My rear spring restomod/ add a leaf install *pics*

[ZackN920]

Who could've guessed this was coming...

I got all my stuff in the mail by Saturday. I finally picked up some U-bolts local to me, and got started on this process yesterday.

As some(most?)... of you know, my wagon had some saggy springs in the back that weren't in the best of shape. When I put the 44044 lift springs on the front, I didn't have anything for the back and since it needed shocks all around, I cheated and got air shocks. That's held it up better, but not exactly where I'd like it. I also didn't like the idea of all the pressure being on my shock mounts. Luckily, they have been fine for the 3/4 year that its been set up.

So, I finally (through the help and guidance of some members) picked up a set of 2" full length "add a leafs" to lift it up. I'm no where near ready to do full springs back there, so the main leafs have to stay in place.

So, as a start i pulled the wagon into the garage and took a few pics to compare height before/after shock air down, and compare once i get the spring packs all back together and set up.

air shocks full


air shocks empty


hmm, not sagging as much anymore...

Well, got it all lifted up, took off the wheels and then disconnected the bottom of the shocks. Just letting them hang for now.
Well, I wasn't surprised about this next part. The U-bolts are so rusted that there is no point messing with the nuts. The threads were all mangled and rusted. So, I cut the U-bolts at the bottom. Took a bit, but no big deal... other than the loud surprising BANG when they finally snap after being cut most of the way through. and all the rust/road/grime dust that follows
Then I had to take one of the air hammers (with chisel attachment) and hammer the U-bolts off the spring mounting pads. They were rusted to the pads and took some doing to get them loosened so I could spin the remaining half's of each u bolt to get it out of there.

DONE

Oh YEA!,
I was happy to find that my main leaves were solid on each side. No breaks, no cracks, no nothing!
Not done yet though. Now I had to get the old center bolts out. Well, tried working at one of the nuts, but it rounded over due to them being just as rusty as everything else. So, I ground the nuts down. First side went all right. Knocked the rest of the nut off and hammered the pin through the pack and got them all apart. Had a hell of a scare on the other side though.

Forgot to take a pic of this,,. Anyone here seen a grinding wheel on a 4.5" grinder explode?! Yea, that happened when I was doing the other side's center pin. It must have had a little damage and snagged just right on the nut I was grinding and BANG, clunk clunk clunk clunk. Good thing I had a death grip on the grinder and was wearing safety equipment. I did have a chunk go through the glove on my right hand but luckily it just cut off a small piece of skin. Nothing major. Holy though...
Well, here's some results:





Next, will be going to the other building for some wire wheeling and paint.

[ZackN920]

So, next is to shave my leafs down some with the wire wheel to clean them up. They are rusted up pretty bad. After doing the job, I found that they are pitted pretty bad as well. Oh well though.
pictures are kind of sporadic here

Waiting to hit the wire wheel


half of a side done on this one

As clean as its gunna get


This really wore down my coarse wire wheel...


It was misting-then turned to snowing outside so I was painting inside the building. I shot them with 2 layers of rust reformer, then after that dried, 2 more layers of semi gloss black.

Some pre assembly. Just fitting some of them together again with the AAL

Got some new pads on the ends.


I've still got more to do with these. I didn't finish up with them. Probably finish with them tomorrow and I also still need to do the same treatment to the main leaf that's still on the wagon. Afterword's its re-assembly!

[Full Size Jeeper]

Looking good!

[ZackN920]

Well thanks!

Today I finished up the wire wheeling and paintwork on the leaves. I also decided to add a layer of paint to the add a leafs for some extra protection.

had to get em out of the way... so where'd I put em? on the garbage can!

Anyway's, going on I also painted my new clamps. They were allready gray and i thought that'd be an interesting contrast and i had a bunch of grey paint in my box of paints soo...


Have the springs all in order now waiting to go on.



In the mean time, between some painting and drying I started working on this.

I wire wheeled the main spring and all flaking material from wheel well area of the frame. Also had to do the spring perch's as well. This Jeep has so much bad undercoating on it. Should sue zeibart for the crap job they did on this jeep and all the water it has held to the metal, causing it to rust out over the years.

After clean up. Sprayed with a couple layers of rust reformer and then black paint.




I didn't get pics of the other side yet. Probably will tomorrow. It got the same exact job though, so not missing much.

Well, I'm getting tired of seeing the poor thing looking like this...


So, time to try an install.

Took a little while and some figuring at first to get a plan, but I got the pass. side leaf spring pack all together. Not too bad. Need to do a little touch up on some of the paint, but that's all right.




Whew, that was a job... I think it looks good. Hopefully it will sit higher when its attached to the axle and wheels are finally back on the ground.

It sure is alot better looking than it was a good year ago...

Thats how it looked little over a year ago before the air shocks and front lift. Sagged/flat, leafs splitting apart from each other...just bad.


Thats where im at right now. Still need to get the driver side together and then get them bolted to the axle again.

[Brynjminjones]

Those are looking much better!
How did it ride with the worn springs and air shocks doing the work?

[ZackN920]

Well, thank ya!

