Chris didn't add anything to his leaf springs. He just went the other route and did 5" lift in the rear rather then deal with the problem.
As for the straps I am not gonna use them. They just aren't long enough to wrap around the all pro leafs. I just cut them off instead.

I also need to go a different route with this whole leaf spring. Ill explain in the next post what I mean.

Thanks for dropping by and for your conpliments. The axle moved forward is growing on me already. It looks more like a monster truck. So I'm good with that idea lol.
Btw I wasn't aware that you used rear springs in the front. I must have missed that on your thread. You should get some rock sliders your truck will thank you for it.

As for the the bump steer goes; do they call that Death wobble as well? If so then no I don't. I found the problem and fixed it immediately. Turned out the bolts that hold my leaf springs to both the front amd rear hangers and shackles were all loose by 1-2mm. And of course with all of them loose it shook like crazy. So once I retightened the bolts my problem went away completely.


Dude my dad is crazy like that. You can't tell him anything cuz he'll just brush it off. I brought that up to him and said he should change into his shoes at least but he just brushed it off and said its fine lets start. Lol and yea he welds pretty good. That was his job back when he used to live in Mexico. So he never really forgot. He made the window bars on the house and welded us a pretty sweet bunk bed when we were kids. I wish I had his skills.

As for my girl. Well yea she is great isn't she. Lol not married with her yet but I'm sure we'll get there sometime. After 5 years of being together my family just calls her my wife already. Every time I see my dads side of the family the first thing I hear. "...and your wife? Where's your girlfriend" lol and my girlfriends grandpa likes me but he hates the fact that I haven't married her yet lol. I mean if we can't do it then we can't do it. And I definitely want to go back to school for a better job before we settle down. I can't do security for the rest of my life lol. Pay is crap and way too much drama. I'd really love to hurry up and start my surgical tech classes and finish them in the 1year8month period it takes. Then I can start thinking about marriage. Lol
Ooo man he was furious when we moved in together last year. Lol but that just made him accept me more kinda miss those days. Not a fan of living with the parents any more. But I'm happy I will be able to stay with them during my time in school ya know.

Anyway that totally went off subject but I'm glad you liked the rig. Only thing left to do now is to straighten out the truck but lifting up the rear end some and ill be completely satisfied.

Btw your truck doesn't look bad. Its pretty good. Look at page 1 of my thread and you'll see how jacked up mine used to look. Lol just gotta emvision what you want and stick with it. That's what I did.

 

Glad to hear your got the death wobble figured out and fixed, again your runner turned out awesome!

yeah I definitely have rock sliders on my wishlist... someday.

yeah I used 2" rear lift springs on the front of my runner, I bought them from a yotatech member on here (oneIwilly) for $40, I'm really happy with the ride quality, and they flex really well. Now I just need to address my rear suspension, and get some new lift springs, how do you like the Allpro springs so far?

 

Ed, i'm really liking the leaf springs a lot. i havent teated them out on my own rig just yet but i have seen how they perform on my neighbours rig and they work really well. Only thing is that i do reccomend you getting 1" higher springs in the rear for whatever kind of lift you want. Just to level out your truck. As u can see I have 4 brand new leafs and mine still sags a bit. Which is why I'm adding a leaf.

I was actually gonna sell my last lift kit. its more like a 3" lift. the rear sags just a bit but nothing another leaf or block cant fix. I was looking to sell the set of 4 leafs front and rear for maybe $150 plus whatever the S&H costs. let me know if you are interested man. these leafs fit right into your stock hangers.

------------------------------------------
Ill upload a few pix of what I'll be selling soon. It's gonna be the set of 4 leaf springs, my black bull bumper that I used to have on the truck, the 2 rear Rancho shocks, IFS skid plate, and hopefully sell the valance too. I'm just not sure if that one would be able to get shipped without getting damaged. I figured ill sell everything for very cheap cuz I jist wanna get rid of everything.

