leaf spring flip

[explorer94]

iam trying to do a leaf flip on the back axel of my first gen x and was woundering how much of a lift i would get out of it. And one more thing iam going to be cutting the back cargo area roof off and was woundering if there is any wires or other crap i have to look out for? :exporange

 

[IZwack]

ahah i thought u wanted to flip the spring over to lower!!! but as you described, most of us here call that a "spring under axle" conversion.. or SOA for short. Quite a few of the members on this message board have done an SOA on the back axle.. use the Search feature of the message board, im sure you'll turn up plenty of threads about SOAs.

 

[Creager]

This is an issue that is described a LOT on this forum, but since I feel like explaining it (because I’ve never done it) ill tell yea what I know. Usually you gain between 5-6" of lift. 4" Lift with 95-present sport 'Mono-leafs'

Superlift and previously Skyjacker made what they called 'Axle relocation brackets...' which are pictured below.

These brackets 'Piggy back' the stock leaf spring perch, and also incorporate the shock mount, making this a very painless lift. The main drawbacks are the fact it’s known to make noise, and also is subject to breaking (which could be a catastrophe if you’re traveling +55mph)

Most people weld in Anti-wrap Leaf spring perches for a 3.25 axle tube (I believe). You want to weld them in parallel to the stock bottom perch. You can get them from Mopar for pretty cheap. From what I understand, a lot of people get 3" perches, and grind them down until the fit. Weld in perches would be your best bet.

If you have a welder its a 4 hour job, $25 dollar lift. If you don’t, take it somewhere to make it a $75 lift.

 

[TheRookie]

Actualy it should take you well under 2 hours if you know what you are doing at all. That bottom pic is exactly what you want to do. Note the lower shock mount location. Use that spot, right now the sway bar bracket is there. If you want to retain your sway bar thats fine, there is space to use that location anyway.
Now do NOT weld the perches on exactly the same as the facotry ones. 2 words PINION ANGLE. You should actualy rotate the axle up in the front a little. I just do it by eye and make tha angle from drive shaft to pinion about the same as it is stock. There are however better ways. If you make the perches exactly parrellel the angle will be insanely too steep

edit, also if you want to retain your sway bar (if you wheel it then dont) you will have to extend the end links. Just cut them apart and weld in some extensions.

 

[xplor_explorer]

What about cables?

What about the parking brake cables? dont they need to be extended? Speedometer cable? service brake line? do the hard lines need to be changed that go from the single flex line to the brake cylinders?

 

[j602]

Parking brake will not be long enough with SOA. Well, it might work, but it wasn't even close on mine with SOA and shackles. Speedo cable will be fine. For the rear brakes you just need to move/remount or bend the soft(rubber) line bracket before it joins up the the hard line.

 

[2001ExpSport]

"spring under axle" conversion..

How exactly does that work?

 

[IZwack]

AHAH my bad!!! i meant 'spring over axle'

 

[Baddecision93]

Some help?

Dragging up an old thread here trying to get a little help...

I finished up my SOA and my pinion is pointing slightly downward...My driveshaft splines slipped out of the tube so I know I need a longer driveshaft.

My question is what should my pinion angle look like? Can anyone maybe point me to a profile shot that shows me pinion angle, perhaps even with a SOA done?

I had my dad weld the perches (since I don't trust my welds in safety-sensitive situations) and I told him to match the old perch angle but now I'm wondering if he's off.

And reading above, why couldn't I take the old shock mount plates, flip them upside down and move them to the other side of the axle? That's what I did and mine seem to be mounted ok.

I would really appreciate some help with this, I need to get my truck straightened out ASAP so I can get it in for an alignment before I go away for the weekend.