??? i have a 96 4x4 4dr kick and plan tolift it to fit 235 a/t tires on aftermarket steel 15x7 rims.
  this vehicle is strictly a mall cruiser, i just want some alt/att-itude. with rro's 2" body lift, will i run into problems with my auto trans. will there be a gap? would i be better off going with coil spacers? trying to do this on the cheap so my real money can go towards more firearms. i have searched and did not find? thanks, the real badzuki

ive got 235's on my auto tracker and the acceleration and stuff is fine, but the biggest plus in the highway the rpms stay much lower. they rub a little wit my stock suspenion im gonna do the 3 inch calmini boddy lift which will stop that .......good luck

iam runnin 235's totally stock suspension and they only rub a little and its only when i turn all the way left

unelss your springs are sagging i see no reason you cant run 235's stock like me

oh yeah and it is nice on the highway too iam getting much better fuel mileage now. i just cant do big smokey burnouts any more dont quite have the power to get the 235's spinnin the way the old 215's did (better for my wallet that way any way hehe)

You will not have any problems, it will fit fine.

Also since the automatic transmission is a cable linkage, it has plenty of slack in the cable to accomodate a lift.  I have the Calmini 3" body lift and didn't have to do anything as far as the shift lever goes.  

You will have to bend the transfer case shifter a little bit and would probably like it better if you weld an extension on it.  If you can't get the equipment to bend it (torch) you can alternately notch out behind where it is on the tranny tunnel and just relocate the boot a couple inches further back.

Maybe this is a good thread to hijack for a question on body vs suspension lifts. Which is the easiest/best to do, slip in some longer springs (say 1.5 inches), slip in the coil spacers, or use a body lift? I want a mild lift without adverse effects on handling, driveline angles etc.

I can't speak for the suspension lifts since I don't have one yet, but I found the body lift pretty easy to put on.  The only hard part with the body lifts is the bumper situation.  If you have a concrete floor, a floor jack (A big one with the 4" pad/disc thing not one of the ones with the cheesy little 1.5" pad) and a couple 2x4's that's all it takes aside from the usual hand tools to do the worst part of the body lift.  You do have to weld the spacers that go on top of the frame to the frame (although mine still have a gap betwen them and the rubber pads on the body so I'm not sure how necessary it really is).  And you have to weld the bumper adapter brackets to the frame in the front with the calmini 3" body lift if you want to use the stock bumper cover and not have a gap.  There's also the shift lever issue I mentioned in the earlier post.

Other than that it's really nothing difficult. Bolting and unbolting stuff pretty much.   If you don't have a floor jack (or even a big enough bottle jack to reach the 2x4's) I could see it being much harder.

A body lift obviously doesn't change any of the driveline angles and there's no real handling difference since the engine and the other heavy stuff stays the same height relative to the ground as it was before.  True you do raise the center of gravity slightly, by raising the body, but on a 2 door with a soft top you don't have much heavy material above the bottom of the windows so it's probably not that big of a change.  If you do a suspension lift you're still going to raise the center of gravity and even moreso than just a body lift.

This was my tracker a couple years ago.  It has the Calimini 3" suspension lift.  And I'm running stock rims with 235/75 R15's on it.

With the body lift, the only ground clearance you gain is from the larger tires.  With the suspension lift you gain 3" plus the tires.

When your going off roading it's all in the clearance.  I wish I had my lockers back then.  I would of loved to see what I could have gone through with just 235's on her.

The front was very stiff untill I later got the Calimini bumper and winch.  That suspension is made for the added weight.  If you were just going with the stock bumper I'd cut a little out of the coil.

As for installation, it just took normal hand tools.  The hardest part was all the rusted bolts that were stuck into the rubber bushings.

 thanks for the replies,
  z3bra,  i had read that there was a cable linkage  to the tranny shifter, if i understand this correctly, when i lft the body, the transMISSION shift lever will raise with the body. the transFER CASE lever will not come up and that will have to be extended and/or bent. is that correct.
  i have a good floor jack, lift stands, hand tools etc. a pretty good knowledge and moderate skill working on vehicle lifts. perhaps spacers will be a better way for me to go.
  feel free to hijack this post with a "spacer v/s body lift discussion.
  glad to be here on this board. been on the or.c board as badzuki for a couple of years. lurked here for the last 6 months or so.  thanks, tommy

thanks for the replies,
  z3bra,  i had read that there was a cable linkage  to the tranny shifter, if i understand this correctly, when i lft the body, the transMISSION shift lever will raise with the body. the transFER CASE lever will not come up and that will have to be extended and/or bent. is that correct.

Yep, but I didn't see mention anywhere about the steering shaft.  You will have to have a exstantion made for it (something like 1 7/8" cant remember the exact number).  

If your just going for the 235's I'd go with the spacers.  You gain nothing with a body lift except for tire clearance.  The 235's will fit and work most of the time on a complete stocker.  

So with the spacers (and maby flip the mount on the top of the strut) you would just be eliminating the exstream conditions where the tires would rub.  And you will also get additional frame clearance under the truck.

The front was very stiff untill I later got the Calimini bumper and winch.  That suspension is made for the added weight.  If you were just going with the stock bumper I'd cut a little out of the coil.

If you had no plans on adding a Winch bumper in the future I would rather see you go with the 2 inch Calmini kit. It was designed to run without the weight. I would always do a suspension lift first.

Mike

Yep, but I didn't see mention anywhere about the steering shaft.  You will have to have a exstantion made for it (something like 1 7/8" cant remember the exact number).  

If your just going for the 235's I'd go with the spacers.  You gain nothing with a body lift except for tire clearance.  The 235's will fit and work most of the time on a complete stocker.  

So with the spacers (and maby flip the mount on the top of the strut) you would just be eliminating the exstream conditions where the tires would rub.  And you will also get additional frame clearance under the truck.

Ack, you're right I totally forgot about that.  For mine I just cut the old one in half with a sawzall and found a piece of 4130 tubing that I slip fitted over it (had to grind the old shaft down ever so slightly to get it to slip over it).  Then I just used my drill press and drilled holes through it on each end through which I put some high grade bolts.  Could have welded it instead but leaving it bolted makes for easy removal when I have to.  

Make sure you use good locknuts if you go this way and use 2 bolts on each end for redundancy.  Having the bolts drop out while you're driving probably wouldn't make for a good day.

  thanks all,
    i think iam going with spacers.
 now, wheelers spacers are 3/4". rockyroad's spacers are 1 1/8". sky mfg spacers don't fit on the rear  (right?)
does anybody else make spacers of a larger hight? 2" is what  i want. some where i read that you can use tj spacers, but you have to modify them- i prefer not to do this. thanks again, tommy
   also , i read that 3/4 inch spacers gave 1.5" of lift, so any spacer i use will give twice it's hight in lift (right?)

I think that just doing the coil spacers will be much easier, but actually the 2" RRO bodylift will not be as difficult as mentioned above.  I think that you only get those problems with the Calmini 3" bodylift.
 
  I don't have an auto tranny, but I didn't have to do anything to the steering shaft or the transfer case to get the lift to fit.  The only thing that I did was flip the transfer case boot up side down.  Maybe save a few more bucks and do both the coil spacers and the bodylift.

can you stack spacers? safely?