ok, I was just wondering, instead of having to buy a body lift, would it work if I were to just get large washers, maybe 2" diameter ones that are kinda thick, or maybe stack a couple and tack the outer and inner edges and redrill the center hole, then get a bunch of sleeves that are the length I wanna lift the body and put a washer set/sleeve/washer set inbetween the body mounting points wiht some longer hardware or will that not be as strong as a premade BAL that has solid urethane blocks between the body and the frame?

 

I would definatly not go that route, it will not be strong enough. If you are looking for a home made budget lift just find a plastics store that sells UHMW (ultra high molecular weight) polyethylene. I can get enough UHMW do do a full body lift for about $45 CDN. You can cut it to whatever height lift you prefer and then all you have to do is drill holes and buy hardware. You should be able to do the whole lift for about $60 or so US.

 

ok, well on evay a trailmaster 3" BL for my truck is only 95 and it says the kits always come wiht the necessary hoses/ linkage extensions, whatever the specific vehicle needs it comes wiht, but it doesnt say exactly what those parts are. I think I am first gonna get a couple inch blocks in the back and crank the torsion bars up front. then see if my tires I want will fit.

 

<Homer Simpson> The half-assed approach to foundation repair </Homer Simpson>



Go here = http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/BodyLiftKit.shtml

 

In West Virgina a truck with a home made body lift made from hockey pucks and a huge lift hit a senetor's daughter in a porche. It sheared the bolts on the BL and the cab landed on the car. The death of the girl pushed for bumper height regulations in WV. I would recomend a Rodger Brown bodylift

 

either way on a body lift your bumper mounts to the frame doesnt it? mine does at least, well I think it does, I know the lower mounts are, maybe the upper mounts are integrated to the body somehow but I dont think so. the suspension lift would raise my bumper, but theres a kid with a huge cherokee and never gets in trouble for it. so with 2" lift on mine I know my bumper wont be too high. I do gotta get some clearance quick though for sone bigger tires, went on this trail id never been down before and couldnt even go down the whole thing cuz in the puddles there is that huge hump in the middle and on some i can ride the hump and the outside to gop over it but some i slide into it and scrape the center part, and I ned some better tires cuz it is MUDDY back there and I almost got stuck, my tires are SO narrow though that they eventually found the good stuff and my fronts were only a foot to the hard stuff so once they got there I was out in not time. I was impressed though how good my truck did for being 100% stock wiht highway tires.

 

just pay the price if you want to go that route. i wouldn't second guess anything safety related like that

 

I agree. I am not a fan of BLs in general but it seems asinine to me to want to make your own when you can get a body lift like RB for very little money.

 

http://www.sky-manufacturing.com 1" body lifts are dirt cheap

with a 1" BL you can clear 33's, go over that and you will hate yourself for not regearing even more

what vehicle are you working with?

 

an 84 nissan (i think its called a 720 pickup) it only has the z20 engine, 2.0 with the 8 plugs and 2 coils. it is pretty gutless. and I am gonna go wiht just 29/8.50 TSL's on my stock wheels until I can regear and then go with 33's cuz I need to raise the diffs a bit so I quit high centering, never get stuck like that cuz its mud, but.... and cranking the torsions will raise the front diff a bit since its IFS, but do you know anyone who has gears for my truck. I heard it was 4.10's stock, but cant find a set of 4.88's or 5.29's(not sure if nissan has same choices as a yota) anywhere. I went to les schwab and they told me to look at calmini cuz they are a nissan specialist, well turns out they are nisan/isuzu/suzuki specialists and only have stuff for the hardbody, onthing older, randys rign and pinion doesnt have gears, drivetraoinsuperstores doesnt, I searched lycos for them amnd cant find them.

 

If its an 84, then it wil have the same exact diffs as the D21 hardbody 4cyl. Both trucks have a model C200 rear diff and a R180A front diff. I dont know if lockers and such interchange, there may be a spline difference or something small that screws you over.

