Definitive 1" Body Lift How To (1 Viewer)

[LuckySomer]

+1

First of all, I'd like to thank a few people.

1. Roger over at 4Crawler.com for putting together a great kit for the body lift.
2. Previous threads on putting the body lift in. Thanks CruiseOrlando. s who might be thinking about doing this to their truck.

This was a slow job for me. Many rusted / seized bolts.

- Remove driver and passenger seats
- Pull all interior trim parts along the driver and passenger sides so you can pull up the carpet along the sides
- Pull the battery and the battery tray
- Remove the front grill and headlights
- Remove the bolts for the fan shroud, and loosen it up (so the radiator can move)
- It will help if you remove the bumper flare pieces. You don't have to, but it will probably save time (Skipped this one)
- PB blast the 10 locations for about a week or two before starting


Sprayed Bolts weeks in advance. 'em if you got 'em. And oh, it's a good idea to do this after the truck has cooled off, because you'll be working up close and personal with the exhaust.


OP radiator mount mod

Here's the lower mount removed:

I took some masking tape and wrote on that. I also decided to shift the mount holes over about 1/8" of a inch to give myself a little more clearance from the hole that's in the middle of the bracket. Measure down 1"....

It also helps if you have a drill press. I didn't. A bench vise would also be wise.

Once you've drilled it out, you can remount it:

Now for the fun part. You also have to redrill that top mount. I guess you could do it from the front, but I did it from inside-out. I took the rubber grommet out of the upper mount, then I centered my drill in the hole and went SLOWLY.

If you do it right, it should look something like this:

And there you go. Rinse and repeat for the other side. Remount your shroud and you should be good to go.

By the way, I also released the tranny shifter rod as well. It's a 12mm bolt on a sliding shaft. Loosen it up, and give it a gentle back-and-forth. It should realign itself in a slightly different place - this should cure the issues some people were having with the shifter sticking.

So yeah, I call this a job.

Instead of modifying the lower mount I modified only the side mount and drilling on the front of the body. I modified the radiator side mounts.

 

[raevenzero]

How did you do the front mounts? I am working on the driver's side and I can't seem find a way to get in to the top of the bolt.

 

[GW Nugget]

A long or a few long socket extensions... there is pics on page #1

 

[raevenzero]

I can't even see the bolt Do you have to pull the top of the core support off?

 

[GW Nugget]

No, you might have mud in there???

Here is pics from page #1
Here's a picture of the pesky bolt from the passenger side. As you can see, it'd down there in a place that's not exactly accessible.

But I have a solution. Get yourself some small rare-earth magnets. Put them on the end of a 3/8 or so extension. And lower it down in that hole! Bingo, problem solved in a few seconds.

 

[raevenzero]

I saw those pictures and couldn't figure it out. Finally, I saw things from the correct angle. I'm going to have to remove my AC dryer to get to it.

Thanks

 

[4rings5cyls]

How much does this help with 37" tire clearance on a 3" lift? Got some rubbing, would prefer this to trimming sheet metal.

 

[GW Nugget]

1" is the difference from 35s to 37s. Basically the bumps you needed for 35s will work for 37s & 1" body lift.

Here is my body lift post.
GW Nugget's Family Haulin Lx450 build....

 

[Box Rocket]

Could use some RTH. I’m working on installing a 1” BL today. I’m using a kit I got from another 80 owner who’s had it on the shelf for years. He didn’t know the brand.
I’ve got 10 bolts and 10 pucks.

My question is.... one of the pucks is 1.5” tall. The rest are 1”. These were all still in the packaging and the two aluminum pucks were bagged together. Am I missing something? Is there one of the body mounts that uses a larger puck? Or do I need to just trim this down to 1”?

 

[slow95z]

i dont remember any being of different sizes but i can check tomorrow for you if you like. i have a 4 crawler lift brand new in the box at the shop.

 

[GW Nugget]

Yeah Adam, that is a 1st for me... all mine were 1".
The aluminum pucks should go near heat of exhaust.

 

[lumbee1]

All pucks should be the same size.

I've got a question, what are you guys doing about the steering shaft through the steering shaft seal in the firewall? After installing my 1" BL, I've replaced one seal and now need to replace the current one. The steering shaft is close to the bottom of the hole in the firewall and therefore not centered on the seal. Both seals were OEM.

Steering shaft seal

Hot drivers feet? This may be your fix.

The most overlooked reason for hot drivers feet is the steering shaft seal. Chances are if your seal has never been replaced then its bad. The FSM replacement procedure is crazy. Here is another option that takes ~20 minute and a ~$10 part. The seal is located on the inside of the floor board...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[shocktower]

All pucks should be the same size.

I've got a question, what are you guys doing about the steering shaft through the steering shaft seal in the firewall? After installing my 1" BL, I've replaced one seal and now need to replace the current one. The steering shaft is close to the bottom of the hole in the firewall and therefore not centered on the seal. Both seals were OEM.

Steering shaft seal

Hot drivers feet? This may be your fix.

The most overlooked reason for hot drivers feet is the steering shaft seal. Chances are if your seal has never been replaced then its bad. The FSM replacement procedure is crazy. Here is another option that takes ~20 minute and a ~$10 part. The seal is located on the inside of the floor board...

forum.ih8mud.com

I have no problem with it with the 1" lift

 

[Box Rocket]

Thanks for the response. Didn’t make sense to me that any of the pucks would be different so I thought I’d double check.

I’m about halfway through the install. Both front bolts and the driver side footwell one are corroded badly and have slowed things down. Took me more than an hour to get the footwell bolt out. Ended up cutting it in the end. Bolt was totally seized to the sleeve.

 

[jmkfzj]

This is a great writeup! I'm considering a 1" BL for my '96 for all of the benefits mentioned here. It looks like most folks who've done the BL don't have rear mud flaps. My rig has flares and OEM mud flaps, which I would like to retain (at least for on road driving). Any thoughts on the rear flaps? It appears that they have connection points to the rear bumper and the flare...

 

[shocktower]

This is a great writeup! I'm considering a 1" BL for my '96 for all of the benefits mentioned here. It looks like most folks who've done the BL don't have rear mud flaps. My rig has flares and OEM mud flaps, which I would like to retain (at least for on road driving). Any thoughts on the rear flaps? It appears that they have connection points to the rear bumper and the flare...

I have 1" lift and I use my mud flaps no problem

 

[jmkfzj]

I have 1" lift and I use my mud flaps no problem

Sweet! Thanks, shocktower. Any chance you could post a couple of pics?

 

[shocktower]

Sweet! Thanks, shocktower. Any chance you could post a couple of pics?

Give me a few

 

[shocktower]

Here ya go

 

[jmkfzj]

Here ya go

View attachment 2055808

Excellent! Thank you!