How to Pull a Leaf (pics)

[AVTekk]

I wanted to get my truck down quickly and cheaply. Also, with the 94 SS springs, the ride was quite harsh, and I wanted a way to soften it up a bit. So I decided to pull a leaf out of the pack for the time being. I looked around and couldn't find any real desciption on how to do it, so I wrote my own. Here we go:


Ok you first want to take a measurement of where the vehicle sits before you do any suspension work. Here we can see its sitting 4x4 style at 29 1/8":



Put the vehicle up on jackstands, then remove the wheels, lower shock bolt, u-bolts, and spring plate:



Next put a floor jack under the axle and lift it up out of the way:



Now you have to take the spring pack apart. Put a good amount of WD-40 on the center bolt, then use a 14 MM socket to loosen the nut. If the bolt starts spinning, get a good pair of vise-grips or channel lock pliers on the top stud. Do NOT remove the nut at this time, only loosen it:



Get a beefy clamp (C-clamps work really good) and clap the leaf pack together as close to the center as you can. Once its on there, remove the nut:

[AVTekk]

Here you can see how different the bottom leafs are arched compared to the top one. All that tension would put a hurtin on ya if the clamp wasn't in place:



We are going to remove the center leaf here, so we need to get a screwdriver and pry the two leafs apart right at the end. The plastic bushings that are clipped into the leaf need to come out so we can remove it:



Here is a shot of what I'm talking about. They just clip into the leaf; very easy to remove:



This is a little bit tricky. You need to shimmy the bottom two leafs so that the lower one moves towards the rear of the vehicle, and the middle one moves towards the front:



When they are positioned correctly, the middle leaf will slide right out of the pack sideways, then you can pull it right out of the pack:

[AVTekk]

Here's a shot of what you have left:



Clamp the remaining leafs back together and reinstall the center bolt. Here you might see a problem; without the 3rd leaf, the bolt is too long, and the nut will bottom out on the stud early:



I didn't have any shorter bolts on hand, so its time to stack some serious washers up. Later on a shorter bolt replaced this mess.



When thats all back together and tight, remove the clamp, and reinstall the u-bolts, spring plate, and shock bolt and it'll look something like this:



Do both sides the same way, put the wheels back on, and take some new measurements. Here we can see it lowered it a full inch, for free! You're truck may drop considerably lower, so be wary of the consequences:

[AVTekk]

Here she is, coilovers up front, and leaf pulled in the back. Not as low as I want, but it's getting there:




Thanks for looking, let me know what you think. lata

AV

[AVTekk]

SLAMnoma95 adds:

When trying to shimmy out the leafs...take a hammer and knock both of the bottom leafs to the very back, then if you take an air hammer/chisel and place it in the hole that the rubber spacer was in it slides RIGHT out.