Rebuilding stock front and rear susp. Need recommendations...

['58Patch]

Hi Guys,
I have me a '58 apache 1/2 ton with the stock front and rear suspension. I want to rebuild and/or replace all the components.

I have found plenty of vendors but I was wondering if you all could recommend companies with who'm you have had experience with as well as those with good prices. I'm on a tight budget as most of us are.

Thanks!

[Russell Ashley]

I'm doing the same thing to my 57 Chevy truck and I bought all of my suspension parts from LMC Trucks. They had everything and shipped it promptly. I looked at a few other sources and prices seemed to be about the same.

I'm not replacing the springs, just all of the bushings and pins. You'll need four spring shackle kits. There's two styles of shackles, one has a bolt through the two sides that holds the sides on the pins, and the other style has nuts on the ends on the pins. The ones I got from LMC have the bolt through the sides. If I were doing it again I would try to find the other style. No particular reason for this other than the ones I removed had the nuts on the pins and looked a little more substantial to me.
It isn't cheap. All of the suspension parts plus a king pin set was about $300 with shipping.

['58Patch]

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

I'm doing the same thing to my 57 Chevy truck and I bought all of my suspension parts from LMC Trucks. They had everything and shipped it promptly. I looked at a few other sources and prices seemed to be about the same.

I'm not replacing the springs, just all of the bushings and pins. You'll need four spring shackle kits. There's two styles of shackles, one has a bolt through the two sides that holds the sides on the pins, and the other style has nuts on the ends on the pins. The ones I got from LMC have the bolt through the sides. If I were doing it again I would try to find the other style. No particular reason for this other than the ones I removed had the nuts on the pins and looked a little more substantial to me.
It isn't cheap. All of the suspension parts plus a king pin set was about $300 with shipping.

Awesome, thanks for your info. How was the quality and fit from LMC?
Also, it doesn't seem like there is a choice for two different style shackles...
http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/ca/full.aspx?Page=84

[Russell Ashley]

The only thing that I wasn't totally satisfied with was the way the shackle arms fit on to the pins. The ends of the pins are tapered and the shackle arms are a wedge fit on to them. The holes in the shackle arms are tapered to match the pins. The arms should go on far enough so that the rubber seals completely seal the space between the spring and shackle arm. I had to clean the "flash" out of all of the holes in the arms and enlarge the holes to get then to fit on the pins far enough. It's not a big problem but did make the job take a little longer than I anticipated. I was not trying to put them on backwards, BTW, with the taper reversed.
You can do this job with out removing the axles and springs from the truck if you work on one end of the springs at a time. You will need a jack and some GOOD SAFE jackstands to do it this way. I used a piece of 1/2 inch threaded rod with some washers and nuts to remove the old bushing from the springs.

['58Patch]

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

The only thing that I wasn't totally satisfied with was the way the shackle arms fit on to the pins. The ends of the pins are tapered and the shackle arms are a wedge fit on to them. The holes in the shackle arms are tapered to match the pins. The arms should go on far enough so that the rubber seals completely seal the space between the spring and shackle arm. I had to clean the "flash" out of all of the holes in the arms and enlarge the holes to get then to fit on the pins far enough. It's not a big problem but did make the job take a little longer than I anticipated. I was not trying to put them on backwards, BTW, with the taper reversed.
You can do this job with out removing the axles and springs from the truck if you work on one end of the springs at a time. You will need a jack and some GOOD SAFE jackstands to do it this way. I used a piece of 1/2 inch threaded rod with some washers and nuts to remove the old bushing from the springs.

Right on, thanks for the heads up. I am taking everything off since I need to replace the springs. Did you paint your parts? If you did, what did you use?