My suggestion is that instead of half assing your lift, spend the right ammount of cash and get yourself the real 3" body lift. Dont crank your torsion bars, all it will do is cause premature wear of everything on the front end, and cause your ride quality to go down the crapper (This is based on the assumption that you are not buying a winch anytime soon). Instead, trim your bumpstops to gain a little more flex, make yourself a set of swaybar disconnects (or just loose it all together), run a set of narrow 33's, and trim if it is needed.

Your 4.10's will turn 33's just fine if all you do is run mud. Keep in mind, it is NOT A RACE CAR. It was never designed to go fast, and it will never go fast. That motor has plenty of power, you just dont think so because it is slower than you want.

Run a set of 33x9.50 BFG MT's, keep your stock rims to keep the tires out of the body, and have some fun.

 

no turst me, it doesnt have plenty of power, and if I went from 28's top 33's NO WAY it would even move, already you gotta slip the clutch longer than anything ive ever driven when taking off, otherwise the engine hella bogs down and almost dies. and if I only crank the bars 1 inch it wont hurt the ride too much right? I am gonna get a rough country add a leaf for the rear that supposedly lifts it 1.5-2 inches, then crank the front torison bars 1-1.5 inches. and I actually do wanna get a winch but I am gonna wait til I find one for a good price used, no way Im spending 400+ dollars on one new.

and then I am gonna either enlist RB to make me a custom kit for my truck or get the trailmaster BL off ebay I saw. I saw opn the internet though that the 32/9.50 and the 34/9.50 swampers say they need 7-8 inch rim widths and my rim is only 5.5 inches wide. that wont work will it? or are the BFG MT's narrower than a swamper of the same size?

and you are saying that I can get the ring and pinion sets for a D21 hardbody wiht the 4 cylinder?

and in the mud I know the 4.10's would push the 33's no problem because of 4L.

 

i thought an '84 nissan would have the 2.4 z24 engine? i don't remember ever hearing that they had the 2.0 then...i could have sworn that the first couple years they used the L20B 2.0l engine(same as the 610 etc) then a 2.2l, then a 2.4 starting in '83 or '84?

 

no, in 83-85 there was the Z20, and in 83-86 there was the Z24. At least as far as I know thats how it is. I know I got the z20 though, no way I got a 2.4 under there. now, if I do drive it like a racecar then it isnt unbearabley slow, but redline is 5500, but it has 165k on it, so I am trying to take it easy on it. when I take it to about 4-4.5k then it is acceptable, but I dont like doing that to a 20 year old high mileage engine, so I usually try and shift around 3k, but that only works on perfectly flat land or downhills. I think that after I save up some money I might swap in a small block or at least a decent V6. id imagine though if I just rebuilt the Z20 it would be decent since it wont be my DD for too long. Im getting pissed off though, so far I CANT find gears for it, even after I found that the newer hardbodis share my diff, cant even find gears for them, I know they are out there, they gotta be but i just cant find em.

 

If it is that bad then there is something seriously wrong with that motor. Ive driven a healthy one on 31's and it moved just as good as my toy. And yes, it was the 2.0

The recomended tire width is 7-8". Have you ever seen a swamper on rims only 1" narrower than the tire? (wheres the Pirate rainbow when you need it). Your narrow rims will do a much better job of keeping the tire on the rim. YOu will have to drive with a little less pressure to keep the middle from wearing down to fast, but other than that it will be fine.

Im not 100% positive that gears fit the same diffs, they may have some small differences like pinion length. But i know there are gears out there for the D21's, ive seen them listed, i just cant remember where. It gives you a starting point. And if there is a minor difference, you can always swap thirds with a D21 4cyl truck.

a 1" t-bar crank wont be too bad. i still wouldnt do it, but your not me. if you get a winch, you can kiss that 1" goodbye, though.

