Thoughts on lifting

[gardoni]

Did the Superlift UCAs and reindexed yesterday. JGC springs go in Friday. Some random thoughts- mostly for people about to do this or contemplating it...

 

The big bolts on the UCA spindle wouldn't budge without an impact wrench. If you don't have one, it may be time to beg, borrow, steal or invest in one. 22mm socket I believe.

 

After loosening the torsion bar adjusters all the way it's reasonably easy to reindex them rather than trying to pull off the thingies on the front and reindex there. I used 2 screwdrivers to pry off the C clip and it was far easier than I expected. Make sure when the clip goes on that you've got it in the rear-most groove- I accidentally clipped into the wrong one initially. I did have to fully remove the adjuster bolt in order to do the reindex. Here's a great place for an air wrench or a drill with a socket driver. The bolts are long and the thread is pretty fine. Mine were old/dirty enough that doing it by hand with a ratchet would have been a long uncomfortable process.

 

In retrospect I wish I'd had both front wheels off the ground at a time when I did this instead of one at a time. This would have allowed me to measure from the transmission cross member to the bottom of the T-bar adjusters to make sure I indexed both the same- I think one got 2 splines and the other 3. Either that or the driver's side bar is more tired than the passenger's- which is a possibility.

 

Pulling the bushings out of the old UCAs wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I used a 1/4" drill and tried to drill out between the rubber bushing and the inner metal one. The drill "walked" between the two which turned out to be just the thing. After about 20 revolutions I was able to pull the bushing out with channel locks. You only need to pull one BTW and then the spindle comes free- you'll see.

 

Don't forget to support the axle/rotor assembly when you pull the UCAs. It's heavy and it WILL flop over and annoy you.

 

Hope this helps someone considering the lift. I took my time solo and it took me about 6 hours, including new shocks. Pics to follow once everything is done and washed and waxed.

 

-gardoni

[jj big shoe]

Schweet.

Glad to see everything went ok. I did the drill trick on mine too, works like a charm.

[Earth1]

Thanks for that description. I'm puting new UCAs on this weekend, and that info is handy.