2" BL installed - part II

[Mike H.]

Alright, the PA-192 is finally on and functional. After the wasp attack/stings and pulled muscles, I'm glad to be done with it. Overall, working alone, at a very slow pace, I'd say it took me about 10-12 hours. I got done at about 3:00 this afternoon.

First of all, I had the right kit, but an old version of the instructions (98-01, 24 pages). PA e-mailed me the latest instructions (98-03, 31 pages) on Friday. (Anybody that wants the instruction PDF file, e-mail me and they are yours.)

The instructions are fairly accurate, except that it looks like they based it on Chevy's. My '02 GMC front end is completely different than the Crew Cab used in the instruction book. It is simpler, and I had a couple brackets left over in the kit, and none of the drilling mentioned for the bumper brackets. I don't have a real "bumper" to speak of. Only fascia, smaller grille, and different lights. Take note of that if you install on a GMC.

The PA instructions have you take off a lot more stuff than is necessary to do the lift. I did not do the fuel filler hose/vent hose extensions. Didn't have the right parts included anyway. Apparently the ZR-2's have metal hoses, so PA included only 6" long rubber hoses to splice in. The Crews have rubber hoses that require metal splice pieces. Oh well, didn't use them anyway.

There is a second bracket on the driver's side brake line that attaches it to the frame, a few inches behind the one mentioned in the directions. I did not do anything with this one. The other one in front of it I removed. It would not go back on the frame after the lift. Same goes for the wire clip in the same location.

I did not see a need to take off the differential actuator and positive battery wire box, which are mounted below the battery tray. They appeared to have enough slack in them to remain mounted. Same for the negative battery cable.

Some minor problems did exist with the kit, in addition to the wrong fuel/vent line extension parts mentioned above:

1. PA includes 14mm nuts for use on the OEM rear bumber bolts. All bolts on my back bumper and hitch assembly were 12mm. So pick up (4) 12mm nuts to use in advance.
2. I had to drill out two undersized holes to remount the oil filter assembly. The 3/8" shoulder bolts PA included were a little bigger than the existing holes in the crossmember.
3. Use common since on reassembly order. Leave the air filter and battery out until the VERY last. You need the space they occupy to work on the steps PA lists after them. Don't know why they did that.

A couple things I'm going to do yet, is make some gap guards for the rear fenders with some 1/8" cord reinforced rubber sheeting I've had lying around; and raise my hitch by redrilling the 6 holes in the side plates. I'll need sharper bits for that. The plates are at least 5/16" thick.

As far as the look, it is noticably higher but not extreme. My 235's are grossly undersized now. 31's are coming soon (Goodyear MT/R's). With the T-bar crank and add-a-leaf, adding 31's should make it look like a ZR-2.

[a2b]

those MTR's will be sweeeeet!!!

ya, mark put his on and the oil filter brackets worked without drilliing out the holes. sheeesh. i had to drill mine out too. everybody experiences something a little different

[HenryJ]

Thanks for sharing your experiences

They seem to be about the same that I remember and I took about 12 hours too. I did relocate the actuator to allow plenty of slack, mounted 31" tires , built and installed gap guards.



You might consider the 30x9.50-15 Good year MTR (Maximum Traction Reinforced) the availability is still much better than the 31". I haven't measured the size difference yet, but the 30's are pretty close to the same size as my Geolandars. Just a little narrower.



I have four sets running on the fleet vehicles now, and so far everyone loves them.

[quickbiker]

I think it was easier to install the 5" TM lift.

[AZS10Crew]

I think it was easier to install the 5" TM lift.

Then I guess you need to take a road trip out here to Phoenix and prove it.

[adrenalnjunky]

email a copy of the .pdf to adrenalnjunky@jam.rr.com



I've got a blazer and will need the 152 kit, not the 192, but I'd like to get a ballpark feeling of what all is involved.



Where did you get the rubber sheeting to mke the lift lips out of, and how do you plan on attaching them? I was curious if it's way cheaper to do that on your own.

