Noob lift install

O.K. I basically have a set of tools for fixing my kids bikes. But for some reason I decided to tackle the lift install. Purchased a RE 3.5 SR kit with full leaf, OME shocks, OME steering stabalizer, 4* shims and RE trac bar.

I spent about an hour on it tonight. Cleared out a space in the garage. Put the rear end on Jack stands and went to work on the passenger side.

I got the sway bar link and bracket off. Broke the U-bolt nuts loose, got the lower half of the shock off (kind of dreading reaching up there for the upper mounts) PB'd the hell out the spring eye bolts, but coudn't budge em.

Going to have to go pick up larger open end wrenches or a socket that will fit the 1/2 drive breaker bar I have (for some reason I have no 1/2" drive sockets)

Some questions at this point:

• 13/16" for the spring eye bolts? (I did have some trouble getting a good bite on bolts)
• Should I just use the shims? I have no idea if I am going to need them or not, but I do not want to take this thing apart again. Is there a down side to having them in, or is it better safe than sorry?

I hope to get a little more done tomorrow afternoon/evening. And hope to have her complete this weekend, ready for tires early next week.

Any tips/pointers, etc are appreciated.

I would spray everything that you haven't tried to loosen yet with some kind of bolt loosener, and let it sit.

Not sure about the wrench size for the eye bolts

Shims, you're speaking of the ones that go under the leaf packs? If they were included, they are probably intended to get your pinion angle back to where it needs to be after the leaf install. But like I found out with mine, ( I did have a Rough country lift though) the included shim is made out of crappy metal, and mine broke in half after a while. A buddy got me a quality pair of shims. Anyway, shims are good, blocks are bad. I know first hand. Had blocks for a while, and just about a month ago, one broke in half, and my leaf wasn't happy. I digress.

Do you have any friends that could lend a hand? I spent most of a day ( 9 hours ) doing my rear leaves by myself with hand tools. It sucked.

AIR TOOLS, THE ONLY WAY TO FLY

scottmcneal said:

AIR TOOLS, THE ONLY WAY TO FLY

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Would have LOVED air tools. Live in an apartment complex though

With that amount of lift on the older XJ I don't think you'll have a problem w/o shims. I've got an 89 and a 98. The old one tolerates lift in the rear a lot better than the new one because of a change in the design of the slip yoke. Also, if you plan to go higher with shackles, that will tend to adjust the pinion angle the direction it needs to go. I had no prob on my 89 without shims @ 3.5" and then @ 5.5". Don't be discouraged if you end up taking apart and putting it back together a few times to see if the shims help or not though. The new hardware will not be nearly as tough to break loose.

Ahh.. did not think about shackles improving the pinon angle. I was thinking shims would help when I get that extra 1"-2" from the shackles, but yeah, the shackles would rotate the axle a bit.

I think I am going to skip the shims. They did not come with the kit, I choose to order them just so I had them. But at this point it is one less step I need to worry about. To be installed, the shims would have to be drilled out to fit the center pin.

shims back in the box!

Step 2 tomorrow!

bl87xj said:

13/16" for the spring eye bolts?

Any tips/pointers, etc are appreciated.

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Yes, 13/16", and PB EVERYTHING! I so wish I had done this. The spring bolts were the most difficult part of installing my lift. Good luck, and post pics!!

My 16 year old and I installed the RE superflex 3.5 on my (now his) 1989 Laredo in about 6 hours. I am certain that even after a thorough PB blast that I would have snapped some bolts without my air tools. Be most careful at the body side of the rear shocks. If you can't find a friend with an impact wrench then get some gloves! Also coil spring compressors are very dangerous so don't use them if you don't have to, the boy and I just jacked up the front high enough and the old springs fell out, new ones slipped in.

13/16 is correct, on my truck I had to clean the bolt heads to get a good fit, be clean, I mean we applied the socket with force.

The only confusion we had with the kit was that the RE superflex comes with two hardened bolts which are for the flex control arms, I misinstalled them in the rear leaf (where they still are).

If you are in the Orlando area, let me know and I can lease you the boy, he works for free.

bl87xj said:

O.K. I basically have a set of tools for fixing my kids bikes.

Any tips/pointers, etc are appreciated.

Click to expand...

Get a short pipe to fit over your breaker bar. Re think your jackstands everytime you really have to push or pull hard. Are they solid and not rocking? Are they on solid ground? Throw your spare under the jeep to at least make body recovery easier. Be safe first and go slow. About a thousand folks here have run into every problem you will run into and most will help so ask any step of the way if you are not positive of whats happining. What shims are you talking about?

bl87xj said:

PB'd the hell out the spring eye bolts, but coudn't budge em...

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FYI: Those bolts are about $7 each at a dealership if I remember right. I was afraid of breaking the weld nut loose inside the frame because, like you, I couldn't get those bolts to move. I ended up buying them at the dealership and cutting them out with a sawsall.

There is a metal sleave inside the spring bushings that corrodes onto the bolt. Even if you can loosen the bolt threads and back them out past the weld nut the threads will cause the bolt to get stuck inside the bushing sleave.

I took the conservative approach here and cut the bolts so I wouldn't have to worry about breaking the weld nut loose.

Good luck.

