the radiator or anything. I should check that soon here. Thanks for the heads up!!

Okay, due to requests, here are some more pictures.






Bumper bracket:


Steering extension:


Front fender gap: (soon to be fixed)


4x4 shifter drop:

 

I fabbed up some stick extensions in the shop at work out of stainless.

What are you plans, if any, for lift lips or something to cover the gaps? I've been trying to decide and find the best material for as cheap as possible, so far I've only come up with the Craftsman tool box drawer liner stuff, it's cheap and easy to cut, but I'm not sure it's rugged enough.

 

Times like these.. *sniff *sniff.. i just want to CRY!!!!!

Its just that its soo soo Be-be-beau-Beautiful!!!!


Ummm i was wondering.. would you like to install a 3"BL on my truck?..?

(really though, would you?)

 

that sounds cool to, The pond liner isnt that durable, so Im looking else where to. Thanks for the idea of the craftsman liner idea Keisur

 

Hey man what about the spare tire issue. How did you modify if to drop the spare? Let me know what you came up with

 

I haven't come up with anything for the spare. I was trying to wait until I can afford a rack and then throw the spare up there, freeing up all that space for sitting under to change the diff fluid. it's the tow hitch I want to raise, I don't want to remove that, just raise it up to the bumper. I thought about flipping it but it's a c-hair too wide for the frame rails.

 

if you're near me I'll lend a hand.

 

I'll post some pictures later on today, but, Im getting this rubbery plastic stuff from the hardware shop. It looks to be like floor liner of some sort. It just comes on a big roll, but you buy it by the foot. Not sure what you call it. It looks like it will be durable enough for sure.

Pond liner is like really thin. Its moe like plastic. This stuff feels more rubbery.


Yeah, same here. If you live close, Id do it for you.

Yeah, I took off my spare and took off my tow-hitch. I couldnt handle seeing the gap inbetween the hitch, and my tire hanging down there. I want to eventually figure something out for that as well.

What has others done?

 

Quick question on the 305/70/16s you ordered. Are you sure they'll fit on the stock rim? I'm assuming you have the 16X7 rim, because most people put this size tire on a 16X8 rim. And do you have the stock A-arms? The backspacing on the stock rims will most certainly allow the 305/70/16s to contact the stock A-arm.

 

Hey SC4runner try and find out what the stuff is called. i need to get somthing durable to, to fix the gaps. The pond liner I looked at was kinda thick, but not super thick. I was planning on buying that (it comes kinda faded gray) and spraying it with black spray on rubber coating. To thicken it up and get rid of the ugly gray.

 

I would also like to remind everyone to check the BL bolts and nuts often. I have found mine considerably loose on more than one occasion. I think the reason they start to loosen is because the factory bolt had a safety stopper on it and the bolts included with the kit do not (at least mine didn't).

Just a heads up.

 

so where do I get a saftey stoper?

 

You would have to utilize the stock bolts somehow. When you do the install you will see what I mean.

I am not talking about really loose bolts (like making noise they were so loose), rather, I am talking about being able to turn them with very little torque on the wrench. This concerned me a bit, that's all.

I check them once per month to be safe.

 

Nice pictures. Your 96' looks mighty clean from underneath. It's time to wheel that thing.

I just swapped out my 1" 4crawler BL for a 2" one this past Sunday. I could have used those boogie boards. The job was sooo much easier the second time around and air tools cut the install time in half.

I took care of the spare tire issue with the 1" BL by enlargening the whole in the body. I think I have an old picture on webshots linked to my sig. (I can't check here at work). I haven't had a chance to check & see if this still works with the 2"er or if it needs further modification. To do it right, I would like to raise the whole assembly like Schaeffer did.
I also want to do something about the hitch being so low. I hate that thing.
I picked up some composite trim materials at Home depot to fill the gap between the TJM and the body. If that works out it might be worth a write up.
I'd like to see how you guys make out with that rubber material to fill the gaps between the frame and body

 

Hows about using a Nylock nut Christian?

 

Good idea Mark. I might look into that.