2" 4Crawler Body Lift on 1988 Dodge Raider/Mitsubishi Montero 2DR/SWB (10 Mount 2" STD Kit with Extra Long Hardware)

SECTION 1: PREPERATION

Optional Color Solution: Not everyone likes the idea of white body lift blocks on their truck (and paint doesn't stick to them). The easy solution is to take self sealing black electrical tape and wrap the body lift blocks in it. The self sealing tape won't come off in the cold like regular electrical tape.

We will work from the rear of the truck to the front of the truck.

You will need to remove the rear bumper first:

(Rear Body Mounts hidden by Bumper)


This exposes the 2 most rear body mounts, and the most easy to access for that matter.

To gain access to the next 2 year body mounts you will need to remove the tail light assemblies. It takes 4 screws (Philips Head) to remove each. Then you can easily disconnect them and set them aside.





Once the tail lights are removed you and look inside and see the next 2 body mount holes.

(Rear Tail Light Body Mount Location)




(Zoomed In View)

Next up are the body mounts located inside the vehicle. The carpet must be pull back in 4 areas, and it can be quite time consuming. The first 2 body mounts are located on the hump that the rear seat bolts to. You will need to move the front seats forward to have enough room to get to them. There are 2 screws/snaps on the carpet on each side that will need to be removed. From there you can pull the carpet back just enough to give you room to access the body mount bolts. The other screws snaps can be left alone, which saves time.



To get access to the next 2 body mounts the plastic step railing on each side of the truck will take 6 screws to remove. And more than likely a couple (3 on each side for us) will need to have the head busted off to get them to come out. Once the screws are removed (Philips head again) you can pull the carpet back and remove the rubber plug covering the body mount bolt location.

(Front Carpet Body Mount Location)



Lastly the front 2 front body mounts are located inside the engine bay along the front body cross member (not frame) that runs right near the radiator. They have a silver tin foil covering them. Pull back the tin foil to gain access to the bolt location (One mount each side of the engine bay, front area).





Now that you have all the body mounts located you can go back and get the rest of the truck ready. Since your at the front of the truck now, we will work back to the rear.

The body will be going up, and the radiator along with it so there are some problems that you will run into if you don't take care of a few things. First off the radiator fan shroud will need to be removed. It is in 2 parts, top half and bottom half.



Since the engine is attached to the frame and will not be going up with the body (and there are coolant hoses running from the radiator to the engine) like the radiator there will be a hose that needs to be replaced. All the other hoses should have enough slack in them that they won't need replacing. But before you take that hose off it is a good idea to drain the radiator a good bit.

There is a draining hose for the radiator that hangs down near your skid plate. You may have to remove your skid plate to get to it. Once you drain a large amount of the fluid (3/4s or so) you will be ready to disconnect the hose that will be replaced.

There are 2 coolant hoses going to the heater core that go into the firewall. If your looking straight at the firewall the hose on the right will be the one that needs replacing. Getting the clamps for the hose off in the tight space isn't the easiest job, but they will come off.

(Hose on the Right that looks disconnected)
[img]http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/4454/heatercorehose2lx4.jpg[/img]

The hard brake lines located in the engine bay on each side have plenty of extra line coiled up. You will need to uncoil and feed extra brake line down as you lift the truck.

[img]http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/7538/hardbrakelinewt7.jpg[/img]

Moving to the rear of the truck the fuel filler hose will need to be disconnected. There is an access panel in the fender well that will need to be removed to get to it. Once removed you will see the filler hose going from the fuel nozzle opening (where you insert the fuel nozzle when filling up at the gas station) to the gas tank. You will need to remove the clamp at the fuel nozzle end, and disconnect the hose.

[img]http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/5983/gastankfillerhosegr9.jpg[/img]

There is a support bracket that holds 2 of the hard fuel lines to the body. It is located just forward (back in the direction of the front of the truck) of the gas tank. You will need to disconnect it by removing the bolt so the 2 hard fuel lines hang free.

(Pictured after the lift with a 2" C-Channel Extension Installed)

[img]http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/7548/hardfuellinespm0.jpg[/img]

Lastly the rear suspension also must be ratchet strapped up and held in place on each side.

[img]http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/2973/ratchetsupsension1no5.jpg[/img]

You can save yourself a lot of time by doing the prep work the night before, so the next day all you have to do is start lifting.

Go around and get all the stock hardware busted free (14mm socket/wrench), this will include a wrench or ratchet on the top and bottom of the regular bolts. Keep in mind there are 4 bolts with locking tabs, the 2 under the carpet on the hump where the rear seat is bolted, and the 2 accessed through the tail lights. So all you will have to do is get them turning. Its a good idea to leave the bolts in loosely on the side your not lifting to keep the body from shifting. A floor jack and some pieces of ply wood will suffice for getting the body up in the air.

[img]http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/3900/liftingraiderux5.jpg[/img]

If you have the parking brake on, you will need to disengage it, and block the tires if needed. Make sure all the bolts are broken free, and all nuts have been taken off etc before you start lifting.

SECTION 2: LIFTING

Only lift one side of the body at a time. Lift the truck's body very slowly going around on to check every so often to make sure nothing is getting hung up. Also listen for any abnormal noises that would mean something isn't right. The front of the truck has to be lifted higher than the back to fit the body lift blocks in. So you can get the rear body lift blocks in first usually, just make sure to clean the mount areas of dirt and any other debris. Keep in mind the body mounts located in the tail light locations on the 4 Cylinder trucks are the 2 that need the long hardware (Listed as "EH" on Roger Brown's Website, $10 extra). You will need to use a hammer to get them down into the compartment where they go. Also keep in mind some of the bolts will have to be put in upside down. We found at least one that had too much bolt sticking out and had to mount it upside down. Get a self locking nut and washer onto the bolts that are in upside down, and for the rest just make sure the bolts are all the way through. Then slowly let the truck down making sure every so often that all the mounts are sitting flat and everything is lining up correctly. There may be one that isn't sitting flat because you only have one side of the truck lifted, for us it was one of the rear mounts.

