Son's 99 Blazer ZR2 Need Lift?
 

We installed the M/T Classic 2 wheels yesterday with 31"X10.5X15 tires. The wheels have a big offset, and now rub the fender flares in front. Only around 1/2 of full steering wheel lock possible. What do we do? Tighten up the front torsion bars and reallign? Buy a new 2" kit with the new torsion keys & rear shackles? (So far all these kits I have seen say except ZR2.. Why?) We are on a very tight budget. No $ for a full suspension lift right now. Don't like body lifts. I put 30" tires on my 1995 four door S-10 blazer 10 years ago, and had my tire shop just raise the torsion bars as much as possible to still be able to allign it. It worked fine, but had stock rims. How much lift can we get by just tightening the bars on a ZR2? Any and all info would be helpful... thanks.

I would assume that lifting a ZR2 has the same side affects as lifting a normal Blazer. As many of the people on here (including myself) only raise the front about 1.5" since going any higher will put higher pressures on front end components (CV Shafts, boots, ball joints etc...) I would just try cranking the t-bars for thy extra 1.5" and see what you get. If it still doesn't fit, trim the fender flares or go with a body lift.

yea just crank the current torsion keys up untill you aren't rubbing anymore that should solve the problem. You should get an alignment after that too don't want to wear your son's nice new tires unevenly. I'd recommend getting an add-a-leaf kit for the rear since the zr2's tend to have laggy rear ends, that will keep the rear from looking lower than the front. Also you can put more things in the back without the suspention squatting

Emphasis on what Benedict said.

is getting aftermarket keys really necessary with doing the torsion+shackles lift or are the stock keys just as good so long as you get the shackles?
What if you cranked the torsion bars up, added the shackles, then got 2 inch longer shock absorbers and add-a-leafs? Would there be any added height benefit or would you just be throwing away the cash at parts you didn't need?

Son's 99 ZR2 need a lift?
 

We had the local Goodyear dealer get as much hight out of the T-bars as he could to still be in allignment. He could only get 3/4". He went up 1 1/2" but could not get it to allign. It still rubbed at each corrner when he was done. (front and back) of both front fender flares. We ended up trimming the corrners of the flares front and back. The passanger flare was trashed in front already. It was that way when we bought it. He wants to do a suspension lift later on, so we can get all the flare work redone then. Huge improvement on the handling with the new rims and tires. The rims spread the track out several inches, and there is way less body roll when making fast hard turns. A lot safer..... He really likes the new look. Rims and tires mack such a difference on these Blazers. Rides a lot better too...

a 2 inch susp. lift will allow for an alignment, BUT you'll go through CV joints alot.

nj4x4blaze has a 6" suspension lift and runs 32's offroad and 33's onroad (22inch rims), the 33's rub a bit even with his 2" body lift IIRC.

I don't know if you can get a 6" lift for a ZR2, but what that big of a lift does... it includes front differential drop bracketry to maintain healthy CV joint angles, this increases joint life.

Fixed! lol

Superlift does make a 6" superlift kit for the ZR2.

don't forget torsion bar cranks kills your ball joints and cv axles. I think one of my ball joints decided to take a crap this morning.... great.. that'll be almost all of my ball joints now, and I replaced both cv axles and ripped even more cv boots.