VICELORES
91 sierra 2inch Body Lift Install write up.
Hello all give you a bit of background of my project I’m a 21 year old computer student now working in logistics as a category planner. With no prior knowledge about cars, except what I had read on the net. I Just bought a 91 WT sierra. Love it wanted a little more tyre clearance so decided to do this body lift. The kit I used was a superior engineering 2-inch lift. Cost me $370 shipped to vic.
http://www.superiorengineering.com.au/p ... category=5
Thought I would put some words down on my experience with the process.
Was a extremely enjoyable process that took me and a mate who both had very little experience with cars about 16 hours total over a few days. But if I did it again now could get it done in about 5 hours.
Inspect the bolt’s location Not too much to explain here. Theres 2 up front 2 in the back and 6 under the car in the middle. 4 just behind the front seats and 2 under the front of the doors.
Remove front grill All you need to do here is unscrew 5 screws out the front of the grill and give it a little pull from the middle of the grill.
Remove backlights loosen back bumper Ok you don’t really have to remove the lights but it makes it allot easier (and I highly recommend it). There is 8 screws holding in the back 2 light’s take them out.
This will allow you to check alignment at a later stage when lowering the body.
Also I would remove the 6 main bolts that hold the back bumper on as when I was raising the body, my bumper caught up on the number plate light brackets and lifted the back wheels off the ground and then eventually snapped off one of the lights and bent the crap out of the bracket. if your careful with this you may not need to remove the bumper but I would advise it . Made it allot easier.
Remove front bolts Pretty explanatory, just screw the 2 bolts up from the top. Be careful with the ratchet if u haven’t taken out the front head lights. As I didn’t.
Remove back bolts 2 back bolts are pretty much the same just attack them from the top, kinda hard to get to the bolt head so use a ring spanner until u get it up past the rubber.
Remove 6 middle nuts and lower bushings There are 6 bolts under the car will be quite obvious how they come off remember to keep the factory rubbers and the steel washers and bolts.
Remove fuel filler bash plateok in the back right wheel arch there is a guard to protect the filler hose from stuff hitting it . has 3 bolts 2 into the chassis and 1 into the body. take them all off and remove the guard. ( I only used the chassis bolts when I placed the guard back on.) top one is pretty useless IMO.
Remove fuel filler guard (inside car) ok in the back of the car there is a steel guard over the fuel filler hose. has 3 bolts holding it in it needs to come off. Do this by pulling the trim off over it and removing 1 bolt that was holding a little bracket on over the trim. Ounce that’s off get the steel guard out.
Loosen cable ties on fuel filler hoseOk there's a cable the top of the fuel filler hose and one at the bottom ( in the wheel arch) both need to be loosened. I couldn't move the hose much until I actually started moving the body up. so I left that until the lift.
Remove handbrake bracket Easy peazy this one 2 bolts under the back tray. Probably directly under the back 2 seats, remove them and let them hang.
Remove brake line bracket For this step you need to undo 2 bolts going into captive bolts welded onto a bracket inside the engine bay.
The bracket is under your battery, see pic. You need to undo the 2 bolts that go into the bracket, You can get to them from inside the front right wheel arch.
Ounce they are off let the bracket hang.
Remove steering column Ok fun stuff now. There are 2 bolts that go through the rag joint. (Rubber circle just before the steering box.) These need to come out and then there is a clamp up near the u joints (some dog bone thing up near the fire wall) see pic lol. Ounce that’s loose pull her out. Might be a little tight so don’t be scared to yank it out the clamp. (You will have to pull the bolt fully out the clamp to do this (well I had to).
Drill steering column plugs ok in the steering column there are 2 little plastic plugs that go about 3 mil into the shaft. they are around the middle of the shaft (on the square bit) see pic.
I just drilled the plugs out and lubed it up with some WD40.
Extend steering column spine Ounce the plugs where out I gave it a bit with a hammer to move it in, and to move it out I inserted a screwdriver into the inner side of the shaft and hit it on the ground. Pushed the inner tube out fairly well. ( don’t be soft with this it can be quite stiff.)
