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[Greg72]

Mike,

I'm going from memory here (and I'm pretty sleep-deprived these days) but my front springs were 45"..... Stock should be 44".

I will look for the original photos but I remember that they had something like 8" of free arch (uninstalled) and it was a 9-leaf pack with a rate of 237 Lbs/in. When they were installed the arch went down to something closer to 4".

You are running a stock front hanger right? Not some sort of b-52 hanger or anything like that....?

Something is clearly NOT right if you have weight on those springs, I'd call ORD for sure before making any drastic changes to the shackle mount. There's a chance the springs weren't built right.

 

[NorCal69]

You are running a stock front hanger right? Not some sort of b-52 hanger or anything like that....?


Yep, all stock. You know me, trying to keep it as simple as I can.

I'll give Stephen a call this morning and maybe he can even log in to take a look at the pics and conversation.

Thanks again for everyone's help. I thought that I was screwing something up with my nOOBishness.

 

[Greg72]

Pics of my springs for reference:


ORD 4" Front Lift Spring....check out all that free arch!

Looks like about 7" of free arch from this photo.....

New springs installed up front. No weight on the axle yet, but the shackle angle looks almost identical to your previous photos. You got weight on your springs yet??

 

[NorCal69]

Greg,

I cut out the firewall and installed the BB last weekend. When I ordered the springs I told Stephen it was going to be a SBC with a winch and bumper. After the BB was in, I hung on the front frame horns, adding ~250 pounds to it. The springs never really even moved. My guess is they didn't know what way to go and I was pushing directly into the shackle hanger from the angle they were at. Don't know if that is possible but no real movement but a slight bounce. Either that or I'm losing a lot of weight lately, but I don't think that's what it is.

I have about 500 lbs. of sand bags in the back of my truck from recent storm tarps. I could hang all of those on the front with my additional weight and see if that does anything to the springs/ shackle tonight.

When you say that your old springs were 45", was that flat eye to eye?

 

[Greg72]

That's interesting....your springs may be "locked out" with the shackle in the wrong position. There is probably a way to SAFELY support the frame horns and relieve pressure on those springs, and THEN try prying those shackles backward to get them over-center so that they angle backward like they're supposed to.

If it works and the ride height is good you'll just need to weld up a "stop" to prevent the shackle from going over center and locking out backwards.

BTW -> Spring length is usually measured as an eye-to-eye thing. Measuring along the main leaf is mainly done to figure out shackle length requirements, etc.

 

[Stephen]

First make sure the distance from main eye to the top of the shackle is stock, a little bit will make a difference here. After that, finish building the truck. At this point even though you have the motor sitting on it there's still no trans and T-case, no interior, no radiator, batteries, winch, bumper, front clip, etc, etc, etc. I think you'll be fine when you get some weight on it, this isn't the first set of this spec that we've built. In fact, the notes in your design file refer to another set and that file refers back to yet another similar build that's been done and beat on for roughly 7 years now.
If the shackle is trying to kick forward too far a small bumpstop (droopstop?) will keep the shackle going the right way but it's typically not a problem.

On the length, our 73-87 spec is typically not 2" over stock since we've found 49" to hit the frame rail without even more added shackle length. When you move the axle forward an inch or two the center pin offset gets even bigger and you get some diminishing returns on the length. I'm also not a big fan of the extreme shackle angles that have been in style the last few years since they tend to raise the spring rate a lot when the spring goes into a reverse arch. A shorter lift on these trucks puts most of the compression travel in the reverse arch direction and they'll lock out too soon with a huge shackle angle. These running a 45" main leaf should work well with the stock mounting points.

If things have changed to the point that you need a new main leaf and 2nd leaf, it's really time to start thinking about a whole new spring. The top 2 leaves are the most expensive since most of the work in the pack goes into them, mainly wrapping the eyes. I don't think that will be necessary in this case though, even with the big block I think they'll work out well for you.

One last thing to keep in mind is that Alcan really has nothing to do with these springs other than they do a great job on the construction. We spec the springs 100% here and they just build what we request. So the only real similarity between an "Alcan" spring and an "ORD" spring is that they're both constructed in the same building. Don't want anything coming back on them if the design is messed up and in fact they don't need to be tieing up their time answering questions on our springs either.

 

[NorCal69]

Thank you very much for your reply Stephen. I will keep building the truck as you suggest and see where this leads. Hopefully the additional weight that will go into the build will help the overall shackle/spring.