Lift the other side of the truck and repeat. When all the body blocks are in and the truck isn't up on the jack go around and tighten down all the bolts (again rachet/wrench on top and bottom) making sure you have a washer on etc (the old washers can be re-used in most places being of a higher grade hardware than those supplied). Having a second person to hold the wrench/rachet on the top and another on the bottom makes this go a little easier. The torque specs on the bolts is low (20 something lbs) so just get them tight enough to where you have to put some muscle/tug hard on the ratchet once or twice for one turn.

SECTION 3: RE-ATTCHMENT/RE-INSTALL OF REMOVED ITEMS

Now its time to go back and re-attach everything and get the truck ready to run/drive again. Working from the rear forward you will need to re-attach the rear bumper. BUT you will need to cut semi circles in the diamond plate to make room for the lift blocks before the bumper will go on.

[img]http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/9606/halfmoonbumpercutef8.jpg[/img]

After the rear bumper is back on, re-connect and re-install the tail lights. Then move to the filler hose for the gas tank, and re-install it. The clamp that you took off may not go back on, that is fine just be sure you firmly re-attach it. Put the access panel back on after your done re-attaching the filler hose. You won't be able to re-attach the hard fuel lines to the body, unless you use a 2" spacer bracket.

[img]http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/1035/fuellinebracketvo2.jpg[/img]
(The bottom being before the lift, top being after lift with 2" C-Channel extension bracket)

While in the rear of the truck don't forget to un-ratchet the rear axle. Next go inside the truck and start re-installing the carpet. In the rear its easy to re-snap down the carpet, and then along the sides of the door openings re-attach the plastic step pieces with 6 screws on each side. This is a good time to replace the old rusted out screws if needed. Also don't forget to re-install the rubber plugs, even though on our install one bolt had to be installed upside down so we couldn't re-install one of the plugs.

Moving to the front of the vehicle you will need to refill the radiator with the drained coolant (or new if you like). The upper fan shroud can be re-attached, but the lower won't go back on. Unless you decide to drill new holes and drop the radiator down 2 inches, which is an entirely different project. You will also need to install your replacement coolant hose, making sure to tighten down the clamps to prevent leaks. Don't forget to start the truck and let it run/get up to temperature to make sure there are no leaks with your new coolant hose going to the heater core.

SECTION 4: OTHER ISSUES/OPTIONS

As mentioned earlier you also may want to drop the radiator if you have time so you can re-attach the lower fan shroud. Raising the gas tank is another optional side project, it does make a difference clearance wise. The truck won't go into 4-Low now either, so you will have to make some cuts to the shift boot, and trim some of the plastic around the boot.

(Obviously Can't shift into 4Lo)
[img]http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/1714/shiftbootyq0.jpg[/img]

Don't forget about the rear hard fuel line that is now hanging free if you didn't re-attach it with a new bracket (picture shown earlier with the 2" drop bracket attached). No known issues with the rear brake lines.

SECTION 5: END RESULT

[img]http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/1896/bodyliftdonefrontangleac1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/9486/bodyliftdonerearanglebn2.jpg[/img]

Special Thanks to Mark (Sandhill Raider) for essentially doing the body lift on the truck. I only provided small amounts of help like removing carpet etc when needed and took pictures.

How hard is it to get the body lift through 4crawler? Do the kits come with everything needed or is it only for the pucks? Do they have kits for Monteros or is it special order?

Roger will send you spacers and nuts and bolts. Just need to tell him which Montero you have so you get the right number of parts.

It all depends on what kind of Montero you have. The kit needed for the SWB differs from the I4 to the V6, etc etc. He has a lot of info on his site that will help you choose the right lift, and of course you can always email him with any questions. The lift kit comes with bolts, self locking nuts, washers, and the lift blocks. If you need extra long hardware you can get that (like in my case), you can get 2" Dia blocks or 2 1/2", you can get replacement bushings, upgrade the hardware, etc etc etc. Take a look around www.4crawler.com and it may answer a few questions.

If I missed anything please let me know. The goal is to turn this into a one stop guide, vs having to read Roger's Directions, the Body Lift Do's and Don'ts thread, and what ever else info you may find along the way. Because I know both of the listed above are missing stuff, and you have to reference both of them. Would be nice to have all that info PLUS pictures in this one write up. So you may see changes/updates happening as time goes on.

Nicely done!

One minor thing I'll add is with my 3.0L 89 montero I didn't have to remove the entire fan shroud. I only removed the lower half.

Also it shouldn't be too hard to fab up a way to mount your shroud 2" lower (or 3" for a 3" BL). <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Thanks, after re-wording/organizing it a little per Mark's suggestion it flows a little bit better now. I thought about how the top shroud might not have to come off if you figured another way to get the bottom out. But for simplicity on the 4 Cylinder at least it was easy to just take the top off too.

And yeah it would be easy to fab up something to re-locate the lower fan shroud 2" (or 1", or 3", or 1.5" what ever your body lift is). But with the 2" lift (or the 3") I am thinking it will work out even better dropping the entire radiator 2" to help with the strain on the hoses.

That's all I did- drill a new set of holes 2" higher on the radiator and throw it back in.

Me too, only 1". Easy <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Nice write-up.

Lifting the bumpers the same amount (as the body lift)looks so much nicer, and increases the approach angles by a small amount.