Got my Airlift 1000 in the mail 2-3 days ago, and finally installed it today, I bought a trailer that i might occasionally tow which is why i bought these so i dont mess up my lowering coils.

I know other people on here installed them but i have never seen a guide or DIY thread on how to put these in, but now we'll finally have one.

Total Install time: 2.5Hrs ( Most of time is jacking car up, placing jack stands, putting on and taking off wheels etc )

The Kit:



First, Jack up the rear of the truck by the pumpkin on the axle, you want to jack it pretty high because you want to have a wide range of mobility for the axle to go up and down,

Position your jackstands just in front of where the trailing arms attach to the frame of the truck, one it is on those, now you can use your floor jack to adjust the axle up and down as needed.



Second, your going to want to remove your lower shock nuts on each side, because when they extend fully they hinder the axle to go any lower, which it can but these are not allowing it.



Third Remove your coils on each side ( note i have 2" lowering coils, i am not sure if you will need to use a spring compressor or not with stock coils )



Fourth you need to drill that hole out in the coil perch in order for the air line and everything to fit. Airlift said 3/4" drill bit, i thought that was way to big and did 1/2" and then make sure you smooth out the edges when you drill it out!! I used a dremel in my case and it was extremely smooth and rounded off.



Fifth, i cut the air hose line they gave me in half, so i had a half for one side, a half for the other. I also set mine up so each airbag is independent, but you can also use a T fitting they include to you would just have to air up in one spot to fill 2, but theres less direct management of the pressure like you can do using each one independently. Put on the clamp on the hose, then attach the hose to the fitting, and put the clamp over it.



Sixth, Run the airline thru the hole and put the bag inside of the coil, and manuever it onto the perch ( note if you have stock coils this part you may have to put the spring in first, then squeeze the bags in thru the coil )





Seventh, run your airhose to the desired location, i ran mine torwards the front of the trailing arm and zip tied it to the abs wire, and i didnt mount my fittings anywhere, i clamped them on and have them sitting there. It is right under the back part of the running board, and i also did not mount mine anywhere since i will be getting the digital kit in 2 months or so, and then i can pump it or deflate it on-the-fly.







Eighth, put everything back together, trim any zip ties you used, torque back your shock absorber bolt, put on your wheels and you are done. ( Also, put at least like 10 psi in the bags or something before you lower your car to the ground fully, minimum psi allowed it 5 )





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Onto the review:

I can make my rear go about 4 inches higher then i am normally at my 2" lowered height, It also made my rear end feel so much tighter, and surprisingly even now i have about 12-15psi in the bags, my rear sits 2" higher then it did before i put these in, and it feels like the car handles even better and tighter,then when i just had the lowering coils on, it also smooths out the harsher ride from my coils.

Heres a picture of the rear how it sits now:



Before i could only fit 2 fingers between the fender and the tire.

For $87 off amazon, you really can't go wrong with this. Im wondering why i didnt do this earlier now. Once i install the digital air leveling kit, i will be able to adjust the height of my rear by about 4 inches. I think these bags can handle up to 50 psi, but the most i had them at was 20, and i really dont think 50psi is safe anyways especially for mine which is lowered, unless you have 5 adults in your car, cargo, and towing a bigger trailier.

Questions/Comments/Thoughts

You should have followed the 3/4" hole they advise you to drill, the line is going to chaffe on you. I ruined a set like that, if the bags go under 5psi your springs will chew threw the bags in a few days.

Will this kit lift stock springs? If they do, do they make a kit for the front or can you use the same rear kit for the front too?

No they dont make one for the front. And Canuck, im keeping them over 5psi all the time anyways. And i dont think the lines will chaff, because right where the hole is, the metal clamps are. So if it moves at all, it will rub on the clamp not the line so i think im good.

Topic added to how-to sticky. Thanks for the write-up!

Very timely write-up, thanks!

I just bought a replacement Friday. I had the drivers side split last winter (?road debris, low pressure, ? freeze -unknown reason why it failed), and never got around to doing anything about it till now.

I had them installed by a shop out in Oregon in 2008. They worked excellent for a very loaded-up cross country move, as well as hauling stuff around locally.

Interestingly enough the first set the shop installed failed within days because they made an "oops". Either they didn't drill out the hole correctly, or they didn't cut down the bump stops (I honestly forget exactly). They corrected there mistake the same week.

I'm hoping I will not have to remove the spring to replace it. Perhaps I can get away with cutting out the old bag, then folding in the new one. I'll see if I can't get to it this week.

Good write up. There is an way of doing it without removing the spring or shock. (*Please note this was on a 2001 Nissan Pathfinder.)

What I did was the following:
Remove the two wheels.
Jack up the vehicle on each side so that the rear end is suspended in the air.
Remove the bottom out rubber. (What i did was cut the rubber as low as possible and then remove the bolt using a stock set)
I run the air hose through the hole where the bottom out rubber bolt was located.
I squeeze out the air out the the bag.
Push the bag through the spring.
Connect the hose and clamp.
Run the hose the desire area.
Fill the bag until around 15 psi.
Install the tire and done.
It took about 30 minutes to do each side. The hardest part was removing the bottom out rub and bolt.

