spring swaps

[woodwright]

Hello, I'm fairly new to your site, and am having trouble finding what i'm after. I'm building a 70 k10 with 52" springs in the front, and possibly 63's in the rear. I'm just looking for similar build threads to get some ideas on fabbing mounts and such. Thanks.

 

[lukefalls]

Here is mine. Keep in mind that the crossmenber in the front were only temporary.

 

[woodwright]

In that last picture, is your wheel turned, or does it sit forward in the wheelwell opening? If so, how much?

 

[72blazerguy]

You should plan on moving the axle forward or your tires will smash your fenders.

These hangers are sweet if you plan on doing the standard 52" front spring swap. The extra holes will come in handy for adjusting shackle angle and you can knock out the old rivets in the body mount bracket. http://diy4x.com/cart/index.php?route=product/product&path=24&product_id=122

Another pic http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=278984

Tons of info on this site about the spring swaps.

http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=281069&highlight=longer+springs

http://coloradok5.com/52inchspringswap.shtml

some rear info http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=124820&highlight=63+rear+springs

spend some time searching, the info is around

 

[lukefalls]

The wheel is turned a bit, but it does sit further forward. The wheel traveled so far up and back that I didn't want it to hit the back of the fender.

Now, that being said, I am almost done with the 3 link/panhard front. I worked great with leafs, but I cut too many corners. I started fixing little things until the entire truck was torn apart. I blame Greg! I need to update my build thread.

 

[woodwright]

I came across a leafspring swap thread the other day that detailed rebuilding the leaf packs. In it the guy put a layer of a thin plastic the whole length between each leaf. I can't find the thread now. It was either here, or 67-72chevytrucks.com, or pirate4x4. Sound familiar?

 

[Greg72]

It's probably UHMWPE material (like cutting board material).

Very slippery and durable and helps prevent friction between leafs. Doing the entire length is a bit of overkill since the only movement is at the last few inches of each leaf.... but other than making the leafpack thicker it shouldn't hurt anything.

 

[woodwright]

How would youkeep the pieces in place. The factory pieces have a little tab that goes thru a hole I think that's why he ran it full length.

 

[Greg72]

My springs had a through-hole near the tip of each leaf where a small friction pad was installed.

I think if you were careful to paint each leaf before assembly and maybe put a little graphite powder between them during assembly, you'd probably get 98% of the benefit of a more complicated UHMWPE setup.

Unless you're fully dialed-in on everything else with your truck, there are probably better places to spend your time and effort.

 

[woodwright]

The reason I'm asking is that I'm building myself a daily driver work truck. If there is something I can spend a few minutes on to make things last that much longer, its worth it to me. They salt the roads here in the winter and it would be nice if the paint would las t as long as possible. I'm gonna use a product like por-15 on everything.