Well lowrange, whenever it actually gets finished, i'll be happy to post pics.
I started yesterday about 5:00 pm and had a friend helping me. We worked until 10:30 and really didn't get much accomplished despite how sore and tired we both felt at the end.
Everything was seized in place pretty good. We did cut the old u-bolts, well 3 of them. I don't want to cut too much in case i run across a buyer for the old lift. (3" old one, 4.5" new one)
We basically got the axle disconnected from the springs, and that was about it. When we shut 'er down last night, the springs still had 3 out of 4 bolts holding them in place.
Today i worked by myself and got 2 more out, but the last one is stripped on the inside.
It's the pass. side front bolt. It just keeps spinning, and i can barely get a small flat screwdriver in between the head of the bolt and the bracket, but prying it out can't be an option because there must be a nut inside there still on the end of the bolt right?
I think if i drill a small (about 2") diameter hole that's just big enough to slide a socket through, i sould be able to grab onto the nut...
That's the best solution i have though up so far.
To visual what i'm trying to say think of the "frame" rail as a capital "U".
On the left side is the center of the Jeep, and on the right is where the bolt pushes through.
If i drill a hole on the left side, as long as i drill it right in line with the bolt, i should be able to get a socket on the end.
Agree/disagree? Anyone?
Anyways, i have yet to even start on the front components yet.
Oh, and the other main difficulty we ran into last night was when we had all the u-bolts off, the axle was still stuck onto the spring packs. We had the shocks off, disconnected all the brake lines, and parking break cables, but the axle wouldn't come off.
We determined that we should cut the bolts holding the spring packs together.
Did that, levered each individual leaf apart in turn, and then the axle let go, but held onto that center bolt.
I think when i installed the 3" kit 4 years ago, we ended up pressing the locator nub thing at the bottom of the spring packs into the too-tight hole on the spring perches.
The instructions for the RE 4.5 kit i have now says i have to expand those holes to fit the larger diamater locator nubs.
When we cut off the bolts flush with the surface of the spring perches, there was still a little chunk left inside that would block the new pin from sitting in the hole.
Some drilling and wedging with a screw driver fixed that. But that was a pain in the ass to get the piece to a small enough diameter that it would slide out through the slit between the spring perch and the axle tube.
I did the scond one tyoday by myself a little differently.
I jammed a screw driver under the perch, and under the chunk of bolt. I made sure it was all lined up and then i started hitting the screw driver handle with a hammer. This forced the chunk of bolt up and back into the hole. I knew i couldn't push it all the way through with this method, but i got as far as i could, then grinded the top part off. When i pulled the screw driver out, i hammered the reamining piece back down the hole, and it was now small enough to fall out. Took about 10 mins compared to last night when it took about 40 or so worth of drilling and trying to hold the chunk in position with a screw driver...
Ah well, lots of fun wrendhing this weekend, i'm hoping to have some friends stop by to lend a hand a few nights this week.