I have also read about people just putting a spacer on their rag joint. Or making another rag joint of the same size and using 2 to make up the extra length. I went away from this info because I didn’t have enough info on it.
Remove boot from around both gear sticks Simple bit here 4 bolts around the main stick, 4 screws around the smaller gear stick.
The lift itself The lift itself wasn’t the hardest thing to do. Though I was working in a garage with 2 normal car jacks and a bunch of blocks. If trolley jacks where used I would say it would be allot easier. I used a piece of wood each side under the sill and the jack under that. You have to be careful you don’t catch the bracing next to the sills that connects to the chassis as u will lift up the back tyres with the body (like I did lol).
Take it slow when lifting and check for any tight cables or anything that could get pulled to tight.
I have herd that people only lift one side at a time. Install the blocks and do the other.
My blocks didn’t fit with just one side up in the air. So I had to lift both (probably not advised, as I had been told not to, but I saw no other option.)
The only thing I saw getting tight was the brake lines. But this ended up having enough stretch to get the blocks in.
Screw on captive bolt extensionsOk you just screw on the female bolts onto the captive 6 bolts under the body. i used lock tite on them (as i was advised to from the people who make the kit.)
Place rubber blocks onto the captive boltsJust press all the blocks on the captive bolts coming down from the body then lower a bit to take the tension off the brake lines.
Place in front and back blocksAfter this I re positioned front and back blocks with the bolts just sitting in through the holes. Without screwing them into the chassis captive nuts.
Place factory rubber bushings on after the blocksThen I focused on the bushings that came off the car on the 6 middle bolts coming down from the body. I used a little lube on them and cleaned them off. The seemed to be in good condition so decided not to replace them (though I have heard it’s a good idea.)
I pressed them onto the outside of the block. Was a tight fit but got them on. If they are too hard try lower the body onto them and they should squeeze on.
Lower bodyAfter all 6 bushings are on lower the car a little more.
Check alignmentOn its trip down keep checking alignment using all bolts. This would be easier fixed if u used trolley jacks but I ended up just pushing the body around on jacks. Bit dodgy but got away with it.
Insert front and back bolts After your happy with the alignment and have check all middle bushings are fitting into there holes nicely. Its time to tighten the front and back bolts. Remembering to use washers. My kit came with replacement washers but they where fairly crappy so I replaced them with the original ones.
Place on factory bushings then screw in screwsOk so now the cars back down on the chassis and the front and back bolts are all holding the body in place. Place the factory rubbers back on the bottom of the 6 middle bolts followed by the big steel washer things. And finally a bolt to hold it all in.
Tighten up all the removed pieces Pretty self-explanatory put back on the fuel filler and the cover inside and bash guard. I didn’t extend the handbrake bracket though you probably could.
Reinstall Brake BracketOk this was fun. The 2 holes that you took the bracket off is now way out of reach for the bracket, though there are 2 pre drilled square holes a little down and to the right I used one of these holes to reinstall the bracket and drilled another for the other bolt. ( I was told you can bend the hard break lines to make it reach around the steering column and make its way to the desired holes. ) Which I did. But was also told not to bed up near the master cylinder. Not a brake expert so do not take my word for it if you aren’t sure what you’re doing.
Install steering columnFor this part pretty self explanatory , just reinstall the steering column can get a little tricky lining up the holes but a beer buddy will make the job easier as they can turn the steering wheel for you.
Final stuff.
After that’s done pretty much just put the lights back in and install the grill and reinstall the boots around the gear sticks. Have herd that you may need to enlarge the Trans hole a little. I didn’t have to.
Ok so I thought I would put down what I had learnt through the process. Please do not take my word for any thing because as stated I have no experience except this IF YOU DO NOT KNOW PLEASE ASK SOMEONE WHO DOES. Anyway`s I coudn`t find much info on the install so I thought I would put something down to help someone out if they are looking to do it.
Cheers guys and keep up all the good work Outer limits.
PS if anyone has any changes that need to be done to this please PM me and ill do my best to update it.
Please feel free to add to the bible as its body lift section could use a update lol.
not a member ?
if thats Viclores how to then its a pretty good thread.
