I overshot my goal when I lifted it, and as such ended up with some driveshaft vibration. This weekend I got a transfer case drop installed (it's just a beater, not worth spending $ on the SYE).
With a lot of patience and some map gas, I got the 2 crossmember bolts and one nut free, and the other nut was conveniently already missing. One bolt had also been backed out about halfway since I bought it, but was still very much rusted in place.
The studs, however, had no interest in coming out. After several rounds of torching, quenching, and torching again, the vice grips still couldn't turn them out. After several rounds of welding on a nut, waiting for it to cool, and then breaking off the nut, I gave up on removing them. I figured I could just cut them off flush and weld in some 1" square tubing with a welded nut to bolt the crossmember to, but I'd already bought bolts to use traditional spacers and I'm a cheap bastard. I figured I'd try cutting the heads off a couple of the bolts and welding the threads onto the remaining studs to extend them. It seems to have worked out pretty well. At the least, I still have 2 more fasteners actually holding the crossmember than I did before.
After everything was all bolted up, the transfer case shifter was hitting the front of the console opening, forcing it just barely into 4x4. I cut a small notch for relief and everything seems happy. The vibrations are 100% gone.
I'll be taking it winter camping/wheeling in northern Michigan next month, so I've got a bit more prep to do.
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