[a2b]

I think it was easier to install the 5" TM lift.

Then I guess you need to take a road trip out here to Phoenix and prove it.

ya me too!!!!

[Mike H.]

I think it was easier to install the 5" TM lift.

Probably..........

[Mike H.]

Where did you get the rubber sheeting to mke the lift lips out of, and how do you plan on attaching them? I was curious if it's way cheaper to do that on your own.

Yeah, it's pretty much free. Long story. I got the stuff from my dad about 2 years ago, as he was moving and throwing things away he'd always had. He had it as long as I can remember. He worked at a power plant for almost 30 years, so I'm sure it came from there. Probably about 20 yrs old. Near as I can tell it is some sort of rubber or neoprene gasket material, about 1/8" thick, with woven fine cord/string in the center. It is smooth and black. It is very solvent resistant (not that it matters in this use), very tough and very flexible. Can not tear it.



I figured I'd keep in the next 20 years. Never know what can come in handy I got a big sheet of 1/8" cork too!



Anyway, I figure I will either screw it on, or pop rivet it on, with very small fender washers to prevent the screw head/rivet from pulling through it. I'll figure something out.



I've got to go ahead and raise the receiver crossmember too. It looks a little funny now. You can see to much of it. Off to get some new drill bits.......

[Mike H.]

Oh, I forgot. All you guys with air compressors, and that don't have a pneumatic ratchet....... GET ONE. Holy crap, that is a dream effort saver. It really made disassembly/assembly of the large body and rear bumper bolts easy and quick.



$20 at Harbor Freight. You can get them from their web site. I have an outlet about 2 miles away, so it was easy for me. I got the 1/2". Works great, seems to be built good, nicely finished. It uses quite a bit of air. You'll need a compressor that does at least 4 or 5 cfm at 90 psi. Mine is 60 gallon and does over 13 cfm at 90 psi, and it even ran occassionally.



Seriously, a must have tool for your compressor. Very sweet.

[HenryJ]

Where did you get the rubber sheeting to mke the lift lips out of, and how do you plan on attaching them?

Near as I can tell it is some sort of rubber or neoprene gasket material, about 1/8" thick, with woven fine cord/string in the center. It is smooth and black. ...

Anyway, I figure I will either screw it on, or pop rivet it on, with very small fender washers to prevent the screw head/rivet from pulling through it. I'll figure something out.

I have pretty much the same story on the belting that I used. It is Military Govt. Surplus. I also believe it was used as a gasket material. Same description.

I used the push in automotive fasteners/retainers:



You drill a 1/4" hole and push them in. Auveco is the brand I get from a local supplier. Any autoparts store should carry them.

[Mike H.]

Cool. I'll look for some. I won't get to it for 2 weeks. I have my kids (4 and 7 yrs old) for 90% of the time, so I can not really dig into the truck that much except for every other weekend. Thanks for the tips.

[HenryJ]

One more thing, If you don't have a punch set for making the holes, Get a roll pin with the ID for the hole you want, and bevel one end to sharpen it.



Spent shell (ammo) casings work well for punching holes too.

[a2b]

Oh, I forgot. All you guys with air compressors, and that don't have a pneumatic ratchet....... GET ONE. Holy c##p, that is a dream effort saver. It really made disassembly/assembly of the large body and rear bumper bolts easy and quick.



$20 at Harbor Freight. You can get them from their web site. I have an outlet about 2 miles away, so it was easy for me. I got the 1/2". Works great, seems to be built good, nicely finished. It uses quite a bit of air. You'll need a compressor that does at least 4 or 5 cfm at 90 psi. Mine is 60 gallon and does over 13 cfm at 90 psi, and it even ran occassionally.



Seriously, a must have tool for your compressor. Very sweet.

ya i have one. too bad i didnt have it when i put the bl on

[Mike H.]

those MTR's will be sweeeeet!!!

