So either I pay to get it done or prepare for hell. Basically.

 

Maybe. Depends on how much rust you have!

Mine took 3 days to lift. 2 days were leaf springs.

 

Not at all, but it can be difficult. If I didn't have issues with frozen brake bleeders, mine would have been done after two fairly light days of work. As far as the loctite issue goes, I wouldn't worry about it. Yes, heat may be necessary, but just because loctite is present does not mean heat is required. It's also really only used on smaller bolts, not things like leaf spring bolts. Loctite is designed for use on locations that can't take a lot of torque, so generally on small bolts or where deformation is a concern. I would highly doubt that our leaf spring bolts have loctite from the factory.

Sum and substance is if you are confident turning a wrench and have a good selection of tools, it's really not that hard to do.

 

Again, you're mistaken. The leaf bolts do have red thread locker on them. Watch the video I posted on the first page.

And this is getting stupid. A simple propane torch costs all of $15. A mapp torch is less than $50, but it's not even necessary. I don't understand why anybody would advocate struggling with the bolts when a $15 torch will ease them right out. Are there some kind of bragging rights that come with working harder rather than smarter? "Sure, anybody can do it the easy way. I prefer to make it as difficult on myself as possible."

 

Have you ever actually removed the leaf spring bolts yourself? Yes, heat helps, but getting that little bolt to 550°F where the thread locker was applied is nearly impossible and only a minor fraction of the problem. It was VERY easy for me to get the bolt to turn.

 

My 4WD shop charged me $250 to do the lift and had it done in 4 hrs. in at 8 am out at lunch time 2 people.

 

If you read my initial post, you would realize that I highly suggested getting a mapp torch and using heat on any stuck bolts. I also suggested that when spraying the bolts with penetrating oil ahead of time, it wouldn't hurt to give the troublesome bolts some heat cycles as well. Where I disagreed with you is that red loctite must be removed with heat, as that is simply not true, and as salad pointed out, impossible in some places. I also disagreed that loctite was used from the factory on the leaf spring bolts, because those bolts can easily handle the torque values which would make any sort of thread locker unnecessary. It would be a significant cost to Jeep and add another step in the assembly process which is avoided at all costs. Nowhere in that video is there evidence of loctite, just a guy with a rusty bolt doing what everybody else does to remove it.

 

I put long arms on my jeep last year, took me about 6 months hahaha. It was really the first major project I had ever tackled on a vehicle. I ran into many many unforeseen problems, the worst being broken crossmember bolts which required taking the seats and carpet out to drill from the top.

I wasn't aware the leaf spring bolts were loc-tited so I went after them with a 4-5 foot bar and got them out without major issues. If you break off the captive nut on any of the two front leaf bolts or two shackle nuts then you will be cutting something to get to those. Try as hard as you can to not break any bolts that you cannot get to the back of to cut off. PB blaster is your friend, I went through like 10 cans of it.

You most likely will break your upper rear shock bolts. If you do then don't go drilling anything, just knock the broken nuts out with an air hammer and fish new bolts in. This was the only thing that I used my compressor for the entire time.

Just leave yourself wayyyy more time than you think you'll need, have an extra vehicle on hand to make store runs, and walk away from it if you get frustrated. I can't tell you how many days I spent a couple hours trying to do something only to give up then get it done in a few minutes the next day. It's a great learning experience, I felt much more competent working on stuff after completing it. Everything I did was in my driveway with hand tools by myself. Sometimes you have to get creative working without a partner.

 

And just because I randomly thought of it, this is the torch I use. Having the long hose helps a lot since you don't have to hold the whole thing.

http://www.bernzomatic.com/product/b...rt-hose-torch/

 

That's cheating.

 

Just a little

 

PB blast allllllll the bolts or else you'll end up braking all of them like I did

 

Ah, I see. I didn't intend to say that they won't come off without using heat. I see now how my first post reads that way. What I meant to say was that heat lets the thread locker let go without having to put a lot of force on it.

In one of the videos floating around (I thought this was the one), the guy buys new spring bolts from the dealership, and they come packaged with thread locker already on them.

 

That's really weird. I'm a quality engineer for one of the big 3, and I've never seen loctite used on anything but small bolts. Doesn't make any sense to me, so I disagreed with you because I couldn't find anything that said they did have loctite. Sorry to come off like an *** if that's what it looked like.

 

It's all good. I think we've been talking past each other.