The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Finished Axle Flip Instructions

To the guy that was interested (and anyone else) about the rear axle flip in my 58 apache, I will cover the steps to flip the axle and lower your truck 5-6 inches. (without having to spend $400 for lowering springs).

I ordered my axle flip kit(also known as rearend conversion kits) from an online vendor. I paid around $100 bucks for it. You can find cheaper kits, but this one is universal. What's especially nice about these kits, is not only can you flip the axle, it also allows for the install of any 3" inch ford or chevy axle. So upgrades are easily accomplished in the future. Before you begin have lots of WD-40 and measure the pinion angle on your rear axle. The pinion angle is the angle of the rear axle housing (in relation to the angle of the back of the transmission). You can buy an angle finder for around $10.

REMOVAL OF REAR LEAF SPRINGS AND AXLE:

First off, the best thing you can do is remove the bed, or the floor of the bed so you have easy access to the rear axle.

Break the lugs on the rear wheels loose, but not off.

Jack up the frame of the truck and put jack stands under the frame.

Remove the rear shocks from the truck. This can be accomplished by removing two nuts from the lower shock mount, and one nut on the upper mount. Repeat on other side.

Once shocks are completely removed, remove tires completely off (you can remove the tires before you take the shocks off, doesn't matter what order.) Before you take the tires off, make sure the tires are off the ground. If it's not, get another jack to lift the axle up. Now its time to remove the rear axle from the leaf springs. There are 4 big nuts (on each side) that hold the axle to the leaf springs. This would be a good time put a jack or jack stand underneath the axle to support it. After removing the four nuts connected to the hangers, the axle should be free from the truck. Pretty easy!

Now the hard part. (by the way, I did this whole project without messing with any brakes or brake lines. You don't even have to take the drive line off if you know the pinion angle.) Removal of the leaf springs consists of the shackles on the rear of the leaf, and a big kingpin on the front. For the rear shackles, wrench of all four nuts and hammer shackles outward to remove the rear. On the front king pin, there is a nut and a stud that hold the king pin in. Undo the small nut, but not all the way off. With the nut loose, hammer the stud (without hitting threads) until the stud breaks out on the otherside. HIT IT HARD. This stuff on 50 year old trucks does't like to come off easy. AND USE LOTS OF WD-40, the miracle spray.

With stud out, hammer on the kingpin. Hammer towards the side of the truck, outwards, not inwards. If you hammer towards the center of the truck, the kingpin will not come out completely and you have to go the other direction anyway.

With this pin out, your leaf spring is off. Now go ahead and remove all of the old hardware that was connecting the leaf to the axle (u-bolts, mounting plate) and toss all of it aside.

Take your leaf springs and place them underneath the axle now. (you don't actually flip the axle, you actually just place it above the leaf instead of below. But you knew that:) With your new U bolts, hammer them on the axle so that they are as close as possible to stock mounting pad on the top of the axle. If its a really tight fit, you may need to grind down the axle just a hair so they will fit correctly. Once the U bolts are on, place the mounting pad (moon shaped bracket that fits snug around the axle) on the middle of the leaf and lift the leaf spring up underneath the axle so that it snugs the axle. Then put on the mounting plate underneath the leaf. Put a couple of nuts on the U bolts just enough so that it will hold the leaf up. Do not tighten!

Repeat on the opposite side.

Now, with the leaf springs attached, lift the rear axle with a jack (careful as it can tip) until the leaf springs are close to the mounting holes. I would suggest putting the front "King Pin" side on first. Pull the leaf up and use a mallet to align the holes in the frame. Place king pin in with the indention in the king pin facing the side where the stud goes through. Tighten king pin, insert stud, and tighten stud nut. Repeat for other side.

For the rear, just put the shackles back on. It should be a lot easier getting this side on, than it was taking off.

Ok, so far so good? With the leafs back on and the axle attached to the leafs, it's now time to adjust the pinion angle. Some people may suggest putting the wheels on and putting the car at the new ride height before you adjust the angle, but its up to you. With the U-bolt nuts loose, you can still adjust the angle on the axle housing. It may take a few hits with a mallet, but it will angle up or down. If you are within 5 degrees of the original pinion angle, you will be in good shape. Adjust it, and be aware that you may need to adjust it again if it's not correct.

With the correct pinion angle, Tighten the nuts on the u bolts as tight as possible, lower the frame and the axle and you will see a 5 to 6" drop! If you are using a vehicle with a lot of horse power, it may be a good idea to weld the moon shaped bracket to the axle. Otherwise, don't worry about it. If you do weld, make sure pinion angle is correct.

That's all I'm going to cover! Hopefully this will be helpful to some poor soul out there deciding how to lower his/her truck.

I forgot to mention, when you do lower this thing down, it will be resting on the bumper stops. It WILL go that low, and lower if you remove it. A C-Notch is highly recommended unless you want this thing to ride like a truck. I mean, ZERO suspension or travel. In addition, new shock mounts (included in Kit) will need to be installed.

Don't let all of this scare you--- The drop was well worth the work and its actually much easier than I anticipated.

I had a bunch of pictures but they magically disappeared, so here is a video of my big project truck, and the finished product on the rear axle.



Good luck!