before
rear suspension height (rim to wheel well)
the old and the Old Man Emu - the original spring pack was 3 mains + 1 overload - the OME pack is 4 mains + 2 overloads (main leaves are about the same thickness as the originals)
Energy Suspension bumpstops, Marlin U-Bolt flip (note the excess trimmed off the top of the u-bolts)- this pic was with the weight of the axle pulling on the springs, I need to get a longer rear brake hose yet (just a slight pull on the hose like this, but add the weight of tires though and it'll probably get pulled on too much) I'm also not sure how I like the bumpstop placement, I think it might get destroyed by the u-bolt nuts. I may end up welding a shallow platform on top of the u-bolt plate for the bumpstop to bolt to and let it contact the factory strike plate. I'm also not ecstatic about how the e-brake cable is being pulled on (maybe a transfer case e-brkae in the future?)
shock mount welded on, while doing the install I measured and mounted everything for 11.5" stroke Bilstein 5150's.
after
new height - I guess my old springs were really sagging, the OME springs should have only given me 2" (+ my shackles from the old springs give another 1.25") - I got about 5.5" total
Well, this is more height than I wanted, it looks downright goofy like this. I don't have the shocks on the back yet either, the dumpy Rancho's will bolt up to the mounts, but I'll have 0 down travel. Once I get the Bilsteins on, the back end will come up a bit more too (gas pressure). So I'm thinking I need to put some stock length shackles back in to drop the height a bit and hope the springs settle.
made a new set of shackles - 4" eye to eye out this "muscle car" shackle kit ($15)
took the bottom overload leaf out - it didn't look like it would do anything anyway, just acted like a spacer or 3/8" lift block - I left the top overload leaf in to help control axle wrap. You can't really tell it, but I also added an extra gusset to the lower shock mount to get more surface area on the axle tube (probably wraps just under 1/2 way around now)
moved the Energy Suspension bumpstop down to the bottom by welding a perch onto the u-bolt plate (left over 1/4" flat from shortening the shackles)
and lost about 2" . . . which means I gained 3.5" from the OME's
This I can live with, a little bit of rake and it doesn't look nearly as goofy anymore
