sewlow58's rear suspension mods

[sewlow]

So I've been stupid busy lately. Ain't been around here much, 'cept for the occasional smart-ass one-liner from the back of the class. I've been trying to get some time to post some pix, so today I'm gonna play a bit of hookey, & get the latest pix of the rear suspension mods on my truck posted. Comments/criticism?
Sorry no pix of 'before', but I had a DJM 6"drop flip kit installed, & I'm sure that you guys know what that looks like. Never had a problem with it, Just didn't get the handling characteristics that I was aiming for. I also had a set of small helper bags installed with the DJM stuff.
The reason I did these changes, was because the original rear end, with the gov-lok, decided that 200,000 miles was far enough. Then we got carried away with a simple fix. Again!
Before we did the suspension changes, the rear was completely rebuilt. I had a rear-end with a posi out of a 60's Chevelle that's been kicking around for years. Almost sold it a couple of times. In fact, a week before the rear in my truck grenaded itself. Was looking to get $350 for the whole thing. Deal fell through. Good thing. I had never opened it up. Really surprised when we opened it to find an 'Auburn' posi inside! Pulled that apart to find that it was just like new inside. Woo-hoo! Rebuild included a gear change from 3.42 to 3.73.
Here's what we did....
After everything was removed from the truck, all the original perches were cut off & ground down. This the original housing.

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Installed the urethane spring bushings.

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new perches welded on.

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Removed the bolt in C-notch & fabbed up a weld-in notch, boxed on the backside. Check the original position of the shock mounts.

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Moved the shock mount forward 2" on the driver's side, utilizing the factory hole seen in the previous pic.

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Moved the passenger side back 3". This put both shocks at the same angle. Because the frame tapers as it moves to the back, this shock mount had to have the front 'leg' modified, so that it would mount inside the frame as it did originally.

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Modified the DJM shock extender by welding it to the stock mount

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Starting the re-assembly

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Marc the Mad-Fabricator! Welder extraordinaire!

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The rear end in. Notice the extra spring. We removed the overload, got a spring made up that was the same length as the overload, but, it fits up against the others, not like the original. I thought that this was going to make the ride too stiff. Marc didn't. Kept telling me to relax, it'll work.

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The finished shock/sway bar mount

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The finished job. We also notched the bed support. Forgot to take pix of that, but it's kind of self-explanatory.

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Yea, it's still kinda ugly under there, but this is a driver. Maybe when the box comes off this fall to get the body work done, I'll paint it with something more durable than a rattle can paint job.

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The rear sway bar end link mount. These where a couple of pieces of angle iron, that had a couple of slotted holes in 'em. We cut the corners off & the slots became kind of gothic looking 'teeth'. I've been thinking of touching up the ends with a little red paint, & maybe a couple of drops, dripped onto the top of the leaves under the teeth!

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So, the result is, I don't need the air-bags & no more bottoming out of the suspension at any point. Oh, it's a stiffer ride alright, but the suspension doesn't 'load up' & release in the corners anymore. No more porpoise-like jounce when I'm pushing it really hard. Way more predictable, & a big, BIG, improvement over the original way that it was lowered. The stiffness in the ride is not uncomfortable, in fact, I LIKE it. Feels like I'm connected to the road better.
With addition of the short spring, I have no axle wrap. In forward or reverse. But, hey it is JUST a 6!
The addition of the 3.73's was worth doing. REALLY woke up that V6. The mid-range pull in 2nd is so much better! When the V8 is in, this is gonna be stupid giggle FUN!!!
Hope this helps you guys!

 

[454SSguy]

Dude that's awesome. I'm definatley gonna need some help on my build this coming summer.

 

[shortchevy]

how does that custom leaf ride?

 

[sewlow]

At first it felt like the truck was oversprung, but after a couple of weeks, things have kind of settled in. It is a lot rougher to ride in but I think that with a little softer shock that may improve. If I was to do it again, I would probably shorten the new spring a couple inches or three on each end. For what I do with the truck, it works, but some people might not like the ride. It ain't no Caddilac, or Lincoln Towncar, that's for sure! 4X4 guys would probably think the ride is soft.

 

[stroker52]

looks good boss... i like the sway bar.. whats it out of? i was thinking about the same rear end today lol are the rear ends the same drum to drum? (wide) i was think this cuz there a 5 on 5..

i want to stiffen the front of my truck up.. im prob going to have to have some springs made up.. but after i boxed mine in it made a big diffenece...

 

[shortchevy]

I took a leaf out and that lowered the truck another 1-2" and now the shocks are too laid out so I plan on moving them like you did when I do my 8" notch. you did very nice work, looks very nice! what do you mean by oversprung?

 

[sewlow]

Thanks for the compliments!

The sway bar came out of a bagged obs Suburban that had caught fire. That was not a pretty sight. At one time some one had built a killer custom show truck, only to loose it to some Mickey Mouse wiring. Where it came from before that...?

The housing is the orig. to the truck. I used the posi carrier from the Chevelle, a new gear set, & my orig. axles. All new bearings. I had another carrier for the truck (Eaton style) but it was a 28 spline, which meant that I'd have to find, or get some axles made. Luckily, the Chevelle rear had 31 spline axles, the same as the truck's, so that posi (an 'Auburn' style) became the the next candidate.

You boxed the front frame rails? I'd like to see...

By 'oversprung' I meant that it felt like the springs were way stiffer than they needed to be. The way it is now, I would like to slow down the return just a bit. A set of double adjustable QA1 (compression & rebound) shocks will enable me to dial in the suspension quite a bit more.
Just re-locating the upper shock mounts alone, made a huge difference! The laid out shock position bugged me from the very first time I looked at it when it was originally lowered. I knew that it just wasn't possible for the shocks to work like that.

 

[stroker52]

no i just boxed from the back of cab to the rear bumper..

i need to find a sway bar lol the rear shocks i got have a 6/6 valving and work nice. it slowed the bounce down alot. i just need to get the junk shocks off the front.

 

[sewlow]

I have a stock rear sway bar off a suburban/escalade on my '97. Used to be on my '98. It made a huge difference. It's not as big as fastorange's, & I think his are a matched aftermarket set, front & back. Don't know what brand he is using. You'd have to ask him for more info on that.
From the factory, the trucks that came with just the front sway bar, have a larger one than the trucks that came with two. So both my trucks have the large front sway bar. With the addition of the rear one, the truck drives totally different. Much improved. One of the top 5 mods I've done to my trucks. Can't understand why they didn't have this option from the factory.

 

[stroker52]

i wonder if the 1 ton front sway bars are bigger? i need to go walking around a junk yard and see if i can find me a rear sway bar.

but thats stuff will get getting done after the LS swap.