i was wondering the same, is it as simple as dropping the leaf spring pack, taking it apart, removing the middle leaf and putting it back together? I ask because the last time i looked into it was when i owned my first gen lightning and you had to get a shorter bolt when you removed leaf springs.
Not a safe thing to do, unless your gonna support the rear with something else (air shocks etc.) My buddy did it for awhile and the leafs start to bend and whatnot...
Its safest. Many people do it, after time you will actually notice the leaf spring become overbend and actually has an opposite arc in it. That is not safe as said before. Plus by doing a mono leaf you make is so you CAN NOT have anything in the bed of the truck. Any added weight will bottom out the spring. If you are wanting more drop in the rear just get bigger blocks. They make blocks that have 4,5,6" + of drop. Here is a picture of a truck with a mono leaf. As you can see the leaf is starting to over bend. No good
Hes very right about mono leaf unsafe! But I wouldnt really recommend 5, 6 in. Blocks either.just remove middle leaf and flip the overload. Thats what I did. If ursprings are worn like mine ull desire a notch at that point. And if u have regular cab ull wanna put a small notch in the crossmember backside of cab. Ur driveline will hit it. And if ur bushings in rear are worn. Then ull have to take a block of wood and hammer to side of gas tank cause driveline will rub. My experiences. Anyway.
The real problem with a single leaf out of our spring packs is that there isn't anything left to control axle wrap. The excessive wrap then causes the leaf to fatigue and possibly break. Not good. You could run 3" drop leaf packs and blocks....
If u put blocks in u can do the leafs. I was scared of it to. Just pull the lower bolt out of shocks. Pull ubolt nuts off on shock side and loosen opposite ones and u can swing the lower plate out of the way. Put zip ties or bungees around the leaf pack to hold it together. Jack the axle up slide block out. Then remove bolt holding pack together. Then flip over the overload and set it asside.then bend the brackets holding middle leaf back until it falls off. The. Put overload back and reverse procedure and do it again to the other side. Definitely a better way to go and my overall intension. Removing leaf definatly a temperary drop.
hey all i kind of understand all of this but which one is the overload spring can some one show a pic of it
Its the lowest one. Its very short. When u get down there and start taking ur blocks out and lifting the axle up with a jack ur gonna be embarrassed u were soconcerned... I was haha
Best method is some Belltech 3" drop leafs, blocks and a cnotch. You can mono leaf to get by for a while until you get some Belltechs, but it's always better to run at least a 2 leaf setup. The leafs aren't bowing down because they're fatigued, they're bowing down because it's the only leaf holding the weight of the truck. Totally normal. This is why you'd want to run the overload leafs too, so the main leaf has something to lay on and the overload will also help act as a 2nd leaf and make for a better ride than just one thin leaf by itself.
Thats not a mono leaf then, mono means only running the MAIN spring, it will eventually break on you. You dont have to take the pack off the truck, just undo the U bolts. My old 77 had clamps around the middle and main leaf we had to cut but after that you just undo the small bolt through all 3 leafs and take the middle spring out, flip the bottom and bolt it back together. You can see the clamp I mentioned on them and the overload is the bottom spring, its thicker and shorter than the other 2. It took several years and I rarely had any air in the shocks but I broke a leaf running a mono setup. I would NOT advise anyone to do it. Keep the overload and you will be fine. If thats not low enough look into after market springs or have yours de arched.
thanks, i figured it would be simple but better to ask first. and i need to get the rear fenders pulled a little first anyway lol. thanks again.