I took my springs apart today and took a leaf out of them, then added that leaf to a less sagged spring set I got from Doc. I'm running 4 leaves plus the overload now. The standard spring pack is 3 leaves plus the overload.

I used the longest leaf (other than the one with the "eyes" on it). It's a job to shoe-horn it in there with the others, and I had to remove the isolation disk on one end to get it in place. It JUST fits in the shackle clip. The thicker leaf below it might be stiffer, but it would probably be harder to combine with the other three with the limited gap in the clip.

I used a longer centerbolt -- a 3" long 3/8-16 grade 8 bolt and nut.

This gave me an additional inch over where I was and the rear feels like it's in better control now. Stange because I thought it might get "hoppier" back there, but it didn't. I'm wondering if the WEAKNESS of the old spring was giving me more hop. I could be mistaken as I haven't had it offroad yet -- but we'll see.

I had ragged out my old rear springs and if you set them eyes-down/arch-up next to Doc's (the ones he gave me when he did the chevy spring conversion) and his were 1/4" to 1/2" taller! So I know mine had sagged if they are shorter WITHOUT tension, lol.

One side note, and I've posted on it in a separate topic: the pinion angle shims I bought were COMPLETE junk -- they had cracked and literally fell to pieces when I removed the spring from over the block! No good. I'm running without the shims for now. I have a new taller block being made and it will have a correcting angle ground into it.

 

hmm my shims are doing fine in my F150 and i haul heavy loads all the time in it.

maybe this is a dumb question, but dont you now have 2 leaves that are the same length stacked on one another?

 

Yes, I do.

Did you buy the same shims I did?

 

ALSO: have you taken them out and looked at them? Mine were still in place, all the pieces compressed between the block and the spring. Only when I separated the spring and the block did the shims fall to pieces. Upon casual inspection they appeared intact when assembled.

 

no i haven taken them apart and looked, my shims came from GroundForce, they came with my shackle lowering kit, and were specially designed for my truck since i actually have 2 centering pins.

it doesnt surprise me that the shims would break, they only seem to be cast aluminum which is a good way to cheap out, and it just seems very brittle, esp as part of a truck suspension. it may be just as cheap to make them out of a hard plastic.

 

These were cast metal of some type -- felt too heavy to be aluminum. Probably just "pot metal", as we used to call it.

Yours are probably MUCH better. I'm not saying shims in GENERAL are bad -- just this particular type.

 

So John, wants the high vibe review? Any driveline vibes with the added lift?

 

Strangely -- nothing. I don't know if the angle changed a bit with the new springs or what -- but so far, nothing noticeable.

I have the traction bars off also, so they can be modified for the new axle width. Don't know if that contributes or not.