Over the last 2 weekends knocked out the following:
Bearings: repacked loose front PS, reset preload only on front DS, replaced all rear (Timkens for AutoZone). Front bearings were installed new (Timken) during axle rebuild last summer.
Steering: PS flush (original replaced with ATF). Replaced TRE (OEM from CDAN), RRE (OEM from CDan) and steering damper (OME from Slee)
Suspension: 861 front & 862 rear OME Springs (From Slee ... installed A/PS, B/DS front and back), OEM Tokico shocks, Air Lift 1000 (from Summit ... single T install with valve in center of rear bumper - don't see a need for individual control of each bag in my application).
[/LIST]
... and what did I get:
Hub Center to Flare:
Front: 21"
Rear: 21 3/4"
Lift varied at each corner but was no more than about 1.125" to 1.25" ... my baseline readings were from the ground so tire variances made it hard for me to have confidence in before/after measurements. My hub center to flare measurements seem on the lower end of the lift others have experienced. Nonetheless, the stance is definitely what I call "prouder", the easily noticable DS lean that was there seems to be gone, MPG went up by 10, HP increased by at least 40 and my wife is putting out way more (guess which of those listed are actual results from this work).
Driving behavior is much improved.
Pics are attached below ... I may want to try spacers up front to get rid of some stink bug but will let it settle for a while to see where it winds up. i won't have time to do that for a while. It looks pretty level below in the pics but the drive way is declining where it sits.
Overall, these were pretty easy projects but I work by myself, I'm slow, sometimes unprepared and disorganized and have bare minimum of tools ... so these things took me a while (I'm getting better). As usual, having the right tools for the job make all the difference in how efficiently I can get it done.
My debrief:
Bearings:
- Make sure you have all the right parts BEFORE breaking into your hubs. Double check your parts before you leave the dealer if you get them from a local dealer rather than CDan.
- I set the nut to 15 lb up front and didn't bother with the scale. The scale method last summer netted me a loose front PS bearing.
- On the rear, ended up modding notches into my front hub nut socket to work for the rear. I used the wrong tool for the job (dremel with cutting wheel was slow and limited) ... I imagine a die grinder would have been easier/better. In the end it worked. Pre-load is just frustrating.
Steering:
- fluid swap was easy thanks to IH8MUD.
- recommend an OTC puller part # 7315A if you can find one for loan. I unfortunately didn't have one and the value of having it is clear to me. I tried to use a different loaner TRE/Pitman puller from O'reilly and the size just didn't work. I think I was able to use it to get the damper of the mount plate. Ended up borrowing their pickle fork too. Some were easy with the fork, some weren't. I recommend you lift the front, take off tires and put on jack stands if using pickle fork. This gives you some better angles to pound the pickle (especially on the TREs). I never got the damper off of the DS RRE ... just unscrewed the RRE with the damp attached - actually helped as a handle.
- Heat and having a vice to hold the rods while leaning against the ends with a pipe wrent worked well for getting the ends off the rods.
Springs/shocks:
- Definitely recommend a floor jack. the bottle jack was very limited on how high I could get the LC on the stands. It also requires a lot of repositioning the jack and a lot of pumping the bottle. WIth a floor jack, I expect you should be able to get the truck higher on the stands with fewer pumps with less laying under the truck.
- My 21" 4 ton stands seemed adequate but -- I didn't get near full extension due to the bottle jack. The value I see from bigger stands (12 ton) is the wider base, rather than the increased height. As you jack each side up and down, the tires (and the whole LC really due to friction of tires to floor) move a lot laterally. Let's just say may stands weren't always well seated with all feet on the floor.
- The rear seems to need more height that the front to facilitate more drop for unseating the springs. I was able to do the front all by myself with ease but needed help pushing down one side of the rear axle with significant force (my daughter's LB boyfriend put a good size 12 push down on it). This is again another drawback of the bottle jack. Since you can't get the LC that high on the stands, you have to put the bottle offset off the pumpkin in order to get enough drop on the axle. The side I needed help on was the "short lever side" -- the side on which the bottle was offset from the pumpkin. That was the only help I needed.
- Rear top shock mounts were easy once figured out the trick. Start the threads a turn or two on the outer bolt, hook the slot on the mount on that bolt and twist/lever it into position to start the inner bolt.
- Air Lift install was easy after I figured out the routing I wanted. A hidden cost in this for me was that I "had" to buy a Irwin Unibit to get the 3/4" hold - that's all the local Ace had (at $32!!!
)... this is another "plan ahead" deal. Ace is super convenient and I just wanted to be done and reckon I'll find some use for it along the way somewhere -- at least I know I got a good bit.
[/LIST]
Left to do:
Bearings: repacked loose front PS, reset preload only on front DS, replaced all rear (Timkens for AutoZone). Front bearings were installed new (Timken) during axle rebuild last summer.