 

Alright guys so yesterday I took a look at Rubens pickup's rear leaf springs and I seen that he did not have the overload leaf. What he ended up doing was just adding a leaf about 3 or 4 leafs up (in the middle)
Here is his


So this is what I plan to do. After I looked at his pictures I now know that I either need an overload leaf that is curved or add a leaf in the middle of my all pro springs. So the all pro springs are not as arched as the ones that mount to the stock hangers. So what I'm gonna do is stick one of the stock arched springs in the middle of my all pro springs and that should help the all pro ones give me that extra bit of height. I'm still gonna use the overload spring even though it ain't bent. That spring is a 1/2" thick and I'm sure that could help me some as well in adding a little height. And because it is completely flat it won't interfere with the performance of the all pro springs.

So I plan to use the bottom 2 springs and the 2 small plates in between them. See how arched these are?


Now look at how flatter these are due to being longer leaf springs. (The middle 2 are for the rear)


I was really considering using 2 of the old 4" lift rear springs but I wanna sell the old leaf springs so I decided to use the ones from the stock set.

So these are the ones I'ma put in the middle of mine. And I might still use another. I gotta look it over more because I don't wanna ruin the performance of these springs either. I can possibly cut off the other 2 top springs where the "eye" is for the shackle bolts. and somehow use those as leafs as well. i think that might possibly work better then having a flat overload spring. and this way i'll have either 2 or 3 more springs that are more arched to assist with the rear lift. Also considering using 5" longer shackles from all pro vs the 4" ones i have now if this experiment doesnt work out. Someone also mentioned that i could possibly use blocks in the rear. but i dont really like that idea too much. We'll see what happens.





And I've already cut off the straps so they don't interfere with anything. Ill let you guys know what I decide. On. I'm really hoping this fixes the problem. Hoping to get it all done today.

 

Alright guys, today I modified my leaf springs. And I have to say I do think this finally fixed my rear sag issue. My truck seems to have leveled out perfectly now. And after completing the job I jumped up and down on the rear bumper and I noticed that it does feel a bit stiffer but I don't think it will be a problem. It just doesn't feel as bouncy as it used to be. I'm sure adding the leaf will affect it flex wise. But I think it will be worth it in the end. I use the rear of my truck all the time so I absolutely want the extra support.

Anyway I would have taken after pix but it was really dark outside so you guys will see the before and after pix tomorrow afternoon.

Ill post up pictures of my whole process later. Maybe tonight if not in the morning tomorrow.

 

need to start callin ya the leaf spring wizard

lookin forward to seeing the level'd ride

 

Dude my dad is crazy like that. You can't tell him anything cuz he'll just brush it off. I brought that up to him and said he should change into his shoes at least but he just brushed it off and said its fine lets start. Lol and yea he welds pretty good. That was his job back when he used to live in Mexico. So he never really forgot. He made the window bars on the house and welded us a pretty sweet bunk bed when we were kids. I wish I had his skills.

As for my girl. Well yea she is great isn't she. Lol not married with her yet but I'm sure we'll get there sometime. After 5 years of being together my family just calls her my wife already. Every time I see my dads side of the family the first thing I hear. "...and your wife? Where's your girlfriend" lol and my girlfriends grandpa likes me but he hates the fact that I haven't married her yet lol. I mean if we can't do it then we can't do it. And I definitely want to go back to school for a better job before we settle down. I can't do security for the rest of my life lol. Pay is crap and way too much drama. I'd really love to hurry up and start my surgical tech classes and finish them in the 1year8month period it takes. Then I can start thinking about marriage. Lol
Ooo man he was furious when we moved in together last year. Lol but that just made him accept me more kinda miss those days. Not a fan of living with the parents any more. But I'm happy I will be able to stay with them during my time in school ya know.

Anyway that totally went off subject but I'm glad you liked the rig. Only thing left to do now is to straighten out the truck but lifting up the rear end some and ill be completely satisfied.

Btw your truck doesn't look bad. Its pretty good. Look at page 1 of my thread and you'll see how jacked up mine used to look. Lol just gotta emvision what you want and stick with it. That's what I did.[/QUOTE]


Thats awesome that your dad built you guys bunk beds. I cant wait until my kids are old enough to appreciate stuff like that.

I hear you on living at home. when I graduated college, I moved back in with my parents until I could get on my feet. I wasn't a bum or anything. I worked and took care of everything around the house. It was funny because by the time I was getting ready to leave, my dad was mad because he was going to have to start taking care of the house and yard, etc.. HAHA.

