Body Lift HELP?!?

Hey, Im fixing to take off my body lift, a local body shop wants $150-200. How hard do yall think itll be to do it myself? What alls involved? and what do you think i will need as far as bolts and what not? Is it worth just taking to him?
Thanks

 

That price doesn't seem too bad to me. It's a small hassle.

 

You'd need a jack, a foot or two of 2x4, hand tools, and some new shorter bolts for the cab maybe even toyota bolts. The steering shaft has an extender on it, thats probably the thing you'd want to be the most careful with, but if you just are careful to keep the wheel straight and the tires straight you wouldn't have any problems.. If you feel comfortable do it yourself and save some $

 

Probably not too involved, but I've never done one, looks like some spacers set at body/frame points, then again $150-$200 isn't bad

 

I am getting ready to do the same. Extensions on steering, shifter, gas fill neck. Replace lift picks with polyurethane cab mount bushings from Wheelers. Lower body slowly and watch out for brake lines. Those are things that came up when i was searching.

 

Thanks! would you know how many bolts i would need total? and are all the bolts the same size? i dont feel to comfortable because everyone i talk to says something different, from steering, 4wd linkage, and radiator supports? kinda makes me question

 

Its kind of annoying and took me about 6-8 hours with help haha Id pay the 150 for sure

 

as far as bolts go just order a poly mount bushing kit and it comes with new bolts

 

If you're not comfortable to do it then don't. You can really mess some stuff up including yourself. When my old z71 was getting the body lift taken off it slipped on the jack and almost crushed the guys hand between body and frame. Spend the money and let someone else do it. Plus if something gets screwed up by them you have someone to blame. If you screw it up you're screwed.

 

I would pay some one! I tackled mine by myself and it took a while to do, I also did my body mounts too, it is actually really simple, just looks like a lot

 

I did mine year and a half ago and wasn't too bad. The box was quite easy and the only real trouble with the cab was the steering coupling and replacing the body mounts, the steering extender had been jammed onto the shaft by whoever did the original lift and the body mounts were badly rusted. Doing the box only took a couple of hours but the cab took most of the day but being retired I don't work too hard. Just make sure that when you lower the cab down you do it in stages so you can squeeze the little curly-cues in the brakelines together as you drop it. Don't forget the extenders for the radiator and the bumper which also have to be removed. Just go slow and be careful and buy new body mounts.

 

Great little write-up here. Good stuff.

OP, try doing just the bed yourself, piece of cake. Then, if you feel un-easy about the rest, then at least you'll have lowered the cost to the mechanic to do just the cab.

Loosen all bed bolts (4 or 6?) first, then remove bolts from one side, jack up that side, remove the lift pucks, replace bolts (don't tighten).
Repeat for other side. Tighten all bolts. Not sure what you'll have to do about the gas spout, depends on the amount of body lift you are removing.

 

I've also done the removal. These guys have pretty much summed it up for you. My only advice would be to tie off the steering wheel so that it can't be turned. The clock spring doesn't take much to break and it's a couple hundred dollars to replace.

 

thanks guys! so far we have the bed completely done and my entire front end blacked out. Tomorrow will be the cab, any other helpful tips besides the steering column? anyone know anything about the radiator?

And instead of tying off the steering wheel could i just move it till it locks into place, then remove the extender? or is the lock further down?

 

Assuming the radiator has been lowered, there should be re-positioning brackets there, where the radiator is normally directly attached to the radiator support. Un-bolt the radiator (be careful, it will be very heavy if you have not drained it), remove the brackets and re-attach. When I did a 1" body lift, I didn't do this step, instead I removed the lower half of the shroud to clear the fan.

 

I'd imagine the wheel lock would work because it's in the column. but I hadn't thought of using it before. Maybe double of precautions just in case?
As for the radiator it should just be removing the drop brackets and placing the radiator back in its original position and reinstalling the fan shroud if it was removed.

 

Any one know where the steering shaft extension would be located? And if so what does it look like? Having some trouble finding it.

 

From what I remember It's at the steering rack. Should be a puck spacer between the flanged couplings. Just loosen the and remove the bolts and loosen the collar lift the top coupler and remove the spacer.

 

Changed my rack yesterday. Extended would be right above rack in joint right there. Look right above. Flat rubber pad to dampen steering wheel vibes.

Steering wheel lock isn't precise. Tie off.

I broke my clock spring. Hooray!

Overall pretty easy. I changed all my bolts and bushings in a couple hours on cab.

 

There's a few different styles, the puck kind then there's the shaft kind