Decided to cut out my homemade front hanger system and make an attempt to do it more the right way. Little history……several years ago I picked up a front axle assembly from a lifted 83, the guy who sold it to me had no care for the truck and basically torched out the entire front frame right behind the shock towers. This afforded me some extra stuff like the shock towers, lift springs with factory shackles, the factory u-bolt plates, etc. This was during a time I had no internet and knew nobody who had done this, so I really had nothing to go off of other than what I remembered of the donor truck frame. I fashioned a hanger out of some 1/8” plate beveled and welded to make ¼“, recessed and welded that into some 2x2x¼ stock. This gave me approximately 3” down from the bottom of the front x-member. I sleeved the frame dead center in the body mount about 1” up to center and re-used the factory shackles. The bolt I used is an 18mm and is housed in 1.25 x .75 tube….grease packed metal on metal. During this time I did the hi-steer also. Here’s how everything turned out and what I’ve basically been running for the last few years…….

Shackle angle....


Plates recessed into box....


Bondoed over welds....


Side location....


Factory stuff, cheap NAPA shocks to get by....


Tie rod and drag link relationship....


Overall I got about 3” of lift out of it. I had to add 2” blocks then an add-a-leaf to level the rear so that’s where I got 3”. Right now it’s on 265/75r16 (31’s). The steering geometry turned out pretty decent, but the shackle angle is crappy for the springs and the ride could be better. Not only that, but the springs are about toast from holding up a 2.8 5mge (why you see welds on the tie rod and drag link) and now a 3.4.



I’m happy overall with this height (4 ½” over stock) as I’d eventually like to upgrade to 35’s or 315/75’s.
For the new front end stuff I opted for the TG hanger kit and the 3” TG HD springs with the 7 leafs. I figured if they were too stiff I could take a leaf or two out being that mine right now only has 3. Plus I’m thinking about putting on a more utilitarian front bumper which will weigh more and I've heard some stories about sagage so I wanted a bit more insurance.
For the build I had a few guidelines I wanted to follow. First, I don’t want to mess with steering box relocation. Second, I need to have my steering orientation at ride height similar to what I have it at right now. Third, I want to keep the relative height. Last, I want a decent shackle angle that gives me a good ride and nice range of motion without being too spongy.
Because these leafs are going to give me more lift by themselves, I felt I need to reduce the drop of the front hanger. It looked like I could effectively cut an inch out of the top, with a ½” offset to the rear. With the built-in offset in the hanger going rearward as well, that would give me an overall offset of 1 ¾“ from front of the x-member to center of hanger bolt. I’m hoping that this will put my axle at an appropriate place in relation to the pitman arm. The 1” down and ½” back will also keep the front corners of my frame inside the hanger and give me approx ¾“ grace between my military wrap and the frame itself. Here are some pics of my thinking on modding this hanger....

Top down, arrow is pointing to front, within & including the lines is what will be cut out....



Back view where frame will sit through the hanger....


Front view where frame will be located in hanger....




Of course I will be fine tuning before I start cutting. Much of this will be dependant on where the steering ends up, I may need a smaller pitman arm, put the hanger back a bit further, re-drill the perch; I don’t know yet and I don’t know the best answer to that. Regardless, I’m going to tack it uncut and get an idea for the steering and shackle and go from there knowing everything is going to come forward a scoche when I go up 1” in the front for the final placement. Also for the hanger I’m hoping to incorporate the factory front x-member captive nuts with a nut welded to extend the threads another ½”, then drill a hole just big enough to poke through the bottom of the hanger and weld the flats shut to the hanger. On the back of the factory x-member I’d like to stiffen it up with some plate, then weld the hanger to that where it’s going to fit in the pocket as shown by the line going across the back the hanger.
Here’s what I’ll be doing for my rear shackle angle and where I’d like to get some opinions on if I’m thinking on the right track. First, I took some measurements of the TG 3” HD springs. Here are the numbers I pulled…..



This worksheet can be found here…..
http://www.springworks.com/faq.html#leafq9
I will have to measure my current springs when I pull them to prep. What this doesn’t tell you is that the TG spring is 42 ¾” static. By those #‘s, I’m assuming this spring has a rearward travel of 3 ¼” (42 ¾ + 3 ¼” = 46 total length) before it goes flat? Just pulling some rough numbers on my frame, I may be having to move my shackle tubes a bit forward in the body mount so I prepped them like this just in case….



This will allow me to push them forward without compromising the layout hole.
In going with the lower theme I also decided I wanted to do something about the 5 ½” hole to hole shackles that came in the kit. I don’t think they will work with what I’m trying to accomplish. The factory ones I have on right now are about 1” up from the bottom of the frame to center, the TG kits put the center at 1 5/8” up. Here’s the TG shackle next to the new length shackle (maybe). The new one would be the 5 ½” from the kit cut to the maximum length that would allow the same amount of metal around the bolt…..





As you can see the new center to center is approx 4 1/8” although you could probably push it to 4 ¼“. So if my factory shackles are mounted 1” up and are 3 ½” c2c, and the new ones are 4 1/8” c2c and mounted 1 5/8” up in the frame (where the TG jig puts it) that should put my new shorter shackle bottom at roughly the same location mine is at now. Here is a pic of a drawing I drew up of a scale frame location (the location is still yet to be determined exactly) with the different size shackles in relation to the spring at static and then flat, using the static spring length (42 ¾”) as the reference point. Here’s the graph that resulted….



This graph was originally an attempt at finding the max shackle angle when the spring was flat and about ½” before shackle to frame contact so I could work back from that. As you can see the shackle that comes with the kit when installed vertical to the end of the spring at static, moves up 1” as it moves back 3 ¼”, the shorter shackle moves up 1 3/8” for the same distance, plus raises the height of the rear mount approx 1 3/8”. The shorter shackle is moved back to 43” instead of 42 ¾” because it was getting it too close to the frame (would be easier to go rearward anyways). As you can see for every ¼” back the shackle goes (red dots at top) the shackle angle becomes more vertical, also due to the bottom of the shackle moving down about the same amount. So in that graph the short shackle is at 47.5* when the spring is flat, and my bump stops should be engaged fully…. 43 ¼“ would be 42.5*, 43 ½“ is 37.5*, etc. I’m using a rise / run calculator to determine the degrees based on the ¼” graph squares. The calculator can be found here….
http://www.1728.com/gradient.htm
Using the original mounting point of 43” for the short shackle, if my ride height turned out to be right in the middle of the max and static angles, my shackle angle would be approx 23*. What I’m having a problem determining (for lack of experience) is what would be an optimal shackle angle with the smaller shackle being that it behaves in a different manner than the longer one? How does shackle angle affect overall spring rate? It seems that with the longer shackle you can give it a few more degrees back because the range of motion is being compromised by the length of the shackle and the smaller shackle travels faster and further up in the arc. I was just thinking that if there was a magical “leaf spring maxed out this should be your shackle angle” equation it’d be easy to work backwards, although I may be over thinking this.
So that’s my plan with the hanger stuff and shackle placement. I’m going to probably start cutting and welding sometime in the next week or two and wanted to bounce my theories and ideas off some more knowledgeable folks out there. Ideas? Comments? Constructive criticism? Anything I might have missed? I’d like to get some good feedback before I start making anything permanent. I’ll be posting up some build pics when the time comes. Thanks….D

 

I was hoping to get more feedback, but I'll assume that the lack of criticism means I'm on the right track! Here are some more pics of how I modded the hanger, need to do some more welding on the inside to reinforce. You can kinda see a bit better how the frame will lock into the hanger. Took some more measurements, looking like perch may have to be re-drilled. Procomp 3000 (#321518 - 13.06 comp / 20.75 ext) stud top for the pre 86's should be here in a few days. Took 2 leaves out of the pack leaving me 5. Should I grease the slip pads while I have the chance or leave them alone? Also got longer u-bolts for the pass side (NAPA # 650-4086 square 9/16" x 2.5" x 8") and will be swapping the pass u-bolts to the driver side as they should be the correct length with the new springs....

 

More progress, got the axle out and some of the areas prepped. Got the shocks last night, looks like they’re too long by ½”. Apparently ProComp doesn’t factor into account the required 7/8” lower stud bushing in their measurement, and neither did I. The shock is more like 14” comp, 13 was the happy # for me. Here are some pics of the old pack next to the new, and some p/no’s on the old pack.









