rear leaf spring swap thread

[mostwanted]

I have seen the 52" front spring subject beat to death. After helping my buddy swap in 54's into his truck, I feel confident that I have ample knowledge on that.
I am planning to swap my 52's off the back of my 1986 K5 into the front and install something longer into the rear. I was thinking of a ORD shackle flip along with their heavy duty shackles. I have a local Pick-N-Pull that has a good supply of full size trucks, Suburbans, and Blazers that I can pilage parts from. What are my best options? I think I read on here somewhere and correct me if I am wrong,but the older 54" springs haveing a slightly higher load rate, which would last longer (take longer to sag). I may even be up to 64"er's?? What models and years would I find these in? Will all of these spring options fit in the stock locations with ORD shackle flip, or will I need to move the mounts for or aft. Would longer shackles help? Ideally I would like my axle to sit in the stock location or aft of center.

 

[muddybuddy]

64" came in ifs chevys 88-98. you are going to have to move the mounts, if you keep the stock front mount and just mvoe the rear, it will push the axle back 4-5" i believe. also you have to watch out for the gas tank. i will actually be doing this swap in a couple weeks.

 

[MTMike]

I'm running 56's in the rear. It works perfectly to leave the front mounts in the factory location and run an offset shackle flip, like DIY or ORD reversed (the left one on the right side and the right on the left side).

64's will cause you to need to move both front spring hangers and mount the shackle flip (assuming you're going to use one) in a non-factory location.

Hope this helped

 

[mostwanted]

Yep, all of this is helping. Thanks alot.