Lowering the rear end?
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Senior User
Joined: Nov 2004
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Lowering the rear end?
Just wondering what everybody is using to lower the *** end of their trucks. I know lot's of guy are lifting the front, but I am looking to just lower the rear end about 2 inches. Groundforce....Eibach....etc???? I want to keep a soft ride. Any suggestions.
Thanks in advance
Unloadit
Thanks in advance
Unloadit
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Joined: Oct 2004
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UnLoadIt: I took the 2" spacers out from under my leaf springs. Ford garage said it would be OK and the whole operation took about and hour. Not sure if your truck has these or not, but I have an FX4 that came with the towing package and it had the spacers right on top of the axle and below the leaf springs. I put some washers on the U bolts as the threads were not deep enough to run the nuts down tight after taking out the spacers. I am looking for some shorter U bolts to replace the originals so that they are not sticking down so far. Should be a stock item!?
Junior User
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 65
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From: Damascus. MD
I haven't looked at my rear axle and leaf spring good yet, but if the spacer you took out is wedge shaped it needs to go back in. There should be a wedge shapped piece between the axle and springs, this is there to get the pinion angle of the driveshaft correct. Also if the blocks you took out were square and they were between the spring and axle, you just changed your pinion angle. In some cases when the pinion angle is changed it could cause the driveshaft to bind. An easy was to check the pinion angles would be to buy an angle finder with a magnetic base. Craftsman makes one and you can almost always find them at sears. The only bad thing is you either need to fins someone that has the same vehicle as you do to check the original angle and compare it to yours with the block removed.
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Harrski - The spacer was rectangular with a nose piece that pointed toward the differential that was used for the frame bumper to hit instead of the axle in case of overload. There are two dimples on the bottom of the spacer and two holes on the top, kind of like a lego. After removing them, the leaf springs had holes that lined up with dimples on the top of each axle so that it would insure realignment. As for the pinion angle, the change would be no different then if there was enough weight in the bed to bring the box down 2 inches. In other words, the rearend was not rotated in pitch either up or down by the removal of the rectangular spacers. Now if they were wedges, than I would agree that the pinon angle would be changed and that would not be a good!
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Originally Posted by UNLOADIT
Do the shackles effect the ride at all?
I went with DJM shackles...the one shackle offers two lowering options...a 1.5in and 2in. I at first went with the 2 but then tried the 1.5 and like it better. TO ME these trucks look better with a little rake. Setting near level the lines just dont look right IMO. But the 1.5in drop was a huge improvment.