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Here's my 2001 ZR2 with Jeff's 2" coil spacer lift

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Here's my 2001 ZR2 with Jeff's 2" coil spacer lift
« on: September 19, 2009, 04:39:54 PM »
Just finished installing the coil spacer lift.  It took a little longer than I anticipated.  Probably about 7 hours total.  I started with the rears.  Of course the lower shock bolts were frozen.  You could spin the nut off after putting some heat to it but the sleeve was frozen to the bolt so it wouldn't come out.  Used an angle grinder with a cut off blade to cut the thread off and then cut the bolt on the inside of the mount so the head would fall off.  Lowered the axle.  Put on the spring compressors and pulled the springs.  For rear shocks I used 93 4runner shocks.  Everything matched up but I had to fab steel sleeve inserts for the rubber bushings.  Just compressing by hand the 4runner shocks are tighter than oem.  This may lead to a rougher ride but I haven't had enough time to tell.  The emergency brake cable isn't long enough at full drop but after removing the two bolted clips there is enough slack and they don't bounce on anything so they should be fine.  The front end is the hard one.  After removing the strut I went to pull the upper strut mount and of course one of the nuts was froze causing the stud to spin.  I tried vice grips on the stud and even squared it off with a dremel and tried to get it out with a wrench but the wrench kept popping off.  So I took my welder and welded the stud to the mount and then was able to remove the nut.  Then I just ground off my weld.  Then you need to remove the other studs from the mount and I just used socket that fit around the head of the stud and then used my bench press to pop them through (instead of drilling the heads in the instructions).  You can do this same procedure with any large bench vise.  The upper mounts on mine had a locating pin on them.  There is no slot for that locating pin on the spacers.  So I ground it off.  Then I replaced the mounts with the strut spacers and just loosely bolted them on until I had the strut in and the lower bolts in place.  The next big snag for me was getting the springs out.  Even with 5 coils compressed I did not have enough clearance to pull the spring out.  I removed the sway bar and even pulled the tie rod but the arm would not drop.  As I was putting pressure on the driverside a-arm I noticed my aluminum housing was moving and I was really worried with enough pressure it was going to crack.  So I figured out the cv joint was what was holding me back and I removed the 3 bolts at the flange that attaches it to the housing and then my a-arm dropped.  I got my spacer in and got things buttoned back up.  On the passenger side there is no flange for the cv.  I had to take a 4ft cheater bar and lock it into the a-arm and have my wife slowly apply pressure until my spring fit back in.  Once it was in, my a-arm wouldn't come up and I realized the cv shaft had popped out of the diff.  After a little wiggling I got it to fit back in.  The brake lines in the front will be too tight at the steering locks but if you lightly bent their mounting brackets you free up enough slack.  I had used camber adjusting bolts in the tops of the struts and set them to their max pulling the spindle toward the inside.  The strut tower support bar would not go back on until the vehicle was dropped back on its tires. Once everything was buttoned up I drove it around the back streets to loosen up the springs.  I was unable to put the sway bar back on.  It would not fit and needs about a 1" block to mount to the body which would put the bar forward enough to be remounted.  With a few quick turns I am pretty sure I am going to have to address this as this is my wife's zuk.  It dives quite a bit.  I also notices the rear is up higher.  If I measure to the ground from the bottom of the frame the rearend sits at 12" off the ground and the front of the frame sits at 11".  Maybe I need to throw a load of bricks in the rear for a week.  :^)  I'll give it a little while to settle and if the rear doen't come down I'll pull those and take a half inch off them.  Even with the camber bolts in the top of the struts the wheels stick out at the tops.  Its going to need to have the stuts slotted or a second camber bolt put in the bottoms.  Here is a couple of pics:
« Last Edit: September 19, 2009, 04:50:46 PM by spyder0069 »

Re: Here's my 2001 ZR2 with Jeff's 2" coil spacer lift
« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2009, 04:50:33 PM »
P.S.

I have done the spacer lift on two other older kick/trackers so this wasn't my first rodeo.   ;)  I probably had an hour of head scratching figuring out how to drop that a-arm more but it took every bit of the other six hours and that was with an impact gun spring compressors, angle grinders, oh and I had to use a sanding drum on the drill cause the front spacer were a little tight.  

