I don't have any after shots, because my camera's batteries decided to die on me...boo, but I do have some during shots!

Anyways, the shackles arrived today, ahead of schedule, from AC. They're 100x nicer than the Calmini ones, but not quite as nice as the SLR ones. A good set of quality shackles at the right price.

Right after we finished installing his CB (my old CB, actually), a real nice install, underneath the single-DIN aftermarket stereo in the dash, easily accessible, and the front panel mounted speaker makes it easy to hear, I got a phone call from the guy who was coming to buy my stock wheels. When I got back, CJ (the guy with the goofy look on his face in the following picture) was starting to unbolt the stock shackles.



Once we got the stock shackles unbolted, we used a sledge hammer to pound the bolts through the eyelets and a jack handle to put pressure on the leaf spring to allow the other half of the stock shackle to come out.



Once the stock shackles were out, we used the stock scissor jack to push the leaf spring down to a level where the new 2" lift shackles could be hooked up.



Here's a pic with both shackles in, notice the great difference between rear and front ride heights...



We then had to look up the procedure for cranking the Torsion Bars online. Thanks for the link, Anthony! It was exactly what we needed. It's actually very simple, but nobody at the house had actually done them before, so I figured it would be a good idea to just look them up to be safe.

Basically, the procedure involves:

1) Measuring the ride height of the Xterra at the same spot behind the front wheels on both sides and recording the values.
2) Jacking up the Xterra so the front wheels are just about to come off the ground. This will relieve the pressure on the torsion bars and allow you to crank them without a ridiculous amount of effort.
3) Loosening up the lock nuts on top of the torsion bar adjustment bolt.
4) Cranking the adjustment bolt clockwise, counting the number of turns you make. I found it pretty easy to count the turns using my 1/2" drive ratchet w/ the 19mm socket going in half-turn increments. The instructions on NOR say to use a box end wrench, but we couldn't fit the wrench we had in the groove far enough to turn the bolt enough to be able to accurately count the turns. Do the same number of turns on both sides. It's usually a good idea to start with 4 turns or so.
5) Lower the Xterra and measure the ride height at the same spot you measured before.
6) Jack the Xterra back up and crank the T-Bars until you've reached the desired ride height.



There's a picture of me cranking on the t-bar adjustment bolt, as it was getting towards the end of the required amount of turns, and it was getting tough to turn it!



If you're sitting on level ground, this is the ideal jacking point since it allows both wheels to be raised exactly the same amount and gives exactly the same feel through the ratchet as you're cranking on the adjustment bolt.

All in all, we got just over 2" of total lift out of the deal and spent all of $70. Took just over an hour. Shinji is happy with the result and we even tested it out in the "sand box", and it worked great.

Next step - ALIGNMENT!!

Here's the pic of the final installed product of the CB Radio.



It's a Cobra 18 WX ST II - meaning, it's the Cobra 18, with NOAA Weather Radio Receiver, and Sound Tracker - version 2. ":lol:

The antenna is a Radio Shack Magnet Mount mounted to the roof. Final lifted pictures, along with the CB antenna and a comparison to stock will be posted tomrrow.

Nice work guys. Looks very good!

I'm not sure about spreading the spring pack with the scissor jack, though. When I did mine, after removing the stock shackle, I just jacked the truck up by the frame rather than the axle, and that opened the gap enough to position the new shackle.

I'm not sure what other people do, since I've only done my own PML, however I'd be very leary of using the stock jack in that manner.

only problem with jacking the truck up much further was that the rack was already hitting the insulation in the roof... another inch and it would've been hitting the rafters. so we had to improvise, i will admit though, using the scissor jack like that was scary.

Yeah, I'll be the first to admit it wasn't the best option, but with our limited space, we had to do what we had to do. There was no way I was going to be able to pull the leaf down to where it had to be to line up the shackle by hand, so, we had to make do...lol.

That's the same thing I did when I did my PML.

Awesome! Now I'm not so worried about being the only moron in the club with a severe case of a momentary lapse of good judgement!

Looks good. Are those NJ plates?

Heads up to anyone using AC shackles. Just hit them with a few coats from a rattle can. The road salt from this winter has mine looking like crap!

yup, i'm from clifton nj originally, in rochester for school

Ah ~15 minutes from me!

nice

heres some before and after pics... i know.. just parking lot pics but i'll be taking lots of pics on saturday no worries

before:




After:

i need stickers to cover up those back windows



::hint::hint:: anthony ::cough::cough::