Definitely get your life plans solidified before you get married and have kids. That was one thing that I made sure of before I took the plunge. I got a degree and got a teaching job before we were married. Its hard sometimes though to not just jump in head first.

Thanks for the compliments on my runner. Its coming along, slowly, but getting there.

 

Awesome man! I cant wait to see some pics. I need to do this to my front pack. they are worn out pretty bad.

 

Hahaha not even lol I know nothing about the physics of how this mod will work off road yet. I'm sure It can't be too bad. But I do know I'm about 1/4" closer to the top of those leaf straps now that I've added that one extra leak in there. So that means I won't be able to flex as well as if it were there because it'd reach that point sooner. But like I aaid its ok with me. I always carry a load in the rear so so long as I'm able to do that I'll be happy. Especially after I get that tire carrier I want oh so badly lol


Yea the cool thing is that he built the bunk bed with more head room for the bottom bunk. We always had friends over in high school and my bed was always the one people would sit on. And normally people would always hit their heads on the top bunk rail. So that was my favorite part. Top bunk still has some room too.
As for living with my parents I am the same. I help around the house. And I give them some money for rent. Lately I haven't due to apending too much on the recent upgrades. But I normally always help them out financially. I was thinkibg about possibly giving them one of my full checks as soon as I'm done paying off my truck upgrade credit card. I'm sure they'd really appreciate that.

Ill post some pix of how I did it in a bit. I gotta start the work day and check in. I'm running 2 min latr already hahaa

 

First off I'd like to say that doing this isn't too hard of a job. Its just a total pita when trying to re-align the spring with the axle because once you drop the axle it moves forward or back. Nothing a little kicking can't fix lol this is my 3rd time putting springs back on so I'd better be a pro by now haha.

Anyway here are the pix.
First thing was to round off the new grade 8 bolt end so that it is able to fit into the spring perch on the axle. The left we have the new bolt and on the right is the old.


Once you have the leaf spring removed use a C-clamp to hold the leaf spring tightly together so you do not have any pressure on the bolt and nut while you remove it. In order to remove the bolt use a socket for the nut and pressure pliers for the round bolt. Once you take off the bolt that holds everything together then take out the straps on each side of the leaf spring. then loosen your C-Clamp. When you remove the C-clamp your whole leaf spring will come undone and look a bit like this.


As you can see The leaf with the arrows is the one i added in the middle of the leaf springs. I also added the bottom poverload spring that you see. In order to re-align and re-tighten the leaf springs make use a longer bolt then what you plan to use so you can tighten them down and compress then with a c-clamp after then you can go ahead and swap in the actual smaller bolt that you plan to use.

As you can see... I ran into one little problem. I came up short on the spot where I placed my extra leaf.
This simply will not do.


So I took the leaf springs apart yet again and moved my additional leaf down more spring. Then it turned out my spring was too long after. So I had to cut off 2&3/4" on the longer side of the leaf. The short side was perfect length.



Problem all fixed. They came out looking great. Just use the longer bolt again to align the leaf springs and c-clamp to compress your springs. Once conpressed swap out the longer bolt and put in the bolt that you rounded in the beginning. Once the bolt is tight you can put your straps back in and remove your c-clamp


Here is my finished job already installed.


The only problem with doing this is that since the leafs are stacked up pretty thick your parking brake line won't fit correctly. It'll only fit while going either over the top or under the leaf sping. It'll stay slightly pulled even though its not engaged if you try to connect it. So I left it disconnected for the time being. At least until I figure out a way to mod the place where the brake line connects to on the drum. I need to make the lines a bit higher to clear the leaf springs so I can run it along the top of the spring. I'm thinking that I might also need longer brake lines. I need to inspect it some more. So as of now my parking brake is 1st gear. At least till I figure out what I can do.

I gotta drive the truck around this weekend. And see how everything performs. Once I use them and flex them I'm sure they'll break in to the height they're gonna stay at.

That's all I have for now guys.

 

Nice work, can't wait to hear how it rides once you put some miles on it. Do you have any pics of the new ride height in the rear? Does it sit level now?Do you know what's the new clearance measurement is between your tire and the fender?...