This truck has new cooper discovery 225/75/15.  I had mocked up my 235's before the lift and they rubbed in front so I bought her these.  That was before I decided to lift it.  Now I am sure the 235's would have been fine.  Still looks good with the 225's though.

Jeff:
Thanks for the quick shipping and nice spacers.  And thanks for painting them to match my vehicle.   :laugh:  Always a pleasure to do business with you.

« Last Edit: September 19, 2009, 05:34:29 PM by spyder0069 »

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Offline jeff1997

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Re: Here's my 2001 ZR2 with Jeff's 2" coil spacer lift
« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2009, 08:48:33 PM »

Jeff:
Thanks for the quick shipping and nice spacers.  And thanks for painting them to match my vehicle.   :laugh:  Always a pleasure to do business with you.


PAINT??? they are not painted.  :laugh: The material is red to start with. Glad it all went together OK. The front is a pain!!! I've done this on several as well and the front always is te worst. I've done some newer ones like yours and we got the sway bar back on. It was tight but it went back on.
1997 4dr. Sidekick Sport 1.8L DOHC
2" coil spacers- I make and sell 1.5" and 2" on e-bay.  Look under seller: hoepkers
3" Masterkit1 body lift
Custom strut spacers
31/11.50/16 Super Swamper LTB's w/1.5" wheel spacers Steel bumpers Custom cold air intake 2" exhaust w/cherry bomb 98 Expedition, 2" lift, 35's, Magnaflow exhaust - BIG BLUE

Re: Here's my 2001 ZR2 with Jeff's 2" coil spacer lift
« Reply #3 on: September 19, 2009, 09:44:15 PM »
Yeah, I know they are not painted I was just giving ya crap.  I just thought it was convienient with my red tracker.   ;)  Ha ha!

I was bolting the sway bar back on the body and then trying to get it in the a-arms but maybe I'll try putting it in the a-arms first and then snug it up the body.  I put 120lbs of sand in the back which dropped the back to about the level it was before.  We'll see if that settles them down.   :laugh:


Re: Here's my 2001 ZR2 with Jeff's 2" coil spacer lift
« Reply #4 on: September 23, 2009, 06:41:38 PM »
I got my sway bar back on.  The trick is to run the bolts through the a-arm first and just put the nut on enough so it doesn't fall off.  I made up a 1/2" spacer to put behind the bushings and used four longer bolts and snugged them down and then snugged the a-arm side nuts down.  Everything then lined up perfect.

The four runner shocks I tried were a terrible match.  They were gabriel ultra's from autozone and they really rode rough.  So those were a $60 mistake.   :-\  I had used the 95 mustang shocks on my 2 door '90 tracker and like the way they rode so I picked up another pair of those ($16 each gabriel guardians).  They were an inch shorter than the four runner shocks.  Also even after riding around with all that sand in the back the rear springs never dropped any and my frame was still an inch higher in the rear than in the front.   I could really feel it during driving.  So when I swapped the shocks tonight I pulled the rears coil spacers and knocked off a half inch (another great use for the sawzall) so that they were 1.5" instead of 2".  I took it for a good long ride tonight and everything worked out.  The sway bar is working great and I won't worry about my wife so much if she cranks it to avoid a squirel. The mustang shocks ride much better and the ride height front to back is perfect.  After some pole position turns, rail road tracks, and me jumping on the rears I remeasured the frame height and got 11" in the front and just a hair over 11.25" in the rear.  Now the vehicle looks normal too instead of looking like a hot rod.

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Offline rds573

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Re: Here's my 2001 ZR2 with Jeff's 2" coil spacer lift
« Reply #5 on: September 23, 2009, 08:45:37 PM »
HI I am looking for a lift but can't find jeff's kit is it Masterkit?


Re: Here's my 2001 ZR2 with Jeff's 2" coil spacer lift
« Reply #6 on: September 24, 2009, 07:12:05 AM »
Jeff's user name is Jeff1997.  You can send him a PM through this forum.  I'll go ahead and send you a private message with his email address as well.