So i went out to the ol' shop to give my 94 x cab a 3/2 drop today. Started with the balljoint flip. That went fairly easily, except it required a trip to the scrap yard to find the correct bolts to reattach the front trailing arm deal (the one with 2 bolts). Somebody along the way reattached that whole deal with some mix and match sketchy hardware!
While I was in there I pulled the front bump stops, cut them down, cleaned them up, and reinstalled them.

Now i had read somewhere that 89' and up trucks didn't use a double nut on the torsion adjusters. Well, mine does!?!? And the two nuts don't wanna "unlock" from each other. I must have spent an hour under there screaming and cussing trying to get it loose, and that was just on the one side.
So first let me clear some things up..... Is the bottom nut supposed to spin? I was under the impression that it was attached and the top nut wasn't.

Anyway, i tried pulling the two wrenches against each other. I tried putting a long wrench on just the top nut and turning the "adjuster nut" with a decent sized impact.

I used a cheater bar on the adjuster nut. It all got soaked overnight with rust penetrant "NOT WD40"

 

I can speak for myself when I say I use an impact gun and a wrench, both nuts are locked in place on mine too but it still turns lol

 

My bro inlaw and myself had the same experience on my 88 and his 90 2 weeks ago when we put control arms on.

The nuts would not separate from each other. We had to run them both up at the same time with a impact on the bolt. Taking a wire brush to the threads helps slightly.

 

my 91,92, and 93 are all double nutted. I soaked my with pb blaster for a day. and then hit them with a wire brush. Then got out two big wrenchs that fitted the nuts and smacked the top nut with a dead blow. Took some work but soaking and trying to clean the rust and grit out is needed.

 

My '94 is double nutted. After an hour or two fighting with mine I resorted to a 4' pipe extension on my wrench. The other wrench on the lower nut was jammed against the frame to prevent it from spinning.

 

Same here...Both of the nuts turns as if it was one nut!

 

Appreciate the feedback! Just didn't wanna break anything. Guess I'll get out the ol' "somethins bout to happen" cheater bar in between classes if I have time today.

 

Working upside down with a big cheater bar sucks. So this was my brainstorm.

Made it so I could "focus my energy" on pulling. Finally got it free. Passenger side came loose fairly easily. This setup plus a 6' cheater and it was no prob.

 

WOW oilspot looks like alot of work...

 

I just want to say that's a clever solution!!!

Mine also are stuck together but with an air wrench I can at least turn the bolt.

 

nice thinking on jack idea

 

They can be a pain a real nuckle buster

 

when i did it, was basically laying under the truck and was able to use my legs against the frame to provide leverage LOL.


Does anyone know what the stock ride height thread length should be?

 

The OE specifications are not based on thread length or anything relating to position of the torsion key.. as they vary depending on sag, weight, and any number of other variables. They're based solely on ride height when equipped with stock size tires. If you've modified tire size, spindle drop, ball flip, you can only measure and calculate what your new ride height SHOULD be, and adjust it to that to retain OE suspension geometry. For ride height specs, you can ask any alignment shop for the specified OE ride height. it's one of the things they check to properly do an alignment.

(BTW, Ball flip does NOT allow you to drop while retaining your stock geometry since the ball joint is in the same location relevant to the spindle CL after the ball flip.. Therefore, all a ball flip is good for is gaining a little additional drop while using stock bump stops, and possibly reducing angle on the ball joint itself. if you want to drop and retain OE Geometry, the only way to do it with a bolt on is a drop spindle.)

 

The OE specifications are not based on thread length or anything relating to position of the torsion key.. They're based solely on ride height when equipped with stock size tires. If you've modified tire size, spindle drop, ball flip, you can only measure and calculate what your new ride height SHOULD be, and adjust it to that to retain OE suspension geometry.

(BTW, Ball flip does NOT allow you to drop while retaining your stock geometry since the ball joint is in the same location relevant to the spindle CL after the ball flip.. Therefore, all a ball flip is good for is gaining a little additional drop while using stock bump stops, and possibly reducing angle on the ball joint itself. if you want to drop and retain OE Geometry, the only way to do it with a bolt on is a drop spindle.)