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Problems After Installing 3" Lift

1K views 13 replies 10 participants last post by  judsonlimited 
#1 ·
Last year I installed a 3" lift (Spacers on top and bottom of struts) on my '08 Sierra 1500 Crew. I did this mainly because of my plow frame hitting the driveway on occasion as well as wanting a more level appearance. Since the install I have had two wheel bearing failures, two outer CV boots have ripped, and I ended up replacing the right side shaft in January because that boot ripped again. Well, I looked under the truck over the weekend and both outer boots are ripped again and I am getting some sort of God awful squeak in the left front while turning. Haven't looked into the squeak yet. What the hell is going on with my truck? Did I do a disservice by installing the 3" lift? Consequently, the plow is a Western 7' poly blade and I only plow mine and my Mother-in-Laws driveway. Very minimal plowing.
 
#3 ·
Yeah your CV angles are terrible with a 3" level. Get a set of diff drop brackets and a new set of UCAs to correct the upper ball joints and CV angles. Your tie rod ends will still be at a crappy angle. If you want the truck to look level, go down to a 2" level. As for sagging with the plow, install Timbren helpers. Hope this helps
 
#4 ·
I'm sorry to hear you aren't getting to plow much. Hopefully things will change for the better!

The plow isn't heavy enough to offset that much lift, I would try to adjust the plow's angle or fab some mounts to have it sit higher, raising your truck for additional height on a bolt-on device is never a good idea.

Best of luck :)
 
#5 ·
Like everybody has stated, a 3" level is just too much. All of you angles are off. Either drop one piece of the level or look into bilstein leveling shocks as another option. Either way you need to get rid of a 3" level.
 
#7 ·
So, I can get by just by removing one of the aluminum spacers on the strut?? Quickest and easiest would be the lower one. And then It's alignment, CV boot time. I think I may look into the Timbren Helpers (thanks n8dh) for next winter's plowing season. Need to get front end issues under control first. In fact, the more I think about it, I may just remove the whole lift kit altogether. It's provbably time for new struts anyway. Got 90K on it now. Anyway, thanks for all the help folks. This forum has never let me down.
Todd
 
#8 ·
Yup it's a great forum - one of the best IMO. (Almost) everyone stays civil about it and gives good answers (there's the odd sassy one, and then even less of the ugly ones that just get out of control) but for the most part this forum is great! Keep us updated :cool:
 
#9 ·
Sort of an update........ I would like to save a few bucks and not replace the front struts just yet. The 3" lift kit I installed has the spacers on top of the strut and one on the bottom where it attaches to the lower control arm. Can I get by, just removing the lower spacer and leaving the upper one in or do they both need to come out?
 
#11 ·
LuvMyTruck said:
Sort of an update........ I would like to save a few bucks and not replace the front struts just yet. The 3" lift kit I installed has the spacers on top of the strut and one on the bottom where it attaches to the lower control arm. Can I get by, just removing the lower spacer and leaving the upper one in or do they both need to come out?
Yes, you can remove the lower spacer by itself, you don't have to remove both.
 
#12 ·
So here's what I decided. After reading all I could regarding leveling/lift kits it became apparent that I was still risking some front end issues if I left the upper strut spacer in place and just removed the lower. At this point I'm not ready to spend the money on a full up lift kit so it's back to stock height. If I remove the spacer on the top of the strut I will have to replace the bearing plate, at the very least, because this gets trimmed when you install the spacer. The truck is over 90K miles anyway so it's probably a good time to just replace the struts altogether. Probably not the best quality out there but Monroe has an offer that expired yesterday (timing is everything) that gives me a $90 prepaid Visa card if I buy both struts and shocks. So, essentially I got the rear shocks for free. Maybe I'll start packing away some $$ for a real lift kit someday.... :-(
 
#14 ·
^^^^+1
Drop brackets and UCAs. look into rough country, if you ballin' on a budget, they are the way to go. Not saying they are cheap, just reasonably priced. Do everything at the same time to save some cash.
 
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