Installation of Old Man Emu Lift Kit

[DrJazz]

Re: Old Man Emu kit kit, for anyone who has already installed one of these, I would like to know about the instructions that come with the kit and the type of coil spring compressor that you used or might recommend. This will be the first kit I have installed, so whatever useful advice you can offer would be most appreciated.
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[FirstToy]

Have a look at the Faq and also search FJC tech for OME, I'm sure you will get alot of info.

If you have more questions, post up. We will be happy to help

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showpost.php?p=1169406&postcount=3

 

[Quixote]

DrJazz,

How did your OME install go and what type of spring compressor did you end up using? Looks like there are three types on the market:

1) Hook-type (cheapest)
2) Clam-Shell type (reasonable)
3) Hydraulic (slightly expensive)

I was planning on using the first type but research indicates that it may not be powerful enough...

 

[GXO]

We simply went to a shop and had them mount everything together, then took it back and installed.

 

[Quixote]

We simply went to a shop and had them mount everything together, then took it back and installed.

Looks like I need the bushing and top mounts from the stock setup so I'll have to remove that before I mount the new coil overs. I have the lift just for the day so I may not have the luxury of running to a shop in between

 

[CandyPants]

Actually, taking it to the shop down the street took about 20 minutes, and I'll tell ya, it will save you time in the end. We had the hook type compressor and it sucked. No power, no chance in hell of getting that spring compressed.

Just our experience, and I hope it helps you!!!

 

[Quixote]

Awrighty, I will line up a shop to do the spring compression and coilover assembly for me. It may be difficult to find someone open this Labor Day weekend, which is when I plan on doing this.

A couple of other questions, if I may:

1) Looks like disconnecting the tie rod seems like a pain. The forum write-up mentions this but does not state what they did to address the issue. The manual says to us a "SST". Is there some kind of joint puller that can help?

2) The manual also says to disconnect the rear brake lines and bleed them upon reinstallation. I don't see anyone else doing this step - are the lines long enough when the rear axle is at full droop? Should I put a jack under it to be safe?

 

[sbechtold]

Awrighty, I will line up a shop to do the spring compression and coilover assembly for me. It may be difficult to find someone open this Labor Day weekend, which is when I plan on doing this.

A couple of other questions, if I may:

1) Looks like disconnecting the tie rod seems like a pain. The forum write-up mentions this but does not state what they did to address the issue. The manual says to us a "SST". Is there some kind of joint puller that can help?

2) The manual also says to disconnect the rear brake lines and bleed them upon reinstallation. I don't see anyone else doing this step - are the lines long enough when the rear axle is at full droop? Should I put a jack under it to be safe?

I disconnected the tie-rod ends by using a puller that I rented at Autozone. Autozone also rents a good quality spring compressor, but I highly recommend the use of an impact wrench or air ratchet to compress the springs. The puller and spring compressor made the job much easier. As for the rear end I did not disconnect the brake lines. One other tip for you... one way to get enough space above the rear axle for the spring is to jack up your FJ, remove a wheel from one side and place that wheel under the other side, then lower the jack slightly. This will cause the axle to droop enough to get the rear spring in place on one side. Then repeat the process on the other side..

 

[CandyPants]

Awrighty, I will line up a shop to do the spring compression and coilover assembly for me. It may be difficult to find someone open this Labor Day weekend, which is when I plan on doing this.

Good plan, you won't regret it. When you go, pay attention to the relationship of the bolt pattern on top and how the bottom bolt goes in. Ours was put together, but needed to be tweaked a good bit. There are 3 bolts at the top of the assembly and you have to make sure that when the bolts are in the bottom of the assembly fits in the slot. I hope that made sense...

A couple of other questions, if I may:

1) Looks like disconnecting the tie rod seems like a pain. The forum write-up mentions this but does not state what they did to address the issue. The manual says to us a "SST". Is there some kind of joint puller that can help?

2) The manual also says to disconnect the rear brake lines and bleed them upon reinstallation. I don't see anyone else doing this step - are the lines long enough when the rear axle is at full droop? Should I put a jack under it to be safe?

1) It was such a pain that we didn't do it, and oh how I wish we would have. Well, we tried, and that's when all hell broke loose and things went wrong. We tried to use a fork to pop it off, and that succeeded in shredding the seal and resulted in an order to CruiserDan (one tie rod end, please). Of course, that was after we tried to get the old parts out and they slipped and cut the CV boot (one CV book kit please). Do get the tool to get the tie rod end off and drop that thing.

Also, remove the sway bar links and get it way out of your way. With no room to get the assembly in, the sway bar links were in the way and that ended up in an additional order to CruiserDan (one sway bar link, please. Ummm, make that 2).

Those 2 steps will make your life so much easier. Without the tie rod down, the assembly was next to impossible to shove up in the mount.

2) We didn't touch the break lines, just did exactly what you are considering and put a jack under it.

I can see the more accomplished mechanics on here laughing at me on this one, all I can say is at least we tried and we were willing to screw up in order to learn. Before this I had no idea what any of this stuff did, and now I do and can fix it.

 

[klaus9000]

Did mine yesterday. We only disconnected the swaybar in the front and didn't touch the break lines or steering knuckle. It was a tight fit getting the spring up into place but with some twisting it fit in.

On the rear we jacked up one corner at a time and let the wheel hang. Disconnected the swaybar bracket from the axle and the shock - spring came right out. To get the OME in, one of us put weight on the axle and it fit in.

If you have the option of getting the spring compressing done by a shop I highly recommend it. It was very scary doing it with store bought compressors.