Steering: PS flush (original replaced with ATF). Replaced TRE (OEM from CDAN), RRE (OEM from CDan) and steering damper (OME from Slee)
Suspension: 861 front & 862 rear OME Springs (From Slee ... installed A/PS, B/DS front and back), OEM Tokico shocks, Air Lift 1000 (from Summit ... single T install with valve in center of rear bumper - don't see a need for individual control of each bag in my application).
[/LIST]
... and what did I get:
Hub Center to Flare:
Front: 21"
Rear: 21 3/4"
Lift varied at each corner but was no more than about 1.125" to 1.25" ... my baseline readings were from the ground so tire variances made it hard for me to have confidence in before/after measurements. My hub center to flare measurements seem on the lower end of the lift others have experienced. Nonetheless, the stance is definitely what I call "prouder", the easily noticable DS lean that was there seems to be gone, MPG went up by 10, HP increased by at least 40 and my wife is putting out way more (guess which of those listed are actual results from this work).
Driving behavior is much improved.
- Steering smoother and more responsive
- No rolling in turns
- No diving on braking
- No squatting on acceleration
- It is definitely a firmer, more planted ride! Thinking about hitting a track day
Pics are attached below ... I may want to try spacers up front to get rid of some stink bug but will let it settle for a while to see where it winds up. i won't have time to do that for a while. It looks pretty level below in the pics but the drive way is declining where it sits.
Overall, these were pretty easy projects but I work by myself, I'm slow, sometimes unprepared and disorganized and have bare minimum of tools ... so these things took me a while (I'm getting better). As usual, having the right tools for the job make all the difference in how efficiently I can get it done.
My debrief:
Bearings:
- Make sure you have all the right parts BEFORE breaking into your hubs. Double check your parts before you leave the dealer if you get them from a local dealer rather than CDan.
- I set the nut to 15 lb up front and didn't bother with the scale. The scale method last summer netted me a loose front PS bearing.
- On the rear, ended up modding notches into my front hub nut socket to work for the rear. I used the wrong tool for the job (dremel with cutting wheel was slow and limited) ... I imagine a die grinder would have been easier/better. In the end it worked. Pre-load is just frustrating.
Steering:
- fluid swap was easy thanks to IH8MUD.
- recommend an OTC puller part # 7315A if you can find one for loan. I unfortunately didn't have one and the value of having it is clear to me. I tried to use a different loaner TRE/Pitman puller from O'reilly and the size just didn't work. I think I was able to use it to get the damper of the mount plate. Ended up borrowing their pickle fork too. Some were easy with the fork, some weren't. I recommend you lift the front, take off tires and put on jack stands if using pickle fork. This gives you some better angles to pound the pickle (especially on the TREs). I never got the damper off of the DS RRE ... just unscrewed the RRE with the damp attached - actually helped as a handle.
- Heat and having a vice to hold the rods while leaning against the ends with a pipe wrent worked well for getting the ends off the rods.
Springs/shocks:
- Definitely recommend a floor jack. the bottle jack was very limited on how high I could get the LC on the stands. It also requires a lot of repositioning the jack and a lot of pumping the bottle. WIth a floor jack, I expect you should be able to get the truck higher on the stands with fewer pumps with less laying under the truck.
- My 21" 4 ton stands seemed adequate but -- I didn't get near full extension due to the bottle jack. The value I see from bigger stands (12 ton) is the wider base, rather than the increased height. As you jack each side up and down, the tires (and the whole LC really due to friction of tires to floor) move a lot laterally. Let's just say may stands weren't always well seated with all feet on the floor.
- The rear seems to need more height that the front to facilitate more drop for unseating the springs. I was able to do the front all by myself with ease but needed help pushing down one side of the rear axle with significant force (my daughter's LB boyfriend put a good size 12 push down on it). This is again another drawback of the bottle jack. Since you can't get the LC that high on the stands, you have to put the bottle offset off the pumpkin in order to get enough drop on the axle. The side I needed help on was the "short lever side" -- the side on which the bottle was offset from the pumpkin. That was the only help I needed.
- Rear top shock mounts were easy once figured out the trick. Start the threads a turn or two on the outer bolt, hook the slot on the mount on that bolt and twist/lever it into position to start the inner bolt.
- Air Lift install was easy after I figured out the routing I wanted. A hidden cost in this for me was that I "had" to buy a Irwin Unibit to get the 3/4" hold - that's all the local Ace had (at $32!!!
)... this is another "plan ahead" deal. Ace is super convenient and I just wanted to be done and reckon I'll find some use for it along the way somewhere -- at least I know I got a good bit.[/LIST]
Left to do:
- replace rear rotors & pads
- replace axle spindle seals in rear. local dealer provided wrong part so left the old ones in when I did the bearings.
- new AT tires - probably going 265/75/16 in either Cooper Discoverer AT/3 or Hankook Dynapro ... probably going with a P vs. an LT ... the Ps should have plenty of capacity for my loads and I don't need any more stiffness.
- de-flare and fresh paint (yeah, right ... that'll be a while)
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