Length: 34:42
Created: August 6, 2020
[0:00] Are you run a larger tire and have more ground clearance? Well today we’re going to show you how to install this 6″ Lift Kit on this Honda Pioneer 1000.
The first thing we’re going to do is remove the front wheels and tires on both sides. We’ve already done this so we’re going to jump in and start removing our suspension components here.
First, remove your cotter pin from your castle nut. We’ve already done this and our hardware is already loosened for demonstration purposes.
So go ahead and remove the castle nut. Once the castle nut is removed, remove the brake caliper and get it out of the way. All of the brake line clips are already removed as well, so any portion of the A-arm. That’s a brake line fastener—go ahead and remove that at this time.
[1:05] Then we’ll go ahead and wiggle our hub right off and set it aside. Then we’ll come over to our tie rod and take an 18mm socket and remove the cotter pin first, then remove the castle nut.
If your tie rod end gets stuck to your steering arm and knuckle, what you can do is take a hammer and hit it right on the steering arm until it frees it up. Again, we went ahead and loosened all of our hardware.
Once we’ve got our tie rod removed, we’re going to grab a ratchet strap. I like to tie it around the cage. We’ll remove our shock from our upper A-arm. Go ahead and leave the tension off the shock and let our A-arms drop down.
Then, hook a ratchet strap into the upper A-arm. I like to pick up on it and pull the shock out of the way like this.
[2:28] Once you have your upper A-arm tied up like this, you will remove the cotter pin from the upper ball joint. As you can see, we’ve already done that. Then you’ll just remove the nut. Let the knuckle come down and grab your axle. Let that lower A-arm hang. Then we can go ahead and remove the axle so it’s not hanging.
In each A-arm kit, you’re going to have some steering stops. If you’d like to install them, all you have to do is pull your boot back, slide it down to your tie rod, and then you’ll see an inner rack shaft right behind your inner ball and socket. You just take your steering stop and pop it right over that shaft. Today, we’re not going to install them on this machine, so we’re going to move onto the next step.
[3:28] We’re going to take an extension with an impact and remove the lower ball joints and the knuckle. We’ve removed our hardware and, like I said, all of our hardware is already loose for demonstration purposes.
This ball joint will be stuck in the knuckle here. A lot of times what I do is take a hammer and lay it on the knuckle here and then take another one and smash it. That will free it up to the point where it will come right off.
Next, we’ll remove the knuckle and set it to the side. And then we’ll remove the A-arm and the bolts out of each A-arm tab. Then we’ll go ahead and cut our straps loose from our upper A-arm and let it drop down. Then remove the upper A-arm bolt.
[4:39] The next thing we’re going to do is remove our shock. We’re going to remove the nut from the bolt, and then remove the bolt. Set our shock aside for the time being.
And then we’re going to remove the tie rod from the rack and pinion. We already have our boot loose so we’re going to go ahead and remove our inner ball and socket from the rack and pinion. You’ll just use a big pair of channel locks to loosen the inner ball and socket from the rack and pinion.
Once we’ve got our shock and tie rod removed, we’ll repeat the steps to the opposite side.
Now it’s time to install our shock bracket. Grab your shock bracket as well as two M12 bolts and Nyloc nut. Slide this bracket through on the side with the cutouts. They’re going to be going up against the frame, so you want to make sure it’s facing upward. It’s going to be a pretty tight fit to get it through there.
There will be a rubber flap installed on your machine on the passenger side that you’ll have to remove. Ours has already been removed from the previous lift kit. Once you have it slid to where it needs to be, it’ll line up with your factory shock bolts.
[6:21] Something that I like to do when I’m trying to get the holes to line up is take a flathead screwdriver, or any type of screwdriver, and it’ll help you get everything lined up and in position. You’ll have to work it quite a bit.
So we got that side lined up. Now we’ll start our bolt through and put our nut on it.
Then we’ll head to the opposite side and do the same thing. Get it lined up. You may have to use a rubber mallet just to tap the bracket around and get it into position.
[7:37] Now once we have this bracket installed, we’re going to fully tighten our hardware while the shock’s not in the way. It makes installing the lift kit easier. Then we’ll get our shocks installed. Go ahead and install the shock to the bracket here and get our hardware started. Then fully tighten the hardware. Repeat these steps on the opposite side.
Next we’re going to apply some Loctite to the threads of our inner ball and socket, as provided in the lift kit. Then thread it right in and get it as far in as you can by hand. Then we’ll grab some channel locks and fully tighten it.
After that we’ll remove our jam nut off the threads of our inner ball and socket. Grab the provided boot and slide it over the inner ball and socket. Make sure it’s all the way up on there. Once it is, we’ll take the provided zip tie and slide it over our boot and tighten it up. Then cut off the excess.
[9:27] Next we’re going to thread our jam nut back onto our inner ball and socket. Thread it all the way up as far as it will go. Then grab the Z-bend tie rod provided in the lift kit and thread it on. We’re obviously going to have to make some adjustments so we’ll just let it hang.
