chevy leaf spring questions. agian. lol
 

well i finally got me a set of chevy leaf springs and i was under the truck looking at a few things and now i have some questions.

on the drivers side is the Ebrake cable that cable is held or mounted in the same place the spring mounts. now i dont see that moving towards the front of the truck 6 inches. so what did you guys do? make a bracket to hold it?
here is a pic of what im talking about
http://www.zabeard.com/gallery/d/1644-1/DSCF0707.JPG

next question might be minor not sure really.
but in the pic below you can see that frame is separated here on my truck (i imagine its the same on all) but since it is when i move the bracket forward 6 inches the front part will be on the one part of the frame and the back side will be in the old holes. but im thinking with it this way the mount will be crooked, did you guys space washers in there?

http://www.zabeard.com/gallery/d/1642-1/DSCF0706.JPG

and lastly how did you guys manage to get a nut on the bolt between the gas tank and the frame? will i need to drop the tank as well?


any other tips?

I took off the bed when i did it.

I was at Jeffs (solodos) house and we did it there... we could not get that last bolt on so we just welded it...

and you will need to fab a bracket up for the ebrake.

Bob posted a pic of his he had another hanger and mounted it in the stock position and used it to hold the e-brake cable.

I was kinda wondering about the frame there, too.

How hard is it to take off the bed?? Do you think a spindle/BL/Spring swap could be done in one day??? Cause that would def be the time to do it.

You could fab up a bracket to hold the e-brake cable but I did the expedient thing and used another forward spring hanger. If you have traction bars, the extra bracket will need to be trimmed for clearance at full droop. Also, rebending the outward tab of the extra hanger moves the cable coupler away from the spring pivot bolt and keeps it from fouling.

Strange but functional.

http://home.comcast.net/~rwenzing/Ch..._DS_hanger.jpg


Removing the bed will make the job way easier - definitely worth it. Just remove the three screws inside the fuel door holding the filler neck and unplug the connector for the taillight subharness on the end of the DS frame rail. Remove the six bolts (T5 Torx) and the bed is ready to remove. I suspended it from the ceiling and drove the truck out from under it but it is easy to lift off with some helpers.

for some one that hasnt ever done a spindle/bl no...i know we could do it all in one day up here but thats cause we have done it so much...takes practice

You definitely don't want washers in there and you don't need them. The frame is stepped where the two sections are joined, so the front and back frame faces do line up for the hanger. It will be easier to see when you have the box off.

ok cool thanks bob and chris. ill see if ill have time this weekend.

so you guys got the bolts in without removing the gas tank?

I didn't do anything to the tank. It's tight but you can install the bolts from the top with the bed off. It would probably be very frustrating to try this swap with the bed on.

yea defidently take the bed off. two guys can lift it right off. the gas tank does get it the way but there is enough room to get the bolts on just a pain in the ass. make sure you get some grade 8 hardware as it will be holding some major parts on the truck. and some loctite goes a long way too.

lol might need more than a couple guys. the flareside bed is heavy. lol

hell yea it is

I might be able to get some springs off a guy that just bagged his truck. Then I will have to get a day off and some friends up to help me. I don't think I'll be doing 3 mods at once... better take my time.

3 mods at once isnt a good thing, if you have problems it will 3 times harder to diagnose!

doesnt it have fiberglass bed sides? i would think it would be similar in weight to the fleetside

The Flareside bedsides are made of SMC (sheet molding compound). SMC forms a composite that is a distant relative of fiberglass. Although the material is less dense than steel, it is several times as thick. That's where the weight comes from.

will 99 chevy springs work for this? what years will work.

88~98 C1500 or K1500. The 2WD C's are 3 leaf plus overload similar to Ranger springs but a little stiffer. You can also use the 4x4 K springs which are 4 plus overload and considerably stiffer.

which springs are you running, and ihow much lift does the 2wd give vs the 4wd

IM running the 4x4 springs... i got the same amount of lift but running 2 shackles... im probably gonna take out a leaf and run one shackle

from his signature he is running 2wd springs, and by previous postings he said 2~3 inches of lift.

I'm running the 2wd springs out of a 93 chevy.

Chris, your running 2 shackles...wtf?!? I hope its not as scary as it sounds.

i have a feeling it is!

My guess would be one shackle sits flush along the frame rail when riding on flat surface and then when flexing the shackle attached to the leaf pack reaches the point where it would stop the flex from being attached to the frame the second shackle then rotates down and allows a few more inches of droop. Similar to the Revolver Shackles for Jeeps...although they allow roatation in a twisting direction as well.

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member...26_72_full.jpg

lol


...yea, i plan on changing it sooon

not trying to be a pain, but whats so different about the 99 springs? i found a pair for $20.