Well with some down time while I continue to wait on Fedex, I decided to knock another item off the list today, and since I live down the road from summit racing, i'm always looking for an excuse to stop in. I ordered the bilstein 5100 stabilizer this morning and grabbed it during some errands today.

Came home and went to pull my old worn out pos non-functional one off, and immediately noticed an issue. My centerlink bracket is different.




Now I believe I can flip the bracket (the bolt holes are equally spaced either way), but do you guys think I need to go find an OEM bracket to put on there, or is there an aftermarket that works? Or is flipping it the route Im supposed to take?

edit after further review I think I need to just buy the factory style replacement.

 

Ordered a dorman bracket off scamazon for $75, however I always forget I have my new found local powerstroke and parts hoarder, gave him a call and waiting for a call back

 

Alright santa (fedex) finally showed up yesterday, gosh dang christmas miracle.

My superduty-parts-hoarder-new best friend pulled through and for $30 bucks I got an oem used stabilizer bracket. Big score.

New leafs arrived, got the drivers side old out, new leafs in and loosely mounted. Slight issue, I got the wrong u-bolts, and the picture I sent Jr at ATS was crappy, totally my fault, but Im hoping the local spring shop is in tomorrow and I can swing over and get the correct bolts, probably just trade the ATS ones for the proper square ones. Issue #2 is, and this may not be an issue yet, but the center pin doesnt seem like it wants to sit all the way down into the hole. This could be because I dont have any u-bolts on it yet to square and flush everything up, or it could be because I didnt get it all the way cleaned out (I picked, scraped and wire wheeled the heck out of it). I think once I snug everything up they will square up and it should sit down in the hole with full weight in the spring.

Heres some pics for your viewing pleasure, Ill take more detailed ones on the passenger side now that I know what im up against, and do a little what ive learned tips and tricks once im done.

Merry Christmas everyone, im off to cook steak and crab legs!

New springs!

doing some cleaning and prep.

You see the problem

If you didnt see that problem there, now you do!

Started out putting the front bolt in first, yes I know im an idiot and put the bolt the wrong direction for easier removal next time. Lesson learned.....again.

Used the ratchet strap around the axle and the floor jack to line with holes up with a big punch on one side, and just wiggled back and forth once I got the bolt started, slid right through.

This end was a bit easier in concept, but a royal PAIN in the butt as one person. Finally got the pry bar to not slip and the bolt again, slid right through.

New used bracket, cleaned it up and slapped some paint on it.

The gap im talking about, the springs arent 100% flush yet, will investigate tomorrow. I can get a better photo buts leaned in towards the truck a little bit.


Gotta love the rust.

Cheers, hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

 

is your truck an early 99? i can't remember the details but i believe you have early 99 front u-bolts

 

well, at least you’ve got the fenders off to help😉

when I added my brackets for my front hitch, 4 or 5 years ago this was the nut I had to loosen and remove (white arrow)on both sides with the tires off and was crouched into the wheel well with a hand breaker bar and socket….. I’m a big guy….but dang those are super tight from the factory😟

post edit: I found my picture



red arrow- breaker bar, green arrow - cheater pipe, yellow arrow - bumper bracket. While laying into it for all it was worth, I remember thinking “If this breaker bar snaps it going to hurt🫤”

 

Well I think I just have a Frankenstein. Late 99 under the hood, early 99 under the frame. One of those trucks.

And yeah those bolts are tough. Fenders on but bumper is definitely off. Nothing a 4’ cheater pipe won’t fix.

Proper bolts (square) SHOULD be here tomorrow, hope to have it back up and driving by end of week. Ended up having to order the U bolts from Ats as my local spring shop didn’t have what I needed and didn’t seem too interested in making me some (Glad I did this job myself &#128529. Gonna shoot ats an email and see If I can just send the other u bolts back for an exchange or partial exchange. Extra time allowed me to clean and paint (test some products) on a few things. I’ll post back soon.

 

awesome, can't wait to hear your thought's once you get to take it for a ride.

 

Put the ATS X codes on my 01, super duty. What a world of difference, rides like new again(I bought this truck new). The OEM springs were so wore out, every little dip or speed bump, it was bottoming on the stops. Also raised the front back to just an inch lower than the back, it was sagging 4” lower, so brought it up 3”. Happy new year everyone!

