Hey everyone I currently have a bone stock 2wd short wheelbase 88 and am planning on ordering belltech 3" drop leafs for the rear and DJM 3" LCAs for the front. Can anyone walk me through how to change the leaf springs? Ive read a couple threads where people received wrong parts and other things, also just looking at the truck im not sure if they will just mount up easily or not? Help please.

 

Ok, had a nightmare story on here with these, but in the end it all worked out.

First things first, go to belltech's website and double check the correct part number for your year truck. There are people out there selling the wrong ones.

Looks like you need the ones I did for my 85. They are for years 79-88 and are part number 5976. A lot of companies are selling the 5978 which is for 89-95. These are much longer and will not fit. I can measure mine when I get home and let you know the length of mine since your truck is last year before change.

The other problem has been the bushings. Belltech has them backwards. The large hole bushing goes towards the rear and the small hole bushing goes towards the front. The 5976's I got came with energy suspension polyurethane bushings, so they are easy to push out and change.

One problem with the energy suspension bushings is they are wider than the stock ones on the shackle end. So the stock upper shackle bushings should be replaced with the same ones. U can get these from energy suspension. Or I just put some washers between the shackle plate and stock bushing. I'll order some some day and replace them. I'll try and take some pics also.

Are you planning to go lower than 3" in the rear?

 

As far as putting them on it's fairly simple as long as you have all the right parts. I'll do a write up when I get home so I can reference my manual. The LCAs are a lot more involved than the leafsprings.

 

Thanks for that info on the springs I'll make sure to double check before ordering. As of now I don't plan on going lower than 3" in the rear, but whatever I do I want the truck to be sitting level so I'll drop the same in the front that I do the rear. And if you could, a write up would be fantastic!

 

If your only going 3 inches why not just use blocks? Beefed taco makes some really nice ones. Cheaper and simpler install.

website is streetacos.com

If you still want to go with the springs, contact John(I believe) at MVP Motorsports. 940-683-828 he is in their Amazon.com department. He will contact belltech directly and get you exactly what you need. They were $136 a piece with free shipping when I bought them.

 

Leaf spring replacement:

Jack up rear of truck and securely support with jackstands. You will need the jack later to support the rear axle. One with a large lift plate, like a 3 ton, works a lot better.

Remove the wheels and tires

Place the jack under the rear end to support it. Centering it under the bottom of the differential is best. This is where the larger lift plate comes in handy.

Disconnect the shock from the leaf spring seat. Take the bolt off and slide the shock off.

Remove the ubolt mounting nuts. These are underneath the spring seat.

Remove the ubolts and the spring seat.

Unbolt the spring from the front. This is a nut and a bolt. Take the nut off, but don't remove the bolt yet.

Unbolt both nuts on the shackle.

Once all these are loosened, you can remove the hanger bolt from the front.

Then pull the inner shackle plate off and slide the spring out.

Installation is the reverse of the removal. Only note is just finger tighten the bolts and nuts on the shackles and the front hanger.

Once everything else is torqued down to the correct specs, raise the jack under the differential until the vehicle is just free of the stands and tighten the hanger pin and shackle pin nuts to specified torque.

I tried skipping this and just putting it on the ground to load the springs, this does not work.

Torque specs

Ubolt nuts: 58 to 86
Hanger pin and shackle nuts: 67

Installing blocks:

Jack vehicle and support on stands. Remove wheels and tires. Support axle under differential with jack.

You may want to disconnect the shock from the spring seat so it's not putting pressure on the spring when you remove the axle.

Remove ubolt nuts and ubolts.

Jack up differential to insert blocks between spring and axle. If angled, shorter end goes toward the front of the truck.

Lower jack to seat axle on blocks. Make sure pins line up.

Install new ubolts and tighten nuts.

 

As far as the front, 3 inches may be obtained by balljoint flip and some torsion bar tweaking.

LCA's are great, but they are fairly involved to install.

Spindles are another way to get 2 inches, and with the balljoint flip you can get your 3. Only problem with spindles is getting the steering arm and balljoints to pop loose if you dont have a puller and don't want to destroy them with a wedge fork. Mine came out pretty easy, but I rebuilt the entire front end of my truck 18 months ago. Also messing with the wheel bearings can be tricky.

There is an awesome write up on here about the ball joint flip. Course if you do a bj flip and spindle and just replace ball joints at same time you can remove some of the headache.

Keep me posted, and I'll help where I can. Ive done LCA,s spindles and bj flip to my truck (85). Also installed the leaf springs and now I'm measuring to get the proper block height for rear.

 

Thanks so much. I will be ordering everything probably early february when I have the money, may be sooner than that. I'll post progress on this thread, would you like me to pm you also if I get stuck? Thanks once again for all the help. Side note: I'm going to be purchasing Mickey Thompson wheels 15x10 with -42 offset. These should fit no problem right?

 

Yea you can, I try to get on here at least once a day. As far as the wheels go I have no idea. Sure someone on here would, I'm running my stock steel wheels currently and planning to stay with a custom steel wheel that's fairly narrow. Of course my front is down a good 6 inches and the back will probably be close to 7 once I get my blocks so I need something that tucks.

 

Alright thanks, I'm about to call and make sure the springs are available

 

Upclose shot of the shackle assembly. You can see the washers on the upper bolt due to the urethane bushings being wider than the stock ones.