63" Chevy springs on Brody's heap

[Brody]

Ok, I finally decide to do the 63" Chevy spring swap for the back of my rig. I have been debating this for about a year and, after looking at Danny's set up again, decided to go ahead with it. I looked on craigslist a couple of days ago and, sure enough, there was one guy selling a set. I hooked up with him today and got them for a decent price. They are off of a 97 Chevy 1/2 ton and come with an overload leaf which I may or may not use. I am looking for a suggestion from the site without going through all my material on it, so chime in...

I will have to make and relocate the front spring hanger and end up relocating the rear hanger to the outside of my bumper due to the bed bob, so it should be entertaining. I'll post progress pictures as I go...

[WINKY]

you need assistance im yer man brody!

[1freaky1]

Pete if you want some help let me know, also what are you going to do with your old springs?

[Man Jerk]

I would like to do these as well, but at just over stock height. I've got the TJ Springs in the back of my 4runner and they make all kinds of noise.

[4runner freak]

Ok, I finally decide to do the 63" Chevy spring swap for the back of my rig. I have been debating this for about a year and, after looking at Danny's set up again, decided to go ahead with it.

Wow! I've been an influence on Brody!
Pete must have forgotten to take his medicine if HE is being influenced by ME:D

Go for it Pete!
BTW, I used a piece of 3.5" x 3/16 Square tubing to make my front hangers.(0.25 wall would have been better, but I couldn't find any)

[Brody]

Well, why not? I ain't a mechanical engineer and you know what you are doing...besides which, I took enough medication in my misspent youth to last a long time, so I really don't anymore!

Been on the boards for awhile, especially when I priced new Alcans or Deavers...Needed something that was a cheap fix and flexy and coils and a link set up was out of the question...especially since I would have been looking at those oh so nice Fox shocks at $700 a pop if I went that route.

Here are some pictures for the really rough preliminary fit. The rears are going to be a rear 'off the bumper' mount, much like I figured...no big deal. I plan on blocking the rear axle in place, removing the old spring, removing the rear hanger/shackle and then rewelding the hanger/shackle to the bumper. I'll mount the new spring to the axle and use it to locate the front perch.Then just lining up the front spring hanger after fabbing it. I'll do this to one side and use this side as a template for the other side for measurements. Any suggestions here?


Anyway, as you can see, the existing front perch, where the board lines up, is roughly the 8-9" that all the info states. The rear lines up with the outer part of the bumper, more or less, and more or less is ok here as this is where all the flex/slack is.

The underneath shot shows why I am doing this. I am starting to go into a negative arch on my beat up Alcans. You will also see blocks on my axle, which you know that I am against. These are actually blocks that I made that are welded to the existing perches on the axle, then plated and welded on both front and back..not the 'bolt in ' blocks. They won't be moving. Still, I wouldn't have done them if I hadn't already had the anti wrap bar as the blocks tend to put more 'wrap on the spring pack.

So Danny, did you leave the overload leaf in or did you take it out before you installed them? These are pretty beefy springs either way...but I would rather only do it once. I am more concerned with the droop than the compression, BTW, if that makes a difference...

Here is a link with pictures that show what I am doing:

http://www.siestaoffroad.com/chevyspringpics.html

Here is the link with swap information that I posted to the site awhile back (answers my questions about the overloads and the front hanger location, too...DUH on me..):

http://www.frontrange4x4.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3898

[4Runninfun]

this should be a good project. I don't know if i've ever heard of anyone unhappy with the 63 swap. if you need a hand just let me know

[Brody]

Thanks Jon! I may just do that. I think I am going to badger Randy first and see what his schedule is. I am planning on doing it Friday/Saturday this week.

[WINKY]

ooohhh..... bad weekend...LMAO i know for sure that saturday i will be gone all day for my conceal permit class. which leaves me with friday or sunday. One of those days i need to go shopping for furniture and stuff for the house plus empty out my storage unit. I will be more than happy to assist you on april 10,11,12.

if you are going to do it this weekend i can toss in a few hours friday or sunday with no problem.

[Brody]

Thanks, man, but get your stuff done first...like sorting out your home stuff. You need to do that...you also need to sleep sometime. Let me know how the CC stuff goes.

