1994 Ford F350 RSK suspension lift. SHE'S DONE!!!! 9/26/13

[boom50cal]

Damn man! Kicking ass and taking names! Good to see that pittman arm came off pretty easy for you. I'll ask my dad when I get out of school about your spring issue, we did SD springs on his, even though his was a 3/4 ton with a TTB, and it made the ride alot better.

[scooter99]

Ok here it is. I put the springs in backwards. LOL. Figured this out when I went to put the rear portion in the shackle. Wouldn't line up. SO I double checked the DIY's I was following with, and sure enough. So, here we are all back on track.

Passenger side spring on.

Driver side spring on as well. CORRECTLY!!

Got the end links ready to go, so let's do that now.

New Bolts for the end links.

End Links on. Not sure they're long enough. I got links for a 2-4" lift, and I think i should've gotten the longer one's. We'll see how it works out.

Passenger side view

Driver side view

Now, I know I have new U-Bolts coming, and I won't be driving this until I get them. But I wanted to get the axle all up and tied down to the springs and lined up as best as I could. Also the top plate for the U-Bolts is what the shocks bolt on to. So that's what I'm doing here.

As you can see there's a lot of lining up to do.

Moving on to the driver side. This one seemed to be a little more of a bear to line up. On the springs, there's a bolt head or tab or whatever you wanna call it. On the Axle mount, there's a hole that that needs to go into. That's what I'm trying to do here, by myself, with the axle needing to be rotated, and also moved up and down via the jack. Was a little tricky.

[Kyblack76]

damn... get it son......

[scooter99]

Here's a little view of me getting things close. You can maybe see that the Sway bar is going to be an issue. Those links don't look long enough. My bigger concern is the angle of the drive line there. I know thing's aren't finished and it's not on the ground and level'd out yet, but it's a concern.

So there we go. It's on. The axle is hanging on with the U-Bolts and springs. The issue is, I couldn't get the nuts to sinch all the way up on the U-Bolts. I'm guessing it's the rust etc, which was why I'm replacing them. However, it gives me about a half inch of play right now. I don't know if that's good or not. There are more steps is why I said that.

Next I decided to put the steering linkage back on.

Bam, just like that it's done.

Was ready for shocks, which as you can see is the last piece until the track bar to go on. So I'm getting excited. Then I hit a snag! The bolts I got are just a touch big. I could probably screw them in, but I didn't want to risk messing up the threads or anything. So I'll have to drill them out a bit. A little delay, but not a bad one. I started to do it last night, but it was too loud and my kids bedrooms are right next to where I'm working. SO that's going to end up being a tonight project. So, that's where I stopped last night. More on Day 8.

I also have another concern. In the pic above, I'll re-post below, you can see on the left side, that the truck is sitting almost level at this point. Or it seems anyway. But, if you look at the axle, and where the hubs are at now, the axle needs to go up a good 5-6" to get the wheels on. Now I have about a half inch of that, in the U-Bolts that are bad. However, my concern is, that the rear of the truck is going to be significantly lower than the front. I know it's too soon to know, or put too much into thinking about it. But it's a concern of mine. So we'll see in the next couple of days.

Lastly, when I was talking about possibly leaving the axle loose, it's because I have to center the axle before I put the track bar on. That will literally be the last piece that goes on. The way this is done, is the truck will be on it's wheels at this point. Then I reverse it and drive forward 20 ish feet both ways. That's supposed to center the axle. Once that's done, I can adjust the track bar as needed, and put it on.

So that's it for me today. Tonight Ill get back to it. Shock mounts drilled out, shocks mounted, and whatever else I can do. Maybe I'll do an oil change and the rear differential fluid change.

Still waiting on the Sway bar bushings, slow fuckers! Also now waiting on the most important part being the U-Bolts. Hopefully I can get those before Friday so I can drive this when I go out of town on Friday. Otherwise I'll have to finish it up and test drive it next week. I don't want the first test drive to be when I have the trailer attached to it! LOL

Thanks for following.

[scooter99]

Damn man! Kicking ass and taking names! Good to see that pittman arm came off pretty easy for you. I'll ask my dad when I get out of school about your spring issue, we did SD springs on his, even though his was a 3/4 ton with a TTB, and it made the ride alot better.

damn... get it son......

Thanks guys. Thanks Boom, no it was operator error, or lack of experience and paying attention on the springs. But that's all part of learning. Right? LOL I'm hearing that this will make it a night and day difference on the ride. I hope so, cause I told my wife that was what needed to be done thus the reason for the money and it being worth it.

But we'll see.

Hey Boom, if you would, can you ask your Dad his opinions on the front sway bar. Yours also. Is it needed in my situation, being that I'm going to be towing a trailer? I have the rear on one, but the front one may be an issue if I can't clear the springs. I'm trying to think of options. Thanks, again!

[lifted_silverado]

I wouldnt recommend taking off the sway bar. You wont realize how much it does until its gone. So far everything looks pretty good, might want to look into longer swaybar end links. The driveline seems to be at a rough angle, is it a 2 piece or just carrier bearing?

[scooter99]

That's a great question. I don't know. I don't know enough about them to know what the difference is between them. Do you mean the rear drive line or front? Sorry, maybe you could teach me something. I'm always looking to learn on these things.

I have to admit I'm quite nervous about if I'm doing all this right or not. "Well why did you get into it in the first place" I know I know. But how else do you learn besides getting your hands dirty.

As far as the links, I think I'm going to just take these off and send them back for longer ones.

[boom50cal]

The front and rear sway bars are super crucial... It's one of those peace of mind things. He says to go as big as you can get, something like 1 1/8 inch or 1 1/4 if you can find it.

[Rockford96]

Nice truck and nice build man and regarding your wanting a new bumper look for a parts truck on cl i just got in a accident and needed a new one i found one in great shape for 40$

[scooter99]

Thanks boom, I actually have one, it just wasn't fitting and hitting the springs. But come to find out that's cause I'm an idiot. LMAO. It has a 1 1/8" bar on it now. I'm going to update pics from last night. I'll explain then.

Good idea Rockford. I'll start browsing there. $40 I can certainly afford.