 

well, where were you shifting at, cuz as long as I dont drive like some old lady then it isnt too bad. and I mean if it was as quick as your toy, you got a 2.0 also dont you (in my mind 22r sounds like it would be a 2.2 but for some reason i remember hearing it was a 2.0) I hear alot on this board that the 22r/5 sped is about the same performance of a 3VZE/auto. and then the 3VZE/5 speed is better by a bit, and even that is gutless when you throw on larger tires and dont regear. I am going to repack my wheel bearigns as soon as I can get to them, I got the book coming. I tried but didnt have the right size allen key for the locking hub part, and then the bolts holding the rotor on I got out but it didnt come off and I thought maybe the part where you lock the hubs has gota come off first so instead of breaking anythiung I am gonna wait til it is written on paper for me how/what to do. but my right front tire is pretty sticky, the back ones roll free, and the passengers front is pretty good but that front drivers is using up some extra power just to kep it spinning I bet, and no the caliper is not sticking, just messed with them yesterday. I also topped of the fluid in the tranny and the rear end, still gotta do the T case and the front diff which I am gonna do today. zapped the zirks on the drivelines wiht grease yesterday as well, whenever I have the time I do as much maintanence as I can, maybe when I got everything lubed good/spinning free/ etc. it will be a bit better. I am gonna get a winch but it wont be on the truck the whole time, I am gona weld a bracket that the winch bolts to, then on the bracket it has 4 holes, 2 top 2 bottom. and then on my front bumper I am gonna build a bracket with 4 pegs, the winch goes back and drops onto the 4 pegs. same thing on rear, so I can winch either way no problem and not have that weight on the front bumper when driving, it wil be in the box in the bed. wel, off to go do some more maintanence.

 

I was using the same shift points i use in my truck. 2800 rpm between gears for normal driving. The 22r is a 2.4L, but i am running larger tires on stock gears. Its a dog, but its still faster than my diesel K5.

Sticking hubs can cause a suprising ammount of drag, you may just have one that wont unlock. The dial will turn, but sometimes it can be bound up and not release either way. Its happened to me before with a set of warns on my Dana 44. If you get everything lubed, and still dont gain any performace, give it a good tune up. Timing may be off, i know with the dual spark setup timing is a little bit more precission on those motors.

 

well, I know they both unlock, I lifted both front tires off the ground and blocked it up and while I did the front brake job, I also cleaned and siliconed the CV boots. and I would lock the hub and turn it, and I hear the faint click when it hits lock, then a louder click when you spin it by hand and it then locks for good. I did it on both sides and I could see by watching the front driveline that they were both locking/unlocking like theyt should. also I did a tune up this far, 8 new plugs/wires new air filter, new oil/filter. I still gotta do the cap/rotor and fuel filter. crankcase vent filter was clean already and I dont see that doing anything for performance anyways. I was gonna take of the cap rotor and just sand the contacts a bit but the screw is so sticky on the bottom that I cant do it with a screwdriver, head is messed up also so i gotta do the whole way with pliers, so I decided to wait til I had a new cap to put back on. I havent adjusted the timing but I will sometime soon, still gotta spend more time stripping my car than working on my truck. and I know what you mean about the 6.2 I had a 84 3/4 ton wiht the diesel, didnt get moving too good. I guess my truck is faster than the old full size. that truck was cool though, even though it didnt get going much on the top end I got decent mileage compared to a gas V8 and could pull anything I wanted to as long as I didnt expect to get going 60 with it on the freeway.

 

just remembered, I think I know why it isnt running in top shape, the thermostat is stuck open I think. It will warm up and I know the temp guage works, at least it moves. but the heat never comes out real HOT and also the temp guage only goes from rest to the first line, then the 2nd that actually sasy C, and then it stops, once when I was wheeling in the mud I got it about 1 mm above the C but never any higher. you think I could just take the thermostat out and just tap it with hammer to loosen it up, or clean it or something, the truck had been sitting along time when I bought it so maybe it corroded or something and got stuck, not sure how it would get stuck open though while it was sitting, unless it was stuck open whn they put it away, otherwise it shouldve stuck shut wouldnt it?

 

My first body lift was made like that, stacked 2" OD washers, center tube and since I didn't have a welder at the time, I used polyester resin to bond it all together. It worked fine and I think its still serving its original purpose in another 4Runner to this way.

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...shtml#BodyLift

But it cost nearly as much as I my 1" lift blocks do and this was simply materials cost, no mention of the many hours of time I spent making those 10 blocks.

I do offer the blocks only for the do it yourself market, but the vast majority of folks want the full and complete kit:

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/BodyLiftKit.shtml