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Time to swap the rear end. On the drive home, I noticed a growl that sounded like bearings clattering against the race, not fitting tightly anymore. Well, by the time I got home, it was really loud and started to clunk. I guess the old rear end finally gave up. I shook the driveshaft, and hte pinion shaft has about 1/4 inch of slop in it. The bearing is toast. Oh well, I have another complete rear end. This is good in a way, now I can go ahead and build a lift set-up for the rear end.

Now onto a good question. If I weld a piece of steel, 4 inch square tubing, 5/16 inch wall, across the frame rails, and mount the shackle hangers to the bottom, (basically lowering the shackle mount) can I move it forward a couple of inches to arch my springs more? I hope this makes sense to someone. I did something similar on my blazer, and it worked great. Any advise would be appreciated.

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i would geuss from the sound of it that you would be trying to "pinch" the spring ina way, to make it so that the ends of the leafs were they mount to the shackles would be closer together.this would just make your shackles move out more, because when you spring goes up and down, it flettens out, and it lengthens, so the shackles have to move out and in in a swinging motion to compensate for the lengthening of the spring. you prolly already know this, but this is just what i got out of your question. i think that add a leafs out of jc whitney would be great for taking the sag out of your suspension. my dad put airbags in the rear of his 03 ford f-250, and a f350 leveling kit in the front (350s have four inch blocks in the rear, and 250s have 2) and he took the arc out of the springs that way.

My springs are sagging pretty badly. I was also thinking of using some of th eextra smaller leafs off of my parst truck to help the springs out a little.

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Hammer to fit, paint to match.
If it aint broke, don't fix it.
There's always room for duct tape and bailing wire.

WATCH YOUR PIEHOLE!!!!!!

well if you just whant lift get some longer schacles, is cheap and easy. Thats how i lifted my truck. I persoanlly wouldnt whant to weld abunch of stuff to the frame.

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1980 LUV 4x4, going under re-construction...

my friend and made shackles in metal shop in about three days, thats one class period a day. we used 3/8 mild steel plate, and just measured the length of the stock ones, and thenmad the new ones about four inches longer, its cheap and easy. we used 7018 to weld it all up. intalled in about 1/2 hour.

go SOA. weld new perches to the top of your axle(you can cut out a half circle on some square tubing with a hole saw) and mount the axle under the springs

I am already welding the leaf spring mounts on top of the axle instead of under it. I have the old spring perches off of my parts truck. I am gonna cut the old perches off of my truck, and weld the 4 inch square across the frame rails and re-mount th eperches on the bottom of it. I would prefer not to use lift shackles, (I have 2 sets) they seem to sway more than I like due to the length.

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Hammer to fit, paint to match.
If it aint broke, don't fix it.
There's always room for duct tape and bailing wire.

WATCH YOUR PIEHOLE!!!!!!

Just my two cents here - but.....
If you add 4" above your rear shackle you in turn change the pinion angle on the rearend.....in turn changing the drivetrain geometry. If you try to pinch the spring in to get more arch you will cause the spring to bind because you have just taken all of the travel out of the suspension of the spring.

If it were me....I would either all more springs to the stack to get more height or all "steal" lift blocks.

Keep in mind that you want about 2 degrees (+) of pinion angle on the rearend and about 2 degrees (-) angle on the tranny output shaft.
This should keep you out of bind in your suspension travels.

Giles5

I've had two rears fail on me over the years, and both went just like yours. You might get a little bit of leakage for a while maybe, then in less than 30 miles it goes from a little noise to a clunking growling mess. I keep meaning to get one rebuilt but with so many spares I guess I figure I'll try not to have it go out farther than 30 miles from parts.

I keep thinking what are you doing in the front? Torsion crank is only good for 3 or 4 inches and going SOA in the rear is an easy 4 inches just on its own. If you aren't going solid axle front, then at least just bolt up the rear with nothing more than maybe a leaf and the SOA convert just to see how things even out.

If you pinch the spring in some it will really hamper up and down travel in the rear. That could put one wheel in the air a lot too often, especially with no locking diff or limited slip. I guess you could always make a lincoln locker

Oh, GILES5 brings up a very good point and something I hadn't thought about on even shackle lifts. Anything done to one perch (or spring end)and not done to the other is going to affect the angle. Something to think about for sure.

I second the point that the SOA will give you more in the rear than you could do in the front to even things out. If you SOA the rear, you should look to start shedding leaves to tone it down a little. This, however, will mess with the spring rate in the rear and lower the carrying capacity some. Just SAS the front and SOA the rear, get a one piece drive shaft made and be really, really happy with the result already!

Also, as far as rear traction is concerned, you could always weld the rear. Contact me offline if you want more info as this could turn into a cross-posting mess...

One other thing, you more than likely have an LSD there with you (previous discussion). Feel free to explore the possibilities of a swap with that stuff, too!

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Kuranosuke
Grampa's Driving:

1990 Luv 4X4 "Family Cab"
with the big 4 banger on 31" Dueller A/Ts

1989 Dodge Raider with some junk...

"Urban Fighter F.P.C" coming soon to a road near you...
got BOOBIES?

800, look at the post titled "liftin the luv" and you will see how I plan on lifting the front. I guess I will jsut add a couple of leafs and have the springs re-arched at the spring shop here in town. I am still gonna drop the location of the shackle mounts. That should give me about 6 or 7 inches including the rear end leaf mount bracket swap.

We will see about the lsd K.

_________________
Hammer to fit, paint to match.
If it aint broke, don't fix it.
There's always room for duct tape and bailing wire.

WATCH YOUR PIEHOLE!!!!!!

add a set of add a leafs jc whitney has them for less than $40 i got a set and haven't put them on yet but they're supposed to be good for 2 in. i looked at them compared to my springs and i think it will do more than 2 in. the add a leaf is as thick as about 2 of my leafs and i has alot more bow in it so it should cause my already sagging springs to kind of re arch themselves due to the arch in the add a leaf. i'll let you know how much it lifts it after i put them on.

That will help. Thanks man.

_________________
Hammer to fit, paint to match.
If it aint broke, don't fix it.
There's always room for duct tape and bailing wire.

WATCH YOUR PIEHOLE!!!!!!