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just curious because I need to address my rear suspension, mine sits about 2" lower than I like. (I'm still running stock rear springs with 2" lift blocks that were on my runner when I bought it and I added 5" shackles and a Zuk mod with jeep tj coil springs that gained me another 3") I want to eliminate all that with new lift springs, I'm leaning towards All pro's 5" or maybe 6" lift springs.

I have the same problem with the E-brake cables, I was still able to hook them up, but they rub the bottom of my leafspring just slightly. I'm thinking of eventually doing a rear disc brake conversion and going with a transfer case E-brake setup, but that will be aways down the road, I have to many other things to do first if and when I have the $$$, lol.

 

spring wizard (to the tune of pinball wizard) :-D

hey one thing on cutting spring ends i do know you need to bevel the ends so its not a flat straight cut the ends will dig an grab as it flexes so the end should be like / \
found that out when fixing an old ford pickup with front leaf springs one snapped in the center so we fit a like thickness in

 

Here ya go Mr. Ed.
This is prior to messing with the leaf springs


And this is after


Measurments from the tire to the fender Before and after
Before: when the leafs were first put in it sat at 7&3/8"


After: now it sits just a lil' bit over 9&1/4"( the truck was slanted due to the gutter so i went ahead and measured the driver side as well and that one came out to 9")


So by doing this mod i got about 2" - 2&1/4 more in height when compared to when i installed the All Pro Leaf springs brand new.

Also Here is a picture from the ground to the fender. It's about 41&1/8"


EDIT: I edited the heights lol. I totally got that wrong the first time around. its all set now.


Dun dun dunnnnn!!! Man...... are you serious? I'd really hate to take them off a 4th time.

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Today i got tired at looking at the Previous Owner's super crappy and ugly purple tint job. So i peeled it all off. I went to pep boys and bought some new tint and a sticker removal spray to take off all the tint residue.


Letting the solution dissolve the the sticky stuff. Then just give it a wipe down. Once i wiped it completely clean i outlined my new tint and cut it with scissors. Peel the tint from both sides and wet both the glass and the tint film(wet the sticky side) i used a water with dawn soap solution. My dad has used that for years and has never had bad luck with bubbling or peeling. After we placed the new film on the glass we used some hard rubber wedges to squeeze all the water out from between the two and direct it away from the glass. Here is how it came out. I'm satisfied.


Here's the only before picture i have of the rear from before. i should have taken a picture before peeling but i forgot. as you can see there is a big chunk of tint missing from the middle of the window. And yo ucant really see the color but i'll have Mark as my witness, i it was purple! And that drove me crazy. Now its more like a smoky black. it looks clean

 

well if you get a chance later on

too cool she looks a LOT better leveled out!!

an hey tint ill let you retint my rig mines peeling an chipped

 

Haha i agree. She's looking good now. i really hope she doesnt sag again after 1 week.

Hey Will, Will i still have the problem you're talking about if i have the leaf spring spacers on the ends? like this one here is on the rear side of the leaf spring:


The front one doesn't have one due to me cutting it off. This is the only side i would imagine i would have a problem with because it has no spacer.

 

the spacers arent they're slide pads i forget the proper name anti friction pads or something

they keep the spring ends from grinding on other springs ya may have squeaking scrunching sounds till the end wears in

 

Wow your runner looks really good all leveled out! What a transformation from your old pic when it was still stock IFS to where it is now! Thanks again for the measurements, that should help me out in deciding what rear lift to do for my truck.

 

Oh alright. Thanks for that info man. So even though the one side doesn't have that pad after it wears in will I be safe? Or do I have to worry about some freak accident like it digging in the leaf spring above it and possibly snaping while driving? Lol

You're welcome Ed. How high is your truck sitting at? And I agree with you. Its definitely been a huge transformation since the first days when I bought the truck. so hard to believe it looked like this less than 2 years ago.

 

Super duper awesomeness and such! Woot! Looks sick!

 

My suspension has settled about a half inch both front and back. I just re-measured it and I'm at 11-1/2" from the top of the tire to the lip of the fender up front, and 7-1/2 " in the rear. I stuck My high lift jack under and jacked up the back and at about 9" it look level to me. I think AllPro's 6" rear lift springs would probably do the trick!