BigBlue

Started installing the lift at 12:30 by myself. It's 2 now and I've pretty much gotten the front end apart. Waiting on my friend to get off work so he can swing by and grab the pitman arm puller which I forgot when I was at o'reilly's. I also forgot to buy a camera to take pics with and my friend with the digital camera won't be in for a few hours (he's coming from abilene). But don't worry, I'll get some pics for you guys. I'm really surprised at how well this truck is coming apart. Or maybe that's a bad thing? The instructions I got from skyjacer are top notch and very detailed and easy to understand. I'll keep yall up to date. Time to start working again.

BigBlue

Alright. After running around town trying to find a new bolt for the pitman arm puller, we made one fit. Got the arm off, got the holes drilled for the new brackets. After messing around with those for 3 hours getting them aligned, got those done. Now we are working on the track bar and Skyjacker forgot to provide us with a couple of bolts that we need to mount the new bracket. Started at 1 today and it's 6 now. Hopefully get the front done tonight but who knows. I'll let yall know how it goes.

CO Lineman

Sounds like a lot of work but should look good when you are done....

BigBlue

A lot of work doesn't begin to describe it. I seriously under estimated this.

BigBlue

Well, she's done and it looks AWESOME!!!! Pictures will be up here later in the week. Skyjacker is gonna get an ear full from me though. I spent about $20 on nuts and bolts that they did not supply with the kit. The nuts they supplied with the new rear u bolts didn't even fit. I was missing some for the track bar bracket. And various other components. All in all though, everything went OK. I would not suggest doing this inluess you are very confident in your skills. After the lift though, my fuel pump keeps blowing fuses so I gotta figure that one out now. Oh well. The truck looks great and it drives great. Alignment is way off but that will get fixed tomorrow. I started at 12 pm friday afternoon and didn't finish until 12 am sunday/monday morning. We worked for 10-12 hours a day on it. It looks awesome yall. I can't wait to get the pics back. Thanks for the help everyone.

zulusafari

What did you decide on the pitman arm use?

quantrill88

glad to see you got it done.

kinda gonna hurt to see those pics, thats what i was plannin on doing to mine if I hadnt traded it in

anyways, congrats


Jeff

CJ

Sound like one of my typical projects. Sure honey it should only take an hour or two........
CJ

dodgediesel4x4

We found the closest fitting bolt at Home Depo and MADE it thread through the already fine threaded puller. Pssst....don't tell them at O'reily that we did that...haha. We're gonna tell them that their bolt that came w/ the kit broke, but those tools get used and abused, so its not really a big deal.

MCummings

Cool thing yall got it done!

Friend of mine put a 6" lift on his '04, and it took eight days of working on it from 8pm to 2am.

He put a SkyJacker on it,, and although I haven't ridden in it yet,, it appears to ride very smooth.

Let's see those pictures!

Merrick

BigBlue

Well, after a day of driving it, I've gotta say it doesn't ride smoother. Rides stiffer. Not bouncy stiff, but sports car stiff. I think the steering wheel isn't centered and that's what's throwing the alignment off. Cause if I let go of the wheel when the truck is tracking straight, it stays straight. It's getting aligned tomorrow after class. I love it though. It drives good, it looks good, it handles good, there's no driveline vibration any more (I had one at 70 but it's gone now), and the best part is that the tires don't rub AT ALL!!! Since I first got the truck 3 years ago, the tires have rubbed (I put 33's on a month after I got it) and now they finally don't. I'll get the pics to yall after I get her cleaned up and torqued up. Thanks for the help yall.

phox_mulder

Ya, I wouldn't call mine "sports car stiff", it almost feels like the axles are welded to the frame.

That's good news.
Hope it stays that way after everything settles in.
I still have mine that comes on around 55.


phox

BigBlue

Speaking of settling, after a 1/4 mile drive last night, the thing settled almost an inch. I was surprised that it settled that much. I like the way mine rides.

gsdog1

4 Wheel Parts had me bring my 99 back in after 10 days to recheck all the connections and retorque everything. You might want to do this as well. They also used colored white-out (for lack of a better description) on all the bolts and nuts to help visually check any walkout or backing off.

On the trac bar bracket, they actually welded it to the frame. Good call in my opinion.

Matt

BigBlue

gsdog1, I plan on retorquing everything at 50 miles, 100miles, and 200 miles. On the track bar bracket,we used lock nuts, lock washers, and lock tight on it. If I can find some one to weld it up there real quickly, I'll have them do it for sure.