Need budget lift kit. Any pointers?

[Ricearu]

want to raise my car 4" suspension and drop the crossmembers/diff 2". Any CHEAP way of doing this? I am bored to death with stock ride height and kinda strapped for cash.

 

I may go 2" for cost, only to go 4" later.

 

Any suggestions/pics?

 

Also, EA82 wagon, 88 to be exact

Edited September 26, 2009 by Ricearu

[GeneralDisorder]

It is best to stay away from suspension lifts in general - you will eat axles like mad. It is best to run them as neutral as possible and get your lift from bigger tires. This allows them as much compression as extension. Even to the extent of running the axles *more* neutral than stock.

 

As for cheap? Well - do you have a hot knife, welder, and metal cutting band saw? If so it's just the cost of the steel and hardware. About $200 in materials if you shop around and do it right (grade 8 hardware, etc).

 

Otherwise - no there's no cheaper way than buying a lift if you don't have the tools to build one. Popsicle sicks and elmers glue ain't gonna cut it.

 

GD

[3eyedwagon]

A 2" suspension lift would be a good start, and about as cheap as you are going to find. It'd be about $50 in materials (at the most) if you can manage the fabrication. It is not a difficult task, and the MANY threads here showing the installation / utilization of them shows how well they work. They don't eat axles like crazy, they handle pretty well on the road, and depending on how much you are willing to hammer on the fenders/body; you can run tires bigger than the engine/trans are capable of turning. I'd say the guys of NWWO have pretty well spoiled anyones claims that these lifts aren't reliable or strong. Just look at some of their threads.

 

If you have your heart set on going bigger than a simple 2" suspension lift; you should know that you are looking at a much more complex task. You have around 18 total mounting points that need to have blocks between them. You need to consider things like lowering your diff, slightly more complicated strut towers front/rear, carrier bearing fab work, and all the other fun stuff that comes associated with detaching the body from its' crossmembers IE: brake lines, steering extension, coolant hoses, and other goofy little crap that always turns up. And NOBODY can give you an exact list of what you will need to do, or not do. They can only give you ideas, but, you will run into specific problems with YOUR car. The lifting of one of these doesn't take much time, it's the troubleshooting that takes awhile. Once again, if you can fabricate your own setup this shouldn't be an expensive task. I have a piece of 2"x6" rectangular tubing outside that is enough to lift 3 or 4 of these cars. It cost me $62. Figure in trussing pieces and bolts; you should be under $150 in materials pretty easy.

 

Just like with everything else; it's all dependent on how you want to approach it.

[ivantruckman]

I use a simple muffler cut off tool trimmed the fenders and put 15 inch re drilled Chevy truck rims.. 15 dollars a rim , from the junk yard, thats 60 bucks. and 45 dollars a tire from walmart, close out special, if you could find a matched set of four 205-65 15 tires at the junk yard..maby....

but still I have 240 bucks into it.

 

how cheap is cheap ?

[one eye]

Also dont use grade 8 bolts on your lifts, use zinc plated that way you will shear the zinc bolt as opposed to snapping off the bolts in your body.

 

Jeff

[GeneralDisorder]

Also dont use grade 8 bolts on your lifts, use zinc plated that way you will shear the zinc bolt as opposed to snapping off the bolts in your body.

 

Jeff

 

Zinc plating has nothing to do with the grade of the bolt. The grade is a measure of the hardness of the steel.

 

GD

[3eyedwagon]

^ He's referring to the cheaper unmarked base grade bolts that are most easily identifiable by being zinc plated and usually nothing else. I'm pretty sure Jeff understands the basic measurements of bolt hardness, and was using the zinc plating as a descriptor.

 

The weaker bolts act as a "fusible link" of sorts. Solid idea, but, I'm a grade 5 guy. Mostly because we aren't dealing with heavy equipment, so grade 8s are a waste.

[Ricearu]

thanks for all the advice, I think I am going to trim, and add 2" lift, and put my mazda redrills on.

[Don_Quixpunch]

I've never done one of these lifts, but I'm fairly knowledgeable about hardware. Not to start an argument, but grade 8 tends to be a bit brittle, might it be a better idea to use grade 5 so that bolts can bend and stretch before they fail catastrophically?

[one eye]

Not to start an argument, but grade 8 tends to be a bit brittle, might it be a better idea to use grade 5 so that bolts can bend and stretch before they fail catastrophically?

 

They dont they still make the bolts in the body brake, if used to its full capacity.

 

Jeff

[Ricearu]

does anyone have the specs on the lift blocks and "tabs" for lack of a better term to do my own 2" lift?

[3eyedwagon]

 

That should take care of the fronts. Read it carefully, and you should be able to figure it out.

 

The rears are the REALLY simple part. You just need 4 pieces of 1/4" X 2" flatbar. It doesn't have to be exactlt 1/2" X 2", but that is a good size.

Anyways, you need 4 pieces measuring 4" in length. You need 5/8" holes drilled 1.5" from each end of the center of that 4" piece.

 

Here's a rough sketch