Well I'm about to bite the bullet and order a calmini lift kit. I'm fairly sure at this point I am going to order it with out the shocks which saves $100 and go with the bilstiens.

The install for the most part looks strait forward to me but I do have some questions about the ball joints as I have never messed with them before. I understand I will need to pick up a pickle fork to get it apart along with a bfh. Are there any other tools that are needed for that portion beyond normal hand tools. Any hints or tips would be appreciated.

Thats about it. Many, including myself had a %$@%# of a time getting one or both ball joints off.
Also somehow the rear diff slid forward when doing the AAL. I tried and tried and couldn't get the housing to seat on the pin. Finally I used a ratchet strap around the receiver hitch and back to the housing to pull it back into position.

I've heard a lot of guys using a pickle fork, but I never have. I don't even own one. And I do a lot of suspension work (rack and pinions, ball joints, center links, etc.).

Just hit it really hard. Swing like it's your ex-wife. HARD!

Hit the part that the ball joint goes into, not the joint itself. You'd be surprised how easy it is once you do it a couple of time. Just don't hit the threads, that sucks.

A measuring tape, a couple of 19mm wrenches (or a couple of ¾" wrenches, which are the same size as 19mm), 17mm wrench, 22mm wrench (again, a 7/8" wrench is the same), BFH, 14mm wrench (sorry, it's a 14mm), 12mm wrench, perhaps a 10mm wrench, anti-sieze (lube 'em up!), jack, jack stands (don't get under the vehicle with just a jack holding it up, or I'll come over there...), common sense, beer and pizza.

Did I forget anything?

Cyclemut, I've tried that and I've never been able to find a good angle to get a good swing. If it's up on a lift, and you can swing the BFH from underneath I'm sure it's a lot easier.

I've done 6 installs now at my house, and we have the balljoint thing down pat. Just compress the suspension with a floor jack, tap the pickle fork in, then drop the suspension, it pops right out.

Do you end up tearing the boot with the pickle fork? I've always been warry of that.

But very true about the lift, I'm spoiled. When my butt hits a garage floor to do anything on a car (no lift) then I kind of go into shock. I need beer to revive me.

Ian, remember we learned NOT to loosen the torsion bars with that method.

Yes, very messy

I thought the new kits came with Bilstiens??

Not sure if they do now or not. Going to confirm it in the morning when I order the lift. There's no mention on the website that they are now shipping with the bilstiens.

Just out of curiosity does anyone know how much a used set of bilstiens sell for as I'm going to have a set to sell here shortly with 15k miles on them

We cut the boot away prior, otherwise it absorbs the blow from the pickle fork.

I spaced out the last install and we did loosen the torsion bars somewhat to allow the suspension to compress better. We had to tighten them up to get the ball joint to pop out.

Air tools make life easier, otherwise get something to use as a breaker bar. Bolts exposed to salted roads can be a bitch. I use my hi-lift handle slipped over the handle of my 1/2 rachet. I don't know if Calmini includes new U-bolts for the rear leaf springs, get some if they don't and remember to check the torque after a few hundred miles.

When I did my lift kit I got a set of assorted pickle forks. The smallest size I had, labeled a tie-rod fork, was the easiest for me to pop apart the ball joints. Since then I heard of the method of tapping the knuckle with a BFH where the taper is. It's worked well for replacing ball joints, but like Ian said getting a good swing on it with the stock arm may be tricky.

I'm going to be installing mine as well as soon as it gets here..I'm also installing the SS,now what I've heard is that I should look into getting an extra set of Cam bolts cause of them being a bitch..Is this true??

The cam bolts shouldn't be too bad if you have been getting alignments every so often. I replaced mine because they were chewed up from frequent alignments.

Lift is ordered. Right now its not available with the bilstiens. Shipping was 68 dollars. It looks like mid may I'll be out in the garage. Maybe it will actually be in the 50's by then.

Speaking of air tools are there any brands that would be recommended that are affordable. Been on the list for a while and I do already have a compressor.

I've just got a bunch of campbell hausfeld stuff I bought a walmart. I've had them for my impact wrench and air rachet for ten years and they've held up.

When it comes to tools, cheap is not a good thing.

I'll second that, but for the average Joe, buying a solid Ingersol Rand Impact gun, or a Snap-On 3/8" gun would be overkill.

Normally I'd agree, and if I needed them on a daily basis I'd buy better quality. But for occasional use they aren't bad.

Hopefully your kit has the new UCA bushings that Calmini is sending out now to replace the old white bushings. I called last week to complain about the squeak sounds and they shipped me a whole new set in less than 3 days. Very impressed with Calmini's business with customers.

Get the Calmini Steering Sytem too! You'll need it sooner then later.

They have been shipping the black bushings for almost a year. I replaced mine late last summer with them.

I got black bushings with mine about a month ago.

