Stupid Question of the Day

[NightRunner]

So I bought a CMS 3/4 drop kit which utilizes drop shackles/hangers in the rear of the truck. This process involves drilling out the factory rivets for the stock rear hanger. My question is, if I drill out the rear hangers and at some point in the future decide to return the truck to stock height, would I be able to just bolt the old hanger back in where the rivets used to be? My better intuition is telling me yes especially since you bolt the drop hanger in place but I haven't gotten a chance to really look at the stock hanger yet, didn't know if there would be any interference or issue by not having the rivets to reuse.

 

[phule]

Yes you could swap back to stock hangers & shackles


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[sewlow]

The stockers can be re-used. Just have the heads of the new bolts on the inside of the frame if you're worried about clearances. There shouldn't any though, because of the 'C' shape of the frame.
A tip. The driver side hanger is a beee-otch to install with the box on. Gas tank is in the way.
Easier to loosen off the passenger side bed bolts & remove the driver side bed bolts so that you can lift the driver side of the box up enough in order to get to the inside of the frame to install the new bolts.
Or...(blech!) drop the tank.
Or... do what we did. Get the girl from the office with the little tiny hands & glue the nuts to her fingers one at a time. We even had to lower the hoist almost 2' down to her level! Only person out of the seven in the shop that could get her hands in there!

 

[NightRunner]

I plan to pull the bed completely, but that's to do the drop kit, hitch install, trailer wiring install, wire loom everything together and clean up the frame area. Just wanted a heads up on the stock hangers. Thanks for the advice everyone!

 

[sewlow]

Make sure to check your pinion angle when done. Those hangers tend to mess that up.
You may have to install some pinion wedges.
For that, you will have to get the next longer spring pack center pin.
GM lists 4 different lengths for that center bolt. 1/2t 2 wheel drives use the shortest. Cheap. Couple of bucks each from the dealership.
Then, crank a nut down to the head of the new bolt with some red loctite.
Take that to the grinder & remove the shoulders of the nut down to the shape of the bolt's head.
This is required so that the center pin will fit through the pinion wedge & into the centering pin's locater hole in the spring perch.
Without that pin reaching through the pinion wedge, there is a distinct possibility of the differential rotating within the U-bolts.
Also...if this is required, it means having to remove the U-bolts.
Get new ones. U-bolts are torque-to-yield. Not meant to be torqued down more than once.