New suspension/lift - going in this weekend, talk to me all you DIY'ers....

[tlin]

Pics....

 

[mtwilly87]

@mtwilly87 - updates for you:

1. LOVE IT! ~97K miles on the ODO at time of replacement - wouldn't say the original fronts were terrible but DS air bag (rear) was definitely slowly leaking (would exhibit a lean if not driven for 2+ days or so). It would also bottom-out on speed humps at our business park in the rear. All of that is gone now with the new pieces installed.
2. Got tires on Tuesday (255/80/17 BFG KM2's), alignment (Firestone lifetime) later that same day.
3. Took it out for a small shakedown run yesterday. A washboard road and dry wash out near me, great ride. Soaks up the bumps well (offroad) and the road ride itself (surface streets) is much improved (IMO) over what the aging stock setup felt like. I'm not embellishing, I really like it. Not at all too firm on the roads, really just feels great so far.
4. Install:
   • BE SAFE - just tossing that out there but the rig sits atop the jack/jackstands all day....
   • @DanKunz 's videos are great starters since you haven't done this before (I hadn't either). They aren't "end-to-end" in nature but do a great job of setting you up for success and showing some tips along the way. Watch them all several times each.
   • Don't do this alone, you likely won't get through it in a weekend otherwise (my $.02). The job itself is totally doable if you're comfortable wrenching but it's also not a 1-banana job by any stretch (you'll see in Dan's videos there are what appears to be at least four people there, I did most of this with one buddy on the fronts and later joined by his brother about the time we started the rears).
   • Make sure you've got tools and everything is ready to go! Jack/jackstands, breaker bar, gloves, towels, metric sockets (including larger 17-21mm) with several extensions, 4.5mm allen head nuts atop the electronic assemblies in front were waaaaay harder than they should have been on the passenger side for me (just one of those stupid little hiccups that happen) - lots almost an hour on that alone whereas the driver's side took 5 minutes, have all your parts out you ordered and know what everything is before you start (my UCAs for the front and all sets of adjustable MT links for the rear all had to be put together - should have had that done before we started), air tools are really helpful, gear wrenches are AWESOME if you have them, etc......I'm sure I'm missing something.
   • The clips to release the rear air bags - a bit difficult to describe but you access those clips through the wheel well, NOT underneath the truck itself. Once you get a flashlight and see what's holding those in, they're pretty easy to undo but if you're under the rig trying to figure it out you'll never get them.
   • Do NOT remove the panhard in the rear - these guys will chew you up and make you feel like a 6th grader who shouldn't be touching things if you do (and are dumb enough to admit it) - kidding... . If you DO remove it and have a hard time getting it back in, it's EASY to resolve.....but since you won't remove yours I'll move on.
   • Inspect the rig well before you get started - torn CV boots or anything else leaking, brakes need attention while things are apart, etc.???

I haven't played with the fronts (just installed the coilovers as they were shipped to me) and also didn't (yet) adjust any of the rear links to maximize the long-throw Icon's I've got back there. For now, just getting used to things and want to get a few light trails under my belt before I start further dialing things in. It's a very different rig than my 80 so I'm not rushing things...

So.....I think it took us a total of 30 man-hours to get mine done (at the most). That's two guys on the fronts alone, joined by a third to work on the rears and we had to stop the project by ~2am on day 1 because we were all stupid-tired. Day 2 was only ~4 hours total to do some finish work and the panhard was 30 minutes by myself once I knew what I was doing and had some free time after a long week away for work.

If any of this is discouraging, don't worry. Again, this is totally doable and I'm really glad I worked on this myself. We could easily do all of this again inside one day, the first time is simply slow (like most things in life).

--t

Wow thank you for the amazing information! I will definitely be referring to and studying this while I wait on the lift to arrive. And those pictures you uploaded look awesome, that's the exact look I was hoping for and glad to hear you didn't adjust the front coilovers and installed them as they were shipped. It looks awesome!