My dad is lifting his 96 sidekick 2" using 2x3 "square" tubing. He did some reading and the way that the guides he found online were mostly for 3" lifts. With not being able to really fit the small puck and the 1/2" bolt head inside the 2" tall tube he is just stacking both the big and small pucks on top of the tube with a big washer in between. He is doing this for all of the mounting points including the front two. Since this method was not mentioned on any sites of his that I saw it worries me.

Will the way he is doing this work or is it setting himself up for some damage down the road?

should have rubber inbetween both sides of the body mount on the frame I'd say. the way he's doing it I wouldn't expect that would be possible. I'd be a bit sketchy about it. that bolt that comes off the body will have more stress on it when that is done as well. he could probably replace those bolts with bigger grade 8 or whatever ones (not sure if it's possible or not on a zuk but it is on a nissan which I've bodylifted)


anyways, they do make 2 inch body lift kits for those last I checked. if boondox still has them in stock they had a 2 inch body lift for kicks in thier garage sale

boondoxmotorsports.com

I think it's a BDS kit. I think boondox makes a 3 inch body lift but not sure about a 2 inch.

ah, this is the exact same problem i encountered when i was going to do my 2" lift with square tubing recently.  i can't see anyway to safely do this imho without replacing the stock body bolts(and i'm not too sure how easy that would be to do either, i looked at mine but underneath my carpeting in my tracker is some noise deadening cushion of some sort and it's really stuf down there so i didn't want to tear it up to look at the body bolts).  i've sine opted for a simpler 1" body lift which i'm going to be doing in about a week or so.  i have some solid 1" round metal pieces i'm going to use as the spacers.  i figure this way at least i can still use the stock body bolts and with my 2" coil spacers that i have coming in the mail i'll have a decent 3" lift overall.  which at this point i'm pretty sure i'll be happy with.... for now

My dad is intent on doing this his way instead of the right way which includes undoing his two days worth of work and shelling out $25 for 3" tubing (the 2" was $22 and they sell by weight). Unless I find a source that simply says the way he is doing it will damage teh vehicle he will problably ignore me. With that in mind he is practicly done with the body lift. He has it bolted back together and the body spacers lashed on to take it somewhere to get them welded inplace, of course now that car dies as soon as he turns it on so it isn't going anywhere until he figures that out.

The way he did it was similar to http://www.zuwharrie.com/content/view/11/27/1/4/ but the small puck is above the tube along with the big puck. So the end result is closer to a 3-1/2" lift. With that height what does he need to modify? The shifter rod? Whatelse?

2" tube is too small to lift this way, you can't fit a wrench inside well to tighten and the studs are too long, that's why you see it with 3" box tube, lots of room for the body stud and wrench. The calmini 3" kit uses 2x3" tubing, they put a 1" aluminum disk between the body and the box tube to make up the length of the body stud. I say, make up some .5" - 1" aluminum disks to fill it in, you'll have more lift, but I think it would be more proper.

did it run before he lifted it?  if so he likely pulled a wire or hose.  he'll probably need to get a steering shaft spacer or whatever they're called   and extend the shifters.

i used 2x3 tube cut into 3 inch sections drill hole through the tube then open up one side so the top of the stud wich gets bigger toward the top. I then nothced one side to slide it on the tube could not lift the kick as high as i needed with out rippin shit apart and had to cram about 1/2 in of steel in between top bushing and tube 1/4 steel inside the tube to be able to lock down on the nut. then i put the bottom bushing on with a new nut and bolt with the box tube sitting on the frame had to cut body studs after i started to tightin them the were hiting the bottom nut took me about 4 hours to install and so worth it.  the nxt step is to move the junction box where the brake lins all meet (passanger sid frame ) push it up and put bottom bolt intop hole. then pull your transfer case lever out cut at bottom on solid part weld in about 2 in pc put it back togater and your done about 2 3/4 lift is what i got a little shady but has never faild on me even moved it to another  sidekick 2 years plus still going.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         hope this helps

I guess after something got pulled loose he just decided to go ahead and buy a kit. All together the kit is going to cost as much as he would have spent anyway. Thanks for the quick response though. I hope that he will actually come here and ask if he isn't sure of something instead of just doing what might work.

This is his daily driver. He needs new tires but is lifting it before buying them so he can get bigger ones. He does have an alternate vehicle for use until this one is running again.

What is the most likely candidate for being pulled on a 96 Sidekick JX when the car with turn over, burn a little fuel, and promptly die?

I am not sure what kit he is buying, just that it is $185 + another $60 I think for the two extra things that I think are the steering and shifter extenders. I'm not quite sure.

Check the fuel pump wires at the tank. they come out of the top of the tank and go to behind the back bumper and up behind the left tail light... That's my bet for what pulled loose...

might also look at the harness below the throttle body. Might have stretched that enuogh to get a sensor to unplug.