Removing fact. leaf spacers????

[rockymntnhi]

My 98 Sport has 5 - 1/4" spacers loacated under the axle between the leaf spring and axle . I have a 1" sag in the rear, and was going to remove all but the last spacer. Is there any reason i shouln't do this ??? I'm also installing Warrior shacks and torsion twist.. any help will be appreciated

 

[south 30]

hey i have a 97 with the same problem. just last week i had put the under leaf helper leafs on it. it seemed to fix all my problems- the sag problem, vibration at 60-70mph. and my towing promblem. this was the cheap way out, other suggestions were-air bags, or the herwig helpers(but they could only fit on half the leaf.
hope this helps
dave

e-mail me if you want more detail

 

[Robert]

Originally posted by rockymntnhi
My 98 Sport has 5 - 1/4" spacers loacated under the axle between the leaf spring and axle . I have a 1" sag in the rear, and was going to remove all but the last spacer. Is there any reason i shouln't do this ??? I'm also installing Warrior shacks and torsion twist.. any help will be appreciated

First of all the leaf spacers have nothing to do with your ride height, the only thing they do is fill in the gap since the 4-doors have multi-leaf rear-ends. They serve to keep the shock absorbers at the right length. It allows for more upward travel on the shocks. Without them, the shocks would bottom out to early. Now for the good news! When you put your Warrior shackles on you can remove 3 of the 4 spacers. You will need to leave one in or else the shock mounts won't fit right. You can do this since the warror shackles will push your shocks down farther than they were ment to ride. By removing the three spacers you bring the shocks back up closer to their intended length. The advantage is that it brings your shock mounts up about 1 1/2" out of harms way.

One thing to keep in mind though, the pin is a ^@#$& to get off though! Once you remove the U-bolts, and drop the leaf slightly, the pin is round on top and you can't get a hold of it. Their is a nut on the bottom that is accessable once you remove the shock mount. When you turn the nut, the whole pin rotates. The first one I hammered a screwdriver in-between the spacers and made about 1/2 turn on the nut, hammered some more, turned some more. I went to Checker's and bought shorter bolts (2 1/2"x3/8" course thread) with nuts. They fit in right in place of the bolts that you will demolish and won't hang down like the original longer bolts would. The other side I had to get out my die-grinder and cut the bolt and nut in half to separate them. Once out I put everything back together using the new bolts. I then cut off about 1 1/2" from the U-bolts so they wouldn't drag.

Here is what it looks like with them removed:

 

[Jefe]

Originally posted by Robert
One thing to keep in mind though, the pin is a ^@#$& to get off though! Once you remove the U-bolts, and drop the leaf slightly, the pin is round on top and you can't get a hold of it. Their is a nut on the bottom that is accessable once you remove the shock mount. When you turn the nut, the whole pin rotates. . .

If the bolt through the leaf pack isn't too rusted you should be able to use vise-grips to hold the top while you undo the nut.

 

[Robert]

Tried them too as well as a pipe wrench. The problem with the pin was there was less than a 1/4" showing to grab onto. It was slightly recessed into the spring. The pin kept turning inside the vice grips. The pipe wrench provided enough grip to get the first side slightly loosened which allowed me to hammer the screwdriver inbetween the spacers to provide pressure on the pin. The second side I couldn't get anything to grip the pin so I just cut the nut off the bottom.

 

[rockymntnhi]

Thanx for the help... Held the top of the bolts with some channel-locks .... We finished the rear end in about an hour .... We used air tools so that might have made it easier?????? Thanx again for all the replies,,,,,,RAND....

 

[Robert]

Using my air-tools made mine easier than it would have been to not use them. I didn't try the channel locks since I couldn't get vice grips and a pipe wrench to hold it. That is when I got out my cutter and cut the bolt & nut in half.

 

[F'in Bob]

So Rocky, are you saying you did remove some of those spacers to get more lift? I have wondered that too since I have a sport too with the monoleaf...

 

[Robert]

Not Rocky, but . . .

No, removing the spacers does not give you more lift. All it does is brings the shocks up closer to the axle. If you lift the rear with longer shackles it will push your shocks farther away from the axle than they were intended to run. By removing the spacers you can get the shocks back to the stock height (at least closer). The added benefit is it brings the shock mounts up away from the ground which can prevent them from hitting objects when off road since they sit so low with the spacers. The quick answer is no, remove them if you have a lift, not to lift it.

 

[rockymntnhi]

F'n bob, Yeah what Robert said... I installed Add-a-Leaf so we removed 2 spacers to make up for the added height of the new leaf, actually 1 was enough, but I like to be Krazy so we did 2...Hope this helps

 

[Gonzo]

So if it took an hour w/air tools, how long did it take w/hand tools? Do the u-bolts hold on the shock mount, or something else? I heard that when you remove the u-bolts you shouldn't use them again. Is that true?

 

[CBoug76]

You can Re-use your U-Bolts. A lot of people do this.

 

[Alec]

I just reused my Ubolts with my spring swap. No worries.

 

[Robert]

Yes the U-bolts hold the shock mounts on and yes I re-used mine. I even cut the extra 1 1/2" off the bottom with my cutting wheel after I removed my spacers. The only reason I needed my impact wrench was because one of my bolts that held the leaf and spring pack together wouldn't budge. If yours are free with no rust then you can probably get it off with regular hand tools. Considering mine has spent its last 4 years in Arizona, I doubt that will be the case though. The four nuts on U-bolts could be gotten off with hand tools. It is the one through the center of the pack that will probably give you fits.

 

[Gonzo]

Thanks for the feedback. When you say "the bolt through the center of the pack", you are referring to the spring pack w/3 or 4 leaves right? Well, I have a sport which has only one leaf in the back. Do you know if it has that bolt through the middle of the spring?

 

[Robert]

Yes, mine is a Sport also with the mono leaf. There is still a bolt through the center that holds the single leaf to the 4 spacers. The only difference between it and the 4-door leaf pack is that instead of the extra leafs, Ford put spacer blocks in instead. Everything else is the same.