When an off road enthusiast buys a new truck or SUV, it oftentimes becomes a race to see how many modifications that person can do to the vehicle in the shortest period of time – budget willing. With that being said, more often than not, one of the first modifications enthusiasts will do to their truck or SUV is some form of lift kit to give their vehicle a more aggressive stance and allow for more of the all-important ground clearance necessary when on the trail.

Lift kits come in all shapes and sizes, and depending on what look you’re after and if you have two-wheel drive or four-wheel drive, chances are you will be able to find something that meets your needs. Even though most people assume four-wheel drive is necessary to go off road, the fact of the matter is you can still have quite a bit of fun off road with two-wheel drive – if, of course, you keep your momentum in an effort to avoid getting stuck!

2003 Ford F150 equipped with only a spindle lift. Note the extra front fender clearance, additional ground clearance, and wider front stance.

For the two-wheel drive market, one of the most popular options to lift the front suspension of your rig are replacement lift spindles. One company that has a history of producing quality lift spindles for nearly all makes and models of two-wheel drive trucks is Fabtech Motorsports out of Chino, California. When it came time to do a light lift on the 2008 Chevy Silverado 2×4 that’s been used in numerous articles of Offroad Xtreme, we first wanted to reach out to Fabtech to see what they had to offer in the spindle lift category.

Why Get a Spindle Lift?

When it comes to two-wheel drive trucks and SUVs that are going to see occasional off road usage, a spindle lift should be towards the top of your short list of options. Spindle lifts have been around for a long time and are generally made of cast steel, like Fabtech’s product line. On most applications, the idea behind the replacement lift spindle is very straight forward – remove the factory-equipped spindle and replace it with a replacement spindle that is designed to move all the appropriate mounting points downward, creating lift.

To find out more, we reached out to Fabtech Motorsport’s VP of Marketing Gary Woofter to see what separates Fabtech spindles from the rest. According to Woofter, “all of our spindles are designed in CAD and we use the proper material make-up so the spindles aren’t too hard and crack or too soft and bend.” Woofter continued, “because we make so many different spindle lift systems, we already understand the material make up.  For the design itself, we try to relocate the factory steering in its original location, so we don’t end up with bump steer.”

Fabtech’s spindle lifts are direct replacements for the factory spindles and utilize the stock ball joints, maintain the factory ABS system, and maintain the stock suspension geometry your vehicle’s manufacturer worked so hard to create. Typically, there is no cutting, grinding, or modifying required to install your lift spindles which is another huge benefit. In addition, unlike coil spacers or replacement lift-coils, you do not need a spring compressor and spindle lifts do not alter the factory ride quality of the vehicle because the factory spring rate is not changing at all from stock.

Stock, our 2008 Silverado sits rather low in the front. This is soon about to change.

While spindle lifts are not designed for heavy off road usage and do not add any additional suspension travel to your stock vehicle, they do seem to allow you to make better use of the stock suspension travel. For example, if you were to go through a harsh dip that bottoms out the suspension, the added ground clearance provided by the spindle lift might just keep your truck’s subframe or front bumper from making contact with the ground.

To avoid damaging your vehicle, as a general rule of thumb, you shouldn’t do anything with a spindle lift-equipped vehicle that you wouldn’t do in that same vehicle with an otherwise stock suspension – because at the end of the day, the suspension geometry is still stock, the lift spindle just relocated the mounting points to attain lift and ground clearance.

A quality lift spindle will generally run between the $500-$800 range depending on the vehicle application and can be installed with simple hand tools and a floor jack by a knowledgeable do-it-yourselfer. Woofter explained by adding, “A spindle install is pretty simple; if you can install brake pads and have the basic tools it’s not difficult.  Every spindle kit we sell comes complete with step by step instructions and pictures.” Depending on the application, occasionally you will be unable to use your stock wheels due to fitment issues, so double check your vehicle’s part number with Fabtech to be totally sure prior to purchasing your spindles.

The Kit

After working with one of the Fabtech reps to locate the correct kit, our kit was on its way to our shop. Once the kit arrived, we were greeted with a compact, yet extremely heavy, box that was the beginning to the next step of our Silverado.

This large opening is GM specific and is not found on the Ford applications.

We quickly opened the box to verify contents and were greeted with two lift spindles, two replacement tie rod ends for the steering, and a quality set of instructions including torque specs and pictures. Fabtech’s lift spindles come with a textured black finish that aids in their corrosion and rust resistance, and gives them a nice finished look. Depending on what type of vehicle you buy spindles for, the lift spindles can look considerably different from one another. For instance, F150 or Ranger spindles come with the axle snout already in the spindle, whereas on these Silverado spindles, there is a large opening with three holes in the middle of the spindle to move the stock equipment to. 

With the spindles in our hands and our shop ready and waiting, it was time to get on with the installation.

