Help...Which spring on which side? (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Aug 26, 2003
Threads
69
Messages
368
Location
Beaumont, Texas
Website
www.marklowimagery.com
I need to get some help as I am i the middle of instalation and having finished the front last night, I am noe ready to install the rear springs.

My OME springs are labeled R/H and L/H. I have heard so many opinions about from which position you should be facing in determining left hand and right hand. Normally, I would be in the drivers seat looking out of the front windshield and I would then be on the L/H side and the passenger side would be R/H. But I have heard someone that you should be standing at the front bumper looking in through the front windshield. Then my right hand side would be the drivers side and my left hand side would be the passenger side.

Also, is it the same for front and rear springs? The OME springs that I removed are not labled but I marked them before removal and there is a slightly shorter one in each front and rear pairs. However, the longer spring on front and rear were on opposite sides. This was done at a local shop here and there is no guarantee that they even took this into consideration or they could have been confused and done it wrong. I imagine they did not look to see which side the longer stock spring front and rear was on.

What should I do? I have the L/H front on the Passenger side now, and R/H of course is on the front dirvers side. I may end up having to switch them but I sure hope not. Please help ASAP so I can get this completed over the weekend.
 
The longer springs, both front and rear, are installed on the left-hand or U.S. driver's side of the vehicle. :banana:
 
I don't know for sure 'cause I still have my OEM springs, but I remember reading that it is backwards from what it is labeled as they are labeled for Australia, where drivers side is opposite from the US. Here is the goods from slees website, if marked DS (drivers side) and PS (passenger side) put them on the opposite side of what they're labeled(I'm assuming your in the US). If they are labeled or printed on the spring as R/H (right hand) and L/H (left hand) then install as labeled.
Here's the link, with more install info: http://www.sleeoffroad.com/technical/tz_ome.htm
 
Ok...Well that is what I have done on the front so I will go out and finish the rear. What happens if you do it the other way? Will the vehicle lean to one side and just not want to sit level?

Thanks Cruiserdan
 
Firetruck41, Mine are marked R/H and L/H. I am using Slee's instructions precisely on this one but I just want to make sure I get the refrence point correct in order to know which is right and left. I assume it is from drivers seat position looking forward.
 
If they are backwards the vehicle will have a pronounced lean to the left. It will be very easy to see on level ground.
 
Curious, are these springs progressive or straight rate springs? Also, while you have these out, can you take some measurements for me? I need to know the length of each spring. Please IM me the results.

Thanks.
 
Ok I am done. Ready to put it on the ground. I can't find where it says the Torque spec for my stock aluminum wheels. What should the lug nuts be set at???
 
If you have a 95 or newer 80 I believe it's 76 ft. lbs.
Bill
 
76 ft/lbs.

Cheers, R -
 
Ok thanks... I put the long springs on front and rear and the truck on level looks like to be about 1/2 " or so higher on the passenger side. I hope I did everything right. Shouldn't OME have some sort of standard with labeling their springs? Like do they label the taller of the rear pair as L/H or R/H or does that have nothing to do with it? How could that not be the case? Is it done by load testing and no two are acactly the same and just so happens that the shorter spring has more force?

I have L/H on passenger front and R/H on passenger rear. If the labeling does not mean anything then why do they bother putting the labels on? Why don't they just say put the taller springs on the Drivers side for USA??? Am I going to have to pull those springs and switch them around????? ???
 
Perhaps a better approach is picturing how, and why the springs are mounted the way they are, rather than mess with the labeling...

To reiterate Dan's comment, and to quote (I'm fairly sure these are Christo's words)...

"The longer spring goes on the longer side of the axle. The extra height of the spring makes up for the lower spring perch on the side where the spring is farther away from the differential. It has nothing to do with which side the driver sits on."

Cheers, R -
 
Well that is what I thought based on all I have researched. The levelness of my truck I guess is very dependent on how level the ground it sits on is. I will just check it on as level as a surface I can find at different places and look at the average. I just don't want it to lean and especially because of something I did wrong.

RThanks to everyone for your help on this project. It was my first real Bar-B-Q on something like this with my cruiser as I usually had a shop do it instead. However, I really can't trust just anyone with certain modification installations and by my doing it myself, I will do a better job. This forum really helps because most times nobody knows what we are even talikng about...
 
[quote author=Imagery link=board=2;threadid=5025;start=msg38611#msg38611 date=1062898347]
I have L/H on passenger front ...[/quote]

There's the problem. The left hand springs go on the left hand side, which in the US, is the driver's side.
 
Ok but the LEFT HAND SPRING FRONT happens to be the shorter one of the two so I put it on the PASSENGER SIDE FRONT.

The REAR, the taller spring was labled L/H and the shorter spring (marked R/H) is on the PASSENGER side. The rear springs went on exactly as labled which just so happened to go with the Taller spring on driver side instructions. It was the front in which this did not prove to be the case.Do you think I should just go back and switch the front anyway to have them installed exactly as per labels?
 
Imagery - How did you make out today? in the end was the labling correct on the springs? Sounds like no....

Was this a tough job, I'm think about doing this as well.

Riley
 
Well, everything came out alright except that I am still concerned about the front springs since they are not as per labeling. I was not really able to road/off road test last night that much but will see better how it feels today. It might just be in my mind, but it feels somewhat like there is an uneveness in SPRING RATE front to rear or side to side. I may just be feeling a slight buck from the rear but that could just be that the new springs are heavy duty as compared to the old medium load springs. It is much tighter all around as far as I was able to tell on the road last night, but I will do more testing today to be sure. In my mind, I feel like I should at least pull the fronts and double check them and I think I would feel better if they were on as they are labled.

As for difficulty... It was not to bad. The hardest thing for me was getting the truck up and secured high enough on the 6 ton stands. I did the front first and then the rear last. Getting the front shock top bolts off was hard because I had to use the pipe wrench method and I was by myself, but it finally grabbed and broke the nut so I could remove it. Other than that, if you go by Cristo's directions, you should be fine. I had that page up on my laptop out there with me for the whole job. I saved the, what I thought would be the easiest part for last, which was to replace the steering dampener. However, the bolt on the tie rod end was seized. There was no way to get it off other that cutting and drilling it out. I tried the impact hammer with pickle fork, hammer and chisle and it didn't even budge. There was a small gap where it pulls up to the tie rod, so I had to saw it off there. I did not have heat to apply but I would have liiked to try that before cutting. Four hours later, we got it out and the new one installed. My buddy and I think that the person who installed the ole OME dampener put lock tight on the connections. That was by far the hardest part of the whole job and it should have been the easiest.
 
Imagery,

If you installed the longer springs on the left-hand or US driver's side of the vehicle (it sounds like you did) You are JUST RIGHT................... :D If I were you I would finish off the #6's that are LEFT to celebrate your success..... ;)
 
I'm done now. I pulled and re-checked the front and they were very close but as it turns out, the L/H was taller. I guess somehow the other night I mis judged the lengths and had the taller on the right. I feel better now and am certait that the tall springs both front and rear are on the left-Drivers side and that is exactly how they are labled.

I am getting good at this...it only took me two hours to make the swap. I'm getting ready to go for a drive down to the beach, about an hour away so I will be able to tell if the swap helped with that odd unbalanced feeling I got before.
 

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