1st Gen Suspension shocks etc

If you have a 'level kit', get rid of that and 'get the right shtuff.'

Those level kits eventually kill your coils.

I suggest looking in to adjustable CO's. They will make your life easier while off road and perform many times better.

 

one more thing. when was the last time the lower ball joints were checked or replaced. You'll need some blue lock tite for the lower ball joint bolts when you put it back together.

 

From what I have been Able to determine, yes it’s a level kit, or leveling kit or whatever my truck is definitely higher than stock and I’ve never done anything to it suspension-wise.

I’m going to need to do leafs, coils and shocks all around here soon. 365,000 and I’ve had it for about 100,000. Nothing has been done to the suspension. She needs it bad

and I’m not sure about it killing the coils, it may, but my CV bootss just get f*cked

 

I would like to keep the truck a similar height Once I do everything, so I’m not sure what I would need to get. I think the rear leaf shackle that is on my truck now is longer than stock and there’s an extra leaf*, and some kind of shim on the top of the coil plate. From what I’ve been able to find that’s a leveling kit... right?

* not 100% sure about that

 

I haven't had the lower ball joints checked or replaced. I was looking at the them today and they didn't show any obvious signs of issues as far as I could tell. Sounds like that's something to consider getting replaced?

 

Unless you want this to happen
Mine were in really bad shape and like 340,000 miles also, if I would have known I would have replaced them when I bought it at 26x,xxx miles.
I wasn’t aware, at the time it failed, of the potential issue

 

Well great, now you’re making me nervous because I can’t remember if i did that Locktite. Come on!!! I’m going to go check the torque now. Does anyone here happen to have the LBJ torque on hand?

 

I'll pass on that lol

 

I still thank the stars that I was only pulling out of the driveway, not heading down the highway, which is where I would have been if it had failed 3–5 minutes later....

 

was it difficult to replace?

 

Just did these shocks and had to re build them. Took me a while to figure it out lol.. if you pm I can detail the parts I bought and process I took

 

Meh, I mean, if it weren’t for having to drag the jack out into the street and fix it right there, it’s a pretty straight forward replacement. There’s quite a few threads on here that go over LBJ replacement
But it was really hard In The street And I had to jack it up from the weirdest angle. It sucked. Do it before that happens. At best your truck is fine like mine, at worst, it could cause a fatal accident at highway speeds. I can’t even imagine what would happen

 

haha, yeah that's not ideal location.

 

I almost bought 5100's and an AAL a couple times but kept talking myself out of it to buy coilovers. I would still need an AAL to raise the rear, right? Even if I used 5100's on the top setting in the rear?

 

here's a good video on checking lower ball joints. Timmy the Tool Man has several repair video's that are awesome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rteeAOQlrKY

 

just watch the Timmy the tool man video I posted

 

well now I'm not sure... I found this "leveling" kit on LCE and I dont something like that . What I have is something more like this but for a 95.5-04, an extra spring, and a puck on top of the coils I guess, but I dont think I have a 3" lift.

With a 3" lift, how high off the ground (approx.) is the top of the wheel well?

And for adjustable CO's what would be a good brand to look into?