Installed lifted torsion keys..are they in right??

[TheFuzz]

Thats a good price, but be careful pulling them out dude. Those things have a lot of power tied up in them.

Tearing your hand up in your driveway is bad juju in and of itself, but who knows what you'd get exposed to at a junkyard lol. Make sure your tetnus shot is up to date!

 

[odie301]

yeah it should be ok.. they will lift the truck up on blocks for me... and i will use a gear puller...looks a lot safer than the c clamp... i happen to have a 2 ton puller.

 

[6Gears]

OK, I am a new guy here and I will try not to step on any toes. I have lifted probably 20 GM IFS trucks over the years and have seen all kinds of crap. The thing to look for on the front suspension is droop or down travel. When you crank bars or change cams the upper control arm gets closer to the drop stop. If you don't have at least a 1/2" of clearance between them it will ride like CRAP! You also change the alignment and it sometimes can't be set back within spec. I realize you are trying to save money, but Cognito can't be beat. You need some upper control arms, torsion keys and front shock extenders. That is the "best" way to go. Also, I have used lots of stuff to relieve torsion tension, and had some ideas fail with bad results. Either rent or buy a torsion bar tool, it is worth the money.

 

[J-Will]

as far as one side being diff than the other did you make sure you put the torsion bar back in the EXACT same way it was when you took it out? makes a diff. mine sits ****-eyed because i put it in diff than stock

 

[TheFuzz]

6Gears, most of us can get away with 2 - 2 1/2 inches of lift via ford keys without any suspension geometry issues, and the ride quality doesn't suffer that much. I'm running 2" of lift on the front via keys and 1.5" in the rear via spacers, on the stock shocks, and my Yukon still rides light years better than my father in law's 08 Silverado. When I drop in the Bilstien 5100s, ride quality will be the last thing I need to worry about.

I know you mean well, but there are probably hundreds of us on here that are running ford keys with no issues. There is the cost effective way of doing it, and theres the "right" way to do it...but when you can use the cost effective method with very little in the way of negative impact, thats what most of us choose to do.

 

[6Gears]

Hey....no sweat. I really have not messed with the 99-06 1/2 ton stuff that much. Mostly all 3/4 ton, and you can't gain 2 1/2" on them without really messing up the front geometry. Mainly droop. This is the reason for the cognito UCA's, they have a different bend and are a little longer to help with the alignment. I have a buddy with an 05 1500, I might tell him about the ford keys. That seems to be a pretty cheap route to go. About how big of tire can you run with 2 1/2" of front lift?

 

[odie301]

with the keys i have now (not the ford keys, oned that were suppose to lift a 3/4 ton). My front fender sits at 36" (measured from ground to fender well at the center of the front wheel). I was goofing around the other day with rims and tires..... I had a 33x12.5R15 on the front. It was on a 15x10 rim..was a bit wide but if you got the right offset or trimmed the little lip below the bumper it would probably work. Gotta admit it looked pretty sweet on there.

Anyone know what offset 15" rims will work on our trucks???..looking at getting a set w/ off road tires for hunting season/winter...and then back to my stock 17's w/ summer tires. I like the interco trxus m/t...but thinking it will wear out quick if ran all year long.

Tried a 97 chevy 16" factory rim and it was a no go..not the right back space. Tried another buddies 15" aftermarket rims (also were on a 97 chevy) They bolted right up no problems.... so i am looking for something like a 15x8 with the correct off set to fit up right, then i was going to run a 31x10.5 which should be pretty close to my stock 265/70/r17. plus by going to a 15 i can save a bit of cash on the tires

 

[6Gears]

I am gonna have to measure my Duramax, but it is probably over 50" to the fender lip on the front......7-9" cognito set at about 8.5" and 37x13.50x20 Toyo M/T's. I am going to buy some 35x12.50s on 16x10s for my winter wheels, thinking about going with the black teflon with some BFG AT's. Not sure yet.

 

[TheFuzz]

It's all good man. Like I said, I know you mean well, so good lookin out . I'm running 285-75-16, which is about the biggest you can go. 33's will clear, but cause lots of rubbing problems. You'll need to trim a shit ton to get 33s to clear. My 285's are actually rubbing a bit now...I think that the front has settled just a bit since I did the keys 6 months ago. I'll be looking into that soon, might need to crank em up a little more or replace the stock torsion bars when I do the shocks later this year.

 

[odie301]

well went to the junk yard...and yeah that sucked they said they had "plenty" of trucks in the u-pull-it that i could get a set of keys from...NOPE so i wasted about 2 hours on a rusted to holy hannah 97 expedition, only to give up cause they were so froze in that i didn't have enough tools to get them out.. So i looked on ebay and there are not stock ford keys, but i came up on a thought.

If i buy a set of chevy lift keys that lift 2-3"....does that mean it will be 2-3" higher than my stock ones when fully cranked.... or how does it compare to a stock key. is it just 2-3" higher across the board compared to a stock key?

My thought was i have found the "lifted" ford keys fairly cheap..so if a ford key lifts our chevys 2-3"... then a lifted ford key would be like 4-6 correct? So my thinking was if i can get a set of ford lift keys.. and install them then i would get the same amount of lift as cranking a set of lifted keys, but i wouldn't have to crank them up hardly at all.


Does any of that make sense?? would it work?