Summary:

Lifting or raising the vehicle body away from the chassis is a cheap and easy method for gaining extra inches for either running larger wheels or simply improving your articulation. The advantages of combining a 4"spring and 2" Body lift is that the vehicles CG (Centre of Gravity) remains relatively low, rather than simply going for a 6" spring lift.

It's my opinion that this represents the best compromise between the street and offroad.

Hardware:

Different materials can be used for the lift. Solid "Pucks" of Alloy, Nylon, Polyurethane and Polyethylene are the most common. In all cases Grade 8 hi-tensile nickel plated bolts and Nylock nuts should be used when replacing the bolts.

For my lift I've used Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) Ø75mm x 50mm tall, for the two front and two rear mounts. I chose this as I was retaining the original rubber mounts in these positions.

For the middle 6 body mounts I have used a special grade Polyurethane puck from Ryno Off-road in QLD. At Ø50mm x 75mm tall, these mounts replace the existing standard rubber mounts (25mm). The vibration dampening benefits of Polyurethane are the main reason for this choice. Another benefit is that the standard bolts can be retained if you wish.

Bolts - I reused the original front bolts for the rear and purchased 2 x 175mm x 10mm grade8 nickel plated bolts for the front. I also replaced the 6xbody bolts but as previously mentioned I could have retained originals.

Where possible I've cleaned up and reused the original washers. I found the originals superior to anything I could source.

I replaced all existing nuts and spring washers with 10mm fine, Nylock's.

Preparation:

Ensure your work area is flat.

Starting from the front:

• Remove the front bumper
• Remove the indicator, headlight and grill assembly to access the radiator mounting bolts.
• Remove the two top radiator retaining nuts.

Moving to the Engine bay:

• Drain Radiator and disconnect hoses.
• Disconnect AT cooling hoses.
• Remove the fan retaining nuts. (leave Fan in place for now)
• Remove the Radiator shroud mounting bolts.
• As one piece remove the fan and shroud from the engine bay.If you're running a manual without aircon the next section may be skipped. Rather than remounting the Radiator 2" lower, I'm told you can simply cut away the lower section of the shroud.
• Remove the two lower radiator retaining bolts.
• Carefully remove the Radiator from the engine bay and place out of harms way. (It cost me $70 and 3 hours work to fix the hole the kids put into mine with their pushbike.)
• Locate the Steering shaft and remove the top retaining bolt completely. The lower bolt (Power steering side) can remain in place.
• Access to the top of the front mount bolt is from inside the engine bay, beside the radiator. Removing the lower radiator brackets helps makes life easy.
• Remove front mount nuts and bolts. Drop the new bolts in place.

Passenger compartment.

It may not be necessary to remove the trim, seats and carpet to access the mount bolts but mine needed a good clean out and it made life easy. Each mount bolt location has an identical opposite; therefore I've only taken pics for one of each, front to rear.

• If replacing the bolts now is the time. Leave the nuts loose on the opposite side that you intend to lift first to help keep everything in place.
• Remove the knob from the low range shifter.

Rear mounts.

The rear mounts are accessed from underneath the vehicle rear, and can be tricky to get at. Removing the "bumperettes" will make life easy. Replace the rear mount bolts with the reused front bolts and new Nylocks. Ensure you correctly locate and retain the big ass washers for the top of the bolt.

Ready to Lift:

The method I used to lift the body was with a 48" high lift jack. This was done one side at a time. The lift location was as close to the centre beam as I could get, inside the front door. . A block of 2"x4" pine was used to spread the load between the jack and the body sill. . It's a good idea to make sure all other doors bonnets and hatches are all closed during this section.

• Ensure all the bolts are nut free on the lifting side and that the opposite side bolts are in place and nuts located but loose.
• Ensure all the other doors are closed.
• Place the Jack and wooden block into position. I used a piece of Lambs wool to sit between the body and the jack to stop any scratches.
• Jack up the one side a little at a time, taking time to check each bolt is free of the mounts. When enough clearance is available, pushing the bolts up a little, replace the rubber mounts with the new Polyurethane pucks. The bolts should hold them in place.
• Move to the front and rear mount in turn, again pushing the bolts up a little until you can locate the new Polyethylene blocks into place above the retained original rubber mounts.
• Once all new pucks are in place slowly lower body down again, ensuring that the pucks are all seated correctly in the mounts.
• Repeat the above for the other side add washers and nuts and your done. I used 25Nm of torque on all the mounts.

