Hey guys, since moving the battery to the rear, the aluminum heads, and all the lightweight goodies under the hood, the front end is up a good .5 and the rear is sagging now lower than the front. Aside from aesthetics, when I really get on it with ONE passenger! My rear or possibly driveshaft is hitting the body when it shifts and hooks.... So aside from new springs, would the caltrac bars raise the rear end up some? I literally only need .5" or so. I do not want to buy new springs unless it is really necessary. Should I add in some timbrem or beefy bump stops of some kind? Also when I go to fit larger tire back there I might need to lift the rear a bit? TIPS?
You should buy new springs...It sounds like its finally necessary... Cal tracs and weak springs wont help you...
I don't know your situation, but it doesn't have to cost much if you can do the work yourself. You can either get some used Econline springs (see the tech article) or add a used leaf to each of your current springs (that's what I did and I like the result). I would NOT put limited slip in with sagging springs. You didn't say your were going to do that but, just in case you're thinking about it.
A cheap "fix" is put on longer shackles. Really you should put new springs on before a lsd or locker. After I put my 3.80 locker diff in on the old springs the car got what I like to call "booty shake" every time I got on it the back end of the car started shaking really bad and was very hard to control. Here's the thread http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=69822
Man, this is going to be complicated....I cant buy springs unless I measure mine to make sure I do not lift the rear a mile high...
i saw this comming air shocks are no good for our cars! your putting a bandaid on a gun shot wound, it might cover it up now but it will cause more problems later!
I have had bad exp. with air shocks. But have had a TON of luck with timbrems... They are a huge rubber overload bushing. I used these to control wheel hop and tighten up the rear end of my 2 door explorer when I was "racing" it. I put a half leaf husky overload spring with a ton of preload on the leaf pack, installed these huge rubber bushings and then lowered (raised) the axle with drop blocks until I had about .5" til the rubber bushings. It had good ride qualities but once you hit a big bump or when around a long sweeping corner, it would push on the bushings which were fairly progressive and really flatten the vehicle back out. Unfortunately caused some under steer issues even with 295 front tires....But I never rolled the thing and I managed 2 reckless driving charges with it!
the cal tracs wont raise the car at all. they will help with the dip during the hard shifts. that is the springs wrapping up and that is what caltracs counters. i would suggest just adding a leaf to your current spring pack. much like the econoline van post above.