From: Vadim Kogan (vadim@XCF.Berkeley.EDU)
Date: Tue Feb 15 2005 - 09:20:50 PST
I don't feel like registering, so please crosspost.
He can make a 1in body lift. This is not going to get him too much
clearance, but would allow for larger tires and would increase the clearance
on the sides (the frame rail would stay, but the body will go up a bit).
Here are the details:
Get 6 1in spacers, preferrably out of derlin or some other strong plastic.
Metal would work, but he needs to make sure he puts something between the
body and the metal in this case (right now there should be a little piece of
waxpaper). 3.5-4 in round pieces would do, but he'll have to cut the sides
for two front and left middle a bit to make them fit. Try to make the sides
of the spacers to be parallel (I just used a lathe). Drill a hole in the
center for the bolts (check TM for bolts used, you'll need longer bolts too,
and would be proper to replace the locknuts at least).
Get 2 pieces of 1x2 in square pipe or something similar. I actually used 2
1in square ones spot-welded together on the ends. Not very critical, as long
as it's 1in in height and relatively sturdy. Delrin would probably work too.
I painted them and wrapped them with tape (any softish tape will do, e.g.
electrical tape, just making sure that when it's squished there it won't
move around). One piece should be I think about 6 in long, the other about
11. I don't remember exactly, he might start with something a bit longer and
cut off as needed. These are spacers for the fuel tank (which has to stay
where it is, possibly moving up only a little bit).
2 pieces of about 2x4in rectangular spacers for the hood. I used delrin, but
anything will do. Release the hood straps on the side and get the pivot pins
out. Do one side at a time. Get the bottom mount out (the one that attaches to
the bracket that goes to the frame). Get your spacers to be about the right
size to go under it and get the holes to be about the same. Get longer bolts
and put one of the spacers in (the hood is light, you should be able to lift
it by yourself). You'll be putting the bolts in at the same time. Start the
nuts. Don't put the pivot pin in just yet. Do the other side. Put the pivot
pins in. Center the hood and make sure it's all nice and slowly tighten the
nuts, which checking the alignment. It's not too critical to get it perfect,
but they should be close to parallel (whether shifted to the side or not) to
make sure the pins are not stressed too much.
I suggest loosening up the clamp that holds the fuel filler tube and the
clamp that holds the hose from the fuel filler tube to the fuel tank.
Stick something under the fuel tank, so it will sit at the original height.
Release the fuel tank straps and get the bottom pieces out (they'll come out
easy). Cut those in half and weld in a 2 in piece in the center of the
similar material. Grind it off at least on the fuel tank side, paint.
Release the 3 right-side body mount bolts. Loosen up the 3 left-side body
mount bolts, but keep the nuts on just a bit. The three right ones and the
left-rear and left-middle are going to to be easy (rusted or not, consider
it easy). The left front is going to be a bitch. Serious PITA. What you need
is to get an open end on it on the bottom and have somebody control that a
bit (it'll have very little play there, so you just need to make sure it
doesn't fall down). You need another person on the top with a nice rachet,
LOTS of extensions and on the bottom a _couple_ of _short_ moving
extensions. You can't come off it straight up, so you need to change the
angle, but one extension won't do it, you need to make it as gradual as
possible. You will need the person on the bottom to guide it on and repeat
this process every 1/2 turn or so, since you're likely to slip off. The
person on the top better be really strong, especially if the other nuts were
a bit hard to get off. This will be very hard, but it's doable.
You'll need to get 3 bolts about an inch longer (a bit more longer would
make your life a bit easier). Put a 2x4 alongside the outter edge of the
body and jack it up slowly while having somebody constantly checking the
underside near the right frame rail. You might have to sligtly bend the fuel
supply and return lines and loosen up the clamp that holds the fuel tank
vent line. There should not be much to worry about in the front, but do pay
attention and check things to make sure you're not causing any damage. Once
the rear is high enough, put in the rear two spacers (right rear and right
middle). 4in round spacers will fit there no problem. Note that you're
adding your spacers on top of what's there, not replacing the rubber spacer
that is there now. Put the bolts in and put the nuts on just a bit, don't
really tighten.
At this point you're ready to do the front right spacer. You might have to
position your jack closer to the front to get enough lift there to put it
in w/o getting the rear too high. You will have to cut off sides to make it
fit, so it'll look like a big O instead of a circle. It's a bit annoying,
but not too hard. Put the bolt in, start the nut. You may need to use an
aligning tool (a tapered rod) to get all the holes to align.
You're done with the right side, tighten the nuts a bit more, but not fully.