 

[Quixote]

So I called the local Pep Boys and they said that they provide the service of compressing the spring and assembling the strut. Their charge is $50 per shock - is that reasonable? All of the professional mechanics I know are out of town for the holidays.

On a side note - there seems to be a run on spring compressors in the Bay Area - I went to an AutoZone and a Kragen they were out. The AutoZone guy also said - "Oh, we had a customer kill himself with one of those" :whoops:

 

[CandyPants]

So I called the local Pep Boys and they said that they provide the service of compressing the spring and assembling the strut. Their charge is $50 per shock - is that reasonable? All of the professional mechanics I know are out of town for the holidays.

On a side note - there seems to be a run on spring compressors in the Bay Area - I went to an AutoZone and a Kragen they were out. The AutoZone guy also said - "Oh, we had a customer kill himself with one of those" :whoops:

Ouch...

I paid $60 for the pair, but we are in a suburb of Atlanta. I think we had ours done at a Meineke or something like that.

 

[FirstToy]

So I called the local Pep Boys and they said that they provide the service of compressing the spring and assembling the strut. Their charge is $50 per shock - is that reasonable? All of the professional mechanics I know are out of town for the holidays.

On a side note - there seems to be a run on spring compressors in the Bay Area - I went to an AutoZone and a Kragen they were out. The AutoZone guy also said - "Oh, we had a customer kill himself with one of those" :whoops:

If you are using coil compressors, keep your body away from the ends of the coil. If the compressors slip off, it will launch the coils hard enough to put a hole in you.
also note that OME coils are hard to compress b/c the steel is thick and it is difficult to have enough space between the winds to compress it enough- if you get my meaning. The fat, squarish compressors will probably not work...

it is worth it to have a shop do it. They have those big compressors that make it super easy. $50 per strut sounds way expensive.

Oh yeah, remember to unscrew the little ABS wire tab off the uca. otherwise, when you pop the ball joint, you will stretch it and snap it. It will throw the "abs off/vsc off" on your dash if it does that.

 

[PASON21]

It was very easy to do on my own, I was able to do itmyself and save the money.

For the front I pulled wheels off, removed sway bar, and then two bolts holding lower ball joint to hub. I didn't remove the tierods at all.

In the back I just pulled wheels, lower shock mounts and then rear sway bar. then just lowered axle and replaced spring. The rear was very easy and only took about 45 minutes.

It was a spacerlift by Toytec.

 

[Quixote]

So yesterday we took a crack at this job. The removing the front strut wen relatively smoothly thanks to Heather's excellent caveats. I got a tie-rod puller and it made quick work of dropping the tie rod. Once I had that and the front sway bar out of the way it was quite easy to shove the strut upwards and then out.

Currently the front strut is over at Pep boys awaiting assembly they couldn't do it for me yesterday!

The rear, on the other hand presented some difficulties. This was mainly because we were too scared/cautious to get it fully articulated. We were trying to emulate the forum write-up and pull out the coils with a pry bar - not the best strategy, IMHO. Once we got over this fear and had the axle fully tilted we could just move the springs in and out by hand.

So, have to brow beat the Pep Boys to do the strut today and reassemble the front!

 

[FirstToy]

We were trying to emulate the forum write-up and pull out the coils with a pry bar - not the best strategy, IMHO. Once we got over this fear and had the axle fully tilted we could just move the springs in and out by hand.

besided being totally unneeded, a prybar can slip into something valuable... The rear is super easy, the way I do it is undo the sway bars, shocks and the rr axle will drop free (place a jack under the pumpkin so you dont pull your brake lines apart.

you can simply pull or put a foot on the hub and pop in the coil.

Sounds like you have it figured out, good luck w/ the front- that's pep boys for you!

 

[GXO]

For the record, I bought some pullers last night. No one should make fun of me anymore (yeah right!).

 

[Quixote]

The Pep Boys came through for me, finally. They really had me on edge though as they said there were several jobs ahead of me and I didn't know when I would get the assembled struts. Maybe they felt pity for me in my desperation or were dazzled by my dapper mechanics outfit but they ended up only charging me $40, twenty bucks per strut. They had quoted $50 per before!

Once I had the struts it was a relatively straighforward matter of getting them installed. I used the bottle jack that comes with the car to push down the upper control arm and my wife, strap wrench queen, twisted the shocks so they lined up. We scraped some of the paint on the shocks in this process when they brushed up against the dropped sway bar. I also scraped some of the rustproofing in the wheel well when I didn't use a large enough piece of wood for force distribution.

Other than that car seems to be okay. Ride is much firmer. Thanks to all of you for your tips - the install went much better because of them!

 

[Zack1978]

The Pep Boys came through for me, finally. They really had me on edge though as they said there were several jobs ahead of me and I didn't know when I would get the assembled struts. Maybe they felt pity for me in my desperation or were dazzled by my dapper mechanics outfit but they ended up only charging me $40, twenty bucks per strut. They had quoted $50 per before!

Once I had the struts it was a relatively straighforward matter of getting them installed. I used the bottle jack that comes with the car to push down the upper control arm and my wife, strap wrench queen, twisted the shocks so they lined up. We scraped some of the paint on the shocks in this process when they brushed up against the dropped sway bar. I also scraped some of the rustproofing in the wheel well when I didn't use a large enough piece of wood for force distribution.

Other than that car seems to be okay. Ride is much firmer. Thanks to all of you for your tips - the install went much better because of them!

PICS??

Zack

 

[Quixote]

PICS??

Zack

I'll post in a couple of days. The truck is still very much a work in progress...