[James Kroener]

What all is involved in putting a 3 inch lift on a truck like mine? I was told i would have to weld new perchs on my axles to get the right angle on my drive shafts. I was wondering if you had to do that since it is only a 3 inch lift? Thank you for any help you can give me.

[OneMoreTime]

What kind of truck..??? lots of lift kits out there to get a 3" lift with..

OMT

[poncho62]

Originally Posted by OneMoreTime

What kind of truck..??? lots of lift kits out there to get a 3" lift with..

OMT

In his gallery, it shows a 77 Chevy 4x4.............looks like it sits pretty high now. Actually, I think it sits just right, but that's me.............

[James Kroener]

its is stock height and it looks stupid with 32 inch tires and it sits so low on them in the front so i want to rasie it 3 inches or maybe even 6

[sicksixseven]

I may be a Toyota guy when it comes to offroad, but I can hold my own with Chevys. You would not need to make new perches on the axles. The pinion angle is not that big of a deal as long as you don't put a large lift on, say 6+ inches. A 3 inch lift would not affect the pinion angles. It is pretty straight forward when it comes to a leaf spring lift. Chevy springs are 63 inches long, at least the newer ones, and the kit you get will provide the same length springs, just with more arc. On paper, it is about a 4 hour job, provided you have the right tools. A torch is most handy when disposing of old ubolts and springs. Hope this helps.


Sam

[TwistedTrbl]

If you don't go offroad the cheapest would be a 3" body lift that you could finish in a few hours. Next you could go suspension lift with springs in the front and blocks in the rear. The blocks are ground on a angle per your application so your pinion angle will be close. If not you can buy shims in various degree increments which I would'nt do. I've seen too many crack.
If you do go with blocks in the back and you have alot of torque your springs will wrap and you will need some bars tied into the axle and frame!

The most expensive but by far the best would be springs all the way around.

On a 77' chevy if you do go 6", get the proper steering arm to keep your steering geometry and to void excess bumpsteer.

What t-case do you have? NP203,205 or 208?

With a 6" lift you will have to drop the t-case crossmember about 1"

Look in my gallery for some of the ones I have done if you got any questions!

[Parisienne66]

As an added comment:

Body lifts are cheap, easy to put on, and do not require a bunch of modifications.

if you plan on going susp lift, be sure to check if the kit you buy has all the needed parts. there are a lot of different types of kits available and some of them provide you the basic parts, plus you need to make some custom welding work yourself etc. Some kits are bolt-on, but usualy more expensive.

one thing to check if you go for a suspension lift, is Driveshaft Spacers. Some kits don't have em, and you end up with a driveshaft that comes out or even bends and breaks when flexing out.

Bumpsteer correction parts is also recommended like twisted said.

And Yes, the bigger the blocks your putting if you're going for blocks at the back, the higher the torque into your springs which will produce Spring wrap. This is why most provinces here in canada Ban those type of lifts, or if not, they are allowed only a few inches depending on provinces. You might want to check with your local laws if you're going to make everything yourself and go with blocks.

Another easy cheap lift, is added lenght leaf shackles, but don't go to high with those, or it'll affect handling greatly. I have seen 2 inches on a samourai on these with good driveability. they're easy to make, or still cheap to order and provide a little lift for cheap. So you could go for 2 inches shackles and 3 inch body for example, providing a nice 5 inche lift, and leaving room for a good suspension lift later on if you wanna put big rubber under...

I'm not familiar with Chevy's so I have a question, are they Spring over from the start? If not, thats an easy way to go for a good lift which would probably be around 5 inches basic.

[James Kroener]

I planned on using the skyjacker 3 inch kit for my truck from summit racing. I was told you had to make some mods to the steering and shifter when you use a body lift. I want to put 35s under it with out them rubbing when i turn sharp. What do you have to do when you put a body lift on? Thanks for all the help.

[Parisienne66]

Here, take a look at this site, its a fitment guide for vehicules, its not perfect but a pretty close educated guess.

http://www.ntwonline.com/template.cfm?ID=7


Body lifts at 3" and + usualy requires steering extentions, Rad relocation brackets, bumper relocation brackets and shifter clearance cutting of floor.

Extentions are or are not included in kits, you have to check which kits you order and call them to make sure. If its not included and/or not available you'll have to make some yourself custom. Sometimes steering shafts can be extended by loosening them and moving them out a bit, but this is mostly for low lifts cases.

Bumper relocation brackets can be done without, but they put the bumpers back to height with the body, eliminating the GAP you sometimes see when people lift the body and not the rest.

Rad relocation is used if you need to keep the rad inline with a mecanical fan on the engine for example, electric fan guys don't have this problem since the fan moves with the rad and the body.

In order to fit bigger tires without rubbing, keep in mind that not only the lift is important, but also wheel size. If you go wider tires, you might have to go with offset wheels to prevent your tires from rubbing on the spring leafs and also, keeping the wheel offset to the right amount might prevent tires from rubbing on the fenders, this you will have to calculate and measure yourself for a perfect fit.

[poncho62]

Another thing to consider when going to bigger tires, is gear ratios.........you will find that with the stock gears and bigger tires that you will have a lot less power. You will need to go to a higher numericlly gear to get the same torque....................

[Triaged]

1) find out what gears you have. 4.10's work well for 35's and 3.73's work well for 33's. If you have 3.08's don't put on the bigger tires till you get new gears.

2) I'm not a big fan of body lifts. Bigger tires are for better traction and clearance offroad...so I will assume you will be offroading your truck. Stock suspensions on those trucks don't do that well. They have almost no travel up front.

3) Do you mind cutting the fenders to keep it from rubbing? If you won't cut it you will need more lift (which is a bad thing). 33's will clear with no cutting and 4" of lift. 35's will clear with 6" of lift and no cutting. Personally I would go with something like 2-4" lift, cutting, and 35" tires.

4) There aren't too many good and cheap ways to do a lift in the front. For the back end you can cut a hole in the bottom of the shackle hanger and swing the shackle down through the hole to the spring. This is often called a "shackle flip" and will net you 4" of lift from where you are at right now.

5) For the front you could get a set of 4" lift springs used for not too much money. Again if you want to be cheap you could move brake lines down instead of buying extended lines. You will however need some type of steering correction. If you will be driving on the street a lot get a 2.5" drop steering arm. If you will be offroad more get a 4" raised steering arm. Both of these things are something you should look for used.

So $100 for used front springs, $30 for a raised steering arm, $100 for some new shocks from autozone together with some misc. stuff and you could have a lift for about $300 that will gain you much better performance than a $100 body lift.