superlift install delayed due to missing parts
Moderator: F9K9
superlift install delayed due to missing parts
well i had hoped to start the install today but i've got missing parts. i finally got the time to go through the lift this weekend and make sure everything was there but i couldn't be lucky enough to get a complete kit. it seems i'm missing a torsion bar crossmember drop down bracket and some hardware. a few of the hardware bags were broken open and hardware was floating around in the boxes.....which of course had holes in them big enough for small parts to fall out of. well after some phone calls and faxes my drop bracket it supposed to be on it's way to me which is good because i was expecting to hear they didn't have any extras. not that i would have let that stop me....i just would have had my buddy make one in the fab shop at his work. i should be able to get rest of the missing hardware locally and i'm hoping i'll be started on it by this time next week. the directions look to be very complete and the only new tool i needed to buy was a torsion bar unloading tool. i'll keep you guys posted on the progress of the install once i can actually get started.
you have to weld a new spring perch to each side of the rear axle so the leaf springs can be mounted on top of the axle. there is also a step that requires trimming the driver side lower diff. mount on the frame and welding in a reinforcement plate. thats about it for welding but there is a little more cutting required. you have to loosely install the new front crossmember to the frame,trace lines around it in a few areas on the frame,and then make cuts on those lines. lastly you have to trim the differential housing on a coule places. you have to cut off the upper mounting ear on the diff and cut off some on the ribs on the side of the housing.
I have a good question to ask here, since the subject of lift laws came up elsewhere. After you are done installing it, in your opinion, do you think you could go back to stock if you had to? I asked that in another thread a long time back, when they were still designing the Superlift kit but never really got an answer. I know with the TM lift, a lot of the stock brackets have to be cut off, pretty much making the lift permanent. Granted, I would never want to go back to stock after all the cost and work, but if where I lived ever had a "crack down" on such things, it would be nice to know I could return to stock if forced to.
i actually talked about this with guy thats going to help me do the install. i suppose you could put the frame back to stock by welding on the parts that had been cut off(if you remember to save them) and the new spring perches could be cut off but i'm not sure how you would reattach the upper mount that had been cut off of the diff. case. you might have to make some custom brackets to make up for the cut diff case. the shock brackets on the superlift bolt on so all that stuff should come right off. like anything if there is a will there is way. as soon as you say something can't be done someone out there will do it just to prove you wrong. i don't think you'd have to worry about lift laws too much with an s-10. even with 6" of lift and 33's they look small next to a stock superduty. it's the guys running 12" lifts and 44's with stock brakes that everyone is going after. atleast thats all they seem to care about here in michigan
I'm still thinking about SFA and using the Fabritech kit on my Blazer, but if it ever happens, it's a long long ways off. I'm still hurting from the last Blazer project. The Fabritech kit will raise it 9" from stock and supposedly you can run 35's without cutting fenders or anything. I wouldn't go any higher than 33" if for no other reason than it still has to fit in my garage and for the trails it would ever run, I wouldn't need them. Of course, IF I ever SFA the thing, there is no way it could go back to stock without major work.