johnny joint frame end of front shackle

[Blazinaire]

back to the good old days a' Ducttape! Well I started to remove the exhaust system so that I could gain access to the passenger side and one thing lead to another... I had to drop the tranny xmember and the y-pipe still wouldn't come out so I had to drop the rear traction bar xmember and since I was gonna be working in there, out came the front shaft. I can't lift the truck up to let the suspension droop with the tranny on a jack stand so I am taking this opportunity to make a new flat xmember before progressing further on the suspension. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

 

[Blazinaire]

some progress

Still have to make the mounts for the track bar. I may end up making a shorter set of shackles, but these springs have a good amount of arch so they very well may use all of the swing these 7.25" ones have. I'll have to twist it up and check clearances to see if I can go shorter.

Disregard the rust, bad welds, and various bent parts

 

[mrdrinksalil]

You running 9/16" bolts at both ends? I'm having durability issues with my 1/2" bolts through the frame and will need to upgrade to ORD's "FUSH" asap.

 

[cegusman]

Whats up with the big ass gap between spring bushing and shackle. That needs to be fixed.

 

[Blazinaire]

Whats up with the big ass gap between spring bushing and shackle. That needs to be fixed.

There is actually a 1"x1/4" wide spacer between the spring and shackle top and bottom. Those are necessary to keep the shackle from hitting the frame rail (near the top of the shackle) when the shackles swing side to side.I was running those same spacers on both sides of the spring for the last 6 years with my 52"s without a problem.

Mrdrinksalil: yes, 9/16" hardware at all four corners, makes it easy to keep spare hardware around

 

[Blazinaire]

So I ended up with 17" of vertical travel (both wheels compressed at the same time) and 24" articulation at the front end. I would have been able to use a 6.5" shackle instead of the 7.25" I have on there now, but I hardly think that it would be worth the effort to lose 3/8" ride height and gain 3/4" clearance at the shackle. I'll have to remove a bit more sheet metal from the fenders and I will most likely limit uptravel by another 1" to alleviate some firewall rubbing. The limitations of leaf springs are showing themselves in the form of axle steer, and we will see how bad the front end wraps while drooped and under power (I'll be banding the back half of the top 3 leafs together to help a little bit with that.)

My +8" brakelines are about 8-10" too short wheen drooped/turning, so a center drop like the rear axle with hardlines along the axle tube then hoses to the wheels will be in order. I'm glad I ponied up for HAD's 42* front shaft with 12" slip, becasue with the t-case clocked, this thing uses almost all of it!

The rear end cycles 18" vertical and I have yet to measure articulated (truck isn't driveable yet and I have no means of twisting it that far at home.) This thing is going to be floppy as $h!t, so a rear swaybar is definately going to find it's way onto my blazer!

Stuff:

Droop:

 

[howdiy]

Looks good, anymore pics of your truck?

 

[Blazinaire]

here's an oldie from BB05, this was with 52" fronts and 57" ford rears and 37"s on P.O.S. trailready's:

 

[Blazinaire]

I am a slow builder so don't hold your breath!

I made some VERY minor progress... and found that my draglink ends cannot cope with this much droop. I'm using Rockstomper double ended hi-steer arms (tie-rod is behind the axle) that are not machined the 10* to compensate for the inclination of the knuckles/ balljoints. Is there a way that I can SAFELY bend/ twist them so that they are parallel to the ground (instead of tipped inwards 10* on each side) to gain a little more angle? Machining them won't work now since they are already drilled/ tapered... unless I weld the hole shut and start fresh? Any ideas are welcome!

The more I tinker with this setup, the more I see the other possible limitations of having lots of travel on a mechanically steering solid axle. I think 14" would probably have been plenty, but I'm in too deep to give up now!