Ya you definetely dont need to take the spring out to fit the bag in, a trick to squeeze all the air out of the bags is to use your knee to flatten it, then cap the nipple of the bag with the rubber and it will stay flat so you can easily get it in the spring. Then pull the cap off and it just pops back into shape

I just took all of mine apart because i dont need spring compressors and such so it literally took me like 20 min to disassemble it all. And i having a ton of room to work with

Stock rear springs come out no problem without a compressor

CanuckQx4 wrote:Ya you definetely dont need to take the spring out to fit the bag in, a trick to squeeze all the air out of the bags is to use your knee to flatten it, then cap the nipple of the bag with the rubber and it will stay flat so you can easily get it in the spring. Then pull the cap off and it just pops back into shape

I finally installed my replacement earlier this week.

I ended up cutting out the old bag, and just shoved the new bag between the spring as CanuckQx4 mentions above. It took me a good bit of time to get it in there. Once in, I used a bike pump to fill the bag so I new it was set in correctly.

-If I had a proper garage, I would have removed the rear shock to get extra spring height and/or removed the spring.

My Pathfinder rides very nice again!

I'm going to put Airlift 60742 into my QX4
Will I be better off using 3/4in drill bit or hole saw? I were able to take those stop rubber things out without broken bolts after soaking them in W40 overnight. Thanks god!

dont you need a compressor also to run the Airlift 1000 kit?

As far as I can tell, you can pump up the air bags using any air compressor found at your typical gas station. I can't imagine that they would leak significantly over time, but I'm sure a small DC powered compressor would be beneficial should you need to add air and don't want to fork up the 75 cents that some gas stations want for use of their compressor.

I have a 15gal compressor at home, these bags fill quick, get a gauge that reads from zero psi, mine are around 6-7psi, and i had 5 people in the car, 2 bags of 40lb water softner salt, and a trailer that weighs maybe 650lbs and some wood on it and had no sagging in the rear. It was still 1.5inches higher then with just my lowering coils. You can use bicycle foot pump probably is your best bet lol.

I use a bike pump for mine. Its a stand up type with a gauge on it, and I keep it in my Pathfinder anyways. I can adjust them pretty quick, and don't have to go to a station or get out the compressor & plug it in etc.

I have my bags valved independent from each other, so I can pump each side up at different pressure depending on the load. I normally keep them at 15-20 lbs with just my normal " junk" in the truck.

Oh--and use the drill. I don't know that a hole saw would work out smoothly if I did it...

Can you use nitrogen instead of air on these bags? And if you use air, how does weather affect the psi in the bags, ie the hotter the better or when it gets cold do you have to add air more then usual

Weather would affect nitrogen the same as air.

Chuck

As a note to anyone reading this: You can remove the bump stops with a 12mm Socket. Just use some penetrate to loosen the bolts or you will twist them off. Also, you do not need to remove the coil spring unless you are going to drill the hole and enlarge it. I did not enlarge the hole but haven't had any problems yet.

hey, just going to install these tomorrow, quick question. My bump stops are completely destroyed, can i remove them and keep them removed after the install? it is hard to tell if they go or stay? any info would be much appreciated.

You don't reinstall the stops. Just keep them off.

thanks for the quick response, that totally helps as I am doing it in a couple hours. when i was taking one of them off, the bolt sheered off and it was going to be a lot of work to replace them. it just looks like a lot of space between the top of the bag and the shock mount, I expected it to take up the whole space.

If the bolt sheared, you have to def get the bolt out. You don't want the bolt popping the air bag

New here...
I Just installed a air lift 1000 on my 2001 QX4 yesterday. I didn't remove the deteriorated bump stops at all. They are basically flush with the metal cup. Was I suppose to remove them?

Welcome to Nico!

Which metal cup are you referring to? My understanding is you do want the stops gone; you want the bags resting on the flat area the stops bolted onto.

I have a couple of rear suspension lessons I learned recently that may help people attempting this mod: if you want to remove the coils, throw the coil compressors on them while the pumpkin is jacked up. This saves you a bunch of wrenching after the axle drops.

The second and most important: be VERY careful how low you let the axle drop once the shocks are disconnected. If you drop it all the way the rear rubber brake line will get stretched on, and could easily get damaged. I have a 4WD and this warning may not be applicable to those without the load-sensing valve, but it's still worth watching out for.

There's also a rubber hose that plugs onto the top of the pumpkin, but that pulls out pretty easily.

That is applicable to the 2WD models, also.

What pressure do they require? i will be pulling a camper soon. I installed mine and had them set at 30 psi but after a few days they have decreased to about 22 psi, i sprayed the fittings with a soap solution but found no leaks??
Lastly with regards to the installation i purchased a unibit or step bit from harbor freight that had a 3/4 as the largest step, it worked great and was roughly $7-9

I usually leave mine at around 15 if I'm not towing my pop up. Around 30 to 40 psi if I'm towing.

I've installed Air lift on my Pathfinder and wish I had installed long ago. The ride is softer on over bumps and now I don't worry about pulling a trailer and have my back end sagging. Also I can run a ton of weight, such as 5 people, thule box and bike hitch with 5 bikes no problem or sag. I bought a KLR 650 approx 450 wet and the tongue weight 500 lbs max hitch. I knew it was maxing out the pathfinder hitch but that wasn't the problem it was the springs. Total night and I had to drive only 10 miles home but I could have died because the back end sag and swayed everywhere. Now this set up would be safer of course and I could handle towing a heavy load.

Here is my Pathfinder fully loaded with 600 extra pounds. with 15 psi.




I installed the valve in the passenger side truck box.



It took me about 2 hours to install the air lift and didn't even take the springs off.