Help on leaf install

Gotchya. I was just wanting to do it right and use all the parts supplied but in the end that's exactly what I did

And after he linked the thread with pics and I got skinnier cut off wheels I got that baby off no problem. Took three charges of my brand new angle grinder battery however which sort of pissed me off.

All said and done I just finished up and brought my tools in for pretty much the last time... All I have left is to torque everything down in the morning now that it's on the tires. Thank you all for your help!! Funny I was so worried about having to use a spring compressor again and how much of a bitch the front was, then I blow through the front in a few hours pretty much flawlessly and struggle with the back for a couple days. Haven't really drivin it around except a little in the alley to make sure everything felt right and tight but it looks amazing.

 

glad you got it done!

Make sure you re-torque those u bolts after about 100 miles, then again after about 500.

 

Sooo I'm actually driving to Fairbanks in the next couple days and will probably be on the road at both of those mile stones. Also I don't own a torque wrench I rented one for this install... am I basically screwed and should just buy one? Or is there any way I can do this without purchasing one?

 

Just drop in on a mechanic in Fairbanks and ask them to do it. It will take them about 10 mins.

 

Well fairbanks is like a 2300 mile drive from portland. So basically what I'm asking is, will I be ok if I wait till I get up there? Or should I attempt to find some place to do it a couple times along the way?

 

can't find a town somewhere in Canada with a mechanic? I know it's tough trusting Canadians but looks like you have no choice

 

Oh holy crap. Well, I would definitely find a way to do it somehow over that long a trip under those conditions. Really, you are going to spend a ton on fuel. A torque wrench is about a tank of gas. I would just go to Sears and buy yourself a torque wrench of the appropriate rating. It is a perfect, and justifiable time to do it, and you'll have it for the long term to work on your truck and do things right. Hell, even spark plugs and drain plugs require a torque wrench.

You can get a beam type of 150 lb rating for ~$25 bucks or get a nicer breakaway type for about ~$60.

 

I probably can, and that's probably what I'll do.

While that is true, and I do plan on buying one. I would want a breakaway type and I'm a little strapped on cash now after lifting and will need to spend quite a bit on fuel and misc moving expenses. so I'll probably just stop somewhere along the way and have them check them for me. Unless i break down and decide to buy one later today. You never know.

 

honestly you could just get a big breaker bar and just make sure they aren't falling off every once in a while. Then when you eventually do get a torque wrench just torque them down. They're Ubolts, not rocket science. Just dont over tighten them.

 

Oh Also I went to goodyear to get an alignment this morning. They tried telling me my leafs were on upside down and needed 450$ to swap them. I looked up on my phone real quick to some TW threads proving them wrong that my leafs were actually installed correctly. The 3 mechanics sitting there staring at my truck all reluctantly agreed with me and said they didn't look like any leafs they'd ever seen.

Then he goes back to get another estimate for just the alignment and checking to make sure I have everything torqued and comes back with 80 for alignment and 150 for "labor"... I asked him what made the price of labor checking some bolts go from 25 (previous estimate) to 150 and he said that they were missing a bushing and would have to do "both the top and bottom of the shock". I told him the bushings were in and all he had to do was double check that they are torqued and he came back with well we weren't expecting a vehicle worked on by someone who has no business even changing their own oil. I sort of chuckled and asked to speak to a manager. He said he was the manager. So I asked him what I did to offend him, and what kind of suspension and tire shop is he running where he would have charged 450$ to take someones leafs off and put them back on upside down. He didn't even acknowledge me and told them to lower my truck and handed me my shocks that they took off.

Two of the other mechanics walk over and tell me they love my truck and would have done it the same way. The manager turns back around and walks over and yells at me to get out of his shop and hands me the keys. So look around and see a les schwab across the street and limped my truck over there and they put my shocks back on and torqued my ubolts down for 20$ and scheduled me for an alignment at 1.... What a great start to my morning.

 

First of all, press enter a few times lol Edit: you did after I posted this haha

second, that dude sounds like a dick. However, do you have any pics of the finished product? Just to ensure everything is on correctly. Not saying you did it wrong but it never hurts to get a second opinion before driving over 2000 miles on a new suspension.

 

Haha yeah I typed that out on my phone so I had to go back and fix the wall of text. I had the same thought and that's why I figured I'd get everything double checked while I was getting an alignment. I'll go outside and snap some pics and report back though.

 

Alright Here are the pictures; Everything look ok? Did I mess anything up too bad?

Side Shot :



Passenger Side :



Driver Side :



Shot of the back :



Shot of my new front end I did while I was at it :

 

The leafs are upside down. So is the rest of the truck.

 

FIXED!

 

I think it looks fine, except the lack of bushing on one side of the shackle is troubling (at least that is how it looks). I know you had some issues with this. Are these Dakars? And who did you get them from? I think you should double-check with the vendor to make sure they did not accidentally short you a bag of bushings. Every leaf eye shoud have two half-bushings, and each shock eye should have two half bushings. Is that what you ended up with?

BTW, you should publish the name of that retarded alignment shop and blackball them on this site. Idiots and thieves.

 

just make sure you retorque everything later

 

Yeah I hear ya. I was worried about that as well but didn't know what else to do. I don't see it doing damage or messing anything up too bad for the time being until I can correct it, do you? They are Dakars, and I got them from Down South Motorsports. It's not really what I ended up with because I couldn't get both halves in the leaf eye, they were too long to the point where there wasn't even any threading showing on the shackles with both halves in. and the shorter ones ( the ones I used for the shocks ) were a different thickness that wouldn't even fit in the leaf eye, but fit in the shocks. So I decided to just go with the way it is now even though I knew it was missing/wrong since I didn't see any other way they could possibly go with the parts I had.

Agreed. It was GoodYear Vancouver Tire Center. I really believe after seeing I was missing a bushing and thinking I put my leafs in upside down he assumed I knew nothing and tried to charge me 230$ for tightening 8 bolts and an alignment. When I called him out on it in front of everyone there, he insulted me and didn't even put the parts he took off back on and told me to get out. Ridiculous.

I'm planning on stopping a couple times on the drive up to Alaska to retorque everything.

 

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