Then you should of just left he block in it if you cant afford to do it the right/safe way.

Always get a kick out of people who B I T C H about how expensive things are and they would go broke doing it the RIGHT way. Then you really should NOT have a project.

Ever hear the sayings,......
Anything worth doing, is worth doing RIGHT

OR

If you can afford to do it RIGHT the 1st time, then you Really can't afford to do it a SECOND time

 

Or if it works, leave it alone.

 

Agreed^^^^^^

When you torque a bolt, you are stretching it. The torque value (in a sense) is how much you are stretching the said bolt. Once you release the load (take the nut off), the bolt is now longer than a new one. Re-torquing it to the factory value will not net the same result as would torquing a new bolt. (apply the same clamp load)

It sounds like a lot of fuss for a bolt, but seriously; Those U-bolts hold the rear end in. Nothing else. Most guys (like me) will torch out or cut out the old u-bolts since it's faster, easier, and there's no chance of re-using them that way.

Your coil spacers may be providing some of your alignment grief. Is the truck sitting at factory ride height? All alignment specifications are based on a stock unloaded vehicle sitting at normal ride height. If the front is lifted too high, you will get positive camber and outside tire wear. Sagged springs will cause a negative camber situation and inside edge wear.

But there's more.

Camber has a direct relationship to the toe setting. Toe is the most critical tire wearing angle. If you have a pull condition it could be caused by too much positive camber on that side, or too much negative caster.

If your rear end is not sitting square in the vehicle, you could be initiating a rear-steer or "dog tracking" condition. If the right rear wheel is set farther back than the left rear, the rear end will push right while making the front end want to push left. You'll be trying to compensate by steering to the right.

Suspension and steering aren't something to experiment and mess around with if you don't know what you're doing. Everything has to work together as designed or it won't work right at all.

 

Simplest thing to do is pull the rear U-Bolts. Jack the truck up and find a grade 5 bolt that will fit through the hole in the SPRINGS. then grind the corners of the head off till it fits in the reciever hole on the axle perch. once it will fit put the new bolt through the springs with the head down, using a nut to hold it in the springs, lower the truck springs onto the axle, once the suspension has settled put a self locking nut on the bolt that is now being used as your alingment pin, you might have to use a vice grip on the threads to keep the bolt from turning.

I had to do this when I put add-a-leafs in the front of my 97, 8 years later the bolt is still there doing just fine.

Diesel Rod

 

Going to autozone tomorrow to buy new u-bolts and centering pins. Looks like I'll be spending in the ballpark of 20-30 bucks. I do agree with rather safe than sorry, just hard to find the money lying around. But I can definitely feel the rear end of the truck shifting when I drive it, so I figure I should get it fixed before I break something that costs hundreds of dollars to fix.

Thanks guys.

 

EDIT: Glad you're fixin it.

$2.50 is a (gas station) meal, but I'd gladly skip that meal if it means I'll be home that evening to eat a real meal instead of on the road side waiting for a wrecker and possibly the sheriff and medics.

 

Idk man totinos pizza's are like 88 cents a piece and ramen is cheap too...hahaha but yeah definitely going to get it fixed.

 

I wasn't that broke in college, damn. If you're that broke, you should qualify for a federal work study grant, then get a 10-15 hr a week job on campus tutoring your field of study. Teaching what you're studying is the best way to master it, and if you're not looking to be a master of what you're studying, quit school because you're wasting your time/money.

I'm guessing your truck is a 2x4? The 4x4's had 2" factory lift blocks.

 

Don't forget Vienna Sausage and Buddig packaged lunch meat. If you can cook then there's nothing like homemade cornbread or biscuits and gravy. Both are delicious if made from scratch, but they are also cheap that way too.

 

Yes, my truck is 2x4. And I'm not that broke, mostly just cheap. Gotta save for books and such. But I'm white, no federal grants for me!

 

Had a fun time putting the new u-bolts in. Me and my buddy were working on it, had the axle on jack stands, and were jacking the leafs up to separate them from the axle so I could get the bolt underneath to fit in. My buddy started to lower the leafs (didn't go slow like I told him to) and my truck went crashing to the ground. Axle on the ground, leafs everywhere, I was pissed

Called a few other friends over, we got the truck back up in the air, and ended up having to take the leafs out to put them all back together, and to align the center holes in all of them. While we had them out, I put the center bolt through (had to grind down the head so it would fit in the hole on the axle). Had a hell of a time getting the leaf brackets to line back up with the brackets on the frame. Finally get all that back in, time to put the new u-bolts in, which ended up being the easiest part of it all.

Truck is now all back together, drives fine, straightened my steering wheel out, and I'm very happy that I did it. Spent about 40 bucks between the new u-bolts and the center bolts.


EDIT: Forgot to say it took about 7 and a half hours, after having the truck dropped on the ground. Was a fun day

 

glad you got it fixed and nobody got hurt in the process!!