Lowering leafs and shocks help

[syty9933]

i am about to lower my sy with new belltech leafs and new bilstein hd lowering shocks. I have it all ready but i dont know how to do it. Are there any how tos. I have a friends coming to help tommorw so any guides or how tos would be nice

thanks

 

[SYO237]

Re: Lowering leafs and shocks help

There's nothing to hard about it.

Get some jackstands, lift up the back of the truck, then slide 2 more jackstands under the axle tubes to support the entire rear axle.

The shocks have 3 bolts total. 2 up on the top, and one large nut on the bottom. Take those out first. Then you can remove the u-bolts around the axle tubes that holds the shock/leaf plates. From there, its removing the nuts/bolts on either side of the leaf pack. From there, reverse order for install of new stuff.

Just watch your brake lines, dont crimp or squish anything.

Impact gun will be your friend. Go spray some WD40 on everything now so it can sit for awhile.

 

[syty9933]

Re: Lowering leafs and shocks help

There's nothing to hard about it.

Get some jackstands, lift up the back of the truck, then slide 2 more jackstands under the axle tubes to support the entire rear axle.

The shocks have 3 bolts total. 2 up on the top, and one large nut on the bottom. Take those out first. Then you can remove the u-bolts around the axle tubes that holds the shock/leaf plates. From there, its removing the nuts/bolts on either side of the leaf pack. From there, reverse order for install of new stuff.

Just watch your brake lines, dont crimp or squish anything.

Impact gun will be your friend. Go spray some WD40 on everything now so it can sit for awhile.

thanks man, this puts it into perspective

 

[Z SKI]

Re: Lowering leafs and shocks help

Remember there is a front and a back to the springs as one side is longer than the other and if you put them in backwards the rear end will look very odd in the wheel well. Ask me how I know :screwy:

Other than that it is very straight forward. Good luck.

See ya,

 

[syty9933]

Re: Lowering leafs and shocks help

Remember there is a front and a back to the springs as one side is longer than the other and if you put them in backwards the rear end will look very odd in the wheel well. Ask me how I know :screwy:

Other than that it is very straight forward. Good luck.

See ya,

thanks, the beltechs came with front/back stickers

 

[ircwet]

Re: Lowering leafs and shocks help

Front and back stickers only work if there is quality control......compair when you take yours out.

 

[jpalmer]

Re: Lowering leafs and shocks help

I had a problem when i went to remove all mine too. The upper shock bolt on the driver side that is twards the out side of the truck, you know, the hardest to reach one, was stripped. That was a pain to try to cut out, almost nothing fit. I replaced all my upper bolts with new grade 8 hardware.

 

[gkrcr882]

Re: Lowering leafs and shocks help

I want to add something else:

Please work carefully.

Jackstands are of course the way to go, but you have to be careful of not pulling the truck off of them. Especially when using hand tools on high-torque spec fasteners such as suspension. When you're sitting on the ground, pulling on a 3' long cheater bar, you have a lot of leverage to pull the truck right off the stands. You can minimize this potential by putting your feet on the truck, and pushing in the opposite direction that you are pulling in with your arms.

Put some safety blocks under the frame just in case it does slip. The tire/wheels work for this purpose just fine.

We had a tragic accident involving a member here a while before you joined. There isn't a member here who doesn't think of the Myclone accident, and analyzes the safety before he crawls under his truck while it's on stands. Please do the same.
:myclone:

Excellent reminder Dave. Also doing things that can help minimize rocking/moving the truck will make it easier, such as using a torch to heat stuck fasteners and using a good (strong) impact gun will help. Good luck, and be sure to post before & after pics! :tup: