Hey everyone, following up here with the actual suspension refresh. There were some major delays: the springs and shocks took months to come in, then I broke my wrist in a mountain biking accident and had to go through surgery and recovery. This past holiday weekend, though, I finally got around to tackling the job. My dad was kind enough to let me use a lift at his shop on the weekend, which was a significant help.
The install was generally very straight forward—nothing really painful or tricky. The existing setup had been installed quite some time ago and not maintained, so the biggest challenge was being careful not to damage threads on the bolts that run through the fixed leaf spring mounts when trying to remove them. Also, I wish I had purchased u-bolts initially because my front ones were completely shot, but live and learn.
Having it on the lift was also a great opportunity to do a deeper inspection on any rust. The rear quarter panels have some damage from wheel spray and there is a little bubbling on the roof (not excited about fixing that), but the frame and floorboards are in great condition, which is encouraging.
I took it for a test drive this morning and the ride quality is outstanding. I need to put more miles on it for the leafs to settle in and re-check all of the bolts. Also, there seems to be a slight difference in height between the front and rear, with the front riding slightly higher, but I expect a small amount of sag to normalize that. If not, I might have to lift the rear slightly to compensate for the sag.
Next up I'll be installing a 5 speed transmission and once that's done I'll decide on final tire size to get the overdrive gearing ratio right.
The install was generally very straight forward—nothing really painful or tricky. The existing setup had been installed quite some time ago and not maintained, so the biggest challenge was being careful not to damage threads on the bolts that run through the fixed leaf spring mounts when trying to remove them. Also, I wish I had purchased u-bolts initially because my front ones were completely shot, but live and learn.
Having it on the lift was also a great opportunity to do a deeper inspection on any rust. The rear quarter panels have some damage from wheel spray and there is a little bubbling on the roof (not excited about fixing that), but the frame and floorboards are in great condition, which is encouraging.
I took it for a test drive this morning and the ride quality is outstanding. I need to put more miles on it for the leafs to settle in and re-check all of the bolts. Also, there seems to be a slight difference in height between the front and rear, with the front riding slightly higher, but I expect a small amount of sag to normalize that. If not, I might have to lift the rear slightly to compensate for the sag.
Next up I'll be installing a 5 speed transmission and once that's done I'll decide on final tire size to get the overdrive gearing ratio right.
