Spacers removal for lowering rear end

[GerryDrake]

dirty truck. . dirty truck.....



Great idea of a place to store the spacers. I know I would lose track of them otherwise, and if and when I put on the Mag Hytec, and there is interference, I will have them available to re-install.

 

[Jay]

I had to use a pipe wrench to hold the factory bolts as the nuts came off very hard... glade I took Matt's advice and bought new bolts/nuts to replace them.



Since lowering the rear I towed the trailer to Pheonix and back... no problems! I'm very pleased.



Jay

 

[Don-T]

I am heading home tomorrow so I think I will get the chance to do the rear on mine in the next week. Thanks for all of the information guys.

 

[Matt400]

klenger

Thanks for taking time to take measurements, no wonder its much more easy to load the motorcycle with the gate almost 2" lowerOo.

 

[EEdmondson]

I lowered mine a couple of weeks ago. Wetspirit posted instructions on DTR on 1/03/04. I reused the existing bolts and stored the spacers on top of the spring pack. The existing bolts are smashed on the end I guess to prevent the nuts from coming off. It would be easier to use new bolts.



My front bumper went up 3/8". Rear hitch receiver went down 1 1/2". The difference in height at the axles went from 3" to 1 7/8". My truck is a reg cab long bed.



Do it! You can always switch it back.

 

[PJereb]

Anybody done this to a 2wd?

Anybody done this to a 2wd?



I would like to lower the back a bit.

 

[Matt400]

Re: Anybody done this to a 2wd?

Originally posted by PJereb

Anybody done this to a 2wd?

Now thats odd, you mean 2wd's have those blocks in there also??

 

[Matt400]

FYI, here is a post I made when I did mine that has some pics.

 

[phloop]

Does any one have any before and after pics of what your truck looks like from the side that shows the difference in the stance? I might think of doing this mod as my wife says that the 4x4 dually I'm getting is as hard to get into as my lifted F250.

 

[klenger]

I got up enough energy to add a page to my website with pics and instructions on this mod. See link below.



http://www.klenger.net/dodge/lowering-rear-end/slide01.html



phloop: The drop at the rear axle is 1. 25" and the change in angle is about 0. 5 degrees. It is really not visibly noticable IMHO. The drop at the front of the box is about 0. 9". Cab entry would be around 1/2" drop. See slide 8 at the above link for all dimensions.

 

[RRoton]

I moved the two spacers from under the spring pack to the top of the main spring. That way, all of the orginal bolts fit, and everything is there if I ever want to chang it back.

I never even considered that it might make it harded to remove the brake calipers. That is not something you have to do that often.

 

[klenger]

Even if you do have to remove the bolt for the brake calipers, you do not need to take apart the sping pack, only take off the u-bolt and jack up the spring pack to get access to the bolt.

 

[RRoton]

After reading the rest of the thread, I see there is already a picture of the spacers moved to the top of the spring pack.

I guess I should read the complete thread before I post.

 

[klenger]

Rroton:



It was you post in this thread that gave me the idea to put the spacers on top. Very good tip. One advantage I see to using new hardware is that you don't have to fight with the stupid round-headed bolts when you put it back together, and you have clean threads to work with.

 

[Bulldawg]

My Father and I lowered my 2500 this afternoon. It took us 1 1/2 hours to do it. HINT - if you reuse the round head bolts, grind a flat spot on each side to get a good grip. Probably be much better to use new bolts since the threads are hard to tighten down for some reason.

 

[Tony T.]

Rear Spacer Removel

Finally last week was able to do this mod. I do like the look of a more level truck. It took a little over a hour to do with the access of my friends shop using shop jacks an air impact wrench. Thanks to all information supplied by the TDR members, it helped out a lot.

 

[Matt400]

Cool Tony, I think it makes these trucks look just right.

 

[John - K5AWO]

GerryDrake,



Great job with the pix showing us what you did.



My truck has drums so don't have your particular problem. What I don't like is the 7 yard stretch trying to get into the bed of the truck. Talked with a spring shop locally and they told me to reverse the lower overload, take out the spacers and remove the top stack.



The reversed lower spring will soften the downward movement and hopefully make it ride like a 3/4 ton truck.



My goal is to lower the rear end and soften up the ride. I hate that jounce when the overloads are contacted.



I have air bags to put over the axles so I won't loose any load carrying capacity.

 

[Rocky in KC]

what size bolts, length,diameter

what size are the bolts that have the rounded heads--would like to buy NEW regular replacment bolts--and have them ready before I start the project

thanks,Rocky

 

[phloop]

The dia. of the bolt is 1/2". When I lowered the rear of my truck I had bought 4-4 1/2"x1/2" bolts to replace the stock bolts but when I removed the stock bolts I found that the new ones were too short by about an inch or so and just reused the stock ones. When you do this, use a pipe wrench to hold the round head and chase the threads before removing the nuts. I found that the threads on the pass. side of my truck were bungled up and needed to be cleaned up before the nuts would come off easily. And maybe use a little locktite on them when you put it back together.