Well after 2 attempts at extending the steering shaft, I got it to work. For ANYONE with manual steering getting the AA 4/4 inch lift, your steering shaft needs to be between 14 1/2 inches and 14 5/8 inches to work.

 

The car is almost fully functional again. took it out for a test drive and I got a weird revolution based grinding (no popping though) seems like when I'm on the gas it quiets down but when coasting it gets louder. The test drive was only 2 miles at 20 - 35 mph down a gravel road.

 

Gonna go pull a tire and figure out whats makin noises.. Anyone got any ideaS?

I'm not sure where to start looking for the noise, but that's awesome that you got everything figured out and Haggard is rolling again!

well tightened up all the lift bolts.. may have stripped one of them, but I think its in there good enough that its not gonna come out.. might come loose but not out..

 

Anyone know where the tranny x-member bolt comes through the floor at? I was gonna cut out a hole and just through bolt it top to bottom.

 

The car handles great.. I like being up higher. Even with out sway bars, the body lean isnt any worse then it was unlifted. I have yet to get it up to 75 mph though for the speed test..

So, are you coming up this way this weekend? Picking up the Brat window? Going to look at John's car? Hell, you might as well move here for as much as you've got going on here. We could always use another SKA member nearby.

get me a job and and a place to live for 3 and I'll be there in a heart beat.. Soldotna sucks. There is hardly any jobs here.

 

*hopefully* If nothing goes wrong with my car I will be in Anchorage around 9 or 9:30 am. I'll stay in Anchorage until 2 or 3 pm and then head up to fairbanks. I called my old roommate up that has my old brat and he said he found a window for his car, so save yours.. As for Jons car, I'm still debating.

Kelly sounds like he has stuff to do during the day Friday and you'll be teaching?

I had a grinding noise when i first put the lift on.

the problem for me was that I have an automatic, and the exhaust is bolted to the tranny. After the lift the pitch of the engine and tranny caused the CAT to be pushed up against the driveshaft. This was resolved by making custom 1.75" blocks to lower the tranny, thus bringing the transmission/driveshaft alignment back into harmony.

I had a grinding noise when i first put the lift on.

the problem for me was that I have an automatic, and the exhaust is bolted to the tranny. After the lift the pitch of the engine and tranny caused the CAT to be pushed up against the driveshaft. This was resolved by making custom 1.75" blocks to lower the tranny, thus bringing the transmission/driveshaft alignment back into harmony.

 

That reminds me I had a similar problem with my car when I first lifted it. The exhaust shielding would touch the driveshaft right in front of the rear differential. It happened to be where there was a balancing weight on the shaft, so it would make a really loud click with each revolution of the shaft. Took me forever to figure out what it was...I thought it was a CV joint or something going out. The really interesting part was that it wouldn't make the noise if I kept my foot to the floor. Trying to avoid making the noise lead to some interesting driving experiences:rolleyes: . Wow, I rambled a lot there...I guess my point is to check and make sure the exhaust isn't touching anything.