starting my drop project soon.......parts are on order

[moregrip]

Nice! Looks awesome!!! Curious to get your feedback on the ride quality/performance.


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Thanks brother, let me get some miles on her today and I'll report back! I do need an alignment though!

Looks great! Congrats!

Thanks man, I'll post up some better pics soon

 

[moregrip]

Just got done driving the neighborhood, freeway, whatever bumps I could find etc etc. I will say this, it drives quite differently now. Very responsive, rides firm but not overly.....the way the power is applied is different which I wasn't expecting but probably should have........the tires definitely break loose under different conditions now; a little relearning the new characteristics going on. Had her up to about 75+.....no vibes anywhere with my pinion set 4 deg up from level.

The suspension likes to talk to me now, definitely more noises going on down there vs stock..... Going to check things out and see if anything is self clearancing itself........may be the panhard bar some talk about.....other than that there is nearly zero fwd to back slop in the control arms so putting the truck in gear is noticeable as well as some of the fwy downshift accelerations.

Stock shocks feel fine. They don't feel overly stiff or bouncy. So good enough for now.

 

[moregrip]

Alignment scheduled for tomorrow. Doing a little maint in the meantime:

 

[moregrip]

close up:

Rear is roughly 1" taller than the front

 

[Ak47bravo]

close up:

Rear is roughly 1" taller than the front

Looks really good! I am curious to see how much your springs settle. My front and rear sit pretty much dead even (at least visually... actual measurements from the ground to fender could vary).

 

[adurm]

I could be wrong but aren't you supposed to wait a week or so before alignment to let it settle?

 

[moregrip]

I could be wrong but aren't you supposed to wait a week or so before alignment to let it settle?

not sure about that one but it wouldn't be too hard to re-schedule. Thanks for the tip, let me look into that some more.

 

[moregrip]

ok it appears "some" of the suspension noise was generated from a grade 8 fender washer I left in that drop down hoop lookin fame piece just above the rear diff

so after removing that offensive washer and some further spirited driving I believe the main situation I hear noise now is when the rear suspension unloads......beyond that it's not too bad at all.

according to my "calibrated" eyeball, the rear suspension rides about a inch below the bumpstop and the front about 1/4"

 

[Ak47bravo]

ok it appears "some" of the suspension noise was generated from a grade 8 fender washer I left in that drop down hoop lookin fame piece just above the rear diff

so after removing that and some further spirited driving I believe the main situation I hear noise now is when the rear suspension unloads......beyond that it's not too bad at all.

according to my "calibrated" eyeball, the rear suspension rides about a inch below the bumpstop and the front about 1/4"

Can you take a picture of the front bump stop in relation to the control arm?

Also, the rear axle in relation to the bump stop?

 

[moregrip]

Can you take a picture of the front bump stop in relation to the control arm?

Also, the rear axle in relation to the bump stop?

yessir, I'll snap those for you tomorrow

 

[moregrip]

The alignment is done. 5 deg caster driver, 5.5 deg caster passenger, 0 camber, 1/16th toe in. Rear was off 1/4" on the drivers side and panhard was off a bit off as well, but overall, not too bad.

She drives pretty damn good now. I did get her to bottom out finally, not sooo bad, but still not what I want to feel.....I think shocks with better valving will help that out a bunch along with some rear air bags in the coils.

Ok, heading to the garage for final measurements

 

[Alaskanpeeps]

Might as well throw up a few more pics as well

 

[moregrip]

sooooooooo, I blew my drivers rear shock, lol, I guess that's what I get for being frugal! errrr "cheap"...........suppose I should invest in some properly sized rear shocks now.....hmm....

So beyond that discovery she still drives like a champ!

Final ride height numbers to the lower edge fender lips

LF 34 1/4"
FR 34 5/8"

LR 35 1/4"
RR 35 5/8"
so about a 1" rake now rear to front; when I get the staggered tires mounted up that will go up another 3/8"

Only thing I was not able to install so far is the 1 1/4" rear sway bar; need to fab up an adapter plate and then she'll be gtg.

