Suspension SWAP questions, need answers ASAP!!

[zac93218]

Hello everyone,

I own a 2003 7.3L CCSB 4x4 and am wondering if I am going to run in to any complications or differences when swapping my stock suspension with someone that has an 8" Pro Comp lift on an 03 V10 CCSB 4x4...

Is there any little differences I could run in to like different U bolts or anything else i dont know about?

We are going to swap over everything it takes to make his lift work on mine and vise versa.

Please help and let me know because the swap is set for this saturday morning!!!

[zac93218]

After comparing both pro comp lifts (7.3L & V10) on the pro comp website, it seems as though all the components are the same for both trucks on a 8" lift. So from that im starting to believe that there are no differences and reasons why I cant swap this lift from the V10 to my 7.3. If ANYONE has any other input I would still appreciate a second opinion.

[dieselcrawler]

I would think you'd be ok... go for it. I'd love to find a 'swap out' deal like that for my red truck... it needs about a 4" lift!

[zac93218]

Another question just arose and i need an answer today!!!

does anybody know if there will be any special tools needed to take apart any certain part during this swap?

[Schnot]

Pitman arm puller. Other than that, any well stocked garage should have everything you need.

[dieselcrawler]

should just be basic SAE and metric tools... air tools are nice, but a good 1/2" drive socket set and some box end/open end wrenches should do the trick...

Spray everything down with PB Blaster or some type of solvent a few times before hand, a day or so before you start if you can... gives the solvent a chance to soak in, makes a diffrence, trust me!

Don't forget to think about brake lines that might be too short/too long, they might need some attention during the swap too. Also drive shafts... with 8" of lift, there is sure to be some corrections to the rear drive shaft, just pay attention and compare them closely before you start taking things apart.

[Schnot]

Take pictures before you pull it apart too so you know exactly how it goes back together.


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[zac93218]

thanks for all the great information guys!!! i will take everything into consideration while doing the swap... pictures will be taken and PB blaster will be sprayed. The other guy involved in the swap has the pitman arm puller tool. We will have two impacts on hand and a couple sets of wrenches and sockets.

Can anyone go in to more detail about the driveshaft? I had a feeling that with such a high lift, something had to change or be done to the driveshaft to make it work/operate properly. If we have to we will swap drive shafts but i dont think it needs to go that far...

[dieselcrawler]

Make sure you have plenty of heavy duty jack stands, and a good hydrolic jack or 2...

Drive shafts are probly both stock, with some shims under the center support berring on the lifted truck... however, if the drive shaft has been modified on the lifted truck, as long as both trucks have the same trans/transfer case combo, reguardless of motor, I would imagine they would inter change.

Good luck... take some pictures, both for you, and for us!!!

[zac93218]

Well the swap is done!!! and it was quite a chore!!

2 things held us up from making the swap a 1 day project. The first major problem we ran in to on my truck was the front leaf spring bolts on the front leaf springs. They where installed in a way so that even if the nut fell off, there is no way the bolt could fall out because there is not enough room for it to slide out. Because of this we could not physically remove them either so we had to finagle a grinder up in the top space and hack at them until we could get them out...took a couple hours to hack out 2 bolts...

the second thing that held us up...again on my truck...was removing my pitman arm. It has not been removed since installed at the factory and we had to heat it up and pry it off with a puller....getting ahold of a torch and then grinding down the puller so that it would fit took up another couple hours...

Aside from those two things, everything else was fairly straight forward and easy process. Just time consuming. it took me and a couple guys all day saturday (14 hours) and part of sunday (3-4 hours) to complete. we had an impact to make things easier but not having all the right impact sockets we had to use a breaker bar and regular sockets on some of the bolts. Also we didnt have a fancy lift to make things easy, we used 3 floor jacks, 4 jack stands, 4 wood crates and a bunch of wood blocks to lift and hold the trucks up...

On a side note, stock brake lines will work on an 8" lift but I did bend down the plate that is connected to the frame holding all the lines just to be on the safe side. The stock drive shafts work on an 8" lift as well but I wouldnt recommend romping to hard on them or lifting the truck any higher on the stock drive shafts as they are pretty close to being maxed out.

Now that its all done and I have the truck home in one piece. I need to run through all the nuts and bolts and make sure they are all still tight and that nothing has broke, shifted or moved. I also need to reposition my pitman arm because its off. I have full turn to the right and about quarter turn to the left...cant turn around to the left without making a 6 point turn haha. Planning on doing all the adjustment tomorrow evening at my buddies shop.

I am extremely happy with the lift. 8" is a lot of lift but i think it looks good on the beefy looking f250s The kit came with 2 inch blocks for the rear which leaves the truck sitting 2" taller in the back and i was planning on leaving them off originally thinking it would give my truck a slightly raked out look but was not able to due to the U bolts being to long. I plan to get shorter U bolts so that i can remove the back blocks so the truck will sit level.

The swap was 100% worth it!! for a day and a half of work i got a free 8" lift with a set of 35" tires sitting on 16" rims. I would recommend this swap to anyone that comes across a deal like this.

ALSO if you plan on simply putting a lift on your truck i would recommend doing it yourself and saving the money that the shops charge you. if you have a weekend a couple buddies and a few coldies it makes for a fun project with the buddies and to have an excuse to hang out in the shop with friends!!