 

Little final update here. Got the correct u-bolts in late Friday evening, but had some other commitments so I got it all buttoned up and torqued down on Saturday morning. Sorry I didn't get any updated pics during the process, had to kind of be in a hurry, as I needed the truck back for this morning.

Couple tips for the project:
Make sure you have a cheater pipe. If you're working on a rust belt truck, im sure you already do, but those front spring bolts are TOUGH, even with a little heat, they still gave me heck.

Dont fight it if you can avoid it. The first (yes I had to pull it back out and grind down the center pin) time I put the driver side spring it, it fought me the entire way. Just a little patience, step back and figure out a way to work smarter and not harder. A 2" ratchet strap around the axle to the front tow hook literally lined the hole straight up. If you're doing this by yourself as I did, plenty of pry bars of varying lengths and 4 jack stands are a must have (the cheapo pry bars from harbor freight work just fine). I'm limited with my tools on hand here at the house as I have several tool boxes in 2 different shops, so unless I bring the tools home with me, I just make do with what I have. Im slowly building up another box here in the home garage, but space is limited until I buy or build a shed .

Having a friend for re-assembly will save you time, but isn't necessary. Just helps to have a little hillbilly ingenuity.

If your considering doing this. Do it.

I finished them up Saturday, and took it for a short 5-10mile drive to the in-laws to burn some boxes and miscellaneous lumber scraps down some very bumpy roads and I was BLOWN away. I had almost considered doing my body mounts but they don't look terrible and with the rust, I know what can of worms that entails, and I am so happy to find out this cured my problems. Got home Saturday night and did a quick oil change (about to make a thread about this) and looked over all my work to make sure everything was still tight and secure. Today I had to haul some junk for a guy and got to really shake it down on the highway, and there is a bridge transition I cross regularly that was always a jesus take the wheel moment before, cruised right over it like a Cadillac doing 70 today. I cannot believe the difference. (disclaimer this some of this could be coupled with the new bilstein 5100 stabilizer I installed during all of this. The old one was so worn out, once I compressed it, I couldn't get it to extend for the life of me).

Still need to straighten out the steering wheel (its pointed to about the 10-11 oclock position as I gained about 2" of lift), and plan to take it to have it aligned and the wheels rebalanced (thanks to the people who mounted the tires placing the weights on the rear to the inside of the rim making it impossible to rotate them to the front as they will hit the caliper). I have this thread bookmarked, will post up here in a few months once I get the tires rebalanced and rotated and have a few thousand miles on it to confirm whether or not this contributed to my front tires wearing more to the inside.

 

I changed out my front springs a couple of months ago and not only was the difference dramatic, but I had also forgotten how good these trucks can ride. I also put the longer late model rear springs and that changed the whole truck - it was also very noticeable. I used ARB OME 2.25" for the front springs and Accutune Fox shocks front and rear and my 25 year old truck is really a pleasure to drive ride wise.

 

I've been thinking about swapping my fronts to a set of Deaver springs. Also thinking about doing the newer longer rear springs using deaver as well. I feel like my front is pretty good as is on stock springs, my issue is the rear, especially on concrete roads. However my truck is a dually and has higher rate springs to start with. Luckily I was raised on 70's ford trucks and am used to trucks riding like trucks.
I think I'm going to call Trevor tomorrow and talk to him about some things he offers now.

 

I considered going multiple thin leafs (ie Deaver, OME) on the rear but it seems that you lost some load capacity; with the PMF Deaver, they claim 10% less and with the OME, they recommend that you add an overload spring for HD apps. It also seems to me
that type of spring is often ran with the long travel air bag. If it were me and I had a dually, I would match the rate of your current springs (or stock rate) to the new ones I think you will be surprised at the difference - that's what I did. When I hook up my boat, I think the new springs actually sag less, which surprised me. I may stir up the skeptics here, but IMHO, the big difference in the ride of later Super Duties has more to do with the rear springs than the fronts as long as the fronts are in good condition and a reasonable spring rate - of course I would prefer the tighter turning radius and bigger brakes that you get with the coil spring fronts. I think my truck now rides about as good as any of the later model trucks that I've rode in.

 

This is exactly why I do all of my own work on my vehicles. I have seen some crazy stuff come out of shops with my own eyes. Not to say it was a bad mechanic or this or that, but people have bad days, and I don't like paying $150+ an hour for a bad day.