Lift kit price

[02_Tahoe]

has anyone paid someone to put on new torsion keys, spacers and shocks. If so can you tell me the price you paid or what price I should be expecting

 

[OhFourChevy]

Blood, sweat, and beers is what most will say.

You'd be looking at about 3-4hrs + alignment so call it 250-350 labor + 75-100 alignment
So all in +/- $400 (bringing your own parts)

 

[BigDaddy13440]

My T-bars were rusted in so badly, you'd have sworn they were tack welded in place. Would definitely try to soak them with PB Blaster every day for a week prior to pulling them.

I didn't do them myself, I don't have a garage, or even a paved driveway. My cousin is the manager at a local Goodyear service station, I had him take care of it for me on my '01 Suburban. It took one of his mechanics almost a full 8 hour day to do mine, and that was with a lift and air tools. To be fair, I did have rear air bags that had to come out, they wouldn't fit inside the smaller diameter Z71 springs I had put in - but I'd assume that wasn't more than an additional 15 minutes. As I'm a "frequent" customer there (like a vehicle there at least every 3-4 weeks, it seems), he gave me a 20% discount, but it still ran me $550 for labor. Figure $600 at almost any shop to be safe - but that would include a FULL alignment, not just a toe-n-go. They adjusted the camber and caster, back and forth, until it was as close to factory spec as they could get it, probably spent at least an extra hour doing just that - but WELL worth the extra coin.

The underside of my "new" '04 Yukon XL is so much cleaner than the Burb was, I'm hoping I can do it myself at a friend's house, in his driveway. Taking the shocks, extensions, rear springs and spacers off the Suburban, but will order new Ford keys off E-bay. For the $35 I can get them for, it's not even worth jacking the front end up to try to take them off the Burb.

 

[02_Tahoe]

My T-bars were rusted in so badly, you'd have sworn they were tack welded in place. Would definitely try to soak them with PB Blaster every day for a week prior to pulling them.

I didn't do them myself, I don't have a garage, or even a paved driveway. My cousin is the manager at a local Goodyear service station, I had him take care of it for me on my '01 Suburban. It took one of his mechanics almost a full 8 hour day to do mine, and that was with a lift and air tools. To be fair, I did have rear air bags that had to come out, they wouldn't fit inside the smaller diameter Z71 springs I had put in - but I'd assume that wasn't more than an additional 15 minutes. As I'm a "frequent" customer there (like a vehicle there at least every 3-4 weeks, it seems), he gave me a 20% discount, but it still ran me $550 for labor. Figure $600 at almost any shop to be safe - but that would include a FULL alignment, not just a toe-n-go. They adjusted the camber and caster, back and forth, until it was as close to factory spec as they could get it, probably spent at least an extra hour doing just that - but WELL worth the extra coin.

The underside of my "new" '04 Yukon XL is so much cleaner than the Burb was, I'm hoping I can do it myself at a friend's house, in his driveway. Taking the shocks, extensions, rear springs and spacers off the Suburban, but will order new Ford keys off E-bay. For the $35 I can get them for, it's not even worth jacking the front end up to try to take them off the Burb.

thanks for the advice. Mine looks pretty rusty under there but I've watched YouTube videos one people taking them out and they all look rusty, so hopefully mine won't be too bad. Did you soak yours in pb blaster or is that a recommendation because you didn't and yours was so rusted?

 

[BigDaddy13440]

Definitely a recommendation. I didn't, that's why the shop guys used an acetylene torch on mine to heat it up, and spent over a half hour to remove them

 

[TheAutumnWind]

Consider these too...

I used the z71 jounce bumpers and am mounting these on the lower control arms to compensate for the lift.View attachment 62775
Energy Suspension 9.9117G Universal Bump Stop Black Flat Head Style Polyurethane.

Photo of how I shimmed my jounce bumpers with leveling keys.
I have 8" between the top of the tire and wheelwell (265/75/16's)..with plenty of adjustment left in the keys.

View attachment 62792

 

[TheAutumnWind]

Definitely a recommendation. I didn't, that's why the shop guys used an acetylene torch on mine to heat it up, and spent over a half hour to remove them

I gave mine a spray of pblaster also, and had no problem adjusting the keys after. Definitely ALWAYS a good idea to do this before suspension work. Especially if you are in the rust belt.

 

[TheAutumnWind]

Blood, sweat, and beers is what most will say.

You'd be looking at about 3-4hrs + alignment so call it 250-350 labor + 75-100 alignment
So all in +/- $400 (bringing your own parts)

Agreed. If its not super rusty it isnt a terrible job. The rear is very easy. The keys might be some work. I'd be sure to get a good torsion bar tool not sure if this one is good, but it'll show ya what to look for. https://www.amazon.com/Chevy-Torsio...472599126&sr=1-1&keywords=gm+torsion+bar+tool

 

[Chizzychase]

If you do the keys 100% get that torsion bar tool cause I didn't and me and a buddy of mine had A hell of a time lol we ended up taking the upper ball joint and sway bar end links off then undid the bottom of my shocks (I had to anyway for the shock extenders) then the torsion bar isn't under any pressure anymore so we were able to get it out then but I wouldn't do it that way again too much risk if things not going back together right especially since I just threw all the old stuff back together but I just wanted my keys in so I didn't care.

 

[Martinjmpr]

I was quoted a price of about $550 and that included the alignment. As it turned out, I was able to get a buddy with some tools and we did everything except the T-bar keys, which were rusted to the bars, in about 6 hours on a Saturday in my driveway.

I ended up paying a shop about $150 to bust the keys loose and install the new keys and I still have to get the alignment which will probably run me another $90 - $110. So I ended up saving about half the cost of the lift by doing it myself.

It does take two people though, and having air tools really helps.

We put new springs (Z71 springs on my LT) and as a result I did not go with a spacer in the rear. Got about 2" all around.