GT_80
Always Tinkerin'
Well, I had to do ebrake cable on my truck saturday, and been thinking of lifting my truck since I got it, and after towing my trailer full of wood from my dads house to my house, the rear suspension dropped about 1 1/2" - Mainly I think because I had changed all the leaf spring hangers and the whole rear suspension hadn't settled yet... So the truck was level, and too low for my taste.
I have a buddy that strips square body chevys and usually has a ton of suspension parts, so I called him up, and sure nough he had a bunch of loose leafs- so I bought a pair of 42" leafs from a 3/4 ton truck that came from a sand company. I had to cut them down to about 36" to get them to fit in the spring pack where I wanted them. I got some new centering bolts, cut off my original U bolts cause they were junk, and set to add my leafs in. After they were cut to length, I clamped the leafs together (less the overload), cut the original centering bolt out, dropped the overload leaf, stuck the new centering bolt through the overload leaf, and the new leaf, slipped it back in place, started the nut on the centering bolt, removed the clamps, re-clamped all the leafs together, greased in between all the leafs, and torqued the centering bolt down. I repeated the process on the other side. After getting the spring packs together and looking at the truck, it still looked too low - I got my 1 1/2" back with the add a leafs, but wanted more- So I struck out and bought a set of 1" lift blocks and the necessary U bolts to put it back together. Afterit was all done, I got 2 1/2" -3" lift out of it, the driveshaft angle is still good, shocks will only top out if I drop the axle down all the way, so those may need to be replaced at some point- The suspension in the rear is still really soft, and the rear end sags about 7-8" when I lift the truck from the frame.
This is what it looked like after raising the rear:
now it had about a 3 1/4" rake to it- Because my torsion bars were cranked all the way down (why I don't know) I knew I had plenty of room to go- I cranked them up 3 turns, measured... Still too low. Cranked them another 1 1/2 turns, still too low... In the end, I went up 6 turns on each side, and I am only about 1/2 way up the adjusters. The ride quality has NOT suffered, and I have a 1" rake on the truck right now. I just need to get an alignment. It looks and rides like a truck again! But still super smooth on the highway
Now to decide if I want bigger tires...
I have a buddy that strips square body chevys and usually has a ton of suspension parts, so I called him up, and sure nough he had a bunch of loose leafs- so I bought a pair of 42" leafs from a 3/4 ton truck that came from a sand company. I had to cut them down to about 36" to get them to fit in the spring pack where I wanted them. I got some new centering bolts, cut off my original U bolts cause they were junk, and set to add my leafs in. After they were cut to length, I clamped the leafs together (less the overload), cut the original centering bolt out, dropped the overload leaf, stuck the new centering bolt through the overload leaf, and the new leaf, slipped it back in place, started the nut on the centering bolt, removed the clamps, re-clamped all the leafs together, greased in between all the leafs, and torqued the centering bolt down. I repeated the process on the other side. After getting the spring packs together and looking at the truck, it still looked too low - I got my 1 1/2" back with the add a leafs, but wanted more- So I struck out and bought a set of 1" lift blocks and the necessary U bolts to put it back together. Afterit was all done, I got 2 1/2" -3" lift out of it, the driveshaft angle is still good, shocks will only top out if I drop the axle down all the way, so those may need to be replaced at some point- The suspension in the rear is still really soft, and the rear end sags about 7-8" when I lift the truck from the frame.
This is what it looked like after raising the rear:
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now it had about a 3 1/4" rake to it- Because my torsion bars were cranked all the way down (why I don't know) I knew I had plenty of room to go- I cranked them up 3 turns, measured... Still too low. Cranked them another 1 1/2 turns, still too low... In the end, I went up 6 turns on each side, and I am only about 1/2 way up the adjusters. The ride quality has NOT suffered, and I have a 1" rake on the truck right now. I just need to get an alignment. It looks and rides like a truck again! But still super smooth on the highway
Now to decide if I want bigger tires...
You must be registered for see images attach