I do apologize about the reference to Alacan/ORD in relation to who made the spring and who spec'd it out. You have been very helpful as always. I hope that I can give you a call before 2013 and say that all is good and thanks for the great products and service.

 

[AJs72K5]

Here's the best pic I have of how my front shackle sits with the springs loaded. I'll still get measurements for you this weekend.

 

[NorCal69]

Thanks for the pic AJ. I really do appreciate it!!

Those measurements will be great after the experiment I did tonight with sandbags and my over weight body.

I will continue this conversation soon.

To all those that have posted info and pics....Thank you

 

[AJs72K5]

As promised... eye to eye is 43". The only thing on the front of the frame is the motor right now.

Here's how the shackle sits.

 

[NorCal69]

Thanks AJ.

I didn't have time to work on the truck today, but tomorrow is all about it. The plan is to take one of the springs out and do complete measurements on it. I'll post up the numbers Monday.

 

[NorCalTank]

Mike, nice work on that firewall. It looks real clean.

 

[NorCal69]

Thanks Bill, Took me some time to bend that piece up and weld it in.

Did you end up with about the same on the sides of the valve covers? I'm hoping that mine is enough.

 

[bp71k5]

After the BB was in, I hung on the front frame horns, adding ~250 pounds to it. The springs never really even moved.

If it helps, my 4" tuff country lift springs also barely move at all when I climb up on the bumper and bounce on it but I'm only 200 lbs. Even if you are 250 lbs, it's a small amount of weight compared to the rest of the stuff that the springs support. You'll be surprised at how heavy all the other stuff turns out to be once it's installed. There's a reason these things only get 8-10 mpg.

 

[NorCal69]

I hear you Brian and thanks for the info. I'm just going to keep on trucking with the build and see where it all ends up. Hopefully everything will work out in the end.

I was going to pull one of the springs on Sunday and measure it, but it just didn't happen. Plan was to pull the engine out first as it was only in there for mock up and firewall cutting. My friend showed up late so that never happened. I could have pulled it by myself, just don't like it. I end up with about 2" of garage slab before the lift would fall off a ~1 1/2" drop off (terrible apron) before it would roll down the driveway.

Don't know how I chose this project, but I ended up on my drywall bench working on the windshield frame. I hadn't touched this area for the last 6 months, so it was kinda nice and new. I ended up stripping out some screws in the visor frame. Broke some ez-outs trying to remove the bolts. Ended up breaking a welded on nut with the ez-out still in it. Need to still cut that in half and use a magnet to remove the nut and half an ez-out so it doesn't rattle forever.

By that time my bud got there, we proceeded to just drink beer and look at the Blazer for the rest of the day.

I love my truck

 

[NorCalTank]

Thanks Bill, Took me some time to bend that piece up and weld it in.

Did you end up with about the same on the sides of the valve covers? I'm hoping that mine is enough.

I have about and inch and a half of clearence, but I also moved the engine forward. Can you get the valve covers off and have you tried to put in the distributor?

 

[Greg72]

Don't know how I chose this project, but I ended up on my drywall bench working on the windshield frame. I hadn't touched this area for the last 6 months, so it was kinda nice and new. I ended up stripping out some screws in the visor frame. Broke some ez-outs trying to remove the bolts. Ended up breaking a welded on nut with the ez-out still in it. Need to still cut that in half and use a magnet to remove the nut and half an ez-out so it doesn't rattle forever.

By that time my bud got there, we proceeded to just drink beer and look at the Blazer for the rest of the day.

I love my truck

SQUIRREL!!!!

 

[NorCal69]

SQUIRREL!!!!

Yes, yes.....Something very much like the ever elusive build squirrel. Even my bud looked up at me working and asked "Uh, change in direction today"..

 

[sponsoredbydad]

Sometimes it just goes like that

 

[NorCal69]

Some New Skin....


After looking at my newly made battleship panel, something had to happen. I ended up ordering a new quarter panel from Classic Heartbeat and the thing is perfect...

I really can't get over how nice this thing is. After dealing with a ton of replacement panels already, to finish this up should be a snap. I didn't have time to get it welded in last weekend, but I kinda want to wait to figure out the door situation first.

So, I took Sunday off and went snow wheelin' to keep the thrive alive.

Now I want to run 40's ....When does it stop....