Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Well you're running behind in EST. lol. Good job. Keep on keeping on

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

alright guys so the other side took less than an hour to remove, so less than half the time, keep in mind I had to stop to take pictures and update this forum... ok and chug a beer - don't judge! ha ha

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Top Tip: figure I better mention, I recommend removing the U bolts completely from the brackets holding the rear of the lower control arm up to the cross member before trying to lower the jack, as they love to bind, so once the nuts and washer are removed, shoot some BP Blaster up in them and fandangle them out with some gentle persuasion, then move on to lowering the jack - SLOWLY -

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and here is our reward, two completely removed rusty stock tall coil springs... and their brand new cousin aka Shorty

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McGaughy's front and rear. Rear is already done...complete with a 1 ton sway bar.

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hey me too, LOL

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alright time for the 3 oclock update

first wanted to point out that the there is a divit in the lower control arm bowl where the tail of the spring should end up in

its kind of hard to tell with the dirty part, so I try to point to it, you will know what I am talking about when you go to do the job yourselves

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

the other thing I want to point out that the way the lower control arm gets centered on the cross member is by these nipples inside the brackets that hold the U bolts and the holes in the round bar that attaches to it - very important that they align

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and so we get the other side assembled

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at first everything appears alright as we remove the jack, mind you this side gave me a little trouble getting aligned

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and at 4 PM we were done with the front, my son helped me re do the driver side and we believe now it sits properly, since we had to do one side over, and because of my recent back injury I feel there is no sense in marching on today and doing the rear, we will live to fight another day

new front measurements are

Driver Front 27 3/4" center of wheel well (tire pressure 26.5 PSI ahem low)

Passenger Front 27 5/8" center of wheel well (tire pressure 27.0 PSI also low)

I think it was worth the effort, your thoughts?

here are some before and after shots of the stance

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Before you go and scrap those old front coil springs please let me know if you're interested in parting with them in exchange for a contribution to your truck fund.
Oh, and it's about time you lowered it!

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a what the heck lets see a close up, stock and with the front lowered 3 inches - the gap between the top of the front tire and the wheel well is no longer

The Greg Likes!!!

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Good job, just wanted to say, that job is very doable without dropping the rear of the lower control arm.

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Thumbs up...Dramatic change. How did your control arm bushing look and how do your leaf spring bushings look?

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Thanks, great questions, and I didn't even look on purpose, but I know they are the original ones so that is a project down the road. Before today I was planning on getting drop spindles. However with todays results I may no longer opt out for those. So originally the bushings were gonna get done then.

I am happy to report that the new shackles for the rear leaf springs came with new bushings so at least those will be taken care of. And I just checked LMC Truck and oh my are those leaf spring eye bushings really $17 bucks each and we need 4 total of them? wow pricey

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moog part # sb335 cost you the same . you can pick up at a local part store and will save you shipping cost.

acdelco part number is 45g15300
gm part number 468481

and truck looks great

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Keep up the good work.

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Thank you mate, really appreciate the detailed info

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happy to help. it is also one of the things needs to be done to my truck lol

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Captains Log: SOL 1,878 [ahem] Saturday October 10th 2015 Anno Domini

Owe seven hundred hours - the Natives are still asleep, it's quiet, too quiet I don't like it... jk

Going to do the rear today. Going to install the new 2" longer leaf spring shackles to lower the rear of the truck. Might need to "notch" the bed rail as some of youz pointed out. Notching means cutting out / making a hole / making room for something to slide in or fit. We shall see, but coffee first

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and so it was time to do the rear, I swear I spent more time erecting the house of cards base to make the jack reach higher than to do the actual job, ha ha

below you see what we are up against, note the OG shackle in the lowest and highest positions and how it clears the bed rail (aka the 2x4 that holds the bed floor up)

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a bit of PB Blaster juice on the old bolt threads and they came out pretty easily, I think I got to use my 13/16th wrench for the first time in for ever

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with the old shackle off we it was time for some Speed Dating (as we introduced the old mature part to its new wet behind the ears replacement, ie Stare and Compare Time

I am going to ball park the measurements as

Old Shackle - 6" tall

New Shackle - 8" tall

again the camera angle makes the new one look like 9", I really need to learn how to take better photographs [ahem] sorry Millenials I meant pics

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ok, time for ... as the self proclaimed master mechanics on reality TV say ... [wait for it] ... A MOCK UP !!!

I am glad I mocked it up with the nut and bolts in cause I would have cut a notch way too narrow otherwise, so that's a Top Tip for you

would you believe me if I told you that cut is straighter than it looks? yeah me neither, no seriously it aint that bad

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alright with the bed rail out of the way, lets see how me did

... not bad... not bad at all

HEY ITS A TRUCK!

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ok and here it is all done with the leaf spring back in - bolts need to be tightened to 90 foot lbs, but my torque wrench only goes up to 75

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here's what it looks like up in there with the wheel back on and the truck sitting on the ground

I must admit I am a bit disappointed, as the preliminary measurements show a new height of 31 5/8 so not even a 1 inch drop, man that's a lot of work for an inch

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I know its too late, but an axle flip kit would have gained more drop without cutting the bed crossmember...

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You are correct, but the ones I've seen at 6" would give me too much drop. Also according to LMC Truck they require cutting and drilling your frame to install the C-Notch brackets. So either way you're cutting something, so I picked the lesser of the two evils. ha ha

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You don't ~have~ to do a c-notch.

I did, since I tend to carry loads, but with a notch, the bed floor sits on the pumpkin before the notches really show their value. I'm not convinced it was worth the effort on my truck.

The flip kit, though - totally worth it!

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If you are not where you want to be in the rear, you can always do hangers for the front side of the leafs.

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Yep Jake, looks like I may be headed that way.

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so knocked out the other side

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notch on this side, and done

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I'm curious, did you tighten the shackle/leaf spring bolts with the weight of the truck on the suspension? If not it's possible it's keeping the truck from settling and that's why you didn't get as much drop as you should have.

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Hmmm no the wheels were off and the axle was supported by the jack, let me run out there and loosen stuff up, thanks

Nope that wasn't it, I loosed up the bolts took the truck around the block, jumped a few speed bumps, and no change, I recon the shackles were perpendicular to the ground already so that's as long as they are going to get