So I noticed that my '92 F-150 had a slight bed sag on the passenger's side. Today I checked what I thought was the problem.. the leaf springs. Turns out I was right!









Compare that to the driver's side..

 

Man that sucks.

 

Yeah it does! Oh well it's getting fixed this week.

 

Go up a size with the ' U ' bolts to 5/8 while it's apart.

 

I'll do that.

 

When I took the small lift off back on 2005, I got some new factory U bolts for mine. I don't trust the cheap hardware/autoparts store stuff.

 

The spring shop supplied me with the 5/8 ' U ' bolts. They made them. Stock size is just 9/16. The spring shop made the top plate to match the larger bolts, too.

 

Oh I will for sure get real Ford u-bolts. I don't think it would be too safe using cheap ones.

 

I don't know about the quality of those ones that were made for you. If they are good quality thats a nice upgrade. However, I have never heard of anyone breaking a stock U bolt.

 

While your back there working on the springs, inspect the spring hangers and shackles. They may need to be replaced as well.

 

Last set of springs I changed I had the spring shop make me a new set of U bolts. I did not upgrade the size. I seen there was a question about quality. I can not speak for the place that make xxshine however the place I got mine they do springs on buses, big dump trucks, city and county trucks. I'm pretty sure if its a real spring place doing heavy work the U bolts they make and use are good quality. Mine come from Cleveland Spring been in business for many years. Getting new U bolts just makes life so much better. Take the cutting torch and pop, pop, pop, pop U bolts are off LOL

 

Good advice, and looking at the first photo, it appears that the hangers are in rough shape. It actually makes the job easier (though a little more expensive) to do the hangers and shackles. Pop the rivets out that hold the hangers on, and drop the whole assembly! No messing with rusty bolts and whatnot.

 

To me, looking at those shakles, they acually look in really good shape, still have some paint on them.

The ones on my '89 F150 have a big amount of surface rust, even light flaking.

 

Dropped the truck off at the shop yesterday (1/31/11) and picked it up today (2/1/11) [Talk about fast service!] with an all new leaf spring assembly, shackles and u-bolts. Labor included, the total came to $500. He was originally going to do both sides for $1,000 but due to current lack of money I could only afford the passenger's side first (the leaf springs on this side were busted, and the driver's side were fine anyways) So here's some before + after pics.

Before


After


Before


After


It sags a little bit on the driver's side now, maybe I'll replace those leafs to level the back end out sometime. But for now as long as they are still in good condition and don't break like the other side did, I can live with it.

 

Much mo' better!