Long day at work because my wife called and told me two boxes showed up. One from JC Whitney (steering stabilizer and shock boots) and the other from Rough Country (3" lift kit). Man today is dragging on now, and I am busy with month end and will be here for most of the night. :-(

Good news is I started soaking all my suspension bolts in PB Blaster this weekend so they will have a full week soak by the time I get to work on the next this weekend.

 

Thats the worst part.

But good luck with the lift! And great idea about soaking them bolts.

 

the real leaf springs bolts are still gonna be a pain no matter how much you soak them..best of luck

 

Yeah, I fully expect them all the be a PITA, but figure they may be a bit less of a PITA w/ the good soaking. Also hoping I don't snap any of my shot mounts as I don't have a good welder, just a crappy 100 amp hobby welder.

:-)

 

If you are in the rust belt then I hate to say it but chances are no matter how much soaking those upper shock bolts are going to suck. My suggestion is don't force it and rock em back and forth to loosen em up.

 

I just did my RC 3" lift this past weekend. And I had more issue wit the front Leaf spring bolts than any other. And I'm in MI..

 

Yeah the upper shock bolts are the ones that worry me the most- lots of people snap them off when doing a lift on a rusty heep. I'll just keep spraying them down nightly (still no plates or insurance on the Jeep so it is in a nice handy spot w/ my creeper under it).

The front spring bolts, eh? When I lowered my Corvette (only other suspension work I have ever done) the rear leaf spring bolts were the worst part of it too. I ended up buying new ones as I broke one. Second one I cut off as I needed to buy a new set anyway. Drove them out with an air chisel... Bolts like that are easy to replace, it is the ones like the shock mounts that are studs and not easy to fix...

 

I was talking the front side of the Leaf. The spacer tore in the bushing and just spun. 2 hours just to get 1 bolt out..

I did the whole front end axle swap and all in about 3 hours.. And that's with no air tools.

 

i had the same problem. my front wasnt that bad and then i got to the back and cussed for two days. the top shock bolts snapped and the front leaf bolts were a pain in @$$

 

All I can say is ditto...

 

I find it funny how everyone always tells newbs that it is easy to install your own lift kit, and then we hear stories like this come from everyone who does it. Haha. Good luck with yours tho. let us know how those bolts come out!!

 

A noob can install there lift. Just their is pain in the butt's that come up..

 

I wouldn't say I'm a newb- been working on cars for 20+ years, just never did any lift (my previous toys either came with a lift or got lowered in the case of my Corvette).

 

let us know how the rear upper shock bolts go......

 

im getting ready to put a 4.5 inch lift on saturday i cant wait it's my first one to put on myself!