DIY 2" Body Lift

CaptainMorgan_SOS

Need Bigger Tires
Location
Alamogordo, NM
The only reason mine did what it did was because the fitting on the radiator housing is almost gone. So I had to end up getting a new one so that I could put the clamp as snug as possible up against the radiator and Iit needed to be long enough to actually put some pressure on the radiator in order to keep it there.
 

TKDx00

Lockers Installed
Founding Member
Stupid question here...cause I feel kinda stupid asking it...but...

When PBing these body bolts it would seem to me that you want to spray them from the top so gravity will work the fluid down. Is it possible to spray all the bolts from above?
 

Xterraforce

<img src="http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u7/ra
Founding Member
Location
Signal Mtn., TN
Six of the bolts have nuts underneath the Xterra. As long as the bolts are you'd probably have to use a lot of PB for it to soak down that far. The other four bolts thread up into the body mounts. I don't think there's any good way to get to the top side of them. If you can it would be best to spray those four from the top.
 

shanostyle

Bought an X
Location
Provo, UT
Anyone put there in XN land know anyone in UT that has a body lift? I am a bit too novice to try and attempt this and I think I might be a bit shy of the tools needed to do this on my own. I have the pucks and the bolts. The local 4x4 shop wants to charge $95 am hour and told me 6 to 8 hours to complete, but they would not use my parted out lift. Made me throw up a little. Just a bit desperate/bummed and need any help
I can get.
 

harryron

The Grumpiest of Mid-Westerners
Location
ohio
This is intimidating me. I want to get it done just don't have the patience. when I start breaking bolts and whatever else there is to break i start getting worried to say the least.

sent from the middle of a corn field.
 

Joey

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
Indianapolis
This post has some good information:
Drain the radiator!
Loosen lower and top radiator hose clamps! The attachment points for the hoses on the radiator are PLASTIC!!!....what to spend and X-ra on a radiator?
 

P&P

Need Bigger Tires
Site Sponsor
Location
Middle TN
This post has some good information:
Drain the radiator!
Loosen lower and top radiator hose clamps! The attachment points for the hoses on the radiator are PLASTIC!!!....what to spend and X-ra on a radiator?



Also loosen the hoses to the heater core on the firewall


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

xterrra

Test Drive
Location
Texas
I just did a 2" body lift. I bought this kit from 4x4parts.com

#&*^ing PhotoBucket broke half the #&*^ing internet when they killed external links to their hosted pictures without paying for a plan!

Did I mention that PhotoBucket sucks?

A lot of good write ups including this one have been ruined because the photos are now no longer available.

Here is one site I used that still has good photos:

http://www.higherground4x4.com/xterra_body_lift_install.htm

Here are some good write ups but with broken pictures (still worth a read)

http://www.clubxterra.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2191&page=34

http://www.clubxterra.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9713

A couple of notes off the top of my head:

Not all the write ups mentioned the heater core hoses. You definitely want to unclip them from the bracket or if you can't unclip them, disconnect them before the lift.

Also it has already been mentioned that you want to disconnect the upper radiator hose. I did not drain my radiator, just disconnected the upper hose and let whatever coolant spill out. Find a longer hose to replace the stock one with. I bought mine from autozone. I first looked up the part and found some reviews mentioned that it was too long and had to be cut to fit. Sure enough I bought it and it was even too long to fit after I dropped the engine 2". Perfect - I just cut it to fit. If I couldn't find a longer hose, I would have probably just bought a universal hose and cut it to fit.

I did not have any trouble removing the body bolts. I did spray them with PB Blaster a few days ahead of time. I did the entire job myself. It is probably easier with two people, but definitely possible solo.

My kit included parts to drop the radiator, but I opted not to - you just have to remove the lower radiator shroud. It just unclips, but I could not figure out how to unclip it, so I yanked on it until it broke LOL - this is probably why I am not a professional mechanic!

Another tip - most write ups cover this, you need to loosen but not remove both bolts on the steering shaft that connects the steering wheel to the steering gearbox. There is one higher up near the firewall and one lower near the steering gear box. I was able to turn the steering wheel so both bolts pointed up before I tied off the steering wheel so it couldn't move. I could use a ratchet with some long extensions to loosen both bolts from the top.

If you are not able to do this, position the steering wheel so it is easy to get to the top bolt from the top inside the engine bay, and pull the driver side front wheel off and the splash guard from the wheel well and the lower bolt is easy to get to from the wheel well.

After the lift, you want to slide the loose part of the steering shaft (the part between the two bolts you loosened) so that both ends have as much bite as possible.

Another issue I ran into is that the airbox was impossible to hook back up to. I had to remove the 3 bolts that held the air box down in order to hook the air intake hose back up. Even then it was still hard. I loosened the bolt on the lowermost support for the airbox before hooking the hose back up and moved the bracket until it rested against the airbox once it was hooked back up and tightened it. I did not attempt to bolt down the two upper mounts for the air box. I suppose you could zip tie them to the original mounting locations, but my air box does not move at all. I can pretty much guarantee you will not be able to connect the air intake hose to the airbox if it is bolted down in its original position. None of the write ups I saw mentioned this.

Not all write ups mention that you need to remove the bolts holding the brake lines / evap lines to the frame behind a shield (that you also have to remove) behind the front passenger wheel. Follow these same lines back and unbolt them along the frame.

There is also a bracket that holds the emergency brake cable to the driver side frame rail that needs to be unbolted.

Go slow when actually lifting each vehicle side and look for any hoses, wires, brake lines that are getting stretched.

There were a couple of wiring harnesses that were clipped to brackets that I had to unclip to get some more travel. Some of the brake lines that were clipped into plastic clips popped out of the clips and were rubbing on other brake lines. You don't want break lines rubbing on each other or other parts.
I used some 3/8" power steering hose that I slit and then wrapped where any brake lines touched anything and then zip tied the hose to the brake line.

Overall definitely worth doing, but takes time, especially by yourself.
 

xterrra

Test Drive
Location
Texas
Thanks for updating the pics - really good writeup and pictures. I'm sure it will help some people out.

I wish I had found this writeup before I did my body lift a couple of weeks ago!
 
Looking at the AC 2" BL kit instructions, they say to tighten all body bolts to 55 lb/ft -> while this post says to tighten some to only 18 lb/ft and most to 31 lb/ft. Any ideas about the discrepancy? Want to make sure everything is torqued down right!

Also, not sure which washers to use from the kit... the kit comes with 6 3/8" washers and 8 1/2" washers. The 1/2" washers are almost too big to use with the M12 160mm (gold) bolts... but it's odd to have so many washers just for the two rear-most bolts (black thick ones). I'm assuming it's best to do a 'bolt sandwich' where there it a washer against the bolt head as well as against the locking nut?
 
Bump. Any ideas about the torque ratings? Wondering where the OP got the 14-18 ft. lbs torque for some of the mounts? 55 ft. lbs (listed in the body lift instructions) is way higher... I'd rather have things tight but also don't want to damage the pucks or stock rubber body spacers
 
Top