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You should be fine with the front shaft removed for the test drive to find your noise.
If you could post up some pictures of your current suspension showing as much of the leaf packs as possible we could offer some advice about changes to get it a little lower. For the money the shop quoted it's worth picking up bigger jackstands and jack to do some DIY work. Those teenagers can't be spending ALL their time mowing the lawn. Many of the "lift kits" simple add taller blocks to the stock rear springs, if that's what you have that makes the rear adjustment very cheap and easy.
On a side note, I just rented out the apartment attached to one of my garages and the gentleman moved in last night. He's a manager of a Napa Auto in a neighboring town and has offered me a discount on parts and tools.......
Sorry for all the questions, but I have another.....
By looking at the lift block on the rear springs, it appears I am missing the original bumpstop. If I simply remove the block shown in the image, I'll lose about 6in of lift and still have no rear bumpstop. I doubt that these are the factory springs and BDS would only use a rear block. Wasn't there also an anti-wrap leaf on the bottom originally?
Looking at the front suspension, if I replace the 10-leaf pack that is on there with anything close to factory (or even remove leafs out of it), I'm going to need to replace the bracket for the track bar. Various different parts fiches shows many variants ranging in price from $75-210. Ideas are welcome here.
Took some measurements from the center of the hub to the fender lip. Got about 32.5in front and 33 even in the rear. Too tall. Sent a message to BDS about IDing the lift and removing individual leafs. Decided to just tear into it so I bought new stands that lift a max of 30in (frame is 27in off the ground) and some impact sockets w/ breaker bar. Will plan on removing the rear block and 2 of the 6 leafs, then measure for new shocks and see how low it settles down. Gotta source a new pitman arm, track bar mount , and sway bar links. On a side note, can't find much in the way of 16.5in tires, so this package will be removed and sold. Anyone interested in 4mo old 35x12.50's on 10in wheels? Have about 2000mi on them.
Sorry for the late reply, got very busy at work yesterday.
Those look like all non-stock springs, and yes, with that style of block you don't have anything to hit the factory bump stop.
Once you start pulling individual leaves out of those packs there will be changes to the load handling as well as the height.
Try hitting local 4X4 shops for take-off pitman and track bar mounts, might find some needed parts there cheap.
16.5"s are very hard to find, they are very much old school.....
Was going to shop some bone yards for the parts I need. Got lucky when I pulled into work today. Someone had a SD in the parking lot I didn't recognize. They're running 315s on 16in wheels. Found the owner, a co-worker, and asked if they wanted to trade straight over. She's selling the truck and said "why not?" Making plans to swap soon.
There are bump stops on the rear end, just not a factory setup. I can likely keep them installed. Once I hear back from BDS, I'll hopefully know how many leafs I can remove, if any. Not going to order new springs until I hear back from them. In tools alone, I'm into the repair only $200 so far. My best guess is that will jump to $6-800 once I start ordering parts. Sure beats the quote from the 4x4 shop.
New u-code springs for the front, u-bolts, bushings, and shipping.......$420 from SD Truck Springs. Stock pitman arm and track bar bracket located and shipped......$140 from a parts locator in Tennessee. Extended-lift jack stands, impact sockets and breaker bar, and various other shop crap shipped.....$200 from Harbor Freight. My labor is free, so that's a plus. I have a 4-day weekend next week to look forward to. Will play a little, wrench a little, and with any luck, I'll be rolling a little lower to the ground and a whole lot smoother. Still gotta grab some shocks, but gotta take measurements first. Never a big fan of lifted trucks, especially this high up. I can understand leveling kits, but not something like this. Thanks for the help.
What year Superduty are your new wheels coming from? Hopefully a 99-04. Only thing I would add is to ditch the dual shock bracket on the front and get a factory shock mount. A single shock will fill the bill for a smooth ride better than two of them. I would also watch the measurments on your steering components. Also, you may end up with brake lines that are a bit long, but could probably be routed in such a way that they don't rub. I really would have replaced both front and rear spring packs so you know a bit more what ratings your rear springs will be at. It is also way easier to sell a removed lift kit on craigslist or facebook if it is complete. Good luck and keep the pics coming!