Turns out that the front hanger center is going to be almost directly below the front body mount. Here’s my little jig I made. Basically the spring static is 43”, I want to put the center of frame hole at 43 ¼”. I coupled a bolt off the body bolt and subtracted half the bolt diameter, which left me at 43 1/16”. Put a mark on my level and squared off of that. Stuck end of level against front bolt and followed square into body, pretty close to my old hole.


　




That’s all I’ve got so far, hopefully it’ll be in the mocking stages tonight…..

 

I'm no SAS expert but it looks like you are doing a fine job. Surely some of the fine Yotatech guru's will be here soon to coach you along, bump for you.

 

Here are some pics of how the hanger turned out so far. It's up there by itself, no tacks or clamps. Looks like the center line hanger hole is a scoche rearward of the body mount bolt which will be better yet as I'd like to consume as much of my old shackle holes as I can with the new tubes. Still contemplating plating the back of the front x-memeber and welding to that or just tossing in some gussets of some sort....

 

Subscribed. I'm interested in what your droop pinion angle will look like.

 

Got it tacked in after fitting for about 2 hours and pulling every measurement I could. Feeling a lot better this time around. Noticed that in the course of rubber malleting the hanger into place and taking it off so many times it got a little out of square on the ends. Squared them back up and took some spare gussets TG sent me with the new hagner and cut them to fit under the bolt/nut. I might shape them up a bit......



The welds are from a Lincoln Weldpak 100 I got off C/L in preparation for this project. Okay I suppose for a wood and concrete guy. I decided to plate the back and weld the hanger to that. The gray stuff is weld-thru primer which I used on all the bare spots before assembling hoping it would increase longevity, then I wire wheeled the exposed metal I was about to weld on for a cleaner surface. The primer was a little over 10 bucks at NAPA...



My new jig with the centering bolt. The bevel square lets me get more parallel to the frame centerline...






I used the old mark on the level and forgot to move the square to the acutal 43 1/4" being now I had a true center of hanger to measure from and didn't have to subtract for half the bolt. Here is where the scratch ended up. I'll have to factor in ~3/16" rearward which will put me right inside the old hole. Did the same on the other side...dead on....



That's all I got so far. Hopefully I'll have the rear tubes in tomorrow and the springs mounted....

 

Did some more mocking up of stuff. Here's where everything will be at tentatively with the shortened shackle. I'd like to get some feedback before I break out the torch. Personally I think vertical or just a bit past may be better. That means my body mount gusset might get compromised a bit but I think that'll be okay. It might also help with my overall ride height.

Here's static shackle angle.....



The "spring flat and bumped" shackle angle, ~35* ......



Ride height? I just divided the travel in half, no real math here....about 15*.....



I'll probably spend the rest of the day pulling some more #'s, plugging those old holes, and practicing some circles with the torch. Please don't be shy about criticizing my angles...Thanks...

 

Changed some stuff I think will better suit me overall. Decided to move the hanger back another 5/8" for 1 1/8" total from front. Used the captive m6 nuts in the front x-member, screwed in some bolts and held the hanger tight to them, pulled some #'s from some other points to verify location. Thought I remember reading how the factory SFA frames were 1" shorter in the front anyhow. Here's where my end of spring sits now.....



Here's where the hanger is in relation to the front now....



Here is the spring at static with the proposed ~4" center to center shackle in relation to my pitman arm (which is also the "end of spring" pic)....



Ignore the line without the plumb-bob. There is almost 6" from the center of rod end to perch center in the above pic. I think this is where that extra 1/2" helped me, not only here but in my body mount area. By my calculations, at this height (partial droop) the drag link center will be about half over the tie rod center. The tie rod is 5" center to center (best I can tell) of the spring perch and the drag link is about 7" center to center. If I have 3" of total back travel and am sitting at amost 6" static, then ride height (if halved) should put me at about 7 1/2" from perch center to drag link center which will put me back at what I had originally for drag link / tie rod alignment (drag link about 1/2" forward of parallel @ ride height). Also, now that I had moved my hanger back 1" that meant that I had 1"x ~22" of hanger out in space, a potential weak spot. I cut the back down to plane in with the front. From there I took some 1 1/2" x .125 stock and triangulated it to the plate I had welded to the crossmember earlier, then welded it to the hanger where I had cut it down. I'm hoping this will help re-inforce the back part of the hanger. The "gap" that you can kinda make out at the top of the gusset is actually a 1/4", 90* return back to the plate for a fillet weld, sorry for the crappy pic, gonna try to get a better one...



