Helly everyone, I have been a long time lurker and decided to pony up to the table. I have a Green 2002 X XE that I am just not starting to customize. Their is so much information here, its really inspired me to get going.

Thanks everyone!

Welcome to ClubX !

welcome to the club...... if you have any ?'s feel free to ask.... but if you dont use the search first we might mess with you...... alot of the noob ?'s have already een answered, so if you cant find it then ask.... LOL!!!!!!!

Welcome to the club! Post some pics... especially once you get your mods going. I just got my lift shackles today. So once the weather eases up I'm putting them on. Pending I got an appointment for an alignment immediately following.

Drake - did you go with the AC Shackles?

if im not mistaken he got the calmini..... i could be wrong tough......

I was actually going to go with the Calmini but after reading post after post of the clearcoat problems I went with AC. I opened up the box and checked them out and I like them. Good finish and stout design. Hoping the weather will let up so I can put them on tomorrow.

And my body lift is supposed to be here Monday. Now all I need is a job so I can get my wheels and tires! hah!

im looking into the BL soon.... i had a set of calmini shackles that i got from Ricer-X the clear coat was messed up but i dealt with it..... when i sold them to andy i took them to work and slurry blasted them ( XL media & high pressure water ) and he repainted them...... he said it turned out pretty good.....

Ok, i think that is the way I am going to go. The BL route scares me. It looks good, but man, that seems like a bunch of work. And, a lot of opportunties to screw things up! I am curious of how that affects the inside of your car, shift nobs, etc.

BL scares you?? It's not that bad really. I've had my hands in a few of them now.

not very much and it can be done easier and cheaper than the SL.... and you can put bigger tires where as the SL you really cant..... if you go full compresion the tire will contact the wheel well.....

I hope it isn't too bad. My kit is arriving tomorrow. I'm going to hold off on installing it though until I can afford 33"s. And some warmer weather would be nice. I just finished my doing my PML and freezing my ass off about an hour ago. Now I'm inside and sweating to death from working so much. lol

drake, how long did it take you tonight? And, lets see some pics.

It was dark by the time I finished but I'm hoping to get my alignment done tomorrow morning and then hopefully if the weather cooperates I will get a few shots and maybe a trail in too.

All in all with the help of a buddy (which I recommend), I think I did it in a little under 2 hours. Lots of smoke breaks and wrench slinging though. I didn't have exactly what I needed so I had to do a little improvising. And ran into little snags here and there that had me bumfuzzled.

I want to add a few tips to doing a PML for the first-timers out there:

Take your spare tire out first otherwise you won't be able to get the stock shackles off.

If you have a supercharged model or an exhaust that exits behind the drivers side wheel, you will have to take the muffler off of it's last mount so that you can move it out of the way to get the shackle off on the driver's side.

I had about 1/2" of clearance but maybe less on the upper bump stop. I'm waiting for daylight to fine tune the t-bars and get the gap back to a full 1/2 to 3/4". I drove it around for a couple miles to get it settled.

It rides nice though. A good stiff front end. I nearly fell on my face the first time I got out of it. I'm so used to being able to step to the side and get right out. Little higher of a drop now. hahaha

BL is nothing to be scared of!!!! Easy stuff McGruff!!!

drake:

all muffler's come out the drivers side.... LOL and i dont remember having to take it off....

OUMOOSE:

i think ricer and myself did mine fairly quick.... there is really nothing to it..... i havent done the BL but like soccerbrace said dont be scared of it, shouldnt be that hard..... LOL

I know they all do. Maybe mine is different or maybe it's aftermarket. But it exits to the side behind the driver's side wheel and it only has about a 2" gap.
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h29/shiyaru/Xterra/Xterra001-1.jpg

You can see where the shackle was hitting the muffler when we were taking it out. It was only about 1 1/2" from coming out but either way we still had to drop the spare and the muffler to get the shackles off.

i just muscled the tail pipe out of my way when i did minez

We started out doing it that way but I didn't like the strain I was having to put on it so I just took off the nut on the very last muffler mount and it was easy to move around and out of the way then.

Yeah, I've done it both ways. It's definitely easier just to pop loose the last 2 exhaust hangers.

I just stuck a 3 foot pry bar on my cheesy chrome tip, that I am anxious to destroy and manhandled it.

yeah ricer i think thats what i did to......i guess either way would be ok