Lowering a 4×4
I picked up some lowering spindles recently. Here’s the pic he sent me. (I only bought the spindles.) They are made by McGaughys.
Here’s their website:
I want to lower my truck about 2 inches. I’ve never been a fan of completely slammed trucks. I just want to lower the center of gravity a little bit and try to improve the handling.
The challenge is lowering a 4wd truck. I’ve never lowered a 4×4. Most people would say it’s pretty gay. I bet most people haven’t thought it through.
Do you know how much traction I’ll be able to get with 650 horsepower and 4wd? (650hp is the long term 6.0/4L80 goal.)
So there are several ways to lower my truck. The simplest is to replace the torsion bar keys. This clocks the torsion bars a tiny bit and allows you to go down about 2 inches.
At first I ordered a set of the keys. Mostly because of price. I found them second hand for 40.00.
We all know how the spindles work. They just move the hub up 2 inches which lowers the truck down 2 inches in relation to the wheel. Ultimately this is a better solution than keys. It maintains a completely stock ride.
When I found a deal on a set, I decided that was the way to go. After I get them installed, I’ll decide if I need the keys or not.
Well, that takes care of the front, but what about the rear?
Since my truck is a 4wd, it comes with blocks in the rear between the leaf springs and axle. One trick you can do on these trucks is to remove the blocks and install 2wd U-bolts. I believe the previous owner did just that. So instead of installing a leveling kit and lifting the front, he lowered the rear. Which is why my 4wd truck sits so low.
There are several ways to lower the rear. What I am going to do is the easiest. That’s installing taller shackles. The only downside to installing shackles is it changes the pinion angle slightly. So there’s a chance I may have to use shims. I really won’t know for sure until I get the shackles installed.
Now, if you install the shackles with replacement hangars, I don’t think the pinion angle is affected. I don’t want to do that mostly because it’s a complete bee-iotch. They are riveted on from the factory and it’s quite the challenge to get the factory hangars off.
I’ll take lots of pics when install time comes.
The next step after shackles and spindles will be sway bars. I’m not sure if I want to do both, a front and rear sway bar, but I definitely want to add a rear sway bar.
There are a lot of different choices available for shocks. I did a fair amount of research and I asked around for advice. What I ended up deciding on was KYB MonoMax Heavy Duty Monotube Shocks.
Here’s a video explaining the difference between mono tube and twin tube shocks.
Now I searched around and the cheapest place I could find these was amazon.com.
Front 565067
Rear 565103
There are the part numbers and you’ll need two of each.
Project "Charlie Murphy" 