3" lift, estimated install hours

[89xj]

i guess we are some of the luckier ones ahah... to lift shea454's jeep with a AAL and coils and whatnot, took bout 6 hours....

how many people worked on it? AAL are also faster to do then new spring packs if using the stock shackle. having the shackle bolt frozen in the bushing sleeve can be tough to get out.

 

[kastein]

Yeah, if I'd had a lift and an impact wrench, it would have taken me very little time to do my rear lift. As it was, I was jacking one side up at a time, leaving the axle in place, and had to pull the leaf eye bolt out with a breaker bar. You guys had a garage with a lift to work with.

 

[MONSTERxbla]

I took me 4 hours do my lift (Clayton longarm with rear coils). I would have been done sooner but I had to rescue a cat from the top of a tree.

 

[Cottontail]

For my RE 3.5" lift, I'm on day 30...and am almost done with the rear. Ready to tackle the fronts.

That said...2 hours a night max after the kids went down, basic hand tools, no torch or air tools, and every bolt in the rear rusted solid.

Ah, also, take out a week at Christmas, another week at the Rose Bowl, and the last 8 days where it has been too cold to work in the garage!

And, I'm ok with the cuts, scrapes, blood, and DNA samples left on my Jeep and garage floor. The Jeep and I...we are one!

I've cussed the Jeep a number of nights, and my wife said, "but you love it and really don't want anyone else fooling with your truck." Yep...I had to agree!

 

[DevilMac]

I'll agree with DesertRunner. I just installed a 4.5" Rustys on my '99 XJ last weekend with my brother in law. The biggest thing is being prepared enough. We thought we had everything but had to make about 3 trips out to pick up some spare tools or deal with some unforseen problems. The front bolt on the driver side leaf spring was seized into the metal sleeve inside the leaf's bushing. I'd already swapped out a couple parts in the front trying to fix DW so didn't have to change the track bar again otherwise that would've added another hour or two. Total was 23 hours over the coldest weekend of the year here...didn't go above 5 deg (luckily we were in a heated and insulated garage)

 

[M4Madness]

After reading about the possible hassles here, when I lifted mine with a RE 3.5", I took it to a local shop and paid them $200 to do the install. Well worth that small amount of cash if you ask me. They busted bolts left and right taking the old crap off. It was midwinter, and I didn't really have the time to deal with it, not to mention that the shop had air tools, etc. I did soak everything daily with PB Blaster for a week prior to help them out. I dropped it off around 6PM one night and picked it up finished at 4PM the next evening.

 

[NCjeepgirl83]

After reading about the possible hassles here, when I lifted mine with a RE 3.5", I took it to a local shop and paid them $200 to do the install. Well worth that small amount of cash if you ask me. They busted bolts left and right taking the old crap off. It was midwinter, and I didn't really have the time to deal with it, not to mention that the shop had air tools, etc. I did soak everything daily with PB Blaster for a week prior to help them out. I dropped it off around 6PM one night and picked it up finished at 4PM the next evening.

Yeah my local 4 Wheel Parts wanted to charge me $500-700 to install my lift, so I said no way and paid a friend of the family around $200 (who had experience installing lifts) to install it for me. He had all the tools needed, including air compressor, etc and he got the back done first. Then he told me he hadn't ever actually installed a lift on a XJ before, and I was thinking...great, but it took him probably 6 hours the first day and another 5 or so the next day.

Even tho I'd used PB Blaster for a few weeks sprayed liberally on everything underneath, the rear shock bolts broke off and the right passenger side one got stuck inside, so he wasn't able to mount the shock. I ended up taking it to Tarheel 4WD and they were able to drill it out and replace it.

During the process, we had to go out twice for him to get stuff, first time was for another socket wrench, second time was because the idiots at 4WP gave me the wrong u-bolts for my rear axle.

 

[89xj]

After reading about the possible hassles here, when I lifted mine with a RE 3.5", I took it to a local shop and paid them $200 to do the install. Well worth that small amount of cash if you ask me. They busted bolts left and right taking the old crap off. It was midwinter, and I didn't really have the time to deal with it, not to mention that the shop had air tools, etc. I did soak everything daily with PB Blaster for a week prior to help them out. I dropped it off around 6PM one night and picked it up finished at 4PM the next evening.

i guess it depends on what the worth is? $200 is a great price and a great deal. believe me, ive spent lots of money on cars in the past 25 years, some of the work i did and some i payed others to do.

hopefully you have working experience with the xj suspension and have an understanding of how it works. the value of putting on a lift for the first timer is the hands-on knowledge of how the suspension works, name of the parts, how to make adjustments, ability to evaluate problems with the lift....

not saying that its bad to have a lift installed, but if this is your first lift on an xj, there are alot of things to be learned while doing the lift that cant be learned while paying someone to do it.

 

[stoneyva21]

took me about 10 hours with no power tools and one person. i worked on it each night for two hours or until i couldn't feel my fingers. think it was close to 20 deg.

took me an entire night to take care of the rear shock bolts. knew they where gonna be an issue so i was prepared.

the lifts on my tj took 8 hours, that was springs, f/r upper and lower arms, shocks, tracbar, ect. that was on a lift also.

took me about 4 hours to do the budget boost and body lift on the wifes rubi. was so simple i had her do the entire right side of the body lift while i watched and drank a beer.

