I installed a PA 3" body lift on my 99 F150 4x4 this weekend. One question though. When I apply the brakes and go over some bumps, I hear a 'thunk'. Is this normal? I torqued all of the body fasteners to 60 ft-lbs. Is this value correct? Unfortuneatly, Chilton's manual doesn't tell you the torque and no Ford dealers were open to call on Sunday.

Besides these questions, the body lift install was successfull but very time consuming. 15 hours to install by myself. I still have to put in the back seat and kick panels. Tomorrow I install the 35" Procomp Mud Terrains.

Thanks in advance

kev

 

Let me know how thoses things fit

 

Kev,
Does the thunk sound like sheet metal popping? When I did my body lift I had the same noises that you are having. It turned out that I stripped the front two cab bushings out when I torqued down the bolts. By doing this it left a little bit of play or slop, so when I hit bumps or turned sharply the stress put on the body caused the sheet metal to pop or buckle under my feet. New bushings can be bought at ford for around 20$. I bought a new bushing for the side that I stripped out, but a couple weeks later the other side striped out. Poor design in my opinion. So I went a purchased a threaded rod that I am using instead of the supplied bolts and capped both ends with lock nuts. Problem solved, with no trouble since. Hope this helps.
Good Luck,
Tim

 

Thanks for the reply,tlocke. I don't believe that is the problem as of yet. I untorqued all of the fasteners in the cab last night and retorqued them. I didn't notice any of them stripped. The mount under my foot on the drivers side was popping slightly like you said before I retorqued them, but now it is not. However I still have a thunk sound when I hit certain bumps and apply the brakes sometimes. I am not sure if it is just the echo coming through those hollow spacers or if I still have something clanking that I missed. It also may be those bed overload spacers. I fastened them to the frame but there is a 1/16" gap between the bed and spacer. They may be hitting as well. I guess I just need some more patience and time to figure out what it is exactly.

I put on my Procomp 35/12.5/17 MT tires today. I mounted them on the stock chrome steel lariat wheels. Wow, the truck looks great! I will get pics as soon as I get a chance to clean her up and photo it. However when I turn the wheels to the extreme position and only move forwards, the tread rubs on the side of the frame rail. In reverse it doesn't hit at all so that is how little it is contacting. I have been thinking about using a very thin wheel spacer, maybe 7/32", to space out the front wheels a bit to keep this from happening. If I do this, I should really get longer lugs. Does anyone know a place, size, material to get different lugs for these trucks? Also I bet if I just let it go, the tread will wear down enough to not contact in time for inspection, next summer.

Thanks again,
kev

 

YOU should have just stayed away from those pody lifts. there dangerous and do nothing.

 

Not really. I have installed two so far, and when done right, they are safe as could be.

 

Thanks for everyone's replies. I determined that the clunking noise was the slip yoke on the driveshaft. One week before I installed the lift, I had to replace a U-joint in the driveshaft and I didn't apply any grease to the slip joint. Well that is why it was clanking, so I removed the driveshaft, greased, and reinstalled and everything is great.

I love this truck with the 3" body lift. It looks great, handles great, etc. It did drop the performance a bit but that will be fixed eventually when I install my 4.56 gears.

I still rub slightly when I turn the wheels to the extreme position. What I think I am going to do it weld a small spacer plate onto the wheel stops to limit the turning radius a bit to keep the tires from rubbing the frame. Again they only rub at the very extreme of the turning radius, ie only when you try to turn tight into parking spaces, etc. So a 1/4" less travel won't be that much noticeable.

I will have pics as soon as I get my camera developed.

I wasn't even going to say anything but, 4RDPWR I really don't give a crap what you think about body lifts. Keep your personel opinions to yourself. I wasn't asking about peoples opinions on getting body lifts, I was asking about a certain item that may have been a result of the lift but it turned out it wasn't at all. Don't even ask me about what I feel about lifted 2wd trucks. That is all I am going to say about this matter.

kev

 

I fully agree with kev, you've got 2 good points. Glad to hear you got that noise out of the way. Don't believe what anyone says about body lifts, they're a good way to give your truck some tire clearance, I have a 10" suspension lift and still opted for the 3" body lift for additional tire clearance.

-Kelly

 

Thanks for the support, Whiplash. BTW your truck looks great!!!


kev

 

I had the same problem with my 3" body lift and I found out that even though the bolts seem tight the bushing is not all the way up and is twisted so that when you tighten the bolts is does feel tight . But actually the bushing it's self is not tight up against the chasis and body.The play between the body and bushing is what makes the noise. I let mine go for to long with out fixing it and it caused my two front bolts that go through the body bushings to break!

 

No problems so far but it's only been on for about 3 months. I'll be sure to post if something comes up.

Bob