Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Well Baz and I managed to get all the body blocks in today. No real drama's except for the 2 front bolts being located inside the panel work. Hmmm worked out how they do it and Baz tacked some tangs to the heads of 2 of the new longer bolts and they worked fine. Removed radiator shroud, 3 options here, leave it out, 2" drop down brackets or trim the low half a bit and the fan will clear.
Just removed a bracket which clamps the fuel filler line to the chassis, hose came up no probs. Undid ring clamp around the steering shaft yoke to allow it to slip in the spline as the body was raised (moved about 1" in the spline) and then reclamped. No probs in the engine bay, brake lines, hoses, electrical wiring all had heaps of give once all the clamps and cable ties were removed/'loosened. The fiddly bit is the t/case and gear levers we tried heating them up with an oxy and bending them for clearance but with the console in I can't get low range. So I think we will lengthen the t/case lever, the gearlever turned out ok will do this next weekend. Then it's just the raising the rear bumper and bullbar next.
Now at least I can run those 35"s, roll on tax return.................

Nice work frank. It should look really good with the bumpers raised up. What sort of nut locking did you go for? nylocs, spring washers? Would be a good thing to check how tight they are after a week or so after the body works around a bit. Pretty simple job to do in the end, hardest part would prob be lifting the rear bumper as you gotta cut a section out of the middle and balance it around.

Thanks Mike, we used nylocs.
Barry had a goooood look at that rear bumper and is half tempted to scrap it and make up a new custom unit. But the bullbar will be easy and extending the t/case lever shouldn't be too difficult. I just remembered that Dave's was an auto and their t/case levers are on the opposite side and site higher than the 5sp version. Do they have the nuetral position same as the manual ?
The problem with the super select t/case is that there are 5 positions instead of the normal 4 for a part time set up. The lever moves more distance from 2H to 4L coz you have the 4H centre diff unlocked position.

Looks a lot meaner now Frank. Good job.

Pshhhhh....

Makes the tires look smaller. Time for bigger tires I guess.

The way i was gonna do my new bumper is to replace the inner metal pressing between the bumperettes. I am going to use a bit of 3mm ally checker plate pressed at 90deg and a bit on the bottom and bolt on the bumpers on the ends as per stock. Then weld new mounting brackets underneath to bolt thru the original holes. The i was gonna mount some nice big reverse lights in to it. It would then conceal my big towbar as well and it would also match the cheker plate up the front. Not sure about the auto interior setup at all.

Hey Frank - good to see you finally did you bodylift. It is pretty straight forward isnt it and you will be very happy now that your arse end is higher off the ground.

The rear bumper can be raised just be drilling new holes 50mm down as I have helped someone else with a lift and this is all tey did instead of welding extensions like I did. With the Bullbar, I tack-welded plates inside the bullbar mounts first so that I could put on the vehicle to get the height right. These plates take the weight of the bullbar and from there you can work out what you need to do with the mounts.

There wouldn't be much left to do on the ole girl now would there?

Regards
David

Thanks Dave, yeah not much left to go except the new tyres.
However depending on how the 35"s run I may go 5.29's. I have sourced a rear 5.29 and a front Gen 1 V6 diff assembly 2nd hand so I only have to buy a front 5.29. Unfortunately there is no 8" super select 5.29 only for the Gen 1 V6 front diff.
Rock sliders, custom bash plates, 2.85 t/case gears and the rear suspension can be improved. After the body lift extra room has been created under there for all sorts of options.....................
Then there's the front
Howz that GU goin ? I hear it pretty much sits above everything else in the car park at club meetings

Frank.

nice to see a section for paja's! i've had a 88 v6 for the past 5 years and have done a few mods along the way myself. At that time lockers weren't available so the BOC gas locker was put to use. This has proven itself time after time (front only) on tracks that the mighty cruisers and rangies have difficulty. It's main downfall is the turning, but i'm not preaching anything new hear. Also gave it a 2" lift and run 33" MT's. While this has changed the gearing /speedo - i live with it and look down on others - if only a little bit. Have read about some of the problems associated with some of the mods on the forum but have really only struck 2. I have the same gearbox mount flex as one i read earlier and also dropping out of low 4 when going down hill due to the floor pan hitting the 4wl shifter. Still haven't decided how to fix this but it's only occasional and yes- i live with it. I'd like to do more mods but - yep - the handbrake is on hard ! Mainly because it is the shopping trolley as well! [/b]

About time you did the bodylift Frank!! The transfer levers are a pita on the manual models I made custom transfer lever in the end just using the base of the original shifter and socketing a new rod over the top which i bent up. I think i have some pics of the lever if ya want some more ideas. I spent hours with the original lever heating and bending but the conical section of the lever hit the body at one end or the other no matter what and the when i thought i had it all sweet i went for a 4B and the movement of the g/box would knock it outta low range

Yeah we lengthened both the gearstick and t/case lever 2".
The gearstick lever is sweet.
But your right about the t/case lever even after extending it and bending it every which way we just couldn't get it right, would either pop out of 2wd or low range. Ended up cracking the sh1ts and grinding away part of the console, now it's fine.
The problem is that ribbed rubber boot, it puts a lot of tension on the t/case lever when fully foward (low range) or fully back (2wd) so if it is just on the detent the tension is enough to pop it out. The other problem of course is you have 5 positions with the 5sp super select, the auto's (no nuetral position) and part time systems only have 4 positions.

OK for someone who is planning on doing a 2" body lift on a manual model as soon as I get all my stuff organised, these gearsticks sound like they're going to be a lot of trouble.

how much of your console did you cut out Frank ? and did it solve the problem ? or is the rubber boot still too tight ?

Nice Frank!