We went ahead and ordered SuperATV’s heavy-duty ball joints for this lift kit. You can absolutely utilize your factory ones, but today we’re going to go ahead and upgrade. We’re going to find something that’s larger than a ball joint, work the press through, and then find something that fits on the top just like that. Make sure you’ve got it nice and centered. Then we’ll start pressing the ball joint in.
Once we have our ball joint pressed in all the way around, look to make sure it’s pressed in flat. So we’ve got our upper ball joint pressed in as well. Make sure you take a look around and ensure that your snap ring is exposed. If you utilize a SuperATV ball joint, you’ll realize there’s no boot on this ball joint, so we’ll have to install the boot as well as the snap ring.
The first thing we’re going to do is put our snap ring on our lower ball joint with a pair of snap ring pliers. Make sure it locks into the groove all the way around.
On the upper A-arm, I like to go ahead and put the snap ring on before I glue the ball joint on. Just tap it down and make sure it snaps. Then look around and inspect that it’s in the groove fully.
Now we’re going to be using glue to glue our ball joint on. Whenever you’re using this glue, you want to make sure that you’re using a pair of gloves. This stuff is very, very sticky and it can be harmful to your skin as well. We’ll just go right around this groove here, where our ball joints align.
You don’t even really have to squeeze the glue bottle—just run it around there to let out enough that it’s going to stick. You want to be a little quick because this dries really fast. Then you stick your ball joint boot right down into place and make sure it’s fully seated all the way around. Then just let it sit there.
[12:42] Now we’re ready to get these A-arms installed to our machine. We’re going to grab our lower A-arm and cut the zip ties that are holding the lower bushings. I like to make sure the pivot blocks will move a little bit.
Now I’ll get everything lined up how it needs to be for this lift kit. Take a rubber mallet and tap it into position so you can get your bolts in. Add in the bolts.
Then we’re going to replace our Nyloc nuts. I highly recommend doing that when doing any type of lift kit installation. That’s one of the number one reasons that a machine will come back apart. We’re going to put some brand new nuts on our factory hardware. We’ll get those started and then we can go ahead and fully tighten.
Next thing we’re going to do is install our grease zerks. It’ a lot easier to do it now than to wait until everything’s installed. We’ll get those started in there, and take a ratchet or wrench and tighten them. Be careful not to overtighten. Round them up until the head touches the pivot block.
[14:32] Then we’re going to grab our knuckle and reinstall it. Grab onto the lower ball joint and slip your brake line out of the way. Then grab the hardware. You’ll have the flat washer, cotter pin, and lock nut. The flat washer will go first and then lock nut. The way I like to do these is get an extension and an impact and run the nut down all the way. It’s easier to do it now than to do it with a wrench. You’ll have to apply some downward pressure on the ball joint—otherwise, the stud will want to spin.
Once we’ve done that, we’ll grab our cotter pin and line it up. If it angles like this, you’ll have to bend the cotter pins up as they come through. Then you’ll want to fold them over just like you normally would. We’ll try to get them as tight to that stud as we can. You don’t want it to rotate up and clip your boot or anything like that.
[16:22] Next, we’re going to install our upper A-arm to our knuckle. I know that sounds a little bit weird, but I came up with a trick that’s going to help everyone out significantly.
With our lower ball joint attached to our knuckle, we’re going to take our upper A-arm and slide the ball joint through the knuckle. Just use one hand to hold it and slide our washer on. Then start the nut.
Wrenching this one when it’s on the machine is kind of a pain. So what I decided to do makes it a little easier. Let this A-arm hang down like this and then take our socket and impact and tighten up this ball joint, instead of with a wrench. Again, you’ll just want to pull pressure down on your A-arm. Make sure you get it fully tightened.
And that’s a lot faster than having to sit there with a wrench and have to go back and forth. We’ll just install our cotter pin.
[17:49] Now we’re ready to install our lift kit axle. I’m going to go ahead and cut the zip tie off my bushings—that way we can put it all on there at once. I like to make sure that the C-clip is facing down toward the ground when I install an axle into the diff. Just kind of wiggle it and move it up and down until you feel it catch a gear.
Now our axles are installed. I like to give it a couple tugs just to make sure it’s fully seated in the diff.
It’s easier to install your ball joints the way that we did, but it also makes it just a little bit trickier to make everything go together. You should be able to just drop the knuckle down and get your axle to line up. You’ll pick it up. Here’s the part that’s a little bit tricky. You have to get your upper A-arm lined up.
Once you have it lined up, go ahead and pop your bolt all the way through. We’ll go ahead and start the nut back here in the upper A-arm. Then we’ll fully tighten the hardware.
[19:53] Next we’re going to reinstall our hub. Slide it onto the axle. Install your castle nut and just hand tighten for now.
Then take the brake caliper and re-install it. Start the bolts. Then we’re going to reattach the shock. Pick up on the A-arms and slide the bolt through the shock mount.
Next we’re going to grab the tapered stud, two of our castle nuts, two flat washers, two cotter pins, and the misalignment bushing. Our tapered stud is going to drop to our steering arm like this. Then on the bottom, we’re going to replace the washer and then one of our nuts. Just slide the washer on and the nut.
