u-bolts?

[nerraw117]

does anyone know where i can get some u-bolts and nuts for my (i believe it is TC lift springs? i have 4 inch front lift springs with a elchoboit shackle flip in the rear to go on, but i have no u-bolts. and anyone got some good instructions for a newbie like me to put them both on? i have searched for the shackle flip and cannot find any good instructions.
-steve

 

[readymix]

I went to a local truck spring shop (18 wheelers) and they bent them up for me for $10 ea. Only took about 5 mins too

 

[jekbrown]

yeah, look up a spring shop that is local to you (www or phone book). Mine are $6 a pop, any length / diameter I want. Depending on what axles you have, I might have some u-bolts you can have for the price of shipping + $5. Got a bunch of used ones laying around...

j

 

[nerraw117]

will these work? click me

 

[steve_kibbe]

looks like they'd work to me. Just make sure they know what there are going in.

 

[jekbrown]

I believe offroad.com has a tech article on their chevy project page where they install an ORD shackle flip. That should help. If not, PM me and I'll walk you through it from memory (been a few years).

AFA the u-bolts go... did you check the tuff country web site? Pretty sure they have their kits broken down by part number. They do... according to them, here are the u-bolt sizes you need to go with their 4" lift kit...

5U-3511R U-bolt - 5/8 x 3 x 11 3/4, quantity 4
5U-6109R U-bolt - 5/8 x 3 1/2 x 9 5/8, qua. 1
5U-3507R U-bolt - 5/8 x 3 x 7 5/8, qua. 3

Thats for front and rear... I assume that the 11.75" long ones are for the rear (to go with blocks), which means the other 3+1 are for the front. One easy way to do this if you already have the TC springs in hand is to just measure their thickness in the center. Add how much thicker they are than your stock springs to the stock u-bolt length and you'll know how long of a new u bolt you'll need.

Like I said before, I have some hardly used ones that used to be on my rig wih 10 bolts, and 4" of lift if you're interested. They are in perfectly good condition and I have no use for them anymore. Lemme know.

j

 

[ZooMad75]

I've got the echobit flip on mine and have a few tips for you. (in no particular order)

#1 make sure you put them on the right way (unlike I did). The pointy side should point to the rear. I had looked it up before the install and after working on the truck installing the front springs, put the brackets on backwards. It still works, but as you can see from the attached pic, the shackle angle is off. Got to swap them side when I replace my rear ubolts.

#2 make sure you use the sleave for the upper bolt (from the flip bracket to the stock hanger) or else you will bend the stock hanger when you torque the bolt down.

#3 You still need to drop the rear brake line hanger or get a longer rear brake line. Not hard to fab up if you didn't get one with a lift kit.

#4 Get longer rear shocks or they will be the limiting factor. One that were specified for a 4" lift will work. (I used the ones from my kit, no problem)

#5 when installing the flip brackets (even more so if they were used before) you may run into a problem where they seem like they won't fit over the stock hanger. we had to get creative here. The force of bolting them in has a tendancy to move the ears closer to each other. We had to use a porta-power to open them up slightly in addtion to some minor grinding to take a lip off the stock hanger. That and a BFH to drive them into place.

#6 when you go to remove the bolt from the shackle to the stock hanger, be ready for a fight. My bolt was siezed inside the bushing sleave on each side. do to the direction they went in, we could not use a hammer and a punch to drive them out as they would have hit the fuel tank/skidplate. SO we cut the head off the bolts and used the nut and washer technique on the other side to "pull" them out. This was very time consuming.

#7 (obvious) use grade 8 hardware to bolt the echobit bracket in and the shackle to the bracket.

 

[nerraw117]

i dont need u-bolts for the rear do it? and jekbrown you do have u-bolts that will for sure fit? they arent bent or anything? ZooMad75 do you have any pics of your shackle flip? like on your hanger up close?

 

[ZooMad75]

You should not need U-bolts for the rear if yours does not have any blocks back there. Mine did, plus I had a broken leaf on one side. so we removed the u-bolts, removed the blocks and the broken leaf (and it's match). We used a 1/2" zero rate to put back in to make up the loss of the one leaf per side too. It was when we went to put the springs back on did we discover that the u-bolts that came with the 4" lift kit (blocks for the rear), were more than long enough, but without the blocks the threads did not go down far enough to tighten up to the spring plate. Cutting threads on the hardened material was not possible (or at least the local machine shop advised against it). So it was off to the zone to see what they had for a late sunday afternoon. What I got was the right size in all factors but the diameter. The stock ones we cut off were 9/16" thick and these were 1/2". I did not want to skimp on this, but it was late and that was all we could get. This is why I have to get new u-bolts. Probably get them made up and the local big truck shop, but they want to ding me $12 per.

As for the pic, here is the best I got of the install, hope it helps. (just remember mine is backwards here!)

 

[jekbrown]

i dont need u-bolts for the rear do it?

you shouldn't, with a shackle flip you re-use your stock springs. Unless you stock u-bolts are trashed, why $pend the extra $$$?

and jekbrown you do have u-bolts that will for sure fit?

if you can figure out how long you need, I can measure mine. Its not hard to figure out, all you need is a tape measure, both spring packs and the stock u-bolts. You can measure while the stock stuff is still installed, its no biggie. Can't guarentee mine are the right length (until you measure) but they will be a lot cheaper than ordering new ones mailorder... worth the 2 mins it'd take to measure.

they arent bent or anything?

no, they are fine. I only had them installed for a short time... hardly any miles on them at all.

AFA a pic of the shackle flip installed... here is one that shows my ORD flip.

I have revolver shackles in that pic there... disregard them. The actual flip bracket install is the same when re-using stock shackles.

j