1987 Chevrolet V20 front leaf spring replacement

[iamtherealJayy]

Alright I never plan on taking the pack apart lol also I watched some tutorials on sway bar bushings and saw that the frame on has an opening so it slips over the bar my bad for not knowing but I do now so I’ll get some ordered

 

[hoagster]

Well one ubolt is already new from when I had to rotate one of the blocks because it was backwards lol but I couldn’t remove them or my tires would rub more. I’ll get new ones if I need to but I didn’t get new ones for now because honestly no idea how to measure what size I needed or if they’re universal or what. I knew mine were too long and needed cut down some because they were way too long. I’ll loose then ubolts whenever it stops raining but I really don’t want to completely remove them if possible. I’ll loosen sway bar if that’ll help. Do the sway bar bushings just slide over the sway bar? How do you get it around the bends? It’s not adding up in my head because I’ve never done it

Clam shell for the frame, the bolt one's are just like the leaf spring ones

 

[iamtherealJayy]

So say I remove the sway bar, I’m going to completely remove it and spray it with black enamel paint, and stuff shifts could that make the axle be centered? Could my swag bar be in a bind or bent and slightly shifting the axle over? It’s not much I mean just like a half inch off centered. I’m not sure what exactly to measure off of. I mean in all honesty I used a 12” 3/8 socket extension to measure the height different on each side and it was about an inch difference. The passenger side the extension barely didn’t fit(would fit if trim piece was removed) and drivers side had about the square part at the end plus half of that(terrible measuring I know but I didn’t have a tape on hand it’s in my other truck). If I measure off the frame would it show being off? Or should I measure from the spring? I don’t want to measure to the tire if possible because air pressure etc can effect that. Just looking straight down isn’t a good measurement.

 

[77 K20]

The sway bar geometry isn't correct for a lifted truck. When the truck is stock the sway bar sits somewhat flat. When a truck is lifted you will notice that the sway bar angle is downward from the frame to the ubolt plates. This causes a bit of a binding issue- especially when hitting bumps. (the sway bar cannot compress, so it fights your leaf springs and makes the ride harsh).
Remove the sway bar from the truck completely. Go for a drive. You might like how it drives.
If you don't like how it rides then it will probably fight you if you re-install it with new bushings. They make a nice sway bar disconnect bracket that allows the sway bar to pivot and line up better.

sway bar disconnect

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Not the best pic I suppose.. but you get the idea. The disconnect bracket raises the ends of the sway bar up a bit to flatten the angle out a bit. More importantly I creates a pivot point where the sway bar will no longer fight the movement of the leaf springs.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

When looking at some steering/suspension stuff some of them said for models with sway bar, so is the sway bar required? I don’t do heavy off-road or go fast or tow or anything I don’t even go on long distance trips in this truck. I’m going to put some black enamel paint on all the surface rusted areas and where bare metal is showing so I’m trying to do all of this correctly and make it nice.

 

[77 K20]

I haven't run a front sway bar for probably 10 years. Quite a few of the aftermarket leaf springs are fairly stiff- so there won't be much body roll in normal driving.
However if you haul a big slide in camper then you'd probably want to keep it, or if you like driving high speeds on twisty roads- maybe you should keep it.

Remove it and drive around to see what you think.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

I’ll cut the center pins and get the brackets sitting right and give it a shot. I usually don’t go fast and I’ve only pulled a trailer once with the truck lol. It’s not a track truck more than less just a going to town rig so I just want it nice

 

[Redfish]

@iamtherealJayy I have been following along with this... project and I am sorry you are having such a rough time with all of this. If it makes you feel any better, you and I have both learned a lot from all of this. I have been looking at replacing my front leaf springs as well and will no doubt encounter some of the same issues you are so this thread has been very helpful to me. Can you tell us what brand of leaf springs you used for this project?

@77 K20 you said, "they make a nice sway bar disconnect bracket". Can you tell us who "They" is? I may need exactly that soon. My truck already has some aftermarket front leaf springs of unknown origin that I think has me about 2" higher than stock. My plan is to go with a new set of front springs for a true 2" lift above factory height. Will I need that disconnect bracket?

