I know and Im sorry. I have read the posts on lifting but need some help.

I just want to make sure that Im doing this right on this first photo. photo1

This block is what was under the rear leaf springs, is this the stock block that came with this truck? I did the reverse shackle lift and would like to know if I need to stick this back in. I did the reverse to lift the truck. Im now going to build heavy duty shackles for the rear to carry more height. The block is a 4" one. ( 79 f250 4x4 crewcab )

My mine question is this (photo 2) , I want to lift the front to level it out to the rear. If I stick a add a leaf 2" lift under the front springs and then lengthened the front mount down (out of 3/16) and welded this to the front mount and lowered the bushing hole 2 1/2 " then lengthened the front rear shackle down 2 1/2 " would that level me out? Plus would this keep my pinon at the same angle?
photo 2 photo 3

Thanks

 

That block in photo 1 is the stock block that came with the truck. If you do the shackle flip, as you did, and remove the block you'll basically end up with no additional lift since the few inches that were gained with the shackle flip were taken out when you removed the block. Put the block back in if you want to lift the rear 3" or so. Also, I can't tell if the weight of the truck is sitting on the rear springs or not but from that picture your rear shackle angle looks very wrong. You'll probably need to move the hanger a couple inches forward to get the shackle angle right. Check my shackle flip gallery to get an idea of the proper angle.

Your plan for the front is what I've done on my truck. Drop the front of the spring more than the rear (front hanger longer than the shackle) because you want to point your pinion up a bit. You probably have a CV joint on the front driveshaft at the T-case end. This being the case, you ultimately want the pinion to point straight to the front yoke on the t-case. If you drop the front of the spring 2" and the rear 2.5" you're going to have a poor pinion angle and have driveshaft vibration issues. My advice is to leave the front spring shackle alone for the time being and try dropping the front mount once your add-a-leaf is installed. Play around with that front mount until you have the pinion angle correct.

 

Sweet ride you have.

Ok , I see what you mean on the front. So should I drop it down about 2" since I'll have a 2" add a leaf?

No I dont have the rear springs attached yet, I was waiting to see if I was going to install the 4" block back , which Im. I'll take another photo when I have it set so I can get your opion on the angle.

Also do you have any pictures of the front mount so I can get a idea of how to do that? I have a idea but just would like to make sure . I'll look again in your gallery to see.

Thanks

 

The best pictures I have of my front hangers are in the Flex gallery. I used to have more detailed pictures but saw a lot of people posting up here who were trying to copy them, only half-assed and dangerously so I decided to pull the pics. I can't stress enough how important it is to have those front hangers reinforced and welded to the frame. Build it BEEFY because with these trucks, particularly as heavy as yours is going to be, it's an incredible amount of stress on those hanger bolts. When you drop that front a couple inches it provides a lof of leverage that can sheer the bolts and/or crack the frame around the bolt holes. If you slam on your brakes suddenly 70% of the stress will ride on that one mounting point so it's important to make it stout, otherwise it can be very dangerous.

I'd recommend you build a long hanger that you can bolt up temporarily. Drill your holes at 2" down and test fit everything. Inspect the pinion angle. If you don't like it you can drill another set of holes and just move it until you have it right. Once you find a combo that you like you can trim the excess material off the hanger and weld it in place.

Btw, you CAN make longer shackles for the front springs but you need about double the length at the front hanger to keep the pinion angle right. So unless you're going for a lot of lift I don't think you'll need to lenthen them.