PSDPlayer
08-09-2006, 04:24 PM
I'm not the kind of guy to lift a truck. I prefer to have to watch out for speed bumps. So I got some Chassis Tech front 3" drop beams and a DJM 5" rear hanger and shackle drop kit.
Ok so we start with the back since dropping the front 3 inches would be too much without the back lowered some first. Off came the running boards cause they would have touched the ground.
First things first. Lift the rear of the truck off the ground. Out comes the trusty 5000lb fork lift. Pull the rear dualls. Alcoas are heavy. So is a Dana 80. Remove the driveshaft from the diff. Those bolts are 12 point 12mm NOT inverted Torx. Next pull the rear shackles. I wanted to see what it would look like with just the 2 inch shackle drop so I swapped the new ones in and set the truck down. Well aparently DJM had an issue with the kit. Seeing as how it was originally built for 1999-2001 SuperDuty and then they listed it as 1999-2004 and the boxes now read 1999-2006. They have had intermittant problems with 2005s hitting the bed when the leaf is located in the top hole of the shackle drop. This is not mentioned ANYWHERE. I called Fordguy at 330AM on sunday to look this up for me. I said oh well and just used the lower hole to get it to clear before I go back with BIG Hammer and massage the bed.
I now moved to the front. You have to chisle the front hangers off of the frame and install the new drop hanger. Went to go find my big cut off wheel. Missing!. Found small die grinder and went to work. Since I have a 350 dually with overload leafs, DJM says you have to remove them and the striker pads. The rear striker pads bolt to the frame. The front must be chisled off. So we make a bunch of relief cuts into the heads of the rivets and go get the air hammer. Air Hammer decides to only work on max blast when connected to air. So much for a quality snap-on tool. So I had to hand chisle off all the rivets. You ask why didn't I go buy a new air hammer. Everything was closed. And the truck can't move without leaf springs. Left side gets done. Apparently the kit that I got is supposed to have 6 degree shims in it with longer leaf pins. They are not there. Can't call DJM on sunday. Ok so no big deal just finish it up and drive down the street to get some. Put the left side together. Then notice that DJM didn't know that the top block that holds the over loads has ears in the front and if you remove the overload then the u-bolt plate will be crooked. Finally at 5am monday morning I give up and call someone to come pick me up since the truck is going no where.
Call DJM. Mention the bed to shackle interferance. They say oh yeah some of them do that and the new kits have shorter shakles. Mention that there are no shims in the kit, no problem, they will send me new ones. Mention that the overload leaf can NOT be removed unless a plate it put back in there. "Hmm, Never seen that before".
So that was monday. Today is Wednesday. DJM second day air'd the shims and the longer leaf bolts. I did have to cut the overloads so i could put it back together just to drive home. But now I have the shims, So I can go back over there and take most of it apart again.
Ok so we start with the back since dropping the front 3 inches would be too much without the back lowered some first. Off came the running boards cause they would have touched the ground.
First things first. Lift the rear of the truck off the ground. Out comes the trusty 5000lb fork lift. Pull the rear dualls. Alcoas are heavy. So is a Dana 80. Remove the driveshaft from the diff. Those bolts are 12 point 12mm NOT inverted Torx. Next pull the rear shackles. I wanted to see what it would look like with just the 2 inch shackle drop so I swapped the new ones in and set the truck down. Well aparently DJM had an issue with the kit. Seeing as how it was originally built for 1999-2001 SuperDuty and then they listed it as 1999-2004 and the boxes now read 1999-2006. They have had intermittant problems with 2005s hitting the bed when the leaf is located in the top hole of the shackle drop. This is not mentioned ANYWHERE. I called Fordguy at 330AM on sunday to look this up for me. I said oh well and just used the lower hole to get it to clear before I go back with BIG Hammer and massage the bed.
I now moved to the front. You have to chisle the front hangers off of the frame and install the new drop hanger. Went to go find my big cut off wheel. Missing!. Found small die grinder and went to work. Since I have a 350 dually with overload leafs, DJM says you have to remove them and the striker pads. The rear striker pads bolt to the frame. The front must be chisled off. So we make a bunch of relief cuts into the heads of the rivets and go get the air hammer. Air Hammer decides to only work on max blast when connected to air. So much for a quality snap-on tool. So I had to hand chisle off all the rivets. You ask why didn't I go buy a new air hammer. Everything was closed. And the truck can't move without leaf springs. Left side gets done. Apparently the kit that I got is supposed to have 6 degree shims in it with longer leaf pins. They are not there. Can't call DJM on sunday. Ok so no big deal just finish it up and drive down the street to get some. Put the left side together. Then notice that DJM didn't know that the top block that holds the over loads has ears in the front and if you remove the overload then the u-bolt plate will be crooked. Finally at 5am monday morning I give up and call someone to come pick me up since the truck is going no where.
Call DJM. Mention the bed to shackle interferance. They say oh yeah some of them do that and the new kits have shorter shakles. Mention that there are no shims in the kit, no problem, they will send me new ones. Mention that the overload leaf can NOT be removed unless a plate it put back in there. "Hmm, Never seen that before".
So that was monday. Today is Wednesday. DJM second day air'd the shims and the longer leaf bolts. I did have to cut the overloads so i could put it back together just to drive home. But now I have the shims, So I can go back over there and take most of it apart again.