Yeah, but now I think I will pass. I priced some and they are ridiculously expensive (like all Goodyear tires seem to be). I just can't see spending $50 more per tire. Looks like I'll be sticking with BFG A/T's instead. I've had excellent experiences with them, as well as my father and best friend, such as incredible mileage (wear) out of them.

[Mike H.]

I finally raised my receiver hitch crossmember this evening. I bought a big drill press (always wanted one) Monday. Tonight I pulled the hitch off and drilled 3 new holes in each frame bracket 1.5" higher than the originals. That was as high as space on the bracket allowed for the top bolt. I'm not going to cut off the extra 1.5" of steel now left over at the bottom of the brackets, just in case I have to remove the lift and put everything back stock in order to trade the truck in sometime. Maybe I'll do as HenryJ did, and put a set of rear hooks back there.



The rear looks much better with the hitch raised and hidden behind the bumper again. I'll spray paint the new PA bumper brackets (they come brightly gold anodized) and all the bolts/nuts flat black this weekend to finish off the rear. I'm also going to de-badge the tailgate.



I'll do the rear wheel gap guards this weekend as well. I cut the rubber sheet already. Just need to do final shaping, drill and install.



Also going to look at ways to reinstall the front tow hooks so that they will come through the fascia openings as they did before the lift. I noticed that big lifted ZR2 discussed in another thread here (with all the electronics) was able to do it. They could easily be put back under the fascia by mounting to the bottom of the frame with a minor spacer block (instead of inside of the frame tubes). But I want to try to raise up everything I can.

[adrenalnjunky]

Mike---take pics of what you do to raise the hooks--I'm going to BL my Blazer sometime this fall, and that's on of the things that bothers me. I like where the hooks are now and was thinking along the same lines of using a solid steel or aluminum spacer block bolted in with thinck grade 8 bolts or something.

[Mike H.]

I got my gap guards made and on. I put new pics on my Yahoo site. Click on the "2002 GMC..." album, then click on the "Body Lif..." album. I took those pics today after having a full professional exterior detail done with lots of wax, prepping for the darn lovebug season.



I also turned on some other photo album folders that I did not know were set to "private" (they show other mods). They are set to "public" now.



As far as the tow hooks, I'm going to fab some parts in order to delete the bumper lift blocks to make space for the hooks. I'm also going to use stainless steel perforated plate (600 grit polished) to cover what is seen through the bumper vent holes, and route the hooks through the plates. Dressing up that area may take me awhile to complete. Stay tuned.....

[Conman]

I got my gap guards made and on. I put new pics on my Yahoo site. Click on the "2002 GMC..." album, then click on the "Body Lif..." album. I took those pics today after having a full professional exterior detail done with lots of wax, prepping for the darn lovebug season.



I also turned on some other photo album folders that I did not know were set to "private" (they show other mods). They are set to "public" now.



As far as the tow hooks, I'm going to fab some parts in order to delete the bumper lift blocks to make space for the hooks. I'm also going to use stainless steel perforated plate (600 grit polished) to cover what is seen through the bumper vent holes, and route the hooks through the plates. Dressing up that area may take me awhile to complete. Stay tuned.....

Looking Good! I might have to rethink the BL myself......



Con

[Mike H.]

I say go for it. Leave yourself 2 days to do it just to be sure.

[smokinjoe]

hey mike h what size tires are running on there?

[Mike H.]

hey mike h what size tires are running on there?

The factory 235's. They now resemble that little wheel I keep in the kitchen to cut my PIZZA with, darn it. I've got just under 20k miles. Kind of wanted to wait a little longer to burn some more tread off them. But, we'll see....

[Mike H.]

First of all, I had the right kit, but an old version of the instructions (98-01, 24 pages). PA e-mailed me the latest instructions (98-03, 31 pages) on Friday. (Anybody that wants the instruction PDF file, e-mail me and they are yours.)

FYI folks, I've still been getting requests for this PDF file. So I sent it to Brule, and he has now added it to the 2" Bodylift page under the Modifications section. You can download it or just read it there with your Adobe Acrobat reader. Thanks Brule.