Crimedog

Holy Crap! Insurance adjuster and I finally met and came up with a reasonable estimate, and so I brought the truck home and started working on it today. It took me all day just to get the leaf springs out Subtract a few hours for running around and making phone calls to try to find some u bolts, nobody had any Whover the assembling genius was on my truck, I want to thank them for putting the leaf eye bolts in from the inside to the outside, so I had to pull the tank halfway out Also for putting the rear ones in so that they hit the reciever so they had to be cut, too Our sawzall (not really a Sawzall- it's an off brand) petered out trying to cut the first bolt so I got fed up with it and finally fired up the arc welder to crank 'er up and cut them. Well it took me a half hour to find the extension cord for it Finally got one spring out and then the other side the bolt was seized with the metal piece inside the bushing so I had to cut the shackle in half to get it out - with the arc... Then I could cut the bolt in half and I was done. As I was straightening up a bit so I could move around a bit I dropped the air compressor hose on some hot metal and melted a hole in that... But, both springs are out and now I just have to put the new ones in tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be as eventful

Just a little heads up for folks who are thinking of swapping leaf springs, be prepared to cuss!

sherod

I love the little jobs . My wife has mentioned several times, " I thought you said this wouldn't take long".

Good luck putting it back together.

Ed

mikmaze

while they are out ya gonna get some taller springs for it? sem like a chance to "rise" to the ocasion.... hmmm then that puts ya to the front end issue........... never ends does it? watch the knuckles and good luck.

tool

I am willing to bet putting them back in will be no better.

I remmeber replacing springs and shackles on my F*rd.

No fun.

MARKY MARK

Yikes! I hope mine don't give me that much trouble. I'm going to take mine out soon to have them re-arched since the Skyjacker D25's raised the front about an inch higher than the back.

doodah

They can re-arch springs? where can they do that at? I might have to look into that!

Crimedog

It went a lot better putting them in considering I put the bolts in the easy way I took an old leaf and added it to each pack (2nd one fromthe top) and it raised it up a good 1-1.5 inches. The truck went into the frame shop today and sure enough the axle proved bent and they have 6 hours of frame straightening to do I drove it down the road and it drove fine, but I'm not going to complain about a new axle Only thing that sucks is I can't find a Dana 80 around anywhere close by

doodah

Hey, Matt! clean out your mailbox will ya!! tryin to drop you a line!

Crimedog

Well CRIPES, Shawn, send me a message then will ya I thought you were going to drop me a line

amartinson

Gee Matt, why didn't you just get a new rim and tire like the insurance adjuster said?

Crimedog

I totaled up the estimates and If I took the first one, it would have been $475. Right now the bill is about $4200 Just a little bit of a difference...

Oh and Andy, don't forget about the bumper step pad - that was included in the first estimate also...