got to the part where i cut the bottom tabs of the fan shroud. sounds stupid but...how do i pull it out? i've tried every which way, am i missing something? Do i need to remove the transmission cooler, or can i leave it alone like the radiator?

 

haha the fan shroud.....

well i had problems with this too. ask minimonster i got pissed and broke mine into 100 different pieces.

The easiest way my be to remove the fan and try to angle it out. but im not sure.

My radiator stayed in the same spot as well as the trans cooler

 

The only reason they tell you to remove the Fan Shroud is so you can cut the tabs off of the sides of it, this will allow you to move it up and down 3" to compensate for the body lift. It's the tabs that are preventing you from removing it. According to the directions, you are suppose to pull the radiator so you can remove the entire fan shroud, cut the tabs off and then put it back.

This is avoided by leaving the radiator in and just taking a pair of tin snips and cutting the tabs off of the fan shroud while it is still in the engine bay. Once you cut the tabs off of the shroud on the sides, you should be able to pull it up 3"s and put your mounting brackets on to hold it in place.

You do not need to remove the fan shroud, trans cooler or the radiator to accomplish this step in the directions.

 

Ha Ha, I will be saving this thread for future reference.

 

thanks man, i was getting a little frustrated out there. i guess since i dont have to do anything with the trans cooler, now all i gotta do is go back and do the steering column and the transmission and then i'll be onto the lifting. kinda starting to wish i had some help with this

 

yep I had to bend those cooler lines on the bottom a little out of the way so I could pull the shroud up. Once I had the clearance, I pulled it up and just sawed off the tabs on the bottom.

 

well i got about 6-7 solid hours in today, but couldnt start lifting cause i didn't have the hex bits. and couldn't tell what some of the pictures were talking about. i have everything done ready to lift now but, i couldnt take my trans cooler off. it looked nothing like the one in the picture, and it's mounted to the radiator somehow with tabs that i dont think i can pop off with out breaking. should i just leave it alone, or disconnet the lines instead or will it make no difference?

and man you don't notice things until you really get under there i hardly have any surface rust ony my frame but my front driveshaft looks horrible. still functional..but ugly. as do my exhaust manifolds...hmm, maybe time for some good headers

won't be able to finish tomorrow because of dr appointments, but if everything goes well i should have pictures up thursday.

 

I think you'll be OK. I never had any issues with the trans cooler lines on the 00 and 03 I did. I say leave 'em alone. There's probably enough flex there. Just keep an eye on them when you lift it, go real slow.

I never installed the break module 2" spindle on my 03. Not that it makes a difference. I'm just saying that the 2 sets of directions seemed pretty vague for both the 00 and 03 that I followed. I think you got some wiggle room.

Good luck, and post pics when it's done.

 

alright. finally got a free day to work on it and i'm almost done. putting the bolts back in the bed. Only had to cut one bolt out . Do you guys think i should use the old nuts with clip washer, or should i just get some grade 8 nuts, washers, and lock washers?

 

anyone know anything about bending the trans cooler lines? they're in the way of the shroud being low enough to match up with the brackets in the kit. i know i'll have to be careful, but whats the best way of going about it?

 

I bent mine by hand. It was a real pain. Probably the worse part of the body lift installation.

 

The bending of the lines was pretty easy, just gently force them wherever you need them to be so they're out of the way and you're set. You shouldn't have to move them very much.