another 4door leaf ?

[bobdreadknot]

well i got under the truck today and i just cant seem to figure our how to get the leaves off without the truck falling. i figure that you put the rear axel on jack stands and use the jack to crank up one side at a time because once you remove the leaf it will cave in on that side. am i right or completely stupid on this matter?(if so try not to rub it in to much)

 

[jasonb]

put the jackstands under the frame.

 

[bobdreadknot]

on both sides and then jack up the axel in the middle or one side at a time to hold it up?

 

[Alec]

It's best to put each framerail on a jackstand at or just before the spring perches. Then do what you want with the rest of the rear suspension.

Don't forget to chock the front wheels so it doesn't roll.

 

[jasonb]

put jackstands under the frame on the left and rightyou don't have to jack the axle up at all. it may help to jack it if you need to add or release tension in the spring though. if you jack it up, don't use the diff as a jacking point.

 

[bobdreadknot]

it looked like the axel would fall because the leaf is the only thing attached to it. what else is there

 

[jasonb]

brake lines..

the axle won't fall if you don't jack it up. the tires keep it there. jack the truck up some and put the stands under the fram where alec said. then you have to remove the 4 nuts on the ubolts where the springs attach to the axle as well as the nut and bolt at each end of the spring where it attaches to the frame.

 

[bobdreadknot]

oh ok so i can leave the axel alone and still get this **** off. and those bolts that are on the end of each leaf are hard as hell to get off

 

[jasonb]

try not to get underneath the vehicle if you can help it.

spray some wd40 on the bolts a few times the days before you plan to do the work

 

[bobdreadknot]

did that. and i found some 2 year old mud under there to as well im trying to be as informed as much as possable but other quistions seem to pop as im looking at it. it took a few friends but we lossened the bolts and by that time they had to leave so we tightned them back up and went our ways with nothing accomplished.

tomrow will be another day. what is a good time for all this. as in how long will it take to do both?

 

[Alec]

The first time I did it with help it took about 3 hours to swap everything out. Now with a friend I could do it in about 1 hour if the bolts cooperate.

But budget at least 5-6.

 

[bobdreadknot]

i thought that a good saturay morining would suffice. sounds good to go. thanks for the info.

 

[ld50]

There`s lots of pictures on the site here of the proceedure, I got a writeup in my mod thread with some good pics as well

Alec, seeing that VW is just weird!

 

[bobdreadknot]

yah when i saw it the first time i didnt know it was you

 

[jasonb]

look for a thread that CBoug76 did. he did a very detailed writeup of the swap. i think its in the useful thread section.

 

[Hokie]

Try to put the jack stands as far back as possible. When I put the jack right infront of my front leaf hangers and raised it, the damn front of the truck started to lift as the vehicle was starting to rock on the jack. We couldn't move the fulcrum any further back so we went up just as little as possible and put more jackstands under the back of the truck to keep it from rocking back. Needless to say, jacking the rear of the truck for a bit then watching the front wheels start to lift was an unnerving experience.

I would recommend taking the wheels off and putting the frame on jackstands and a jack under the diff to hold it in place. Having it free while swapping the springs helped with lining everything up.

 

[Alec]

Once again: do not jack or jackstand from the diff; or be extremely careful when doing so!

 

[jasonb]

i think hokie means just to hold the axle off the ground since there are no tires/wheels attached. in that case, i think you'd be fine.

did you have a few anvils in the back of your x hokie?

 

[sk1er17]

hmmm... i wish i read a post like this a loooooooong time ago--- what exactly is bad about jacking up from the diffy? --- does the cover extend a little below and that puts a lot of strain on it or something?

 

[jasonb]

its just a weak spot and if the tires are on, that adds more strain to that single spot. if its just the axle alone.. you don't have anything to worry about really