@hoagster your knowledge is EXACTLY why I joined this forum. I appreciate you and everyone else that offered wisdom and advice during this fiasco.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

@Redfish my springs were ProComp 2.5” lift leaf springs. I’ll try and get a part number, googling it they’re not hard to find. I had two inch blocks all four corners and I couldn’t find a reasonably priced 2” lift so I went with next smallest because I wanted to stay with a 33” tire. I have pretty much everything ready if I went with a 4/6” lift. I just didn’t want that big. I was going to go rough country 4” with rear blocks but the only difference in 4&6” was $20 in price so it felt dumb to not go 6”. So I gathered every drop bracket possible along with extended brake lines. I ended up getting a 2.5” lift lol because I’m fine with the height it’s at. I may end up using the sway bar drop bracket tho. I’m not sure what exactly @77 K20 was referring to by the sway bar disconnect bracket but rough country I believe makes drop brackets. I’ve heard of disconnects for Jeep’s and stuff that you flex and articulate the suspension but hell I’m not trying to twist my frame. I try to stay on the pavement as much as possible lol. If I had better equipment and more time (more money too lol) I would’ve done this whole job way easier. But making due with what I had worked out.. sorta ish.. I’m going to remove the sway bar whenever it stops raining and see if that makes it easier on me getting the ubolts in. I questioned the length of the center pin but for some reason left the excess and now it’s biting my ass and I’m having to take it all back apart. I try and tell everything I’m doing on here whether it’s sketchy or perfectly fine so I can get the genuine, most accurate responses possible. You see some threads on here and they leave out some parts of what they did wrong and then there’s hardly anyway of helping if they leave out information. I’d rather someone on here have to say woah now that’s not quite right try again than try and hide my mistakes.
Edit: also I doubt you’ll have as much trouble since I assume your truck hasn’t been wrecked lol. I needed new springs it got to the point it wasn’t just a want, my tire was starting to get into the fender more and more. And since I somewhat have an idea about what I’m doing and need to do I’m going to slowly acquire parts to put similar front springs in my k10 and use the 2” blocks I removed from this truck. (Yes one was aluminum and one wasn’t but I have the other steel block in the tool box.) my drivers side was a pain because that’s what hit the other vehicle so I assume everything is slightly in a bind but I’m trying to fix it all up. Good luck to you with your spring choice. If you find some springs just by googling I’d recommend going to amazon or something similar and typing the part in to find it. I found these same springs off 4wheelparts for $130 a spring and I ordered them but after a while my order got cancelled (not by me)and I got set back to square one. Instead of reordering from there went to amazon and boom within a week they were there(4wheel parts said it was atleast a week wait before they’d ship) plus got them for like $106 a pop. It says bushing not included on Amazon but mine had bushing and I also have an extra set I bought since I thought they weren’t included.

 

[mtbadbob]

I did the Tuff Country 2" Add-A-Leaf on my stock front springs, worked great! It did add a little chop to the ride though, but it's tolerable.

 

[Grit dog]

@iamtherealJayy
You about got it now.
Good learning experience. Couple different tools and a little less rust and it would have been much easier.
Couple things.
Don’t cut off all the extra thread on the u bolts. I’d leave a good half inch or more , whatever fits the socket and doesn’t hit anything. And even them up, lol.
I would loosen up the sway bar to help the axle cinch up easier. And you can drive it, but lower the frame mounts to compensate for your lift. If you decide to leave it on
And if your axle offsets pictures are without turning the steering wheel between pics, then the toe is off too much to even drive it.
You don’t need the sway bar quick disconnect. It’s a luxury if you want the ability to go sway bar or no sway bar easily.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

@Grit dog in all honesty this truck doesn’t have much rust I’m really glad it wasn’t a northern truck lol. If it hadn’t of been wrecked on drivers side I bet I wouldn’t of had any problems. The passenger side pushed right out lol. I’ll disconnect the sway bar when I go to actually chop the ubolts it made it hard on passenger side since it’s on the outside of the bracket. I have the rough country sway bar drop but would it be too large for just a 2.5” lift? And I honestly have no idea what happened to the alignment in the pics lol they were fairly straight before and now the drivers side is slight left and passenger is pretty much straight. I’ll just do the using a board at home alignment to get it straight for now so I can try and get the leaf springs broke in a little bit. Then I’m replacing all the steering stuff and getting a real alignment.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

Dad said he was laying under the truck last night looking for differences and he thinks the sway bar is bent, I’m going to try and remove it today to make getting the ubolt plates off easier anyways so I’ll check it out and see if it’s bent and if it is I might just not run one for a while and if it’s sketchy I’ll get a new one. He also said his frame patch for the cross member under the engine the weld cracked(the rivet broke in the wreck so it welded it back apparrntly) so could that be why it’s off center? I’ll try and get pics of everything when I go back out there

 

[75gmck25]

The front sway bar is listed as part of my camper special option package, so I assume a base truck does not have one. Should not be a problem running without one for a while, especially with new springs.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

This truck is a custom deluxe so I assume that’s base model. As far as I can tell custom deluxe isn’t so deluxe lol. And “ should be problem running without one for a while” do you mean it shouldn’t be a problem or it will be a problem?