Finally Lifted!

Trucks are wierd. I’ve talked to you before about the whole lift etc etc.

3” lift rear and 2” lift up front. I have no shims and have no CB drop and ecgs and my trucks operates normal.

I thought it would have been your duratracs because they are known to be hard to balance or most of the time I hear they are out of round from factory.

 

No it's not bad at all. I did it a couple of months ago. I have read a million different threads with a million different remedies. Crazy. Like he said - All trucks are different.

 

Didn’t I tell you this EXACT thing in the beginning because you were installing nearly the exact thing I currently run?

I went thru all this BS myself including taking the driveline off and having it professionally balanced. Sometimes it’s best to trust people with experience...oh well, glad you got it figured out even if you went about it the hard way

 

Guessing what degree shims or if you need a carrier bearing drop is a crazy mans game. Very simple to drop the drive shaft and measure trans output shaft angle and pinion angle on rear diff. As long as the two propellor shafts are parallel with each other then the two other angles meantioned above just need to be within half a degree of each other to solve vibrations. Socket wrench and angle finder for $10 is all that is needed. Literally.

 

And OP I've seen that pre-lift thread...those dudes are right, you ask a lot of questions...wait, you ask the same question a lot of times and in lots of ways. Lol.
I'm glad you finally got the thingg figured out and you're happy with your lift. That's the end goal for us all
Cheers to the weekend

 

I was about to install the shims (had bought them originally just in case) and the first set of guys removed the driveshaft and said the vibes were still there so the shims wouldn’t do anything. That’s why I never installed them. But then again today, the dealership did the same thing and said the vibes did go away so then I had them do it. Long drawn out expensive story... but seems to be good now.

 

The only thing I’m concerned about now is that they didn’t use bolt head lengtheners / collars so that with the shims installed the center pin bolt head sticks out more and fully seats into the axle. The tech said I should be ok along with the service advisor as enough of the bolt head was still showing to go in the hole. It was only a 1/8-1/4” though. I’m pretty sure the u bolts do the heavy lifting in that assembly but I might eventually get longer center pins and bolt head lengtheners/ collars for piece of mind. They said they stand behind the work. If my axle flies off they can buy me a whole new truck ... the beauty of having the stealership do it.

 

It would have been only like $30 to buy the parts and try them yourself. Add a CB spacer, take it for a drive and repeat.

New center pins are $5

 

What type of shims did they install? The ones that just slide in and are slotted or they took the center pin out and bolted in the shim to the rest of the pack?

 

Pretty sure they have a hole in the center so not just slide-ins.

 

If they have a hole in the center then they took your pack apart and put the center bolt through the shim and tightened down the nut. you said you went with dakars? I'm quite certain the dakars center bolt allows for you to put another leaf on it (making it the heavy duty pack) AND a shim so you're definitely fine. As far as the u bolts, unless you only had like 5 threads showing passed the nut prior to putting the shim in, then adding a 1/4" shim still leaves you with a lot of thread on the ubolts. As long as they retorqued your ubolts, your axle/leafspring/rear tires/front seats/passenger side mirro/grille will be perfectly fine. Lol.

 

Just glad it’s all good.

 

The shims have some height to them... I’d say thick side is over 1/4” and the thin side maybe an 1/8”. I wasn’t concerned about the center pin length as much as how much of the bolt head sticks out on the bottom where it sits in the hole of the axle. Maybe as long as enough of it sticks out to partially sit in the hole is all that matters? Just to have something to catch onto the axle? I do know the u-bolts are what really hold things together.

 

If the shim was added to the pack the same amount of bolt head is going through the hole in the axle.

 

Honestly I don’t know. Theoretically if the hole in the shim is large enough it could just slip over the existing bolt head (like the slide ons do). I’m just gonna trust what these guys did. I brought it up numerous times as a concern and they said it’s all gonna workout and it’s long enough.

 

I have the allpro standard duty leaf pack (roughly 3in of lift). I initially installed it with a CB drop spacer and no shim. I got really bad drive shaft vibes. I removed the CB drop spacer and it actually got better. It reduced the vibe tremendously, but the vibe was still there. I ended up adding the 3 deg shim to the leaf pack and no more vibes, rides super smooth.

 

It’s amazing how these manufacturers don’t have easier solutions since this stuff is so common. I still don’t understand how one identical truck can have issues while another won’t. Stock for stock, same mods, etc.

 

I've always assumed this had more to do with different people's tolerances for annoyances (vibrations, etc.) and also the varying ability/proper installation of backyard mechanics/independent shops. IE, Toyota probably builds a vehicle more consistently than the consistency of everyone's individual installations.

 

Update your thread first post so people doing this exact install can see exactly what you purchased including the shims. That would help greatly (myself included).

 

I could do that, but many seem to not need the shims. Which is weird to me but apparently mfg tolerances are that different.