That's what I got today before my carport turned into a swap, we need the rain though. Still toying with shackle angles and length of shackle, may try to go to 4 1/2" for center to center length. Will post more as it comes....

 

Here are my new thoughts. Being that these are HD springs, I think the rate will benefit more from a slightly angled shackle from start and will give me more overall travel. The shackle will be 4 1/2" eye to eye; the center mounting point for the frame tube will be @ 42 1/2" back from center of hanger bolt, for a kick back of 1/2" initially which is approx 7*....



Then half the travel back will look like this, 21*, hopefully around ride height, which will put me at what it was with my old springs....



And this is spring at the flat measurement, 51*, bumped and spring end wrap about 1/2" to 3/4" to the frame......


The intial shackle angle and slightly longer shackle should give me more droop...

 

Mad props to you man for taking your time going over all the shackle angles and triple checking front hanger placement. I've seen many people just throw the kits under there truck and call it good. Hopefully my truck will be seing a straight axle in the near future!

 

Nice work, 88, .... can't wait to see the finished product! Glad it's working out even better this time around, I love that feeling, haha.

 

Nice work.

 

Got the tubes in, not tacked yet. This was the only area I couldn't get super technical with, without removing my tranny. So......put the jig at 42 1/2" center like planned, scribed out the hole and made a center mark. Scribed out on both sides on the bottom of the frame where the jig sits (this line also worked as my locator when I torched either side of the frame). Pulled some parallel lines at various key frame locations (captive nuts, etc) to verify the jigs sat good, and they do. Popped a little hole out with the torch and hung a plumb-bob down the center (flat of frame is at 1-2* so that's close enough for me). Well, turns out (and this makes sense now), it was off a bit. When I laid it out on paper I was defaulting to a "same plane" mentality on my drawing. The spring eye center actually was 3/8" to line because the spring being 4 1/2" lower swung back, to the front, which took moved it forward 1/8". Long story short, real # is 42 3/8. For ease of reference, the rear edge of the jig sits exactly 6 1/4" to the center of the first captive nut in the frame, going towards the front, it's either an m6 or m8, but it's small.



Some of the body mount gusset had to be removed and the jig had to modified further. Here's how the tube sits in the frame. I was pretty anal here. It took me about 45 min per side of side of frame as I was cutting a bit, tossing the jig back up, scribing more, wire wheeling, cutting more, etc. Upon my final pass of the torch I sprayed some wet stuff on the hole and slid the tube it. Came back a few min later to pull the tube and I guess the metal shrank around it just enough it was almost like a press fit.....



That was good to see since I wanted as little play as possible for two reasons. First, I wanted to load the tubes without having to really tack them, in this case it will be only for side to side movement. Second, incase I do have to move them forward or back, it should be a more consistent process this way. Hopefully I'll have the 4 1/2" shackles by this weekend. Also, here is a little better pic of the rear of hanger gusset for extra reinforcement...



More as it comes.....

 

Well, so far so good. Here's the intial mock-up of the location. You can see where that extra 1/8" forward worked out. This is the spring eye at the static location height in relation to frame tube center....




The tube in metal tube is 3/4" schedule 80 wrapped in rebar tie-wire to center it. I will be using this sytem to do a test load on the suspension so I don't have to mess with pounding bushings in and out, hopefully the wire wrapped pipe will hold...

 

Got my shackles done today. When mocking up the hanger to the springs for the first time it occurred to me that these things are hell getting in, maybe even a little too much. It seems that when the bushing is pressed into the eye of the spring or the tube, they compress just enough to be a major pain. If you run the bushing on the bolt before the bushing's in anything, it feels like more of a normal fit. Even one of the tech guys at TG said he uses an impact gun to spin the bolts through the bushing, so a few hundred pounds of torque (and the threads are the skinny part). I do realize that there is an amount of break-in for these things, but with those stove nuts it just seems like you can't get a good torque feel on the setup (got some regular m18's, lock washers, and Lock-tite...tossed the stoves). When all is said and done I'd bet the bushing would be so tight on the bolt, the shackle would rotate around the bolt rather than the bolt rotating in the bushing like it should be doing, otherwise, what's the point of the greasable bolt? Prove me wrong guys with TG stuff like me. Rock your rig....does the bolt head rotate in relation to the shackle moving or does it stay fixed? If it "looks" like it rotating, your riding bolt on shackle and your g-bolts are useless. If it looks fixed, then your good and your bolt is riding in your bushing. Long story short, here's what I did to hopefully alleviate that problem. For the shackle end I ran the bolts through and welded them to the shackle, so it will act as an entire assembly and the bolt will have no other option than to ride in the bushing......





Right now it's tacked so I can make some final adjustments before I burn it together for good. For the front I wanted to use the same principal so I copied what Toyota did (the best way anyhow). I remember when I took apart that 83 frame, the hanger bolts weren't really bolts per se, it was more like a bolt plate with two screws to keep the unit from rotating. So, here is what I made for the front to keep it Toyota-like. 3/16" plate, with holes popped. Top plate "sheer" bolts are m6x1x12. I drilled and tapped the hanger itself kinda like it was on the 83 frame if memory serves me. The front bolt will be welded to this plate to keep the same principals as in the rear, in this case the two m6's will keep the bolt from rotating, thus bolt on bushing. For strength, I tapped the holes above the end of the weld on the hanger....





At this point it's impossible for me to spin the bolts in, so I will have to figure out a way to gingerly take some material off the outside of the bushing so they retain most of i.d. going in.......

 

Here's how it's sitting right now. Everyting is still just tacked. The HD spring relaxed a bit more than I thought, over the half I was taking into account. I think the steering is going to work out just fine. It looks like I might have gained in inch overall with the additional leafs and the arch, so basically a 4" overall lift at this point at ride height. What do you guys think of this angle, it's basically 35*. Still at this point, it should be around 50 when the spring is flat. I probably won't go much further without some angle feedback...





Update--Added one the leafs I took out, sitting at about 28* now, I'm good with that....

 

It's all burnt in. Added the last leaf, kicked the angle to 24, but put it a little high, so I took it back out. Got the axle back under. Here it is drooped with the weight of the axle...




Unfortunately the shock isn't long enough by about 1-2", a smaller shackle may remedy that, but will increase my overall angle, alternately I might make a taller shock mount for a larger shock, well see. Here's the glory shot for my steering...approximate ride height (measured center of rear hub, put front hub at same height, hi-steer pointing foward, the closest it will be)....



Here is my actual shackle angle, same for both sides. Again, the spring settled a bit more than I thought but I think 30* (90*- the 60* seen) is acceptable considering the measurements..





That's where I'm at, hopefully I'll have this wrapped up with the final results in a few days.....

 

Looking great, man.... very EXCELLENT read! OH, ....and DANG THOSE LEAF PACKS 'R' SEXY! LOL. Best wishes, still watching.

 

Should be sitting on it's shoes today...more pics. Here is everything almost done, 1 tire is mounted. Shocks painted. I will be getting some longer shocks soon, these are my limiting factor in my suspension cycle. They are ~9", I'll probably need 12-14" for a full cycle when all is said and done as I believe my overall travel is going to be around 13" The box the shock came in said they had an internal over-extension bumpstop inside to prevent damage. For the price of these shocks they can double as my limiting straps. I'll probably try to make a new shock mount that looks like the factory ones I have, just larger, I like that look. That will probably be done the day after the shock limits hang me up somewhere and makes me upset. Had to cut, lower, and reweld the brake line mounts.



My splash shield is some HD rubber patio runner material from the local hardware store. 3.50 a lineal foot (12x25)
for a total of 7 bucks for both side, way more coverage than factory, plus I have a body lift.



Also, tossed in the extra pair TG gussets on the top of the hanger. So in essence I have mathematically speaking 2 gussets on the top of the hanger. I have both the body mount gussets half way, front and back, and a full one in the center.



Here is also a pic of my 37 dollar steering damper solution. Steering stabilizer from Autozone...




http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/Gabriel-Steering-Damper/_/N-8oxi5?counter=2&filterByKeyWord=steering+damper&fr omString=search&itemIdentifier=773457_0_0_

For 33.00 (comes with mounting stud and fasteners), 2 u-bolts @ about 2 bucks each, scrap metal. Took 1/4 plate, popped holes, mounted stud then welded. Mounted that to the draglink, the other end mounts in some box steel cut to a "C" and welded to the underside of the frame. More as it comes.....