Hi guys, merry x-mas. I decided to add an add-a-leaf to the back of the 95 pickup. The process was relatively straight forward, aided by the ball joint press (as suggested by others). I am running into a problem where I am not able to line up the centre pin and hole (on the leaf perch) and just with an eye ball test, I can tell the whole spring and block (1 inch) are not aligned. Did I do something wrong? The spring pack is properly compressed as far as I can tell. I have not loosened anything on the other side. Would that free up the axle enough to move side to side? Any feedback would be great. Pictures attached.

 

This was on IH8MUD. Is this a possible solution?

"If I understand your procedure, you have one new spring pack configuration that you are attempting to bolt up, while the other side is in stock spring pack configuration, causing the mis-alignment.

I've done 60 springs front and rear, where I added new spring packs. Was easily done by dropping both spring shackles then hangars, removing axle, installing new springs to hangars, installing axle to springs, then using floor jack to get springs lined up to the shackles."

 

Take the shackle loose, bolt the spring up to the pad and reassemble the spring shackle.

You may need to unfasten both shackles, or not.

 

Loosen the shackle (bolt), or take it off completely? Was hoping to avoid those bolts as they are on there like a demon. I've also read that you can loosen the other side u-bolts and use a ratchet strap to "help" things line up. Seems odd but logical. Ultimately I could undo the other side lower the axle and push/pull to get things lined up and then slowly raise the axle back up. I wanted to avoid the axle rolling forward is the issue there.

 

You can avoid anything that it's possible to avoid, but if you can't make it come together, you've got to do something different.

 

Use a ratchet strap to pull the leaf packs together.

 

Ratchet straps worked great. Simple but effective solution!