Hi All,

I just received my ReadyLift Leveling kit and I should be ready to install this weekend on my 04 Z71. I have a few questions you guys may be able to help me out with as I have never done this type of job before. I am pretty familiar with what I need to do, and I have tinkered with torsion bars before. However, I noticed something yesterday when I was installing my steering stabilizer. On the driver side, my torsion key is maxed out. I can not tighten the adjustment bolt any further. On the passenger side, it is almost the complete opposite. My truck does not sit higher on the driver side or anything. (Not that I can tell anyways), and it has not always been like that. Before I had the shop reset them, I played around with them because my driver side front WAS higher than the rest of the vehicle. But once the shop adjusted them, I have not touched them. All seems well. When I spoke to ready lift on the phone, they told me that I may have a saggy torsion bar. But they said to install the kit anyways, and possible reset the keys. Any idea how that is done? Any tips on what I may or may not need to get this installed? He said even if I had a saggy bar, I could still install the kit, I just would not be able to get the 2.5 inch lift I'm looking to get out of it. Any help is appreciated. Ask all the questions you want and I will do my best to give you all the info you need. The kit seems easy enough to install on the front and the spacers on the back. Has anyone else has torsion bar issues before? Thanks for taking the time to read this. If you need any photos, I can take some when I get home from work tonight.

 

could be a saggy torsion bar, or the shop installed the keys at different spots. Install the new lift keys in the same way on both sides and don't crank on either one. Let it settle and see if one side is higher than the other. If it is, then crank the side up. If the one side is higher, then a saggy torsion bar is the culprit.

 

Roger. I am going to get started on this Saturday. So would I install the new keys in the same clock position as the old ones are now, or just make sure I install the 2 new ones identical to each other?

 

Okay so I decided to have a shop install the leveling kit. I was in and out within 2 hours. Not bad. They didnt have any issues with the torsion bar, and said the alignment was just fine. However, I am having an issue, maybe, I don't really know. I have never had a leveling kit before so I am not sure how it normally rides. I know the ride quality is a bit less when you lift the vehicle, but mine went to complete crap. If I go over dips or wavy areas on the highway, my truck starts to wobble and bounce A LOT. It moves me out of my seat sometimes. The shop did leave off the shock extenders in the front and told me I didn't really need to put them on, but that is the only thing I can think of they didn't do. Could the shock extenders be the reason? I am going to put them on today and find out I suppose. It's bad enough to where I would need to remove the kit in fear that something would break while my kids were in the Tahoe with me.

 

Buy new shocks or put the extenders on. Why they wouldn't use them is beyond me. With the levelin kit, you're over extending the stock shocks and they'll ride really bouncy over every dip/hole in the road. I myself would just buy new ones, bilstein 5100s for a 2.5" lift in the front. Runs about 160 for some awesome shocks.

 

I did put the extenders on. The same day actually. I felt exactly what you described. I threw on the extensions and problem was solved. I purposely bought the shocks I have with the intentions of lifting it a couple of inches, but I guess I purchased them incorrectly. I may see about getting new ones. I have heard many people call out Bilstein shocks, but I have had Skyjacker 8000s on my Hoe for a while and never had any issues. I will look into them both. I appreciate the help. Now I just need to swap out the pitman arm and the idler arm. Then I should be done with this thing. So far I have just about replaced all the steering components and most of the suspension trying to get this wobble and shimmy resolved. Just about there. I need to ball joints, but it seems to be cheaper to buy a new control arm with them already pressed and do the work in the driveway than to have a shop just install the ball joints. But man are they still expensive either way.

 

Check out rock auto for the arms. I bought moog arms with moog ball joints for 70 a piece. Paid 150ish shipped I my door when just one in stores was 140

 

I will check that out. If they are that cheaply priced, I may get them soon. I am going for a Moog pitman arm and idler arm in a few weeks. I need those pretty bad too. I used Moog sway bar bushings too. Thanks for the tip.

 

Wow, I just checked RockAuto and they have the upper arms with bushings for about 70, and the lower arms with bushings for about 104. That's about the same price for the upper, but that is an awesome price for the lowers. Those are normally 170ish with the bushings already installed. I may do that. I need uppers too, so I may just buy 1 at a time until I have them all and just swap them out. Good idea, thank you much. I would have never though to check their site.