Topic: Message #607132

[KDXSR5]

So I got one leaf pack built, passenger side. I need to take it to the suspension shop and have some clamps riveted on and then I can take it all apart, paint it, then hang it with my Marlin bushings and Marlin shackles (really beefy by the way, and they have GREASABLE BOLTS! ). Here is a kinda sorta step by step:

Stock pack on top, 90 leaves on bottom:




90 leaves moved to top to be sucked down onto the 85 pack using new center bolt and a couple C-clamps. This was done so I could mark where I wanted to cut the springs:






Here you can see where I decided to cut the springs. I did not measure anything throughout the whole process of building the pack until I measured to see how much lift I gained:






Spring ready to be cut. Yes I know that is not a cutoff wheel on the grinder, we did not have any and I wanted to get this thing done, so I did it all with a regular grinding wheel. I had an extinguisher with me, and I wore a safety shield. Grinders can be very dangerous:




CUT! Now imagine this same process 5 more times:




Aftermath:




I then pried the clamps off of the stock springs to remove the two springs I am not using. I am keeping the two main leaves:




I then made a template to use for tapering the leaves. I did the long taper on the fronts of all 3 leaves and the rear of the bottom one. I did the short taper on the rear of the other two leaves:








Taper action:








Finished product:










As shown here, I got a solid 2 inches of lift from this process. I am also using 2 inch longer (1 inch lift) shackles from Marlin. I went from the stock 4 leaf pack to a 5 leaf pack. The 90 rear leaves were slightly thinner than the stock 85 front leaves: