Body lift guys, have some quick questions..

I am performing the RRO 2" body lift on my 2001 Grand Vitara. I already have my front and rear plastic bumpers off, I have slackened the hand brakes cables & front brake lines, unbolted gas tank filler line, removed the transfer case shifter knob and removed the nuts holding on the factory body mounts.

I have stopped there. I also have read the article posted by Normaad for his XL7..

1) I noticed that to get the 2" spacers in, I have to lift the body over 4" for it to clear the body studs! Seems kinda scary to do.. Any hits / cautions / advice before I proceed??

2) Do I have to remove my steel front / rear bumpers?

3) Do I have to remove the plastic molding around my auto transmission shifter / transfer case?

Thanks.. Any other advice will be welcomed. I am looking to proceed with the lift in the morning..

yes, remove the plastic and boots from around your t-case shifter, the auto tranny shifter and plastic is fine, your front brake hoses will have to be un clipped from the struts (its just a big c clip, no big deal),

dont forget your strut brace, and when you take that on and off, do it with the front tires off the ground.

and most important, your steering shaft!  you will see 2 12 mm bolts beside your brake booster (sort of) take them out and tap the slide collar off the shaft.

the bumper steel is fine, just keep an eye out under the hood as your going up for ac lines and the air filter box,, pushing the body up 4 inches is nothing, i have a 3 inch body lift in my xl7  i had to go WAY up LOL

i think thats it, feel free to ask more, better safe than sorry, oh, and do 1 side at a time, not front to back or anything silly like that

-Lance

^ Thanks much, I already have the strut brace off, although I removed it with the wheels on the ground..    I'm still to add the brake line extensions that run from the body to the chassis inside the engine bay.

I also have the RRO steering extension to add on. My last concern was the factory wiring harness and the internal heater (coolant) hoses, but those seem to have alot of slack on them to allow for a safe lift.

Will keep a close eye on the AC lines. Fingers crossed it all goes well..

Glad you brought up this topic, since I'll be hopefully installing the 2" BL I just received from Mud Child this weekend.  Good luck to both of us!

John

Having a problem with my RRO steering extension. They supplied 2 bolts, one long and one short.

The long bolt is too short to reach through the ~1" rubber damper, and reach into the RRO threaded sleeve..

Is it that the bolt is too short or am I doing something wrong?

Wow!
Good luck with your body lift!
I've just ordered mine, should take a while for it to ship to Singapore.

Do Post pictures!

DO NOT LET YOUR STEARING WHEEL TURN!!!!!!!
You will destroy the clock spring (air bag wiring in the steering column).

you will need to hammer down the inner fenders or cut them back to get your strut brace back in and may have to jack up the car to align the holes for the brace.

DO NOT LET YOUR STEARING WHEEL TURN!!!!!!!
You will destroy the clock spring (air bag wiring in the steering column).

you will need to hammer down the inner fenders or cut them back to get your strut brace back in and may have to jack up the car to align the holes for the brace.

ha! and I was playing around with my disconnected steering wheel..    Luckily I don't have any ABS.. What is the 'clock spring' for?

The "clock spring" is an electrical conductor - it allows the steering wheel to turn whilst keeping the electrical connections to the airbag intact.

^ I see..

The lift went really well. To be honest, I got more trouble attaching the steering extension than lifting the body. I followed all the advice given in this thread and the write up posted by Normaad and didn't run into any problems. It is a moderately difficult job, but most DIYers should be able to handle it.

The trouble i got with the RRO steering extension was
1) the factory bolts could not reach inside the threaded sleeve when passed through the rubber damper.
2) there was no metal sleeve inside the rubber damper to prevent it from being crushed when tightening the bolts.

I'm not sure how other guys handled this part, but I simply used longer bolts and made some minor adjustments to the sleeve to prevent it from crushing the damper.

I haven't taken after pics as yet..





Please note, the front mud guards (shown below) are attached to the chassis by a single clip.. I didn't remove the said clip and the guard broke.. (I also forgot to remove the clip from the other side of the vehicle! It's only when I heard it tear, I remembered..   )


When I was lifting the body, the rear suspension became unloaded and my longer Calmini spring started to 'stretch' out.. This was a problem as I had to lift the vehicle really high to get the body off the chassis..

My solution was to strap the rear axle to the chassis to prevent the suspension from lifting..


The strap was rated at 10,000lbs and I made sure it didn't pass over any sharp edges to cut it.. The front end didn't pose much problems as the weight of the engine kept the chassis from 'springing up'..

For my rear bumper, I used 2" spacers made from 1" diameter pipe to lift the metal bumper straight up to meet the body. There are 4 bolts that hold the metal bumper, I used the spacers for the top 2 bolts. (Longer bolts are needed to reach through the bumper and spacers)

To get the metal bumper to line up straight, I had to flatten out the lower lip, as it was now hitting the metal frame beneath. From there I used self drilling screws (see pic) to attach the lower section of the metal bumper to the frame.



With the metal bumper lifted 2", the plastic bumper attached with ease..

I am still to do the front end.. but that's as far as I have reached.

Well I got the body lift installed yesterday. The steering extension gave me problems though..I couldn't get the bolts out to put the spacers in.  They appear to be lock bolts and they are hard to get at.  I might take the whole unit out of the steering box today and work on the bench.  My kit from Mudchild came with no brake line extensions but he said I wouldn't need them.  So far it looks like he was right about that.  Anyone know where the 4 extra spacer go?  I put 2 under the mid body pad but they don't even touch the frame.  Where do the other 2 go?

There are 10 spacers in all..
-2 at the extreme back
-2 at the extreme front
-2 just behind the front tyres
-2 just in front of the rear tyres
-and the last 2 in the middle between the front & rear tyres.. You will see a factory bush between the chassis and body. Add your spacer to the factory bush..

There are 10 spacers in all..
-2 at the extreme back
-2 at the extreme front
-2 just behind the front tyres
-2 just in front of the rear tyres
-and the last 2 in the middle between the front & rear tyres.. You will see a factory bush between the chassis and body. Add your spacer to the factory bush..

Thanks.  All done.

Bit of an old post.  I have not checked here for a bit, so I thought I better post something.

I did my body lift with 3"x3" square tubing.  There's a nice diy for a 4 door Track/Kick, kinda followed that.  For the stearing I put in a 2"x2" tubing by the knuckle.

Lots of room from the lift for raising the gas tank