Last edited by 05MilMachine; Jul 14, 2017 at 05:54 PM.
Reason: misread... :-)
Factory pitman arm and track bar bracket will replace the aftermarket parts. Found out the rear springs are factory, just the block has been removed. I'll keep an eye on the brake lines, but getting setup on the original shock hoop mean buying more parts. Gonna see how it goes first and replace only what's necessary. With brakes, ball joints and alignment, I'm into this another $2k BEFORE wheels and tires. The 35s gotta go.
Small, ok....large setback today. Have 4-day weekend to get the lift removed. Tools have arrived and so have some of the parts, so I preceded to tear down the rear and prep the front end by removing as much as I could. Problem is I never received a tracking number from my spring supplier, SD Truck. A quick chat with a rep and the tracking number indicates that it won't be delivered until EOB Tuesday. I won't have time to put it all back together and get the ball joints and alignment done before we leave for our vacation. All because they quoted me the wrong shipping schedule! Had I known of the extended deliver schedule I would have paid for overnight shipping or ordered from someone else! I'm beyond pissed because I've already torn down the rear end and will need to pay to have custom u-bolts made to put it all back again. Then, I'll have to tear it all down again when we get home. We'll be forced to to tow lifted and with the bigger tires, killing my towing abilities. I'm going to ask the company to refund me the cost of the u-bolts that I'm having made up. Anyhoo, here's a pic of my progress:
Last edited by inthedirt; Jul 21, 2017 at 09:17 PM.
Reason: Typo
T'was a royal pain to have to put it all back together, but I'm done. Just gotta slap the u-bolts on once the shop is done with them tomorrow, then bolt the shocks back on. Not sure if anyone is even reading this anymore, but in case you are, I've decided that since I'm having to postpone the ball joints, alignment, and new tires (thus saving a chunk of coin), I'm going to purchase a tuner from 5 Star. I'll pay for overnight shipping so I'm not pissed at another company. Thoughts? Anyone even care at this point?
I had issues with SDtruck spring on shipping with the rear sway bar I ordered for our ex. I would never order from them again because of this. Took a month to get the sway bar. I would have gladly paid more and gotten it from some one else if I'd known it would take a month. The tuner from five star will help the performance out a lot I think.
I'm still reading it!
Too late now, of course, but we have a site sponsoring spring vendor here that many EX owners have used and sing the praises of in both service and quality, ATS and their forum rep Junior.
The tuner with custom tunes from 5Star will absolutely help some with the towing, but don't expect miracles, you are still spinning 35"s with 3.73 axles. 5Star will have you fill out a calibration request form where you can itemize your various mods so they can better match the tunes to your setup. I would get the tunes setup for where you PLAN TO BE when finished. The tunes will alter the trans shift strategy which will improve towing performance. Of course not everyone wants the exact same strategy though, I have experimented and found that for me and how I tow I prefer the Performance tunes (87 & 89 Octane) over the actual Tow tunes. I feel that the Tow tunes are too quick to downshift when climbing grades, which is great if you want to be the first guy to the top, but that aint me.
New u-bolts to put everything back together, minus 1 leaf, won't be here until Tuesday morning. We're gonna need to go on our vacation with it that way it is. It had rake to it to begin with, so maybe this will help it to ride level with the Baja and atv loaded up. Spent the whole day yesterday deconstructing the rear and then reassembling it. Couldn't do anything more to it, so I started getting the Pup ready for next weekend's trip. Fab'd up a roof rack for it so that I could mount my solar panels. Went with 1.25in square tube because that was the smallest my "local" supplier had. Currently have about 230w from the two panels, so at full sun, I'll have about 13.5a of charging. My last Pup only had a single 100w panel that was good for 5-ish amps. Nothing like overkill to get the job done! Didn't want to drill into the top, so I used existing bolt holes on the sides with longer bolts and spacers to get passed the drip rails. Here's a couple pics:
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Those teenagers can't be spending ALL their time mowing the lawn. 
Many of the "lift kits" simple add taller blocks to the stock rear springs, if that's what you have that makes the rear adjustment very cheap and easy. 
