Thread: rear suspension change

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i'm going to get a torch and cut off those old spring mount brakets and buy some new shocks and leafs

Now you got the idea. You should be able to purchase stock springs, mounts, and shocks.

Where at, any pics

Heres Some Pics Of The Frt Suspesion

For parts, check the second post on this thread. Bob gave you a link. Just search the site for parts.

The front springs look like they're shot also. The axle is riding on the bump stop. The ride must be about like a lumber wagon. It appears that the springs were heated in order to drop the front end.

Classic Performance Parts has monoleaf front springs that drop the truck 3 or 4". Search the site for "spring."

Unless you can find something from a junkyard that will work, rebuilding the front and rear isn't going to be cheap - close to $400.00 for each end of the truck just for springs. Then, there's shocks, shock mounts, etc. and

If that were mine I'd put a Camaro sub-frame under the front. I have done several they are easy and you gain P/S P/DB and mtr mounts. If you could get a 78 Camaro For a donor You could use the rear springs and axel with front subthat way your wheels would be 5 lug. The ride would be a 100% better too.

going to check out the junk yard tomorrow what shoul i look for for the rear suspension?

Glad you posted the pix of the front end. Jack is right, there is no suspension here. It is solidly riding on the stops.

You might score at a junk yard, but the chances are the parts will be worn out too, if they come from the same era. It sounds to me that you are realizing you need to fix some things on this truck before you use it. That is really good. It sounds also like you might be dealing with some cost issues in doing the truck. Welcome to the club, most of us have budgets to work around in building our cars, me included.

The facts are, you will be spendiing some money on the truck to get it in sound operating condition. There is no way around it. But, if you keep it simple and do the work yourself, you can get by a little cheaper. By simple, I mean rebuild what is there. Scrap the rear springs and all that hydraulic stuff that is welded on. Go to a spring shop that does truck springs in your area, and have them make up 2 new rear springs for this year truck. It looks in the pictures like the builder left the stock spring mounts there, so you can just go back and put new shackles or whatever is needed and put the stock springs back on. You can even use lowering blocks or have the shop dearch the springs a little, to drop it down.

The only way to get the truck really low is to do major revamping of the rear suspension, and that can happen later on. The front needs the same treatment. Looks like someone took a torch and heated the leaf springs to lower it. There are helper springs in there, but they are doing nothing. Just go through the front end and get it back to sitting on springs, then start checking kingpins, brakes, etc.

Have you driven this truck? How did it handle? It has the early lowrider look with the small VW sized tires and wire wheels. That is the look they were going for. It actually looks solid, bodywise, so you have a good start.

By the way, thanks for being such a good sport to put up with some pretty harsh comments and criticism. I would rather tell you the truth than see you dead, and I know the others feel the same way.

By the way, truck spring shops are usually pretty reasonable and can build you any spring you need. Take your measurements and old spring in to one and get a quote to build you some new springs. I think you will be surprised at the cost.

Good luck,

Don

going to put air bags on it some day but need somthing for now

http://www.truckandcarshop.com/catalogs.htm Here is a link with a catalog that will show u most of all the parts available for your truck!!! Air bags and some shocks and a track bar may be about the same price for the rear as springs and all the hardware. I have no clue on the front end other than stock......but those brake lines look really bad ,it would be a shame to mess all that nice sheet metal up over a 20 or 30 dollar item.

You really should resize your phots before you post them.

Lookin better and I see u have the little locators for the leaf springs,now just get rid of the funky shock thingy and install new shocks ,is there anything else that was on the rear of those trucks?

Got Any Idea On What Shocks To Use For This

Yeah Man, you are coming along much better on this. Good job.

As for shocks, you will want to chose shocks that have several properties:

1) They should be long enough to travel up and down sufficiently for the distance your vehicle bounces.

2) They should be somewhat matched to the weight of the vehicle you are putting them on. ( in other words, don't put Yugo shocks on a 4 x 4 truck)

3) The eyes or studs at the top and bottom should match the kind of mount you want to use.

There are some websites from various shock manufacturers that give you all of these specs, and I will get some and post them for you, or maybe someone else on here will have these also.

Your truck is starting to shape up really well now.



Don