Tokyojoe1965
Full Access Member
Okay, what a day it was to lift (Saturday). I picked up a friend at 7am after only getting 2 hrs sleep (Texas Hold `em night) and we drove down to Colorado Springs (65 miles away) to Peterson AFB. I should have let him drive his vehicle also....so you shall find out later, why.
We went to Peterson AFB (should've chosen AF Academy's - closer by ~12 miles) because they have an Auto Hobby shop. We get there at 9am and got started around 9:20am. We get the passenger side strut removed and take it to the guys at the desk so they could use their strut compressor machine. Well, guess what? It wasn't STRONG enough to compress it. ( I wonder if the guys knew what they were doing or if they had a leak in their compressor. I asked if they had the clamp type that you had to use a ratchet and they did. A big girder looking thing but it was too big for the front struts. UGH! What now? Air Force people can be really nice. I asked a guy (his name is Jose) in the bay next to me if he would like to make some money and do me a favor. He was kind enough to take me to Pep Boys (after we removed the other strut) so I could have them do it. Well, Pep Boys said it would be 1.5 hrs before they could get to it. We tried Autozone across the street but they would take longer so we ran back over to Pep Boys. Jose said he would go home and clean his mini van while I waited at Pep Boys and offered to pick me back up and drive me back to the hobby shop. Awesome guy! Well, Pep Boys charged me $84 to remove and install the new struts/coils. Ouch!
We get back to the hobby shop. My friend was a little annoyed at the length of time but we pressed on. I gave Jose $20 and thanked him numerous times. Great guy!
We get the front completed finally and move on to the Rear. OK, had issues with a couple things. We didn't see any way of getting the new bigger coil on even with the bouncing of someone on the axle. We went and got the monster strut compressor and compressed the coils and that worked great getting them in. The other issue is getting the shocks to torque. The ends of the shocks are smaller than the OEM's and we placed two of the washers supplied on the upper arms but you could not get it to the torque setting without bending the frame in a little. Did anyone else have this issue? My friend was putting the shock in upside down (exposed metal slide arm) on the bottom (fat part on top). We had to reverse that. I hope that was correct.
We finally got it all done at 4:00pm. Six hours forty minutes total. If you take off the 2 hrs and 10 minutes lost due to the front strut escapade, we would've been done in 4.5 hrs.
I thanked my friend by buying him dinner at Cracker Barrel. After we got back to Denver, I dropped off my friend and hit the sack, as soon as I got home, at 7:15pm. I woke up after 11.5 hrs of sleep ( I normally sleep 6-7 hrs).
Here are pictures of my Renegade lifted (great before and after combined photo)
http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/718416/2
Measurements before and after (from floor to X) :
Front License plate frame (bottom)
- Before: 15 7/8"
- After: 18 1/2" an increase of 2 5/8"
Passenger-side Front Fender Flare (bottom edge where the center -most rivet is located - see pictures)
- Before: 32 1/4"
- After: 34 7/8" an increase of 2 5/8"
Driver-side Rear Fender Flare (bottom edge where the rear door splits the flare into two pieces - see pictures)
- Before: 32 1/8"
- After: 34 6/8" an increase of 2 5/8"
Rear Hitch (bottom of the 2" receiver)
- Before: 13 7/8"
- After: 16 3/8" an increase of 2 1/2"
We went to Peterson AFB (should've chosen AF Academy's - closer by ~12 miles) because they have an Auto Hobby shop. We get there at 9am and got started around 9:20am. We get the passenger side strut removed and take it to the guys at the desk so they could use their strut compressor machine. Well, guess what? It wasn't STRONG enough to compress it. ( I wonder if the guys knew what they were doing or if they had a leak in their compressor. I asked if they had the clamp type that you had to use a ratchet and they did. A big girder looking thing but it was too big for the front struts. UGH! What now? Air Force people can be really nice. I asked a guy (his name is Jose) in the bay next to me if he would like to make some money and do me a favor. He was kind enough to take me to Pep Boys (after we removed the other strut) so I could have them do it. Well, Pep Boys said it would be 1.5 hrs before they could get to it. We tried Autozone across the street but they would take longer so we ran back over to Pep Boys. Jose said he would go home and clean his mini van while I waited at Pep Boys and offered to pick me back up and drive me back to the hobby shop. Awesome guy! Well, Pep Boys charged me $84 to remove and install the new struts/coils. Ouch!
We get back to the hobby shop. My friend was a little annoyed at the length of time but we pressed on. I gave Jose $20 and thanked him numerous times. Great guy!
We get the front completed finally and move on to the Rear. OK, had issues with a couple things. We didn't see any way of getting the new bigger coil on even with the bouncing of someone on the axle. We went and got the monster strut compressor and compressed the coils and that worked great getting them in. The other issue is getting the shocks to torque. The ends of the shocks are smaller than the OEM's and we placed two of the washers supplied on the upper arms but you could not get it to the torque setting without bending the frame in a little. Did anyone else have this issue? My friend was putting the shock in upside down (exposed metal slide arm) on the bottom (fat part on top). We had to reverse that. I hope that was correct.
We finally got it all done at 4:00pm. Six hours forty minutes total. If you take off the 2 hrs and 10 minutes lost due to the front strut escapade, we would've been done in 4.5 hrs.
I thanked my friend by buying him dinner at Cracker Barrel. After we got back to Denver, I dropped off my friend and hit the sack, as soon as I got home, at 7:15pm. I woke up after 11.5 hrs of sleep ( I normally sleep 6-7 hrs).
Here are pictures of my Renegade lifted (great before and after combined photo)
http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/718416/2
Measurements before and after (from floor to X) :
Front License plate frame (bottom)
- Before: 15 7/8"
- After: 18 1/2" an increase of 2 5/8"
Passenger-side Front Fender Flare (bottom edge where the center -most rivet is located - see pictures)
- Before: 32 1/4"
- After: 34 7/8" an increase of 2 5/8"
Driver-side Rear Fender Flare (bottom edge where the rear door splits the flare into two pieces - see pictures)
- Before: 32 1/8"
- After: 34 6/8" an increase of 2 5/8"
Rear Hitch (bottom of the 2" receiver)
- Before: 13 7/8"
- After: 16 3/8" an increase of 2 1/2"
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