Parts Needed
2" budget boost (shackles & spacers)
New Shock boots if you are so inclined
Extra 3/8 nuts/bolts various lengths
Exhaust clamp & tip
Shock bushings

Tools Needed
Jack Stands
Floor Jack
Bottle Jack
Spring Compressor (we borowed a "strut spring compressor" from Autozone)
Comprehansive socket set
Comprehansive wrench set
red & blue lock tite
Hammer
Josh and Rob & beer

*Fairly simple as far as projects go.

With the lift, I decided to remove the rear sway bar and use the sway bar brackets that attached to the U bolt plates as Bar pin eliminators for the rear shocks. After breaking off all 4 bolts that were holding in the bar pins, remounting the top of the shocks took longer than the rest of the lift itself...Use lots of whatever brand rust penetrater you like. To put things bakc on, I used red locktite on anything I didn't want to ever come off, and the blue on things I know would be coming off sooner or later.

1. We started on the rear. First thing to do is to get the vehicle up on stands and chocked. Remove the rear tires, (We stripped one of the dam lug nut covers, a sign of things to come) and set them aside.


2. Now you can get to work on the shackle bolts, removing them is pretty.


3. Getting the new shackles is pretty easy. You might need to loosen you exhaust to get them on. You can see in the picture that my exhaust turned right into the shackle and that the leaf spring didn't really want to go back in. After lifting the other tire off the ground(we were trying to do it the lazy way) it was simple to get into the new shackles.


4. I cut my exhaust right behind (towards the rear of the vehicle) the clamp that was holding it on. It didn't start to bend towards the shackle until behiind that, and this way I got the new tip on and only needed 1 clamp. I only did this to straighten out the exhaust, but Josh and I figure that the tip adds at least 70 horsepower :).


5. At this point we realized the inner part of the shackle was going to hit one of the bumper mounting bolts. After breaking off the sawzall blade we decided to just pull the bolts out. First thing was to remove the plastic piece between the body and the bumper. Then get to the bolt with a socket or whatever you can fit in there.




6. With all of that done, I decided to get rid of the rear sway bar...



7. Going from another tech writeup, we went ahead and decided to can the rear bar pins and use the sway bar brackets to replace them... this is what took up 75% of our time doing this lift. After breaking off all 4 bolts holding in the bar pins....



We tried drilling out the centers and backing them out using "easy outs". Dulled most of the nice new Dewalt bits I had, and broke off an "easy out" leaving a nice chunk of titanium in there. So after some figuring (and some beer) we drilled and tapped two of the broken bolts to fit 3/8 hardware, then made our own holes and mounted the brackets at a 45 degree angle. It's not the stock lineup, but it is better than the 90 degrees it would have been off if we had mounted the brackets back in the stock holes. It's hard to tell from the pictures but you can see how we avoided one of the holes. We used a magnetic wand to feed the bolts in through the top in case you are wondering.


8. While driving out the bar pins, we toasted the stock boots, hence the need for new ones. Drilling around the pin then banging with a hammer worked for us.


9. That about does it for the rear. We put the tires back on, torqued the bolts, greased the shackles and went inside for some of Pipers Chicken Spaghetti.....

Day 2 (Yes the stupid broken bolts and trips to the shops burned up most of the first day). We didn't get many pictures of day 2 because it went so quickly.

10. After getting it on stands we removed the tires. We unbolted the front shocks, and the spring clips. Using the bottle jack to force one side of the axle up and the other down we got the springs out.

11. We decided to reuse the stock spacer along with the new one to give the front more lift hopefully leveling it out with the rear. Getting the springs back in we had to have the spring compressor.


12. Not much to say about the front, I replaced the few nuts and bolts we removed with new stuff and that's about it. Here's the finished passenger side.


Before & After...






I think it looks great. Really, this is how XJ's should look stock. You probably wouldn't be able to tell it was higher unless you had it next to another XJ or are an XJ owner yourself. I wasn't going for a lifted look, I just wanted it to be a little taller & level and that's what I got. gained almost exactly 1 7/8 inches all the way around. I know I can fit 30's now possibly 31's with trimming and bumpstops....Thanks Josh & Rob.