Day 2

Got over all the stuck bolts. Bigger wrenches sure helped. Had a slightly difficult time getting spring eye bolts and center pin to all align. Some creative jack and jack stand placement made it all come together. Oh and loosinging the top shackle bolt...Doh!

Center pins were too long and bottomed out on the axle, no way was I going to pull the pack out, so I dropped the axle just enough to trim a bit off the center pin.

Passenger side pack is in and drivers side is almost all broken down. Had to PB the heck out of one spring eye bolt....should be able to get it tomorrow. The second side is taking about 1/2 the time as the first side.

Now my concern is the brake line. I was hoping to leave it and have the shop install the new one a bleed it when I get my tires put on. The stock line isn't even long enough to let the axle drop low enough to get the pack in.

So.......what do I need to know about installing that line and bleeding the rear brakes.

Should have rear complete next time out.

Is the front harder or easier than the front?

the front was much easier for me, just take your time

I recently completed a R.E. 4.5 lift on my '95 xj I found that many of the bolts on my jeep were metric. If you look at the head of the bolt and see a number like 10.2 etc. then it is metric. I had a hard time getting a good fit on the fasteners with my sae wrenches also if you have to replace any bolts make sure to get the correct "grade" or strength sae would be grade 5 or even better grade 8.this is extremely important.Metric uses numerical code i.e 10.2etc.. NAPA had everything I needed and they're cheep.
As far as the shims and drive shaft /pinion angle I had a slight vibration but it started to cause some damage and I needed 4` shims to lower the pinon, that matched the angle of the transfer case outputshaft.Vibration GONE.
good wrenching!
keep posting.
Gary

With the rear brake line you can unbolt it from the axle tube. Yes these are hard lines on the axle tube but should allow you enough room to put in the leaf pack. You can drive it to a shop with it unbolted. IT may leak a small bit but not enough to worry about. I recommend that if you don't know how to blead brakes then don't try it.

If you need a spring compression tool,go to a Harbor Freight store.Cost around $13.You can pick up some more tools cheap there.Not the best,but they will work for a time.Yes,do be careful using a spring compresser.The saftey clips that come with it sucks.So I used some rope in a few spots around it just to be on the safe side.After dropping the front springs,do install the LCA per instructions before installing anything else.

Never worry about taking it apart again because after the first time you will notice that it becomes easier and easier to take both the front and the rear apart again and again. Be careful with any stuck bolt like the upper shock bolts, be gentle with them or they will break easy and they are not easy to get out once they break. If you do break one get a set of easyout's and go to town on them. Have fun!

Day three

Rear is done! Brake line bracket is loose, I will have the tire shop install the rear brake line and bleed the brakes. Hopefully tires go on Monday.

The front is broken down, actually have one spring in place and 1/2 a control arm before I quit for the day.

Two problems I need help with:

1) I got the cotter pin and nut off the top trac bar bolt, but it still seems firmly mounted to the frame bracket. I can't really tell if it is threaded into the bracket, or if I just need to force it off.

2) How the heck am I going to reach the driver side top shock bolt. That thing is so crammed in there under the brake resivior...what tool do I use?

Also, wondering why the instructions say to disconnect the steering at the pitman arm. So far I have left it connected. Is the threaded clamped on section near the pitman arm the location where I will re-center my steering wheel when I am done?

I will do my best to recenter the front axel when I install the new track bar, but is that alos something that would be done by the shop when they do the alignment?

And finally. While moving the front axle up and down back and forth, I noticed some grease squished out of my front driveshaft U-joiint. I got maybe 2" long /1/4" diameter grease turd on the grarage floor. Is that enough to worry about right away or can I wait until the next service.

I think I will wrap it up tomorrow and will post one more time.

1) I got the cotter pin and nut off the top trac bar bolt, but it still seems firmly mounted to the frame bracket. I can't really tell if it is threaded into the bracket, or if I just need to force it off.

i hit it with a hammer, about 3 times an it poped off..

2) How the heck am I going to reach the driver side top shock bolt. That thing is so crammed in there under the brake resivior...what tool do I use?

i removed the window washer unit, then i used a shocket

i didn't remove my pitman arm till i was done ( what size lift )
yes you can adjust your steering wheel that way..

make sure you grease all fittings when your done. ( drive lines front an rear u joints )

top shock mount....
remove the airbox dude....

stubborn eye bolts can easily be removed via the chemical, heat, or BFH methods.....

i leave the steering/trackbar hooked up, and use a coil compressor for that last little bit.... GOJEEPS foot method for coil installation works wonders as well

It is done!

Thanks to the forum support, it is all done.

Concerns:
1) at full lock, the 215-75-15's are really close to the sway bar link hardware. May need to think about wheels with those tires?

2)Front brake hoses seemed more than long enough. I remounted in existing holes. I did just have them replaced, maybe they are longer than stock. I will keep an eye on them.

3)The rear end looks to be about an 1" higher than the front. Just enough to give it a bit of a rake. Hopefully it settles in, I do not want to break the front end down again just to stick in spacer.

4) It is apparently going to take me a few attempts at track bar adjustment to get the steering wheel centered. Thought I had it twice, but still just a bit off.

Thanks for all the replies it did help knowing if I got stuck I could post up on Naxja and find a solution.