Egan's Mini Lift

[Egan]

This past Memorial Weekend I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and get my suspension goodies installed. The goal was to lift the Sport Luxury Utility Truck (SLUT) by about 2? via Torsion Twist and rear coil spacers.
Parts list:
? Traxda keys
? Traxda 1.5? rear coil spacers
? Bilstein shocks x4
? Cognito UCA?s with replaceable ball joint
? Kryptonite front endlinks
? Traxda shock extenders (ended up not needing these)

[Egan]

I started in the rear since it?s easy. First job is to jack the truck up, put it on jack stands, remove the wheels, and support the diff.



Next I disconnected the top of the swaybar endlink from the frame and completely removed the shocks since I was replacing them anyway.



Then I lowered the diff as far as I could to make room to install the spacers above the coil springs. I had to detach all of the ABS lines from the diff in order to drop it far enough.

[Egan]

Then it was a simple matter of placing the spacer above the coil.



The last thing to do was install the new shocks. For whatever crazy reason, I put the driver?s side shock on upside down. Of course I did not catch this until I finished up for the day and had to spend a quick half hour the next morning flipping it around.

[Egan]

With the wheels back on and everything buttoned up in the rear, I moved to the front. Jack it up, put it on stands, and remove the wheels.



First stop was the torsion bars and keys.



I spent the $120 on the proper tool having learned my lesson over the years that I would pay 10X that amount in frustration and/or damage otherwise. The tool worked great, especially with an air tool to crank it up and down. I placed the tool on the key and cranked it up to take pressure of the nut that holds the key bolt. Once I removed the nut, I uncranked the key, completely unloading it.



At first I struggled with trying to push the torsion bar forward, but all it took was some PB Spray and jiggling the key at the same time I pushed the bar forward to get it out.

[Egan]

Then I installed the replacement keys and cranked them back to their stockish position.

[Egan]

Next I moved on to the front components. Here?s the stock set up:



Removing the stock UCA was a pain because I didn?t have a pickle fork, but I eventually got it out of there. With the UCA out, I then removed the shock and shock mount. I installed the shock mount, then the new shocks. I built the Cognito UCA?s on the ground before installing each in place. Tip: grease up the sides of the UCA bushings because it will be a tight fit!

[accely]

Originally Posted by Egan

Then it was a simple matter of placing the spacer above the coil.



The last thing to do was install the new shocks. For whatever crazy reason, I put the driver’s side shock on upside down. Of course I did not catch this until I finished up for the day and had to spend a quick half hour the next morning flipping it around.

Egan, how did you compress the coil so you could place the rear spacer on it?

Also noticed you are using air tools.... I have a 150 PSI 4gal compressor, is that enough to operator the air tools I would need? What air tools do you recommend? Are they used primarily for removing lug nuts on the rims or for other nuts as well?

thanks man.

[Egan]

Originally Posted by accely

Egan, how did you compress the coil so you could place the rear spacer on it?

Also noticed you are using air tools.... I have a 150 PSI 4gal compressor, is that enough to operator the air tools I would need? What air tools do you recommend? Are they used primarily for removing lug nuts on the rims or for other nuts as well?

thanks man.

No need to compress - I was able to get the diff low enough to slide the spacers in.

My compressor is 150 psi 60 gal. Yours will be enough, but it is going to run a lot refilling that small tank. I just use air tools because it's quicker to get lugs and bolts off. There were a couple of places where I had to do things manually due to space, but otherwise the air tools were a big help.