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Dana-60 Spring Perch Replacement Question / bringing this post back from the dead

That is the thing I am definitely mentally preparing for is the removing of the spring perch. That is going to be a b!tch. I have an angle grinder with plenty of cut off wheels and 40-grit flap disks to get that sucker off and down to flat clean metal.
I used a Porta bandsaw to cut my perches off in chunks. Then ground it down. A sawsall would be almost comparable but I'd think you'd need lotsa blades.
 
Not to hijack or anything, but this thread got me thinking about my setup. When I first got the D60, the perch was tweaked and I had the perch replaced. The guy messed up and used a normal perch though, which I quickly discovered when installing the axle. I asked Kert at DIY4x to make me a custom shim with lift in it as you can see in the picture. Time passed and I noticed that the truck seemed to lean a little bit to the driver's side. I never put 2 and 2 together until just now! :doah: I was blaming it on the extra weight on that side from the spare, or damage from when my rear axle came loose... but I just went out and measured and sure enough, I didn't put enough shim in there. The height from axle to top of plate is 0.5-075" shorter on the driver's side. Now I need to figure out what to do. The right thing would be to remove and replace the perch, but I'm not sure I trust myself to get that right myself... I think shoving a bigger shim/easy-inch in there might be excessive though. Or I live with it.

shim.jpg
 
Not to hijack or anything, but this thread got me thinking about my setup. When I first got the D60, the perch was tweaked and I had the perch replaced. The guy messed up and used a normal perch though, which I quickly discovered when installing the axle. I asked Kert at DIY4x to make me a custom shim with lift in it as you can see in the picture. Time passed and I noticed that the truck seemed to lean a little bit to the driver's side. I never put 2 and 2 together until just now! :doah: I was blaming it on the extra weight on that side from the spare, or damage from when my rear axle came loose... but I just went out and measured and sure enough, I didn't put enough shim in there. The height from axle to top of plate is 0.5-075" shorter on the driver's side. Now I need to figure out what to do. The right thing would be to remove and replace the perch, but I'm not sure I trust myself to get that right myself... I think shoving a bigger shim/easy-inch in there might be excessive though. Or I live with it.

View attachment 311213

When I do the spring perch replacement before I cut it off I am going to take all the measurements, and one of the measurements is going to be the height of the spring perch so I it will be welded back on at the same height.
 
When I do the spring perch replacement before I cut it off I am going to take all the measurements, and one of the measurements is going to be the height of the spring perch so I it will be welded back on at the same height.

I assume Kert's perch will be the right height to match the cast one on the other side. I didn't have anything to go from and somehow botched the measurement. I added an extra 0.5", but it looks like the D60 perch is at least an inch taller than a standard low perch. I'm wondering if I could use an "ez inch" plus a shim and have stuff be tough and safe.
 
I ordered all the stuff I need for this job from DIY4X. I ordered the spring perch, U-bolts (Qty. 3), 3-piece caster shims (4-degrees), pocketed spring plates, and a set of B-52 front spring hangers. It may take a little time before I get the stuff because they may need to make some of the stuff. Plus, I told them to ship it the slowest cheapest freight they could find.

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My B-52 front spring hangers, u-bolt plates, caster wedges, and Dana-60 spring perch from DIY4X showed up. It is going to take a little trimming and drilling to mount the B-52 spring hangers because the lower frame rivets on my 1991 V3500 crew cab are located slightly different from some other GM square body frames, but that is no big deal.
 
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