The Install:

With our Fabtech 3.5-inch lift spindles for the 2007-2013 Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra part number FTS21099 in hand, it was time to get the installation underway. The first step we took was to remove the negative terminal on the battery, lift the vehicle up on our Bendpak Xp-10ACX vehicle lift, and remove the front tires. While this installation can be done with jack stands and a floor jack, it definitely makes the process easier having the vehicle up high with the full vehicle lift.

We began by removing the brake caliper from the stock spindle along with the corresponding hardware that connects the factory brake lines to the spindle. Take caution when doing this and do not let the caliper hang by the brake line – doing so could severely damage your brake line so be sure to attach the caliper to the frame rail out of the way.

From there, we proceeded to remove the ABS speed sending wire along with the nuts securing the tie rod, upper ball joint, and lower ball joint. With the nuts removed, the spindle should be able to be removed carefully by pulling it downward. Depending on how old your vehicle is or how rusty it is, you may need to use some penetrating oil one each of the two ball joints and the tie rod in order to get it to break free. If your application requires this, be careful because when the spindle breaks free, it literally falls off the truck, so be prepared and take caution.

Once the spindle is off the vehicle, we removed the three bolts securing the wheel bearing assembly to the spindle – a step that is unique to the GM spindle design as opposed to Fabtech’s Ford Ranger or F150 lift spindles. Take note of the direction of the factory dust shield and hub assembly as you install it onto the new Fabtech spindle as it needs to go on exactly as it came off. We then secured the three bolts with thread lock and torqued them to 160 ft-lbs.

Now that the hub assembly is complete and not yet on the vehicle, this was a great time to check the condition of the Silverado’s ball joints. We visually inspected their dust boots to ensure there weren’t any cuts, and applied some pressure to them to make sure there wasn’t any play. Once they checked out, it was time to reinstall everything in reverse order of the way it came off.

With the hub assembly installed on the Fabtech spindle, we lifted the completed spindle onto the truck’s suspension and attached the lower control arm and upper control arm to the spindle using the stock hardware. The lower control arm’s ball joint nut needs to be torqued to 70 ft-lbs and the upper control arm’s ball joint nut needs to be torqued to 30 ft-lbs.

With the Fabtech spindle mounted on the truck, we reinstalled the brake rotor, caliper, and wheel speed sensor, torquing the caliper bolts to 100 ft-lbs as instructed by Fabtech. Now that the setup was nearly complete, it was time to install Fabtech’s included tie rod replacement – a step that is unique to the GM installation due to the design of the lift spindle. We carefully removed the stock tie rod while leaving the factory jam nut in place and then proceeded to install the new tie rod until it made contact with the jam nut. Once this was complete, we attached the new tie rod end to the steering knuckle with the supplied nut and torqued it down to 60 ft-lbs.

The first side of the spindle installation was now complete and as such, it was now time to repeat the process on the other side of the truck. Since we really had a feel for the entire process, the second side went much quicker than the first as we were very familiar with the process. Once both sides were installed, we did a quick once over to double check our work and then remounted the Dick Cepek tires and wheels back onto the Silverado and lowered it back down to the shop’s floor.

The completed assembly.

Before going for a drive, it is essential that you cycle the steering to ensure there is enough clearance with the brake lines, ABS wires, control arms, wheels and tires. In addition, immediately following a spindle lift install, it is imperative that you take the truck to get aligned by a certified alignment shop before you go show off your work to your friends.

Before and After Driving Impressions:

One of the nicest aspects of driving a relatively current half-ton has got to be the ride quality. They are heavy vehicles and handle as such, however their weight in combination with their suspension tuning makes them ride extremely well. Our 2008 Chevy Silverado was no exception. It rode great stock, and after the spindle lift, the truck still rides great. Woofter said it best by saying, “a lift spindle doesn’t affect the ride while maintaining the proper steering geometry.  You won’t have any additional wear on ball joints or tie rods either.” Since there were no changes to the truck’s spring rate or suspension geometry, the ride quality was not hurt at all.

With a short trip off road to test the newfound ground clearance, we were happily surprised by the much easier time we had navigating the local terrain. No longer did we have to worry about scraping the front valance on obstacles or having our subframe make contact with the earth’s surface during abrupt bumps that would normally bottom the front suspension out. While we did not add any type of lift to the stock rear-end, we were happy with the overall look of the truck post installation. Since we only lifted the front end of the Silverado, the truck now sat with a nice rearward rake – often referred to as the “Cali-Lift” due to the pre-runner style of lifts most Californian’s do with the front end higher than the rear. The added ride height in the front is noticeable while looking at the truck, but is also noticeable from the driver’s seat.

Conclusion

All in all, we were extremely happy with how the Fabtech 3.5-inch spindle installation went on our 2008 Chevy Silverado. The installation went very smoothly using the included instructions and could be completed by any do-it-yourselfer with the right tools and a little knowledge. If you have a 2×4 and are in the market for a budget-friendly lift that will give you the look you want while not deteriorating any of the nice ride quality you enjoy, check out Fabtech’s line of lift spindles and keep it locked on Offroad Xtreme for more!