Last night about 11:30-12:00 I got bored and decided to go drive my truck around the pasture just to play a little bit, it's an 84 w/ 3" body lift and 33's. I've only had it a week and haven't driven it hardly at all b/c I needed to repair the frame. Before I bought it, I made sure 4Hi and 4Low worked, but didn't shift out of first gear. Last night I put it in 4Low and crawled around a little, but when I change to second, the trans shifter pushes the t-case shifter to neutral. Like I said it was 11:30, so I just drove back to the house. So I was wondering if anyone had a suggestion of what would cause this so I can look into it after work. I'm thinking either one of the shifters is bent or it has something to do with the body lift? Anyway, if someone knows the problem or has experienced this, please let me know.

Thanks

 

It's caused by the body lift. The shifter levers have to be extended and altered to fix it.

 

See below for a number of options to solve that problem:
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/....shtml#Shifter

 

The best cure, IMHO, is to remove the body lift and put a real suspension lift on. Can you tell that I'm not a big fan of body lifts (at least not ones over 1")?

 

I just took off the shifter boots(just the top ones, not the ones that seal around the floor) and it works fine now. They were all tore up and ragged anyway. Thanks for the help though. And I agree about the body lift being inferior to a suspension lift, but it's what was on the truck when I got it so it will work for a while.

 

mine is stock and it kicks the t-case into nuetral if i use 2nd gear. lame.

Al

 

You may have one or both shifters installed backwards. If not, try bending one or both shifters so they don't make contact in 2nd gear, assuming that is what is causing it to pop out of gear.

 

the shifters are correct, they are just too close and it just brushes it enough to pop it out 4 times out of 5. i found jumping from 1st directly to 3rd usually did the trick when i needed a little more wheelspeed.

Al

 

I bent my gear levers a bit to fix this problem when I did a body lift.

 

FWIW, you can still buy the shifter boots from the dealer. I bought a new one for my 85 4Runner last summer. It was something around $30.00.

Just thought I would mention it as it's not a part you would normally want to go used with and I don't know how much longer you'll be able to source them through Toyota.

 

Body lifts are FAR superior to suspension lifts. They allow clearance for large tires without raising the COG. in addition, they allow room for a drive train lift which will give you precious belly clearance, and better breakover.

Don't take the body lift off.

 

you are kidding, right???

your frame and crossmember (vehicles lowest points other than axles) are only raised the height of taller tires. not up out of the way with a suspension lift.

not to mention the fact that suspension lifts don't seperate from the rest of the vehicle and almost kill you during a minor accident and turning it into a major one.

here is what happens to the added leverage a body lift generates, and its ill effects:



how do you like your body lift now?

Al

 

dang... that ain't what ya want

 

i hate to say it and will probably get burned for it but those pics look like they were staged

 

Nope. Not kidding.

A good quality body lift under 3" will not do what happened in those pictures. Plenty of accidents where those trucks were just fine. Poor quality parts of any kind can mess up a truck.

Tons and tons of people successfully employ body lifts to gain clearance under the axles by using larger tires.

Suspension lifts allow for larger tires on road, but not offroad, since, unless you move the bumpstops down, the suspension lift will allow your suspension to compress to the same location that it does stock, meaning lots of rubbing and unpleasantness. A body lift cures this.

Offroad, a body lift adds more bang for the buck than a suspension lift.

There are downsides, but to say that body lifts are ALL bad isn't accurate. They are good, and have their place.

The situation above is very extreme and is the exception, not the norm.

Anyway, just discussion, not trying to start a pissing match. Just a different point of view.

 

i'm not trying to pee in anyones cheerio's, but lets back this up a bit. i'm not here spouting off stuff i know nothing about.

no, those pictures are not staged. they were taken by the wrecker driver that responded to the accident. the kid was lucky he escaped with such little injury, it could have been so much worse. i can dig up more if you like.

quality of spacers does go a ways into colapsing or shifting failures, but it does not change the amount of leverage that is put on the body bolts by installing these type of lifts. and of course that leverage grows exponentially greater with each inch you give it. if you understand physics research shear forces. wonder why stock body mounts are so small? to keep leverage to a minimum and keep the body on the frame even during severe crashes.

the only way to eliminate this added leverage is to use a body lift such as this:


using a setup such as this will eliminate the extra leverage (shear force) caused by the body lift. but now you still have a frame and other parts of the vehicle that hang just as low as a stock rig.

