AAL what’s needed

Guys I’m trying my best to arm myself with knowledge before I decide to lift my truck lol. That being said, what exactly is needed to install a add a leaf set? From my limited research I’m guessing a AAL would be best to lift the rear a couple inches?
All I have is a couple jacks, some jack stands and the basic tools to shade tree mechanic.
Thanks for any input!

 

That is all you need. Some clamps to hold leaf pack together and hack saw to cut center bolt to length once new leaf in place. Torque wrench as well for the u bolts. Single aal typically reuse original ubolts as they will be long enough. A progressive aal pack with three leaves usually comes with new bolts. Both should come with a new bolt to bolt the leafs together, which you then cut after everything is together.

 

Awesome, I just wanted to make sure before I begin diving in. Is there any kits that may be better than the others? I’m planning on getting 5100s and coils from wheelers off-road for the front.

By kits I mean for the AAL.

 

I'm happy with the Wheelers kit. I need to look at my pictures when I get home to see if I have any tricks to make spring alignment easier.

 

Nice. I really appreciate the help. I can’t find hardly any videos on first gen stuff online. It’s all 2nd and 3rd gen.

 

Stupid easy; just make sure to buy a second set of jackstands, taller than the set you already have, so you can support the frame.

The higher you lift the frame, the more room you'll have to lower and manipulate the rear end to ease the removal of your leaf pack.

 

If your truck is at all rusty, you need to plan on cutting the u bolts off and replacing. Also, some say you can put a 1st gen AAL in without removing the spring pack, but Ive done 2 and found it very hard to do without over extending the ABS wire and brake line. So I remove the entire leaf spring when I do them. If you have to do that, get new front bolts for them too as you may have to cut em out.

 

I mentioned that in the last thread but not in this one; good looking out!

This is especially true @austinsdad99; if you have rust, just buy new bolts and cut all the old ones off.

 

I live in the southeast so no rust issues here thankfully. I’m thinking about just going with the wheeler AAL kit. I think it’s a 1.5 inch.

 

Heres mine with that spring in the back and OME 880 coils up front.
I also have wheelers 3 degree axle shims installed, they gave me another quarter inch or so in the back.

 

Nice ride. Looks nice and level. How many inches did you get up front?

 

How long would it take a average skilled person to do?

 

Hard to gauge what an "average skilled" person is considering most don't even know how to check their temperature fluid level properly.

With that being said, I've done my own leaf spring swap in 4-5 hours.

Clamping the leaf pack, cutting off the center pin, adding the leaf, and tying it together should add another half hour?

In a garage, outside of the elements, I'm sure someone will knock it out faster.

 

Prob 4 hrs max. Less than 2 hrs per side.

OP. Toytec also makes a nice aal. Ran one for years before going to full leaf packs.

Be sure to wd-40 or PB blaster all the nuts and bolts starting a couple days earlier.

You need 2x C clamps as mentioned above. They don't have to be huge. I think mine were only 6 or 8 inches.

 

All my hardware looks fine, will I need longer ubolts for a single AAL or can I reuse the stock ones? I plan on installing 5100s in rear as well.

 

Very good point @Kwikvette . I often forget that everybody may not have 6 or 12 ton jack stands and a 2 or 3 ton floor jack available. You need to be able to lift the frame up high enough so the rear axle can swing low enough to work on the springs with the shocks out of the way.

Here's the video (made with a 2nd gen) below that I watched to to get ready for the job. Also, I installed the shim that I got from Wheelers like the guy in the video. I didn't know if I would really need the shims when I bought them. After everything was installed, I managed to get rid of a small amount of drive line vibrations that were present before the installation. YYMV on whether a shim is needed for your truck. The guy in the video below is working with a lift that gives him an advantage.

There are some missing frames in the video where I think a helper or some technique was used to align the springs that we can't see. This is the part where I hit trouble.

Note that I was working alone with a bad shoulder that sometimes limits my range of motion. So I often develop crutches (guide pins) to help in places where I often don't have a 2nd set of hands. I'm not sure why, and it may have come from reading other member posts about AAL installation on a 1st gen, but I removed the springs (one side at a time) to install the AAL. Looking back, I think it may have been easier to work with the springs off the truck than on it.

In the image below, I have a picture of what I did to work around missing video frames. After purchasing the AAL + Shim kit, I found I had four spring bolts (two extra). I took one of the bolts and ground off the tip to make a guide pin for aligning the springs before I installed the alignment bolt. That let me make a guide pin that was the exact size of of bolt that I needed to insert. I had tried to align the springs with a Phillips screwdriver. The problem I had with that was the screwdriver size was either too large to go into the hole or too small to give a good alignment. If the springs are not in perfect alignment over the bolt hole, the threads may become damaged from scraping against a misaligned spring.

https://youtu.be/Eq9nv_3vU4Y

Here's a picture of the C clamp that I used and the guide pin that I made from one of the extra bolts. Any bolt from a hardware store or old bolt that is the same MM thickness as the spring bolt will work.

 

Replace the u bolts.

 

Just the back? 4-5 hrs tops. Entire lift on all 4 corners? Maybe a solid day. The 2nd gens have their differences. Imo, the fronts are way harder but the back is easier than a 1st gen.

Always replace ubolts, they are technically torque to yield.

With the 4 cyl, I got 1.75" on the nose up front. V6's get 1.5" I hear. So the 1.5" spring paired with the shims in the back leveled it up real good.

 

Have a look and see how much threads you have.
I believe my toytec kit came with new u bolts and a lpv bracket.

Edit:nm, it was just the TAC-AL leafs and nothing else.

 

Will do. Do you happen to have a part number for that toytec AAL kit?