Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Guys,

I have the 2" spacers.. I start with the tray... and whamo... yet again.. the past life of my truck comes back to haunt me.

What look to be 12mm bolts, in the rear tray ( factory ute body) closest to the cabin.... bloodywell welded in place. I have been abusing the past owner but as I stick my fingers around the back of the bold I feel a weld bead from the top of the bolt to the tray body channel. Thinking that no bastard on earth could have got behind the bolt... I am thinking that this is a factory weld.

I have been grinding for the past hour with a dremel getting the front of the bolf free,,, but am now totaly in dismay when I feel the back.

So... 98 R7 Dual cab diesel ... any one got one that has done a body lift and if so.... are your bolts welded in or should I continue abusing the mining company that used to own it??


Suggestions anyone.... Ahhhhhhhh.... and I thought the radiator was going to be the problem!! Gheezz.

Cheers

Rainsey

I've got that model rodeo, Is it hard to check the bolt cuz if I don't need to rip half my car apart I'll have a look and feel when I get some light.

Saigo,

Cool, If you can great... The bolt in question is in easy view. On the drivers side right behind the fuel filler pipe. Look at the rear wheel and then look at about 1'o'clock. The bolt is stearing right at you.

Cheers

Rainsey

Yeah, checked both sides no weld. Looks like a prick of a place to try and grind out. Good Luck,

P.s hadn't they heard of locktight.

Hoo ho hoo...

My dremel is my best friend. Guys if you do not have one .. go out any buy one. Armed with a cutting wheel and a flexible shaft I managed to cut the weld of both sides of the bolts in question. Saigo... thanks for the bo peep at yours, you had confirmed what I thought.

I am going to mount the bolts in my every growing museum of parts as I still cannot figure out how the photon they welded the side of the bolt that is inside the 'U' chennel under neath the tray.

Regardless.... 2" lift of tray performed.... next weekend the body (time permitting). Can anyone out there tell me what they did with their radiator?? Leave it where it is and the fan blades will disembowel my lower hose.... lower it 2" and I will not get the cap off.

Cheers

Rainsey

with mine i left the radiator where it is..... i removed the cowling because i put twin thermos on it.... which have since been replaced with a 16" fan. Some have been known to remodel the cowling, or cut the bottom out of it. the fan shouldn't hit the hose where it is.

RoeDao,

Thats cool then. I based my thoughts on rough measurements. Looks tight though!!

I'll start by leaving it where it is and modify to suit if need be.

Cheers

Rainsey

This is not fair!!!

I take one week off to go snowboarding and I come home to find that you're beating me to the bodylift It didn't help that I was stuck in Sydney for 5 extra days while Ford fixed our ute

I'm going to start mine tomorrow. I haven't noticed any welds on my bolts but I have yet to successfully remove one.

I plan on leaving my radiator and fan as is. If I have problems with it then I'll fix it then. Although my bodylift is only 40mm.

Good luck with the rest of yours.

Utemad wrote:This is not fair!!!

HE He He

Who knows I may not be able to get the body bolts un done yet. There has not been a single bolt on my truck that has not beed seized up !!

You may beat me yet!!

Let us know how you go

Cheers

Rainsey

Folks,

As expected the body bolts are seized on and after half a dozen turnes they are stuck..... The light has just gone on

Before begining to undo the bolts, get yourself 10mm 1.25 mm pitch die nut and rethread the bolts up to the nut. After this all you have to do is force the nut probly the half a dozen turns where by it hits the cleaned up thread and just spins off.

Bought a full tap and die set from super cheap autos for just over 10 buck... 10 buck well spent for one die nut ( for those that do not know.. it is a die that has a hex shape).

Tomorrow the body is free...... and 50 mm higher!!

Cheers

Graham

I started doing my body lift this morning and guess what???

Both the front bolts on my tray are welded on too

Just googling the Dremel tool now.
Where did you buy yours and which model is it?

Utemad,

The dremel I have is a 395 Multipro. This and a shite load of the mini metal cut off disks and you will have the welds undone in no time..... welll a couple of hours at least.

I am embarised to state but once I cut through as much as I could, with the nut would right down to the base of the bolt, a few well aimed swings of a ball paine hanner get me out of trouble. The front bead of the weld broke and then the hitting up then pushing it down and the hitting up.. etc finally cracked the back weld. Once the bolts were out... a grinding wheel on the Dremel finished the job of by grinding down what was left.

Bought it at Bunning a year or so ago to do woodwork.... it has has turned out to be valuable tool to have around the work shop.

