It shall ride again!

I guess this is suspension, it's down there so...Money finally gave me a little slack so I bought a used rear end off a guys parts truck. It looks pretty good, I can't really see any visual leaks. I got a guy that could most likely take a look at it and make sure everything is ok. The guy I got it from told me if it shits out he'll give me half my money back but he's pretty sure its not gonna.

So I figure I should probably replace the axle seals and possibly breaks and get some AMSoil fluid then put it on. Anything else I should look for before I bolt it up


Jake



btw- I already have 3'' blocks on the back with air shocks and the bars cranked in the front. While I have everything apart I'm gonna shave the bump stops down and remove a couple leaf springs. If anyone could take some pictures of how to flip ball joints or just a picture of a finished job I could probably do that also.

As for the BJ flipping. 1. Do a search and you'll find some info.

As for what I can offer:



This shows the lower bj flipped and installed.

For the upper, it is currently installed under the upper control arm. Just unbolt it and bolt it through the top of the upper control arm...it's real easy lol.

As for the lower. Once you have the wheel off and the spindle unbolted from the control arm, you'll see how the bj is bolt to the arm from underneath. Unbolt the bj, and you'll notice that there's a hump in the control arm where the bj was mounted. Take a grinder and cut off this hump. Repaint, and mount the bj to the top of the control arm now where you ground off the hump. Keep the bj pointed down! (If you have 16" or bigger wheels you can point the bj up and really have it slammed, observe the lower pics below )

This pic below shows the upper flipped, and how the lower needs to be cut:



Now for the slammed!

This is with the bj pointed upward...can't do unless larger wheels, or the right offset is available: (I couldn't tuck the wheels I had and still turn the wheel due to the offset)






And now I am like this:



I got this way by, flipping the front bj's, reindexed the torsions 2 notches (had to replace the t-bolts due to bolt breaking, so while I was at it I reindexed), monoleafed rear with overload spring, 3" angled blocks, shaved rear bump stops, air shocks in the rear, Isuzu shox up front with bump stops removed.

I keep my rear end aired up a bit or else I'll ride on the shaved bump stops, so up front and in the rear I have about 1" of travel lol. The front still has the bump stop brackets...for now, and that's what I hit on hard bumps with the lower control arm...making for some hard hits on big bumps. The ride is fine on most roads, no bounceyness, but tightens your butthole when you see a bigger bump ahead

I haven't decided to remove the bump stop brackets. I may end up just going with dropped arms if I can find some used but on the cheap Then I can probably put the bump stops back in and have an even better ride.


Ok enough knowledge for today spent....oh the headaches

Oh yeah, I will be shortly changing to 195/50/15's up front and mounting the current 195/60's in the rear, so I'll be down another inch up front, and probably 2"s in the rear Shall need no more drop than that lol.


****Edit

Wow just looked at a tire size calculator and found out:

195/60/15 = 24.2" diam
195/50/15 = 22.7" diam

So I shall gain about 1.5" more drop in front by tire swap

215/65/15 = 26" diam
195/60/15 = 24.2" diam

So I shall gain about 1.8" more drop in the rear by swapping front tires to the rear

Thats a very nice description with great pics. Hopefully this will help others also.

Putting the balljoint facing up puts the control arm a little too close to the ground for my comfort. I've already ripped a control arm completely off the frame on one of my old trucks. I hit a manhole that they had stripped the road around it so it was sticking up about 6 or so inches. I hit it pretty hard and it completely broke the control arm away from the frame. The ball joint was the other thing holding it together.

I was lowered with flipped ball joints, no torsion bars bottomed out on toxic shocks. Yes, I was young and dumb at one time. lol

Wow, I think I'll just be shaving some bump stops up front and leaving the ball joints alone. I'm thinking I'm gonna just put some smaller tires if I don't like how she looks.

I THINK THIS SHOULD BE PUT UP IN THE TECH SECTION AND STICKIED. JUST MY OPINION , MAKES ME WANT TO GO OUT AND DO IT BECAUSE ITS SO WELL EXPLAINED LOL . GOOD JOB

You can flip your ball joints with no problems and leaving them facing down. hes talking about taking the lower ball joint and flipping it over so it points up. That would lower you about 3 inches, but it puts the lower control arm very close to the ground unless you're running pretty big wheels.

Great information and easily understood. I've already flipped the ball joints and have the lower joint pointing down still but now I wanna go out and see about pointing it up. (depending on clearance)