Your body is tilted now, so you're just trying to make sure that things
don't move too much, you won't get the body to sit flat on the spacer now
anyhow.
Now you do similar procedure on the left side. The left-middle spacer would
have to be cut a bit to fit in. IMPORTANT: the left front bolt MUST be
_exactly_ 1 in longer. Grind off any extra. You may make it 1/8" or so
longer, but try not to make it shorter. This bolt has nowhere to go, it'll
run into the frame if it's too long. Another important thing to do is to
release the bolt that holds the side panel under the hood to the master
cylinder assembly. The master cylinder will go up an inch, but the rest will
stay as it was. I'll come back to this later. If you have a deep fording
kit, get the exhaust tip off alltogether. I'll come back to it later as
well. Aside from the above, the left side is very similar to the right side.
WATCH THE LINES as you lift it. Remember, the master cylinder is going up an
inch! Brake lines and the PS hoses (for power brakes) are the obvious ones
to watch for.
Ok, the lift is mostly done. Now to the fuel tank. You'll need to slide in
your spacers now. The front spacer will go right where the straps are. The
rear spacer will go in front of the straps, there will be a "body
crossmember", an angle that is part of the body. In both places there will
be a rubber pad, which I think is glued to the body. Keep it and slide your
between the pad and the fuel tank. You might have to slightly lift the body
as you do that. Expect it to be rather dirty. Get some crap outta there. The
front is easy, the rear is a bit of a pain, but doable. Make sure that the
front piece is short enough to not cause the straps to be pulled apart and
away from the fuel tank. Get your new lengthened bottom parts of the staps
and bend them to nicely go around the fuel tank bottom like they used to.
Attach the straps and bolt them. You should've had a bit of a gap between
the strap parts where the bolt is to start with, now you'll have one too,
maybe a bit less. Basically, if you're easily bolting it together to the
point that they touch, you've probably got your straps too long. Also make
sure that when you do the final tightening you do not have the fuel tank
supported on the bottom.
You're almost done. You need to go check the steering column and make sure
it's OK. You might have to bend one of the metal straps that hold the rubber
pad there (on the engine side). Just make sure nothing hard is touching it.
I did not bother to cut out the rubber pad.
Remember that bolt you took out in the front that held the side panel to the
master cylinder? Well, you get to drill out the rivets and move the mounting
point on the side panel up an inch and put the bolt back.
If you have the deep fording kit, you'll need to weld on a bit to the
mounting of the exhaust tip to have it reach the holes in the body. I just
used a single strip of metal going across both mounts. Be careful, there are
little metal bushings inside the rubber bushing that go through the body. I
had the original bolts welded to the exhaust pipe. I don't know who and why
did that. I cut off the bolts (leaving the heads where they were) and then
drilled the new holes in place.
You'll need to do something with the airlift "ears". The easiest thing would
be to cut out 1in spacer to put under the rubber supports and then cut out a
bit out of rubber supports to have them sit the way the used to sit wrt. the
hood. You probably want to re-seal those after they fit.
I suspect the brush guard will not need to be lifted. I have the wrong brush
guard on mine, so it somewhat blocks the turn signals. If yours is giving
you trouble, you should be able to weld-on something in the right spots. I
have not done that yet, so I can't provide any details.
This gives you 1in body lift. Anything higher than that will most likely
require a number of additional changes. It can be done, though. Just more
work and more things to watch out for. Note that you now have gaps on the
front and on the rear, you might want to rig something to cover them (the
front somewhat exposes some of your radiator hoses and such).
Additional height I think would be easiest to get with HD springs (I think
normally used on S250 carriers). Those should have an extra loop and thus be
higher. Watch out for vent lines and such (if you have deep fording kit).
You also probably will need to deal with camber. Camber adjustments SUCK.
Avoid if you can. But then again, your truck should be newer, so maybe those
bolts are not nearly as rusted and stubborn as mine. It's easy if you can
get bolts to cooperate. But this is a whole other story, if you end up with
higher springs and needing camber adjustments, I can go into further
details.
Uff... This turned out to be longish...
Vadim.
On Tue, Feb 15, 2005 at 06:40:58AM -0800, Bob Ternes wrote:
> http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=329966
>
> This gent would like the NSN for Interco Swampers
> and also ideas on how to get a little more lift /
> clearance on his HMMWV.
>
> Seems right up everyone's alley here. If you
> reply here I'll put it up on Pirate.
>
> Cheers
> Bob Ternes
> 68 'a2
> Boulder CO
>
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Vadim.
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