a 3" suspension lift gives exactly the same amount of wheel clearance a 3" body lift does. it just moves the frame up with the body instead of leaving it hanging low down in the stock location where you can drag it on rocks and other obsticles. saying that a suspension lift doesn't give you clearance for tires offroad is pretty far off. have you used any lift kits before? as a general rule of thumb, lift springs are arched and will be stiffer than stock flat springs, and therefore will not compress as much as stock springs, actually allowing you to run a larger tire because you have a limit of up-travel compared to stock. that is why there is a benifit with yota's to using stock rear springs up front. they are flat and flexy giving the best travel. only custom springs with altered spring rates and thinner than stock leaves will travel up higher than stock springs. even so, if that is your problem it is a great one to have. we all know that the more wheel travel you have the better you will do off-road. a 3" body lift with say a 2" tire increase only gives you 1" in frame/crossmember clearance, where a 3" suspension lift with 2" tire increase gives you 4" of frame/crossmember clearance, a fantastic advantage off road. sure your axle is still 1" higher than stock, but the low crossmember and frame is usually what hangs these rigs. i had this exact problem memorial day weekend when i was wheeling at brown's camp. a body lift would not have helped in the least, because my crossmember was catching the rocks.

yes, body lifts are cheap and you could call that better 'bang for your buck'. but not at the sacrifice of safety. IMO they are quite unsafe and should not be used 90% of the time. remember you get what you pay for, and i for one do not want to end up like the guy i pictured above.


Al

 

Thats kinda how I did my body lift. I just used some 4 or 5mm thick 50mmX50mm. I thought that was a bad/unsafe/generally looking for trouble body lift compared to the ones you buy?

 

I know all about forces. Below 3", with proper hardware upgrades, the above will not happen.

Thanks for the insults bub. Great addition to the site.

I have used lift kits, thanks. Lets break this down and walk through this, so we're all on the same page, because your clearly superior intellect is too much for us peons.

Suspension lifts allow the suspension to compress to the bumpstops, are you denying this?

If not, we will move to the next step. Bigger tires. A suspension lift moves all of the frame, crossmembers and skids up away from the axle, correct?

So, the fenders are now farther away from the axle, right?

If so, there is now room for a larger tire, no?

So, now the truck has a 3" suspension lift, and large tires, and sitting on level ground, it does great. But I like to go offroad, what then?

If we've gotten this far, we've already agreed that a suspension lift will allow the suspension to compress up to the bumpstops.

Now, when that happens, the axle is in the EXACT SAME LOCATION AS IT WAS AT FULL STUFF BEFORE THE LIFT, right? I mean, I'm just going off of your genius here, so let me know if that assumption is incorrect.

So, here's what we have. Truck at full stuff. Axle and frame/body are in the SAME locations relative to each other as they were before we put on the lift. We now, however, have GIANT tires in there.

So, from where I'm sitting, in the situation, it doesn't matter whether you have a lift or not, you'll rub if the tire is big enough. If the tire doesn't rub, you didn't need the lift anyway.

Now, a simple solution to this is to lower the bumpstops, as I said in my last post. But that gets rid of uptravel, which is the most useful travel off road. That sucks.

Body lifts accomplish the ground clearance issue big time. Yes, you can still hang on your frame, but a body lift gives you tire clearance, and, if you've done it right, and lifted your engine and tranny too, you now have a flat belly. So, you have a flat skid under your truck.

No matter how big you go, you'll hang your belly eventually. I don't know about you, but I notice all of the rock rigs have flat bellies. Perhaps you can explain why that is?

Anyway, forgive the questioning of your divine wisdom and please help a humble offroader see the light.

 

this wasn't a personal attack on you, you don't have to get all butt hurt about it. i'm sorry if my post count isn't as high as yours and you feel i'm inferior to share my knowledge on a subject i know a lot about. i have found this to be a decent site for toyotas, but you seem to bring it down for me and every other new member than may have plenty of knowledge and experiance to share so that the entire board can grow. way to go.

if you have truley used lift springs, you will know that 99 times out of 100 they will not stuff more than stock springs, they will stuff less! basic physics shows us that a more arched spring will not invert near as easy as a flat spring. care to still argue that point? or should i draw you a picture? if an arched spring can't invert to the same degree a stock flat spring can, why are you saying it will hit the bump stops?

Al

 

I dissagree.

However, you are correct that I've been a jerk in this thread. I felt like you were insinuating that I was an idiot, and being very condescending. I responded rather childishly. My apologies.

I do not wish to continue arguing. Many people use body lifts effectively and safely. You dissagree and that is fine. My apologies for attacking you.

My posts were based on my own experience. I have 3" lift springs that compress to the bumpstops. They are not longer than stock, so they have more arch.