[scout man]

Hey Randy, where are you going for your CC??? Throw up a post when you are done and let us know if you would recomend the place or not. It is on my to do list for sometime also.

[WINKY]

ok thanks pete, you and i will get yer springs done next weekend i am marking it on my calander, whatever day is best for you man!

[WINKY]

Hey Randy, where are you going for your CC??? Throw up a post when you are done and let us know if you would recomend the place or not. It is on my to do list for sometime also.


it is actually a guy i know that works in my building he is really cool. He is federally licensed to teach and is a gunsmith/dealer as well. He is who i am purchasing my stag 6.8spc-AR from. I will post his info in the chat section.

[4runner freak]

Pete,
I put my spring hanger 11" (eye to eye) forward of the stock hanger and my axle is moved back ~2".

I like your method much better, but I welded mine on at school long before I lifted my truck.:D
I have a little hanger placement jig you are free to take if you want.
It is like this:
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj66/4runnerFreak/Misc%20Pics%20Links/hangerjig.jpg

[4runner freak]

Deleted and moved

[4Runninfun]

there is also another loop-hole. if you have your hunters safety card and it is less than 10 years old you can just apply for your CCW and pay your money.

[WINKY]

sorry guys, i dont want to jack brody's spring thread with guns, can we move the gun stuff to the thread i started :)

[Brody]

Thanks Danny, but I will just use your nice drawing and fab a quick one for me to use. I'll be doing them Friday...I might pick up some standard Chevy hangers and do the quick and dirty double shackle trick which will allow me to use my existing rear mount and shackle set up. See how it works and if it does Ok, call it good enough. If it doesn't, I'll just re locate the hanger to my back bumper..

[Brody]

Here are some pictures of the bracket fabrication for the 63" Chevy springs. I made the brackets about 13" long for more of an angle as the length of the springs makes for some good rock catchers. I also added 1/4" of 9/16" washers on the outside of each hole so that the bolt bearing surface is increased.

You will note the slots cut into the frame side(bottom) of the brackets. This was done to allow a weld to be done, strengthening the bracket to frame weld even more. I addition to this, clever eyes will note more holes in one bracket than the other one. This bracket fits on the side where the gas tank is. The extra holes allow me to get a better (and strong enough) weld on this side without dropping the gas tank. The bracket fits so close to the tank that welding the gas tank side has to be done with the tank out. With the hole there, and the rosette welds done, the bracket will be strong enough until I get around to dropping the tank.

I also made sliders/skip plates for the brackets and stiffened them a bit more by bending them down into the 'U' curve on the brackets. These will be welded in place after the brackets are welded to the frame.

As an aside, you can buy these brackets for the springs from a lot of places. Sky manufacturing sells a complete kit, too. The reason I made my own is that I wanted a longer bracket with less angle than what I could find.

[Chris]

Looks great Pete! My SR should be here by Tuesday. :)

[Pathrat]

very impressive!

[WINKY]

very impressive!


+5!!!

[Brody]

Here is Part 2.

This is the problem part as I had bobbed the bed and didn't have the 4" of frame space I needed to move the rear hangers back. When I bobbed the bed, I moved the bumper back to the rear of my spring hangers and welded everything together. I addition to this, I had also welded two tow points to my bumper that were conveniently in the way of notching my bumper. The last things were that I had previously welded a 3/16" plate to my inner frame rail and welded that to my rear hanger( as a brace/reinforcement ) and my exo cage was also returned to my rear bumper right where I needed to cut. You can see right where the tow hook brackets and the cage tie in to the bumper...right where I need to be! I will address the cage part when I get the springs in as it isn't critical. If possible, I will return the cage to the brace I made for the extended perches, further reinforcing this point.

What I did (and again you can either buy or fab new rear spring hangers) was to cut off the rear hangers and re weld them to a 7"x3" piece of 1/4" plate. I ground down the existing flat plate of the old(stock) hangers on the frame rails, did some measuring, locating the 4" back set, notched the bumper (oh yes, I had to notch the bumper, too), and welded the plates to the frame rails. When I did this, I also welded the old spring hangers on both sides and welded the tubing sleeve on both sides, something that the factory boys didn't do. These are going to get tweaked! I then located some 2"x3" rectangular stock and used this as an additional brace for the extended hangers.