[21:24] And then up here on the top side, we’re going to attach our tie rod. I like to adjust it around a little bit. I know that my rotor is pretty straight right now, so I’ll just adjust it to where it slides on there without having to move the rotor around too much. This makes it easier for when we’re setting the toe.
We’ll drop our misalignment bushing down, a flat washer, and then a nut. We’re going to take a 17 mm socket and a 17 mm wrench and fully tighten these.
Now this tapered stud is actually fixed to the knuckle. We’re going to put our lower cotter pin in, but we’re not going to do the cotter pin for the top just in case we have to make any adjustments once we set it on the ground. We’ll go ahead and install the cotter pin on the bottom.
[22:45] The next thing we’re going to talk about is brake lines. This machine is already equipped with a 6″ lift kit, so we’ve already swapped to the longer lines.
Changing the brake lines in this machine is pretty easy. The only thing you’d have to do is, there’s a clip right here. You’d have to remove that and it just pulls up. You can use a pair of pliers.
Then you’ll have your brake line fitting where it threads into the SuperATV line or the factory line—just unscrew it. Then you’re going to attach the SuperATV lines and you’ll do that all the way around the machine. It’s pretty simple.
But like I said, we already have our lines attached so we’re not going to do that today.
[23:28] Now we’re going to tighten our castle nut, brake caliper hardware, and shock bolts. Then we’ll show you how to attach your brake line to your A-arm.
Take the brake line clip and slide it over the brake line. Grab one of the Allen-headed screws and thread it right into the A-arm. Go ahead and tighten the hardware. Then you can repeat all the steps for the opposite side, and then we’ll head to the rear.
[24:15] The first thing you’ll want to do is remove the rear tires for the machine. We’ve already gone through and loosened up the hardware. We’re going to remove the cotter pin from the castle nut, and then the castle nut.
After that we’ll remove our brake caliper by removing the two bolts. Grab your caliper and wiggle it off. Take it and set it out of the way for the time being.
Next, we’ll remove our hardware for the shock from the lower A-arm. Then we’ll remove the sway bar link hardware. Pick up on the A-arm and pull the shock bolt out. Pick it up enough to remove the sway bar link. Let the arm drop.
[25:26] Then we’ll grab a ratchet strap and tie the shock up and out of the way. Remove the brake line hardware from the brake line connecting it to the upper A-arm. We’ve already done this, so we’ll remove the hardware that attaches to our knuckle from our upper A-arm as well as our lower A-arm.
Pick up on the A-arm and remove the lower hardware first. That’ll allow your lower A-arm to drop.
After that, pick up on the upper and remove the hardware from the knuckle. Make sure you don’t let your axle completely drop. Use the shock to hold the arm and plunge your axle in, and then pull it out. Then remove the lower A-arm hardware and then the A-arm. Then we’ll remove the upper A-arm hardware and pull it out.
[27:24] The next step in installing this lift kit is to remove the shock from the rear of the machine. Set it to the side. And then we’ll grab our shock bracket and two of the provided M12 bolts. Once we have both of the bolts started, we’ll go ahead and start the nuts. Go ahead and fully tighten the hardware.
Next, we’re going to reattach the shock. Again, in the rear, I went ahead and got some new Nyloc nuts for re-installation.
We’ve started our nut, so now we can fully tighten the hardware. Now we’re going to cut our zip ties off of our rear A-arm bushings and get the A-arms installed. Then we’ll install the nuts. Once we have the nuts on, we’ll fully tighten the hardware and install the grease zerks.
We’re going to take our straight zerk and install it into our pivot blocks on our lower A-arm, just like we did in the front. Go ahead and fully tighten, and then repeat the steps for the opposite pivot block.
[29:41] Now we’re going to attach our knuckle to our lower A-arm and start our nut. Then grab your axle and install it to the diff. Make sure the C-clip is facing down. Again, just slide it around and give it a couple tugs to make sure it’s in there. Then let it lay here on our sway bar link.
After that, grab the upper A-arm and install it. Go ahead and cut the zip ties off again. Slide it into position.
[31:17] Go ahead and start the nuts. We’ll grab the knuckle and slide the axle in. Make sure we have both of our bushing caps on. Grab the upper A-arm bolt and install the upper A-arm to the knuckle. Then install the bolt and reinstall the nut.
Then we’ll reinstall the sway bar link. We’ll make sure that the brake line is running over through like this.
Then we’ll install our shock. Grab the hub, brake caliper, and brake caliper bolts. Then grab the provided brake line clips and the hardware. Slide the brake line clip onto the brake line and grab one of your Allen-headed screws. We’ll continue doing this for the rest of the brake line holes. Make sure all the hardware is tightened and do the same for the opposite side.
[34:04] We’ve got our lift kit installed and a set of 32″ Intimidator Tires on this setup. Obviously, every build is going to vary for the camber and the toe, depending on what tire size you have, what other accessories you’re running on our machine, etc.
That’s how super easy it is to install SuperATV’s 6″ Lift Kit on the Honda Pioneer 1000. For more information on this lift kit or any of SuperATV’s great products, feel free to give us a call at 855-743-3427 or check us out online at SuperATV.com. Thanks for watching and we’ll catch you next time!