Post Lift Mods:

This section deals with the upgrades made to the vehicle to accommodate a 2" body lift.

Radiator:

• As previously stated some models will not require the radiator lowered. In these instances simply cut away the lower part of the shroud.
• To lower the radiator I simply shifted the radiator mounting plates, one bolt up. The downside of this is that this mount is now only secured by the one bolt each side.
• Alternatively you could shift the radiator lower "body mounts" down 2", however I didn't appear to have enough free metal to do this.
• Ideally I'll look at making up a replacement bracket in the future.
• Measure the distance between the top and lower mounting bolt and use this measurement to re-drill the top mounting bolts new location.
• With everything loose drop in the radiator and bolt it up. Don't forget to put all the hoses on prior to adding water and AT oil, if required.
• I also re-routed the AT cooler lines as they had taken a beating.

Steering Shaft:

• Contrary to info I was given by EVERYONE I needed to "extend" my steering shaft. With the lift in place I was unable to feed the top bolt into flat of the shaft.
• Do not spend $$$ on a shaft extension, inside the drivers side, under the dash two bolts will release the flexible coupling.
• The idea here is to add a piece of either alloy or in my case a 15mm thick, scrap piece of 75mm Polyurethane I got for $5, into the existing coupling.
• This not only extended the shaft but appears to have the added effect of a steering dampener.
• With the Flexi coupling out of the way it's a good idea to remove about 5mm from the shaft fire access.

AT levers:

• Fortunately the AT Shift lever is lift friendly and only requires a quick adjustment.
• From under the vehicle access the Shift lever adjustment bolt.
• With the shifter in park loosen the retaining nut and slide the shaft back as far as it will go and then re-tighten.
• Check to see that the lever shifts into all positions.
• The low range shifter on my rig was fowling on the mounting plate when in low. To the extent that it wouldn't remain in low range.
• To fix this I simply used a Dremel to remove about 10mm from the plate.
• Long term I will look at bending and/or extending the shifter.

Front Bumper:

• Another easy fix. With the Body moving up 2" the bumpers naturally sit 2" lower being attached to the chassis.
• To get around this I sourced two 150mmx100x6mm plate, drilled and bolted this to the existing chassis bolt holes.
• I then bolted the bumper to the new plate extension. (PIC2COME)
• As for the rear I haven't even looked at this yet. Given that every Landcruiser in my opinion requires the relocation of the spare a replacement bumper and wheel carrier are on the cards.
• I recently also had a sneak preview of the new winch bar Cheezy Racing are producing for the 80's. Looks the goods and will no doubt perform being directly mounted to the chassis as an extension and has an additional 10mm thick cross brace tying the two ends together. All this and it weighs less than 40kg.

Summary:

If I had to do this again I would in a flash. The benefits of this mod must rate it high on the bang for buck scale. My driving motive was to get it in place prior to getting my rock sliders fitted. As I don't have front or rear bars yet now was the perfect time. On a difficulty scale I rate this 3/10, it actually takes more time to round up all the parts than it does to complete the lift.

Regrets:

• I originally purchased a kit from Rhyno in QLD, but after looking at the design of the front and rear standard mounts was reluctant to use their blocks in this position. You don't need a degree to see that these mounts are different for obvious reasons.
• If you go the full UHMWPE pucks, then I'd get them from Cheezy Racing in Vic, they come cut to size and are Ø 75mm in dia, 50% extra surface area has got to be a good thing and at $10 each it's not much more(if any) than buying your own, then cutting and drilling it.
• My standard wheels and stock tyres I use on road look stupid now, so it's fork out the $$$ for new road rubber.
• If like me your rig only just makes into the garage then make sure you have ample clearance to get out again after lifting. I had to switch tyres and drop the tyre pressure to get out (forwards). I still fit in (just) nose first.