If it weren't for the fact that I don't build stuff to be taken apart (It took a total of 3 hours to grind and cut the tow points off) and I had bobbed the bed, this part of things would have taken about an hour or so. The articles that I have read about doing this conversion state that it takes between 4-8 hours to do this. I would say that it is about a 5 hour job, start to finish, if you have all the bracketry, including both the front hanger and the rear hanger. This time frame doesn't include grinding/cutting off the old hangers that you will no longer need.

Also, I could have done two different things to address the rear hanger issue. I could've used either the stock Toyota or stock Chevy hangers as these are both close to 4" long, folded it back to the frame rail, and then attached my extended hangers to this, similiar to Revolver shackles. The other thing that I could've done was to build extended shackles that were 11" long.

The reason I didn't do the first was because I didn't want to deal with the load/unload typical of Revolver shackles and also because I didn't want the on road slop inherent in this design. The reason I didn't do the extended shackles was because they put the shackle angle at about 45 degrees, which many people don't seem to mind, but I prefer around a 15-20degree angle. Simply a matter of preference here and I already have extended shackles and didn't have either the stock Yotas or Chevy hangers to mess with.

Since I had to move the truck before I was finished, I had to stick the stock springs back on. I took a picture of this for grins as the hangers looked so stupid angled the wrong way! I expected it to invert with a good sized bang, but it didn't...

Here are up dated pictures:

[Brody]

More pictures of Part 2:

[Funrover]

Lookin good Pete

[Pathrat]

wow, what a do it yourself job! :clap:

[Brody]

Last of the springs pictures. They are finally in more due to revamping the back of the truck bumper than anything. The rear bumper hung down roughly 1/2" below the frame. I notched it to accept the 1/4 plate, but waited to see how the shackles were going to plane out. The bumper need to be notched to clear the top of the shackles, so I did and cut on both sides across the bumper, then capped that off with some plate.

Also, due to the extended length of the front mounts, they had to be notched to fit around a frame brace on the front side. I dealt with the old front hangers simply by cutting 3 of them off. The 4th had the E brake cable mount attached to it, so I just clipped the bottom off and beat it out of the way.

That left the rear of the lower exo tubes to deal with and I just chopped them off and returned them back to the bumper. I was going to return them to the rear hanger brace for more reinforcement, but needed to do an exhaust system on another rig, so called it good enough.

All the measurements from the resources I found were pretty close, mostly dependent on where you wanted to place your rear axle and if you wanted to re do the rear drive shaft. Since I wanted the axle and tire in the same place, the front location worked out fine. Everything I read said that I had to either move my rear hanger back 4" eye to eye or build some 11" shackles. This measurement I found to be off by about 1-1 1/2 inches. I wanted a little more angle on my rear shackles, but can live with what I have (with the 4" set back) as they aren't going to invert. My suggestion would be to locate your front mounts, tack them in place, then figure out what, if anything, you have to do the the rears to make them work.

I also had poly bushings that I could have used in the springs, but decided to run with the rubber Chevy bushings for a bit to see if there is also a difference in the flex. All in all, I figure that I gained about 4-5" of flex both ways, with possibly more on the droop. I almost had to add a 6" block to my floor jack to get the frame stands out from under the frame, where I still had play in the jack when I raised it up. Not too bad for about 1/3 the cost of a set of Alcans and way less that a set of Deavers. One thing I do have is time...one thing I don't is money...

Here are the finished pictures, all but for the final coat of Dura Back:

[4Runninfun]

looks really good pete! how does it ride?

[Brody]

Well, my off road test consisted of driving over some RR tracks on a paved road. I did them fast and there was very little bump. These are some VERY flexy springs...and very soft. I lost no ride height at all, maybe even gained 1/2 -3/4" and went from 11 leaves to 4, counting the overload. All I can say is that the ride on road is very sweet and I can't wait to get it off road!

How did your engine R&R go? Sorry that I wasn't able to help Saturday. I hope that you managed to keep Aaron busy and out of trouble...Idle hands, idle minds=devil's playground couldn't be truer in Aaron's case....

[4Runninfun]

i've always heard people love their chebbies.

my engine R&R went pretty good is everything is in and i did start it up but my TPS is out so i gotta get a new one. and actually aaron didn't make it, my buddy ryan came over.

and couldn't agree with your more about aaron lol.