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Rough Country - K5 Blazer 3"
Body Lift Install
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down the body removing all the body bolts. Here is where you can
tell how lucky you are. If you manage to remove all the body bolts
in a truck this age without a problem, I would suggest buying several
lottery tickets! As far as removing all the bolts at once, bear
in mind that we are using an overhead lift that will later be able
to lift the whole body up at once. If you are doing this in your
driveway then do one side at a time and use a floor jack with a
block of wood to lift against the body. |
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As
luck would have it, we ran into two different problems with the
back-most body mounts. First of all, this truck was equipped with
a class III hitch. No problem, though, we just removed the hitch
to get to the factory holes drilled in the bottom section of the
frame. These holes are used to get to the body bolts, which are
located in the upper frame section. The problem comes from the
fact that the customer had ripped the hitch off the frame before,
so he welded a piece of flat steel to the bottom frame section
and then welded the hitch to the flat steel. This left us no choice
but to remove the gas tank to reach the bolts.
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| Surprise
number two came when went to remove the rear body mounts. There
was no floorboard left to support the rear portion of the body.
The customer later admitted to the body "slapping" when
it went over hard bumps. We ended up making some flat steel spanners
across the floor to allow a solid place to mount the new body bolts.
As a note, usually the next forward set of body bolts just end up
spinning in the floor instead of the nuts coming off. This is because
they are carriage bolts that use the floor as the way of holding
the bolt stationary. |
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Now that all the body bolts are gone, it is time to lift the body
off the frame. Do this slowly so that any binding wires or etc.
can be relocated before breaking. This also includes watching the
gas tank fill and fuel hoses. On Chevy pick ups it is often required
to install a fill and vent hose extension. If this is needed, it
is supplied in the lift kit. Sometimes it is necessary to extend
the differential breathers where they locate on the body. Once the
correct height has been reached install the body mounts (this is
a good time to replace with new ones from Daystar)
and then the blocks. |
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| Insert
the new bolts and snug them up. Be sure to install all the bolts
and position the body properly on the frame before final tightening.
Also, be sure to use the supplied Loc-Tite. Lastly, tighten the
lengthened transmission shift rod . In our case, we also had to
re-install the gas tank and then lower the vehicle. |
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Continued
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2000 Rockcrawler. All Rights Reserved
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