Posted By: adventurer
The weekend lowering project - 09/07/10 04:24 AM
I thought I would share my weekend project with everyone. I recently bought an 85 d150 swd 2wd to fix up for my daughter. Well we decided to lower it using some of the tricks learned here. Using drop shackles and flipping the spring hangers in the rear and van LCA in front. I tought I would post this and it might help some one else along the way.
For starters here what it looked like before I started lowering it, I also took measurments to be able to check progress along the way.
First step in the lowering were a set of chevy 2" drop shackles.
Note the differnce in the orignal shackle and new ones.
The old shackle at the bushing end is 1/2" and the new one is 5/8" so I came up with the plan that the old shackle has a metal sleeve that is 1/2 i.d. and 5/8 o.d. so I took a 1/8 drill bit and drilled all around the rubber to get the sleeve out of the old one. A torch would have been easier by just burning the rubber out but I don't have torches at the house. The new shackle the bushing is about 3/8" to wide so with the sawzall
I cut 3/16 off each side of the rubber bushing and slid the metal sleeve from the old shackle and it worked like a charm. Hope you can see this in the picture.
So here is what the truck looked like after the shackles being installed.
This dropped the truck at the center of the rear wheel openings 1 3/4" and at the rear bumper 2 1/4"
Next step was the spring hanger flip at the front of the rear springs. After much chisling with the air chisel, here is the hanger removed and the center lines drawn for the new holes.
here are the hangers installed upside down. note the little bolt sticking throught the frame in front of the hanger this is the clamp bolt for the fuel lines. You can see the origianl hole for that bolt about an inch to an inch and a half below where I drilled and tapped the new hole moving the lines up so that will not be rubbing against the bolts in the hangers. Also did the same thing for the brake lines on the drivers side but moved it down to clear.
And here is the rear of the truck all lowered.
This lowered the truck in the rear at the center of the wheel openings a total of between both processes 3 1/2" and at the rear bumper 5".
Next it was on to the front, Using van LCA. I had a hard time tring to figure out exactly at where to drill the new holes for the strut rod bolts. The distance from the ball joint was no problem but how to determine where center was for the two holes. So i finally decided to find center of the pivot bushing run a center line to the ball joint and use that to measure exactly where the two holes needed to be. Maybe I'm over thinking all this but that strut rod postion I think is critical to control caster of the alignment. So here is a picture of the control arms.
On the left is the original in the center is the modified LCA note the ground of bump stop as well. On the right is what the van LCA looks like before you start. ON installing the LCA it's pretty straight forward unbolt & bolt. Have to drill the LCA pivot bolt mounting hole from 5/8" to 3/4". Also as putting back together make sure the spring is properly seated in its seats. When I did the first one, I got the truck together and set it down to only get 1/2" drop. I looked and said well this is disappointing along with other choice words. I had the upper part of the spring in off center and it was holding the truck up. So I jacked the truck up and with a crowbar and a big bang popped the spring back in place. set it back down and then it looked right.
And finally here is the picture of the finished drop. I'm sorry for the poor quality of this picture I will take a better one tomorrow and add it to this post.
So the final vedict on the drop, here are the numbers at the centers of the front wheel opening it is 3" at the rear its 3 1/2" at the bumpers starting with the front it droped 3" at the rear it ended up at 3 3/4".
As far as cost
$45 hangers
$40 LCA
$50 lower ball joints (optional)
$34 Front shocks (optional)
$20 3/4" drill bit to drill LCA pivot bolt hole
Free all my labor
$189 total
I think it really helped the look of the truck. This week the truck gets an alignment and tires and wheels. Also as soon as the new bushing kit comes in this week I've got a front swaybar setup from the junkyard that I'm installing.
For starters here what it looked like before I started lowering it, I also took measurments to be able to check progress along the way.
First step in the lowering were a set of chevy 2" drop shackles.
Note the differnce in the orignal shackle and new ones.
The old shackle at the bushing end is 1/2" and the new one is 5/8" so I came up with the plan that the old shackle has a metal sleeve that is 1/2 i.d. and 5/8 o.d. so I took a 1/8 drill bit and drilled all around the rubber to get the sleeve out of the old one. A torch would have been easier by just burning the rubber out but I don't have torches at the house. The new shackle the bushing is about 3/8" to wide so with the sawzall
I cut 3/16 off each side of the rubber bushing and slid the metal sleeve from the old shackle and it worked like a charm. Hope you can see this in the picture.So here is what the truck looked like after the shackles being installed.
This dropped the truck at the center of the rear wheel openings 1 3/4" and at the rear bumper 2 1/4"
Next step was the spring hanger flip at the front of the rear springs. After much chisling with the air chisel, here is the hanger removed and the center lines drawn for the new holes.
here are the hangers installed upside down. note the little bolt sticking throught the frame in front of the hanger this is the clamp bolt for the fuel lines. You can see the origianl hole for that bolt about an inch to an inch and a half below where I drilled and tapped the new hole moving the lines up so that will not be rubbing against the bolts in the hangers. Also did the same thing for the brake lines on the drivers side but moved it down to clear.
And here is the rear of the truck all lowered.
This lowered the truck in the rear at the center of the wheel openings a total of between both processes 3 1/2" and at the rear bumper 5".
Next it was on to the front, Using van LCA. I had a hard time tring to figure out exactly at where to drill the new holes for the strut rod bolts. The distance from the ball joint was no problem but how to determine where center was for the two holes. So i finally decided to find center of the pivot bushing run a center line to the ball joint and use that to measure exactly where the two holes needed to be. Maybe I'm over thinking all this but that strut rod postion I think is critical to control caster of the alignment. So here is a picture of the control arms.
On the left is the original in the center is the modified LCA note the ground of bump stop as well. On the right is what the van LCA looks like before you start. ON installing the LCA it's pretty straight forward unbolt & bolt. Have to drill the LCA pivot bolt mounting hole from 5/8" to 3/4". Also as putting back together make sure the spring is properly seated in its seats. When I did the first one, I got the truck together and set it down to only get 1/2" drop. I looked and said well this is disappointing along with other choice words. I had the upper part of the spring in off center and it was holding the truck up. So I jacked the truck up and with a crowbar and a big bang popped the spring back in place. set it back down and then it looked right.
And finally here is the picture of the finished drop. I'm sorry for the poor quality of this picture I will take a better one tomorrow and add it to this post.
So the final vedict on the drop, here are the numbers at the centers of the front wheel opening it is 3" at the rear its 3 1/2" at the bumpers starting with the front it droped 3" at the rear it ended up at 3 3/4".
As far as cost
$45 hangers
$40 LCA
$50 lower ball joints (optional)
$34 Front shocks (optional)
$20 3/4" drill bit to drill LCA pivot bolt hole
Free all my labor
$189 total
I think it really helped the look of the truck. This week the truck gets an alignment and tires and wheels. Also as soon as the new bushing kit comes in this week I've got a front swaybar setup from the junkyard that I'm installing.
when she rolls up
since there have been questions on lowering and van LCA's....