Scott, you might want to see about getting some of the new black bushings.

I got half of my order in yesterday....I got the shackles and UCA's...The t-bars and sterring system is on backorder... :rolleyes:

You got my shakles I ordered some stuff from xterraparts and when everything showed up I had no shackles. Did you order from xterraparts or Calmini? If you did it straight from Calmini, you can call and pester them about status for your parts. XterraParts won't know anything. I wouldn't do it more than once a month or whenever they say you should have them. Hopefully it won't take that long for them to produce some more.

In the mean time you could go ahead and lift it with what you have. The T-bars and steering are used to fix problems you will have down the road. Like sagging T-bars and worn out steering. I did 6 months on my original steering before it was shot and it's only been in the last couple months my SLR T-bars quit sagging that I installed 2 years ago.

When I ordered mine earlier this week calmini claimed the T bars were backordered and at the time were being powder coated. I was told it would be a 7 day delay.

Hopefully by late June mid July I will be order the steering system.

I got mine through Xterraparts,so if you ordered it thru them then I did get your shackles...

Yeah I could install the stuff now but I figured I'd wait until I get it all so I don't have to keep making trips to the alignment shop...

My shackles showed up today For an alignment you should look into Firestone's lifetime alignment. Take it in whenever you want and it's no additional charge. It's around $100 up front, but I've had 6 alignements on it and know I'll have more in the future.

Actually thanks for reminding me..A friend that works there gave me a free lifetime alignment...Damn how can I be so stupid to forget that?

Well I just spoke to Calmini and they said that they have new parts ready to go so I then talked to Xterraparts.com and they also said that my steering and t-bars are ready to go..So hopefully I get them within this next coming week so I can install this stuff...

That just means sometime this summer instead of next winter.

Cool Hopefully they will be able to get my lift kit out next week. Now I have to order shocks. What would be the best place to order from AC? Steve where did you get your bils?

I got them from SLR 2 years ago, but don't recommend doing any business with Spencer Low, Jr. AC also sells them, but I don't know what damping and lengths they have. Lots of places online sell them, but they usually don't show the part numbers, just applications and no one has Xterra +3" lift +20% damping as an application. You might try calling some of distributors bilstein has listed on their site.

No matter what bushings you get you will eventually have trouble with them. Mine started squeaking about 6 months after install. I ended up installing zerks and at least can now grease when needed. The rear shackles could use some zerks where the bushings are too, which I figure I'll do when I get a chance. You would think that in this day and age, Calmini would install the zerks themselves to save both us and them all that trouble. I mean how many people have they had to send out new bushings to? The cost of adding zerks is far less than having to field all the calls, diagnose whether or not it's the bushings, and then having to send out new ones all the time, at least from my perspective.

RI Xterra did you ever get your torsion bars? Called calmini up to check up on the status and was told another week.

Nah man nothing yet..I'm still actually waiting on the T-bars and my steering system...

I ordered mine through Xterraparts and Alex told me that they are having Calmini drop ship them to me,so it looks like I'll be waiting another week...

This is to anyone...

I have my UCA's already do you think it's worth putting them in now or should I wait till I get everything else???

I also got my shocks from SLR do you also think I should put them in????

Anyone???

Wait and do it all at once.

I completed my suspension lift components in a period of almost one year! Could've installed the parts as I got them but decided to just do one install and one alignment. Saved me time and money.

Gmax and Ian I was thinking the same but I guess I'm just getting really antsy....

Mid to late next week ship date. So maybe sometime in june. I was able to free up enough cash to add the steering system to the order so I can now do it all at once. I guess its also time to order shocks as well.

Woooohoooooo

Yeah Calmini has 50 orders to fill on the steering system..I ordered mine a month ago and still waiting on it...I ordered my UCA's,rear shackles,T-bars and SS from Xterraparts and when I ordered the T's and SS was on backorder so what Xterraparts did was have Calmini drop ship them to me directly from them when they finished up thier batch...Now supposedly when I talked to Alex at xterraparts Calmini was supposed to send out half the batch that they completed on last wednesday the 26th..So hopefully my SS was sent out then cause if it wasn't then they'll be shipped out next wednesday the 2nd of June...

Oh well I guess all I can do is cross my fingers and hope they sent mine out last wednesday...

Well came home and found a pile of molten plastic on the desk. Looks like the lift kit is shipping today or tomorrow but the steering appears to still be back ordered. So next weekend it looks like I will be in the garage lifting the truck and feeding the mosquitoes. Looks like total cost on the lift with the bilstiens is going to be 1200 bucks including all shipping.

It's finaly here. Ups guy loved bringing up 93 pounds of steel to my apt. Looks like the games are about to begin. Wish me luck.

Well it looks like calmini changed the bushings again for the A arms. The set I have are a camo green. Anyone else received a green set yet?

Those are the stealth hunting bushings for folks up North