Lifted

[mkfour]

Put in the lift this weekend. I used Slomo's old F.O.R. springs and bought the rest of the kit from Frankie. It's sort of mixed kit because it has the gen. 1.0 springs, the gen. 1.0 front Bilstein shocks, and the gen. 1.5 rear F.O.R. shocks.

The kit also came with 5* bushings and I went ahead and purchased Slee's plates since many have had good results with them and the F.O.R. lift.

For my hub center to fender (flareless) measurements I ended up with ~24" up front and ~24" in the rear (+/- .25"). That yielded me 3.75" up front and 3.5" in the rear. Initial test drives exhibit only minor increase in noise levels and vibrations and a slight low frequency rumble at around 30 mph. The steering is also much lighter and feels loose with the steering wheel off center.

Pre-lift my cruiser's drivetrain was a bit noisy and had slight vibrations.

Now I'm sort of wondering what to do. I think the Slee's plates will be too much correction. I do have the 5* bushings that Frankie sent me, but those might be overkill as well. Maybe the Slee's blues with a little over 3* of correction will fit right in.

I'll drive the 80 around this week and get a better feel. Meanwhile, does anyone have some unused CC bushings they want to get rid of?

 

[SoCal_80]

Congrats Man....Sorry we never had a chance to hook up and i am glad the install went well. Now i just need to find the time to put on my sliders!

 

[Bluetribal]

:this thread is useless without photos:

 

[LandCrusher'70]

Fixed it for you.

 

[calfj60]

Congrats Man....Sorry we never had a chance to hook up and i am glad the install went well. Now i just need to find the time to put on my sliders!

let me know if you need a hand...

 

[Bluetribal]

Fixed it for you.

Ahh, that smiley is in your photo bucket... Couldn't remember who had posted it before.

 

[mkfour]

Correction, Frankie's offset bushing with offset bolt holes are 3.4*.

 

[bluto]

... I used Slomo's old F.O.R. springs and bought the rest of the kit from Frankie. ..

Ohhh you were the one that ended up with them. Post up what worked to correct the vibes and grrrrs.

Like so many people posted - worthless w/o visuals!

 

[SoCal_80]

Luckily i was in the neighborhood and took a picture for Mike of his newly lifted rig:

It turned out nice man!

 

[SOCALFJ]

LOL - above.

Pics please! Congrats on the upgrade!

 

[calfj60]

Luckily i was in the neighborhood and took a picture for Mike of his newly lifted rig:

It turned out nice man!

where di you find my old rig??? thought it would be rusted and dead by now...

 

[Slomo]

Congrats on getting the lift on Mike. FWIW I liked the FOR lift with the castor plates, made for stable steering on the highway.

 

[mkfour]

FWIW I liked the FOR lift with the castor plates, made for stable steering on the highway.

Looks like I'll have to grind my front control arms down some. They're hitting the tie-rod/steering arm. From reading older posts 1/8" seems like the average, but as a guess I'd say I need to grind more than that.

Hopefully I'll be all done tomorrow.

 

[Slomo]

Looks like I'll have to grind my front control arms down some. They're hitting the tie-rod/steering arm. From reading older posts 1/8" seems like the average, but as a guess I'd say I need to grind more than that.

Hopefully I'll be all done tomorrow.

Are you using castor bushings and the castor plates? I didn't have to grind at all with the castor plates and a Marlin Crawler heavy duty tie rod.

 

[mkfour]

Are you using castor bushings and the castor plates? I didn't have to grind at all with the castor plates and a Marlin Crawler heavy duty tie rod.

Yesterday, as I went to attach the rear bolts of the arm, the steering arm contact prevented me from lining up the bolt. As guestimate, I'd say it was 1/4" off. So I packed it up and held it off until today.

Today, I figured I'd grind 1/8" off and see how that works. Well after the grind, everything bolted straight up. And by the looks of it, I didn't have to grind at all. So maybe the axle was in proper position yesterday.

The Marlin tie rod may have helped some if it is taller than the stock one.

The steering is back to normal now. But there is some minor vib's and grr's. I can live with it. But I do have to center my steering wheel.

 

[Slomo]

The Marlin tie rod may have helped some if it is taller than the stock one.

The steering is back to normal now. But there is some minor vib's and grr's. I can live with it. But I do have to center my steering wheel.

The Marlin tie rod is acutally a larger diameter than OEM so it would be closer to the radius arm everything else being equal.

The vibes are most likely from your front driveshaft.

To center the steering wheel just loosen the two adjusting sleeve bolts on the relay rod with the tires facing straight forward and loosen it to lengthen the relay rod until your steering wheel is re-centered.