I got to say it was kind of stiff. I had them shocks a little high to keep the back at a close height to the front. Driver side needed to be at about 150psi and pass side at 130ish to keep it up.

Before the air shocks I wouldn't be able to tell ya at all. At that time I had no rear body mounts of any sort. So every bump I hit was a loud *BANG* from the back.

I wonder how it will be after this and where it will sit? It's looking pretty good! It'd be great if I wouldn't need the air shocks pumped up. That would probably give me a much better ride.
Well, today I got the driver side together. I also finally got the springs re-attached to the axle. That was a heck of a job. I HAD to disconnect that track bar to pivot the axle around to get the spring pins to line with the pads. That nut/bolt took way too much to get loose. Then I lost the damn nut from it... That's ok, I need to change the hardware anyways. Its wrecked from the rust.
No pics for now. Too late to get them uploaded then put on the site, but that's where I'm at. still need to properly torque my u-bolts, re-attach the track bar and the shocks. Then I should be done and back with some results!

[ZackN920]

Driver side pics! along with some of the process of it all...


Leafs, clamps, ratchet wrench, and some rubbers...

AAL in position.


Starting initial clamp process.


Clamps holding AAL and positioning additional leaves underneath. Also using threaded rod to keep them lined up during the process.


Installing the overload leaf and now using the actual spring pack pin


Installing the PITA spring clamps that needed a little modding...


Finished

U-bolts apparently installed as well, but not torqued at that moment. I still needed to cut them down some so I can fit a socket on the nuts.

Heres a pic of the weight of the vehicle on the springs. The axle(and Jeep) is being held up by the ol 3 ton jack.

That looks pretty good. Still has a good arch and none of the leaves are trying to separate.

[ZackN920]

Here's what I did today!

Sawzall time!


All cut down now.

Other side looks exactly the same. Right after that I torqued the U-bolt nuts all up. Had one lock washer (why the f did this application need lock washers?!) fail while torqueing down. It squirmed under the nut and bent itself out of shape and pushed out of position and wrapped around the nut. Had to get a new one and restart on that side. Other than that it went well.

I re-attached the shocks, but waited until i set it down on the wheels before I reattached the track bar.

Finally, the big reveal:



SWEET... Its sitting pretty good with only the minimum necessary in those air shocks. I could probably give it a rake if I filled them things back up. Wonder where it will settle at?

On to the track bar...

Anyone know why this is needed???

I just put it back.

Good thing the track bar bracket on the axle has room for some play. It was all the way over to the right, but now with the lift it fits just fine with it all on the left of its adjustable range.

Underside view of the springs with it sitting back on the wheels.


They are lookin' good.

As usual, the Jeep made a mess. Not as bad as when i put the front springs in though...

of course! You couldn't do THAT on the cardboard....

Here's my grinder carnage...

I've been using these for around 8 years... I've never seen that happen before.

Here's the Jeep now sitting just outside of the big door


This is after going on a half hour drive.

I've got many more photos from that last shoot, but this thread already has more than enough.
I just figured I'd share my whole "fun" process of this, just for the hell of it.
Hope those of you that viewed it... enjoy. Maybe it can be used for some pointer or for reference too.

[Full Size Jeeper]

Looks like it settled out nice.

[ZackN920]

Thanks!

Well, I'll probably see where it will actually settle in a few months or something. I've heard that aal's break in after awhile. Don't really know how long that might be but that's what I've heard. May still need somethin extra in the air shocks, may not. Probably keep the left side up a bit though, to help ward off the left side sag from the extra weight...

I noticed that I forgot some details in the last post...
HOW IT RIDES!!!
To be honest... I actually think it rides better. It's got some "springy" action too it back there. A little bouncy over the crappy roads and dips compared to the harder stiff ride it had before. Took it out on the freeway and its still pretty smooth doing 65. Sitting in it, it also just "feels" like I've got a straighter viewpoint. That one seems weird to explain, but yea. Just feels slightly different sitting in it. I guess I can tell the angle of it is different.

Odd thing though, my exhaust sounds a little different under hard acceleration. I'm wondering it the exhaust is now directly blowing onto the rear axle and that's a sound effect from it... It doesn't smell like I have a new leak from knocking it around under there... I may have to do something about it. I got to look at it again sometime...

[dbabicky]

Nice looking Waggy !!

[ZackN920]

Well thank ya! It's takin' quite a bit of work and time to get it where it's at. Starting from a rusty hulk that barely ran and drove... to this.

[gophman]

Do you have the part numbers for front/rear?

[ZackN920]

What for? The springs? It's in the thread if you read through it.

Fronts are Rancho 44044 springs that I got used from a great guy here on the forums. I needed new springs on the front due to broken main leafs on each side.

Rears are stock spring pack's that I cleaned up and Rusty's 2" full length AAL. part # ROP 2464....found the link still in my favorites: https://www.rustysoffroad.com/rustys...ngth-pair.html

[twmattox]

So, how's the rig sit now? I am debating that set of add-a-leafs and am concerned that the lift won't last.