It's happening at last!

[-Scott-]

After over a year of thinking about it, asking about it and talking about it my Paj finally rolled out of the garage (under its own power, even) with a 2" body lift.

Having read Dave Christensen's "how to" article (and buying his blocks and rear bumper brackets ) it was relatively straight forward (to this point.) But I did find a few differences.

Being a shorty, there's fewer bolts - for some reason I was expecting 10, but there's only 8. (Anybody want four 2" aluminium body lift blocks?)

I didn't have to remove the radiator shroud - there's a bit in the bottom which unclips, and leaves clearance for the fan.

I didn't spend enough time looking around the rear bumper, and missed that there are two tabs on the back of the body which protrude under the top plate of the rear bumper; my top plate is now bent in two places because I didn't notice the problem until I couldn't get the last block in.

I also had trouble removing two of the bolts holding the rear bumper brackets onto the bumper itself - they were severely rusted. A third bolt snapped off, which added time to the process.

I had to make a spacer for my trailer wiring plug, which I had installed in the rear bumper. Now the bumper is lifted the plug interferes with the rear chassis cross beam, but an off-cut of delrin from work has done a reasonble job (for now...)

I had a good look at how to remove the gearbox and transfer case, to swap in the recon case with 2.85 gears (thanks Frank ) and have decided not to kid myself. Even if I can work out how to get the gearbox and transfer case out from under the car with my meagre facilities, I'm far too likely to break something in the process. So the car goes in to my friendly mechanic tomorrow for transfer case swap, transfer lever bend, bull bar lift and (hopefully) a solution to the oil leak which appeared tonight. Buggered if I can see anything wrong - it's coming from the rear of the engine, but I can't see where. I cannot imagine how a body lift can cause an oil leak, but I have this nagging doubt I've missed something - Murphy and I are not good friends...

The car is booked in to have the body lift inspected and approved on Friday, so I hope the plans come together. If they do, the car's getting dirty on the weekend.

So there you go - I finally have some news to report, and you got more than you ever wanted - except pics.

Cheers,

Scott

[Hekta]

Good onya Scott, now you just need some 33's to fill up the big gap under the wheel arches

[-Scott-]

Good onya Scott, now you just need some 33's to fill up the big gap under the wheel arches

And a diff lock in the front, and rock sliders to protect my precious door sills , and a long range tank (now that I have room for a decent size one ) so I can do some longer trips without worrying about "can I make the next town..."

Yep, the money pit has opened wide.

Scott

[turps]

Tour oil leak isnt a clutch fluid or brake fluid leak is it. As when I did the BL on my Patrol the clutch line was as tight as. Also the brake coil (between body and chassi, I am guessing paj's have this to) may be putting pressure on things.

[-Scott-]

I had a look at those. The oil is black, and looks exactly like normal engine oil rather than some hydraulic fluid. I had another look at the brake and clutch lines too, and they have several loops where they bridge between body and chassis. They are all clear of everything and showing no problems.

It's quite a coincidence that it sat in the garage for a week without a drop, then after a run down to the end of the street and back there's a drop. Hopefully when the tranny is out for the TC swap something will show up.

Cheers,

Scott

[-Scott-]

Just had the Body Lift inspected & approved. I turned up 15 minutes early, and was out before the scheduled inspection time. It took them longer to work out why I wasn't on their list (they printed the list last week, and I only booked this week ) than to do the actual inspection. The only question was "are they urethane?"

The guy was under the car for only a minute or two, pointed out that one TC mount has collapsed, and a mount near the front diff (?only got a quick look?) is on its way out too - he suggested I get them fixed at the next service.

I was told that plastic blocks will be approved if they have a steel crush tube in the middle, and for tyres they'll allow an inch before they get nasty. No way (in Queensland) to go bigger.

Now I've gotta get it dirty this weekend!

Cheers,

Scott