Really enjoying this project

 

[Ak47bravo]

sooooooooo, I blew my drivers rear shock, lol, I guess that's what I get for being frugal! errrr "cheap"...........suppose I should invest in some properly sized rear shocks now.....hmm....

So beyond that discovery she still drives like a champ!

Final ride height numbers to the lower edge fender lips

LF 34 1/4"
FR 34 5/8"

LR 35 1/4"
RR 35 5/8"
so about a 1" rake now; when I get the staggered tires mounted up that will go up another 3/8"

Only thing I was not able to install so far is the 1 1/4" rear sway bar; need to fab up an adapter plate and then she'll be gtg.

Really enjoying this project

Why do you think it blew? A lot of guys run the stock shocks and do not blow theirs. Just circumstances? Can you feel that it is blown? Or do you just see oil leaking down the shock body?

 

[moregrip]

AK, here are the pics:

 

[moregrip]

Why do you think it blew? A lot of guys run the stock shocks and do not blow theirs. Just circumstances? Can you feel that it is blown? Or do you just see oil leaking down the shock body?

oil leaking down the shock body......probably blew because I was looking for things (terrain) to bottom out on to really cycle the suspension so I know what it feels like. I don't plan on driving her easy

 

[moregrip]

AK, here are the pics:

I almost want to cut the rear cup off like I did the front and run a similar bumpstop........thoughts

 

[Ak47bravo]

I almost want to cut the rear cup off like I did the front and run a similar bumpstop........thoughts

Assuming you can get a bolt through it and secure it above like how the fronts are done. I feel like my fronts are spaced the same as yours. BTW, there is SO much space! Clearly there is something very wrong with mine, because you look like you have a good 1"+ of space between the axle plate and the bump stop.

So then the question is why the hell are mine so close? I mean ****, I guess it is possible the springs I got in the rear are wrong. There is a product # on the actual coils. Are you able to see that # on your rears?

I can not remember where on the coil the product # is located (not sure if you could see it now that yours are installed). Though if you can see them, I would like to compare.

Thanks for the pix!

 

[moregrip]

Assuming you can get a bolt through it and secure it above like how the fronts are done. I feel like my fronts are spaced the same as yours. BTW, there is SO much space! Clearly there is something very wrong with mine, because you look like you have a good 1"+ of space between the axle plate and the bump stop.

So then the question is why the hell are mine so close? I mean ****, I guess it is possible the springs I got in the rear are wrong. There is a product # on the actual coils. Are you able to see that # on your rears?

I can not remember where on the coil the product # is located (not sure if you could see it now that yours are installed). Though if you can see them, I would like to compare.

Thanks for the pix!

Honestly, sounds like you got a bad or wrong set of rear coils, I'd ask BellTech to swap them out for you. BTW, I really like the adjustable arms.

If it were me, even if I was as frustrated as you have been (justifiably so) I would consider saving the upper arms simply for the ease of adjusting your pinion angle.

 

[DavidRam]

BTW, there is SO much space! Clearly there is something very wrong with mine, because you look like you have a good 1"+ of space between the axle plate and the bump stop.

So then the question is why the hell are mine so close? I mean ****, I guess it is possible the springs I got in the rear are wrong.

I remember very clearly that my rear bump stops were as close as yours and I even posted that here somewhere (I looked for a picture, but can't find one). I thought it was so close that it was probably going to ride on the bump stops most of the time... So I cut about an inch off of it.

Honestly, sounds like you got a bad or wrong set of rear coils, I'd ask BellTech to swap them out for you. BTW, I really like the adjustable arms.

If it were me, even if I was as frustrated as you have been (justifiably so) I would consider saving the upper arms simply for the ease of adjusting your pinion angle.

Was your spare back in when you took the pictures? If not that could be part of the reason why yours sits a little higher than AK47s...