 

[Ben824]

I have done RE lifts on 5 XJs, 1 TJ, 1 ZJ, and 1 MJ. All have taken about 1 days time 8-12 hours. I used all necessary hand tools and a few basic air tools mostly used for removal of old parts but still used when tightening up major bolts like control arms, u-botls, and leaf spring bolts. I was also doing all the work on the ground with a floor jack and jack stands.

A few suggestions that I can make that will ease your work and reduce the amount of problems you might run into is:
- Soak all bolts in penetrating oil (my favorite is PB Blaster) 2 days prior to install and do it more than just once. Amount of soaking sessions is really up to how much rust you might have but if you live in a Northern state or a place that sees salt in the winter time then the more the better.
- Don't bother messing with coil compressors. Some kits include lower control arms and some don't but either way when installing the coil springs just remove atleast one end of each of the lower control arms and this will make it possible to get the springs in much easier. Remove the axle end of the Trac bar and unbolt the sway bar links as well when doing this but thats also stated in the instructions of most kits.
- Even though it can be done with a regular small 2-ton floor jack, a taller 2 1/2-ton or more floor jack will make things a little easier since you won't have to worry about it reaching where you need it to.

Plan to expect the unexpected but do all necessary pre-install preparation and use the tips and tricks during install and it will be far less of a headache. That is my .02 hope that helps.

 

[wishihad1]

Every jeep ive ever done has varied. my XJ was garage kept, and and my mom bought it new in 95 and babied it and washed it regularly. when i went to lift it, i didn't run into any snags at all, and me and a friend did it in about 3.5 hours. ive done a few that fought me the whole way and they easily took 15+ hours, and thats with air tools

really it all depends on the condition of all the fasteners for how long itll take. but if you start soaking everything in PB a few days before you start then that will help a lot

 

[96NYXJ]

It took me about 9 hours on a 96 living in upstate ny its whole life. Granted i did not break a single bolt. Was at a garage/shop and had access to all tools. This was full leafs and coils and trac bar.

 

[stewie]

if your xj has been in salt AT ALL, soak every bolt and nut even remotely associated with the suspension with PB Blaster WEEKS ahead of time. be sure to take a pry bar and move the leaf spring bushings enough to spray onto the bolt and sleeve. i noticed recently that my local VAto Zone has blaster in a gallon can with separate spray bottle, even here in phoenix. take a look at 5-90's website, http://www.geocities.com/JeepI6Power/screws.html, and find the bolts that you will need- like shock bolts, leaf spring bolts etc before you start. know where your nut&bolt or fastener store is. replace any fasteners that have rust damage. you may want to stop by a NAPA and pick up a wire brush that is about the size of a tooth brush. dont use the cheap pos's sold at autozone or walmart as they dont clean threads of rust and loctight. you may want to pick up a bit of antisieze as well.

a small torch is a great tool to have for stuck bolts. they can be found for cheap at your local home improvement/hardware store in the plumbing area or in the hardware area near the welders. a small "turbo torch" that attatches to a small camping bottle of propane gas or MAPP gas is best. they can be had being usable for one gas or the other or even one that works with both. i use a MAPP/LP Gas turbo torch at work in the pipe trades and have bought the same torch at home crapot for cheap. this is similar:http://www.lowes.com/pd_77454-717-19040_4294935907_?productId=1100835&Ntt=torch&Ntk=i_products&pl=1&currentURL=/pl_Plumbing_4294935907__s?Ntk=i_products$Ntt=torch. there are cheaper ones that operate on LP only and not self igniting.

im not just spouting off random crap here. my heep spent 13 years in/around salt lake city utah. i hate rust and now im looking for a good rust free arizona rig to transplant my stuff to. oh and when it comes to bolts:WHEN THE BOLT ONLY "POPS" 1/4 TURN AT A TIME STOP! trouble could await if you dont. i had the same issue when i lifted my xj. i ended up breaking off the leaf springs front bolt.

when it gets tough to turn and pops-this is gonna sound crazy but- re-tighten the bolt. what is happening is that debris (like rust, old paint, road grime, mud etc) is clogging up the threads on the bolt and nut. as you are trying to turn it the debris is wedging itself into the fasteners thread. if you do this too much, the bolt will seize in place and you may end up over loading the bolt and break it off. when you re-tighten the bolt up some you are giving the threads a chance to clean out. when its a little easier to turn try loosening it again. as you loosen it and get into the gunked up thread it will dislodge some more debris and then loosen again. repeat the cycle over and over again.

it takes a long time to get the bolt out but may save you the having to deal with a broken bolt and all that goes with it.

hth
stewie

 

[Cole93maxxxj]

took me about a day and a half. the rusted leafspring bolts took forevver!

 

[Cole93maxxxj]

took me about a day and a half. the rusted leafspring bolts took forevver! everything else was rayther easy though and im 15.