The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop lowering and better ride by removing some leafs?

Thinking about removing a couple of leafs front and rear for a better ride and also lower truck,local spring shop told me this was the way to go ,has anyone tried it? 51 3100.

I bought the "single leaf" spring that lowered the truck a couple of inches from Patricks and love it.

I seriously considered doing the same thing with my `51 3100. At the time I was tight on money. So I wanted an inexpensive way to lower the truck. I found 1 post that was either on this site or on the Inliners.org site. The post conveyed 2 things. 1. It was possible to remove 3 leafs from the spring packs and get aprox 2" of lowering. 2. It was recommended to take 1/2 the leafs from the right side spring and swap them with the left side spring. This would help even out the sag that occurs from old age.

In addition to this post, I learned about a product called Poly Slide Spring Liner. It is a poly-something material that it formed into a thin strip. It is very smooth and slick. It is typicaly black in color. I paid $11 a roll. And 1 roll will do 2 spring packs. Its job is to go between the leafs and provide slick surface for the leafs to move across when they flex. Thus allowing the springs to work more efficiently.

So, given all the above, I bought the liner and began dis-assembly of my front spring packs. I decided to remove 3 leafs. I kept the 2 longest leafs beacuse of the bends on the ends. I eliminated the shortest one. Then I eliminated the 2 leafs that had the riveted in clamps/bands. I decided to buy some aftermarket ones to replace them with.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Put the spring in a vise before removing the center pin. This way, you can slowly let off the vise and control the unspringing of the spring pack.

At this point, I was offered a deal on 4 monoleaf springs. So I bought the 4 monos and stopped working on the originals. I hope that some this helps you. If you do complete the process, please post back with your experience/opinions of how well it worked.

Guys,
I just lowered the front of my '59 this weekend and it can be a tough job. Maybe my lessons learned can make this smoother for you.
I removed the 2nd and 3rd (shortest) leaves and flip then to push down against the main leaf. This basically (manually) de-arched the main spring and gave me about 3.5-4inches of lowering.

Removal:
1. Jack frame until tires are off ground and put in jack stands.
2.Have another jack slightly lifting against the axle for support and remove the upper shock mount bolt.
3. Remove the u-bolts and the shock by lowering the axle.
4. Remove the rear 1in pivot leaf eye bolt and let the leaf pack rest on the axle.
5. Remove all front shackle bolts and wiggle the rear of the spring until the shackle ends work themselves loose from being pressed on.
6. On your workbench use c-clamps on both sides of the spring pack center bolt for support and remove the center bolt.
7. Evenly loosen c-clamps and the spring pack will fall apart. Wire brush and grease, or poly liner the leaves.
8. Reassemble minus some leaves, use my method above however you plan on lowering it.

Re-instal:
1. Instal rear pivot spring eye bolt.
2. Jack axle up to aling the spring eye center bolt into the small hole on the axle.
3. Snug in your u-bolts to hold it together and so the center bolt doesn't move out of the alignment hole on the axle.
4. Lift the axle (via jack) to the correct height to align the shackle ends and tighten the 4-shackle bolts 25-35lbs, * I broke one over tightening the on mine.
5. Install the top of the shock and you're ready to torque everything.

Repeat on the other side (you'll need plenty of penitrating oil on these old bolts)

After you take it around the block (test drive) retighten everything. This took me all day so make sure you have plenty of time and some help.

Good luck,
have fun and be safe!!!
jason

You'll have to trim your bump stop and on my truck I installed new "lowered shocks".
If you use my method you will only have about 2.5in of travel, so big bumps will bottom out!!

Just removing a couple of leaves will not be as low but will give you enough travel that you wont bottom out!!

jason