hockeytown9

Yep...my 84...I just put the plates on her yesterday. Thanks for all of the help guys!! Now then, on to the question. Right now it has a 4" suspension lift in the front and a 2" in the back (the guy was going to put a V8 in it but didn't). Man is this thing rough. Are there any tips to smoothing out the ride? I mean I expected a rough ride, my buddies 84' Blazer riding on 35 is hard as he11, but my truck makes that thing feel like a Lincoln. I am going to put 33" on it, will that help at all? Any other ideas? I have been wheeling all over the place, in all sorts of trucks, I know a rough ride comes with the territory, but this is a bit much. I drove it (slowly) on some dirt roads to a hill climb to try the 4WD, and after about 5 min my back was killin'. Any ideas? 2" suspension and 2" body any better? As always, any help is appreciated guys.
Thanks!!

Flamedx4

Different brands of springs are ... different. Probably has an old school spring set - "back in the day" many of the suspension "manufacturers" were just good ol' boyz in the backwoods and there was no engineering at all. Springs were stiff as hell. For example - Skyjacker springs circa 1985 would break your neck on even highway bumps, but after about 1987 the new "Softride" stuff was excellent! (I know this from personal experience.)

I would recommend replacing your springs and shocks with something new - today leaf springs are nicely compliant and offer a better ride than the stock ones ever did, and shocks are better too.

hockeytown9

I was thinking the same thing. I'd hate to pay that much though. Any other thoughts? I was thinking a new lift would be 500+ bucks right?

Flamedx4

You can do it for that probably. A bit more and you get much better stuff though.

Just in the interest of covering the basics, are you sure the shocks aren't bottoming out or fully extended - stuff like that? Check things like the shackles for binding or overtightness, maybe pull the bolts and lube em up. Jack the truck up by the frame (to unload the leaves) and lube the springs good. Anything to try and free it all up. You might just have stiff a**ed springs, specially the rears. Budgeting for better suspension is something you'd probably never regret.

84pickup

I also have an 84. The guy before me had add-a-leafs stuck in there, to get it up an inch or so. Thats about all it did, and it made it stiff too. Too stiff for me, so I got some SkyJacker springs for the front. I'm gonna take out the AALs in the back, and I made some new shackles and I'll probably have to add a little block in there to match up with however high the front ends up. I bought 5" lift springs, but i got a winch up there, so I'll wait to see where it ends up before I put the blocks in.
None of it's installed yet, still fabbing and rounding up a few parts.
Count the number of leafs in your packs. Thats probably whats causing the stiffness, and maybe a bunch of seized stuff.

This forum should have separate threads for separate year trucks, or at least the separate generations, so the guys with old trucks don't have to pester the guys with the brand new rigs. I'm stoked when I see someone with an old rig like mine, and I can learn something I didn't know.