Cheers

Rainsey

Body lift done!!!! Whoooo hooo

All I have to do now is to lift the bull bar..... I may have to go to a metal fabrication joint and get a few inches welded on the base. I have an older TJM that has a separate chasis mount and Bar.

My fear with the radiator was correct.... there is just a poofteenth of an inch between the blades and the hose. The blades actually hit the hose clamp screw so I rotated this around. I cut the fan shroud in half and only put the top bit back on which now makes changing the fan belts a treat. The radiator I left in the sme spot. I will contact the RTA engineer during the week to see if the fan has to be totally covered as I left the bottom part of the shroud off.

The steering... no prob. Did not have to loosen or adjust anything. The body raised and the steering joint just accomodated it.

One word of warning though. Make sure you undo the brackets that act as a saftey brace between body and tray and body and chasis. I started jacking up the body only to see the tray take a very unnatural angle.

All in all a pretty simple task. My 13 year old son was all the help I had and it wen t sweet.

Trolly jack either side and my isuzu screw jack up front and all was O/K.

Cheers

Rainsey

Well done Rainsey,

Have you got the camera out yet? be great to see some pics!!

Saigo,

I'll get some pics and post them when I can get out without being blown away.... in the middle of very bad weather at the moment up here.

Re the bull bar.... had enough meat in the base of it to raise it so no worries here either.... so I am very suspect now as everything went all too smoothly..

Also discovered that the boot around my gear stick was not sealed correctly so not the truck is even bearable inside re noise.

Now I have to figure out if I can fit 33" tires under it now.

Cheers

Rainsey

Hi Rainsey,

I went out and bought one of those rotary grinder tools on Saturday. Although I got an Ozito from Bunnings. Only cost $39.95 which included the flexible shaft and has a 3 year replacement warranty. Not too bad I thought since the Dremel was $200 for the same configuration although I am sure the Dremel is better quality.

I've ground off the passenger side bolt welds and most of the drivers side.
All my bolts have come undone easily enough and the ute body is now just sitting on the chassis with bolts in the holes without the nuts. The bolt shop didn't have the ones I wanted in stock so that is how it is sitting at the moment until the bolts arrive.

I won't be too far behind you

rainsey wrote:My fear with the radiator was correct.... there is just a poofteenth of an inch between the blades and the hose. The blades actually hit the hose clamp screw so I rotated this around. I cut the fan shroud in half and only put the top bit back on which now makes changing the fan belts a treat. The radiator I left in the sme spot. I will contact the RTA engineer during the week to see if the fan has to be totally covered as I left the bottom part of the shroud off.

What have you done to fix your radiator issue?

I have the 4ZE1 motor and only raising it 40mm made the fan contact the radiator hose. So I just finished lowering the radiator. Only held in by the top bolts at the moment but seems pretty good. That was until I tried to top up the fluid of course. You can't remove the radiator cap as it hits the body work I have plenty of room to space the radiator back towards the engine to clear this though thankfully.
I considered getting a thermo fan but then I would need to fabricate brackets and then with my luck I would get some sort of overheating issues. Thought it would be easier in the long run to stay with the standard gear.

Hope yours is going well.

rodeo lifters

Here`s one I found in thailand it was very tall and running what looked like 33 goodyear`s MTR`s
thought you guys would like it
garry

Utemad wrote:What have you done to fix your radiator issue?

I have the 4ZE1 motor and only raising it 40mm made the fan contact the radiator hose. So I just finished lowering the radiator. Only held in by the top bolts at the moment but seems pretty good. That was until I tried to top up the fluid of course.

Utemad,

The gods must be on my side. With the 4BJ1T, with the lower hose clamp rotated so the screw was away from the impending disaster of hitting the radiator fan, all is well.

I have been driving around now for 3 days with the body lifted, and other than my Turbo gauge problem ( hpoefully unrelated) everything is running smooth.

I do like the idea of a thermo fan though. Theory should have it that there would be less load on the motor . Only thing though, if you are in deep water... what will happen to it??

Cheers

Keep us updated.

Cheers

Rainsey

I finished my body lift last night. I'll do a write up of it in another thread later with some pics. Everyone loves pics

As for the thermo fan in water, I have heard that some people prefer thermos as they can be switched off so they don't propel themselves forward thus destroying your radiator. How long they last when dunked in water I don't know. However I have had to pull my thermo for my air con apart before as the bearing was seized from too much mud which in turn overheated the motor destroyng one of the bush's housings. I managed to fix it using a file, the original bearing and lots of wd-40 however it has been pretty noisy since. A new bearing wouldn't hurt but getting the fan out is a mammoth task as it is in front of the radiator behind the grille which is behind spotlights and a winch bar.