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First lift

8

88poohxj

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Grass Valley CA
Im in the process of putting on my first lift kit, the instructions for this kit(rough country 3" with aal) are very vague. So a freind and myself had to come up with our own ideas when trying to fit the new coils in. We took the lower bolt on each side of the lower control arm out and let them hang freely. Popped in the new coils, and now i can't get the axle to line up so we can get the control arms bolted back in. This is almost the last thing left to do, that and bolt in the new shocks. Any help is much appreciated, thank you, jesse.
 
This is a very normal problem and happens to everyone who does a lift. I pulled on my axle with a tow strap to get it to line up with the lower control arms. It takes two people, one to pull and one to line them up and pop the bolt through. I've heard of others doing it with more "professional equipment" but this method worked fine for me. If you can't pull the axle up/forward enough get two of you on the two strap and it should work.

EDIT: if you are doing your first lift and this is the only problem you've had or needed to ask about you are doing very well!

clay
 
Yeah we actually started to try that, but i think ill try that again. Oh yeah the only other problem i ran into was the rear shock, upper bolts..broke two off. You'd think i would have stopped at one, but being a rookie i didnt. So ill have to find a way to get them out and new hard ware in. Everything else was pretty smooth. Ill try to pull it forward again, i really need to get it done and put the new tires on it. Its going to be sold soon, to fund the 1986 2dr i have. Oh yeah thank you alot for your help, much appreciated. jesse
 
88poohxj said:
Yeah we actually started to try that, but i think ill try that again. Oh yeah the only other problem i ran into was the rear shock, upper bolts..broke two off. You'd think i would have stopped at one, but being a rookie i didnt. So ill have to find a way to get them out and new hard ware in. Everything else was pretty smooth. Ill try to pull it forward again, i really need to get it done and put the new tires on it. Its going to be sold soon, to fund the 1986 2dr i have. Oh yeah thank you alot for your help, much appreciated. jesse
Click to expand...


Your two broken shock studs is better than my four.... Pretty much the only ways to fix this is either drill them out and retap, or weld on some some bar pin eliminators I believe they're called. Just go slow with the drilling and taping and you'll be fine. Took my longer than it should have because I was in a hurry.... Good luck.

P.S. What lift did you get? Tires/Rims?
 
Yeah i guess two is better than four!! My buddy works for a exhaust and tank Fab shop, and is a really good welder, so i think we could fix it that way. I bought the Rough Country 3", came with add-a-leafs for the rear, coils, shocks, and misc hardware. It was $262 shipped to my door, and i bought some 33" BFG M/T tires...i know kinda big but this rig is getting sold soon. I trimmed alot already so i know they'll clear. I also have a 1986 2dr, its in the picture forum take a look. Ill get some pics of the 4dr up once its finished. Oh yeah, i still need new wheels..im just running the five spoke stockers for now..the gray ones.
 
From what I've read on this forum it seems everyone has broken at least 1 upper rear shock bolt. I had the same problem as well with the LCA not lining up. I was doing the lift on my own and didn't have any luck with the tow strap method. I don't know if I risked messing something up severely, but what I did was take the factory lca's that I had replaced and stuff them behind the front tires, then VERY slowly back up until everything lined up. Again, I doubt this is ideal, but it worked for me.
 
I hope that the strap idea works for me, seems like the easiest way for it to work for me. Ill be trying this idea on monday i hope. My jeep is at my freinds, who is gone for the weekend, so im kinda out of luck till then. So you let the jeep down without the top bolt in? Or the bottom?
 
When I was putting mine in all I did was use a pair of bottle jacks to raise and lower the axle, and with a bit of struggling you should be able to do it yourself. I had no problem and it was my first time putting a lift in, and I was by myself.
 
Somehow mine ended up being about an inch off from the holes where the bolt goes through. Its just kinda frustrating, wish mine went in as easily as yours did. We've tried jacks, moving it by hand, etc. Hope the strap works out for me. Ill try it tomorow most likely. Thanks for the help people.
 
If you use a air hammer to tap out the broken bolts for the upper shock mounts, and you will be to get a new bolt through the hole, takes a little time to fish, but is possible, I have this on about 10 cherokees now. Also do you have stock lower control arms, I had to do this on one of my rigs, take the springs out bolt the lcas up use 2 floor jacks from the front, one on each side, jack 1 jack up as far as it can go and you should be able to fit the spring in if not use a prybar and be careful.
 
Thanks for the advice guys. Ill have to try the trick with the rear bolts for the shocks. I do in fact have the stock lower control arms on it. I got the new coils in, used that same technique in fact. but had to unbolt the control arm in order to do so. Thats the dilemma that im facing now.
 
top bolt was out. Yes, I let it down with one end of the lca undone. I had to use the prybar technique to get the springs in and was not about to take them out.
 
Yeah, the springs slipped in for me. No pry bar, but it seems like the axle moved back about an inch on each side. Making it very difficult to line the bottoms back up, or the top back up...tried both ways.
 
Im taking in that the top bolts are broken on the upper shock mounts in the rear. Thats when I use a air hammer to tap them out completly to have a open hole to get a bolt through.
 
Then you'd use some bar pin eliminators correct? Oh txredxj...i have the coils in the front already so i dont need help with that part of the lift. That part was what got me to this point though.
 
The lift is done, now i just have to fine tune a couple of things. Such as fixing the broken bolts that broke on the rear shock on one side, and getting the new shocks in. Thats all thats left really, ill try to get some pics up once the new tires are on it.
 
I had only 1 broken shock bolt, but I just cut a hole in the floor pan above where the bolt was, drilled it out, and used a new nut/bolt in there and covered the hole in the floorpan. For the spings, I got a spring compressor from autozone. Gotta love the rental system. It was a PITA cause I was unable to drop the front axle more than I did, so even with the compressor it was tough, but they got in there with time and some force
 
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