The Suspension is On!!!

Well...I finally decided on a lift kit a few weeks back and it arrived this week.  I decided to go with Old Man Emu (OME) out of Australia.  Great reviews and the kit comes with everything (except for a few washers) that I would need for the suspension replacement and lift.  I didn't want to go nuts with a lift, as there are all kinds of options.  The OME only has about 2.5" of lift due to the laws of Australia and the regulations on how high they can raise vehicles.  So a chunk of change later...it arrived and I was ready to get to work!

With my buddy Brad's help, we managed to get everything but the shocks mounted in about 5 hours.  It all starts out with inserting the rubber bushings into the springs and shackle hangers.  I used lots of grease which was recommended and a rubber mallet.  They went in surprisingly easy.  Next up...inserting the shackle pins into the hangers and spring eyes.  Now this was a tough task.  The rubber bushing are inserted into each side of the hanger, so as you use the mallet to get the pins in, the other side of the bushing comes out.  Trying to get them in was tough.  We tried several methods...the best seemed to be with each of us using a mallet on each side, hitting at the same side.  This kept the bushing in place as the pin went in.  Each of them was a very tight fit.  Three of the shackle pins went in pretty smoothly...but the passenger side front fought us.  We finally ended up buying a C-clamp to clamp the bushings in place and finally after much work get the pin in.

After the shackles are in place, you raise the spring into the shackle, and then raise the other side into the pin hanger.  The pin hangers went in much easier, except for the mounting bolts since the holes never seemed to line up.  A bit of tapping with a hammer and re-tapping the holes and everything finally went in.  The last step was to raise the springs to the axles and use the u-bolts and u-bolt skid plates to mount the axles to the springs.  This went smoothly.  Lastly was the shocks.  Well we didn't get them installed today since I didn't have the correct washers.  I didn't realize there were two different sizes involved and just got 16 of the smaller washers.  So soon I'll have to make a trip to the hardware store to pick those and cotter pins up.  Once the shocks are in place, I will just need to torque the nuts to the correct specifications and the suspension will be complete.  Next up...finish the suspension...and begin the front knuckle and brake rebuild.