How hard is it to install a 3" lift kit with no prior experience?

 

Not hard at all if you have some mechanical skills. Basic hand tools (sockets etc), quality jack/jack stands, pneumatic tools lighten the load, lots of brake cleaner and possibly a coil spring compressor if you can't get the front axle to droop down enough. The rear is cake but the leaf eye bolts can be a beatch to come out sometime. Add antiseize to your new hw. You will be changing your driveline & steering geometries so be prepared to rreplace/upgrade some components. Hope this helps.

 

I recently did a lift, well I started one then i changed my mind about the height mid way. However I have learned allot from endless amounts of research. One thing I will say you will want to invest in if you don't have it already, a case of pb blaster. Soak as much as you can with it specially rear leaf bolts. It will save you allot of aggervation.
Here is one write up I used as my main reference
This chart will tell you what you need and what's a good recommendation to also have.
Useful thread to figure out what company to go with.

Something I saw on a write up but I seem to be missing the link so I'll explain it. When you need to remove the leaf spring bolts, the ones that are towards the front end of the vehicle. Use a jack stand and a long socket extention. Put the jack stand under the socket extention.

Useful thread about tools types of tools. Little vague about specific sizes

The only thing that helped me when I did this lift was research research research. Did I mention research? And even after all that you still may run into problems so give yourself enough of a time window to allow for, broken bolts, pre soaking, tool accessories, beer runs, so on and so forth.

Good luck!
-W91

 

if you have never turned a wrench before then it will be an issue.

if you are comfortable with a wrench and have a basic understanding of the suspension then it shouldn't be an issue. worst part for mine were the rear spring bolts. i oiled them down for a couple weeks before the lift and was still nervous about breaking them loose..

oh the trans/tcase cross member was a real ***** too. broke one bolt getting it out.

 

First ever real work I'd done to any vehicle was my 3" lift.
A buddy and me with no prior experience did it as college freshmen in the parking lot in a about a day.

It's a pretty basic job if you can turn a wrench. Just rent the tools from your favorite parts store and get to it.

Don't forget an alignment afterwards. My first lift I had aligned, now I do it myself.

 

No rust: Very easy
Lots of rust: Very hard

 

Most realistic advice on this thread.

 

Surprised no one mentioned the shock bolts on the rear and how they break 90+% of the time.

 

If I were to do mine over again, this would be my plan from the start.

1. Buy a gallon of penephite or kroil from Kano Labs. This stuff is awesome and a gallon will last you a very long time.
2. Two weeks in advance, I would get underneath the XJ and look at every bolt involved, and start spraying them with penetrating oil as many times as I physically can every day.
3. Buy a mapp gas torch, or propane will do if you really don't want to spend the little bit extra. I've used a mapp gas torch to get even stuck brake bleeders out (spray those extra well along with the other bolts).
4. Have a car available while you're working and collect all of the nuts/bolts you remove and replace any that you can't make look new with a wire wheel or brush. If you don't have a bench grinder with a wire wheel attachment, get a wheel that you can put in a drill chuck.
5. Buy new brake bleeders when you get the YJ front brake lines because those things freeze up every time you even look at them the wrong way. I ended up replacing both of my front calipers when I put my kit on because the bleeders were stuck and it wasn't worth the $20 to fight with them.

Basically, plan ahead for anything that might go wrong and necessitate you making a part store run. IME, having to go buy parts in the middle of a project is what usually slows me down the most, and it's really easy to return parts you didn't use. And yes, the rear shock bolts break a lot of the time. Any bolts you hear are difficult should be literally soaked in penetrating oil, and it probably wouldn't hurt to hit them with heat when you do your daily sprays. This is all I could think of off the top of my head, but these were most of the problems I encountered. Most of all, don't be scared when people tell you it can get tough. You learn how to do these things by making mistakes and running into issues, but it certainly isn't the end of the world.

 

i'll add. use never seize on all the nuts bolts when going back together.

 

That^

 

The rear leaf bolts were put on at the factory with red Loctite. Red Loctite has to be burned/melted to unfreeze.

Here's a video that demonstrates it. You can see the bolts come right out at around the 9:00 mark.

 

Actually it doesn't really have anything to do with heat. I've used red loctite myself many times and I've rarely ever had to use heat to break loose something I reassembled. It's all about the rust. When I did my lift kit, I had bought the XJ two days prior and only needed heat for the brake bleeder. Regardless, heat and penetrating oil are your best friends for rusty shock bolts.

 

Yeah, actually it does, according to the manufacturer of Red Loctite:

 

Its possible to get those leaf springs bolts out without heat from my experience. It just will take alot of penetrating oil, pry bars, and cursing. On mine, I didnt have a torch handy at the time, it took me and my two buddys an hour and a half of cursing but we did get them out. We had to get creative with pry bars.

As for the rear shock bolts, biggest pain ever. I had to rip up the carpet and cut a hole in the floor to get to the top of the tack welded on nuts. Other than that, it wasn't too bad. Coil spring compressors are sketchy IMO though, make sure you get educated about those before you jump into it. Those can hurt you bad if they slip off the compressed spring.