Frankie Pintado wrote:My suspension instructor (with 30 years experience, fully certified, member of guild of engineers, etc.) says that he can even get the axle to wrap on an automatic. It doesn't take a whole lot of power to tweak a leaf spring; I can compress the leaf springs with my hands and the truck will squat at least an inch. How many horsepower would you say my hand has?Maybe we're not talking about the same thing Rev.

I can certainly tell when it's happening, but then again I carry a good bit of weight sometimes.

This is axle wrap.

sorry im a big noob when it comes to suspension.. but say what happens when you get axle wrap while driving, turning, drifting?

the thing with axle wrap is that it doesn't affect the low HP cars as much... i don't even notice it one bit in my truck

now if you plan on making more power in the future... or just wanna do it right... get the leafs re-arched or different leafs... but the blocks will work for now!

ok. yeah i talked to a guy today at a shop and he said that for the power im making i wont have to worrie about it.

<--- Newb

Sorry for my Newbiness in advance.

My goal is to stiffen my suspension, only to take turns easier without slamming on the brakes, so lowering my 95 hardbody is a good start.
If I tighten the bolts in the front and buy stiffen shocks (btw any recommendations?), re-arch and add blocks in the back. Is that a safe way to improve my turning capabilities?

FYI my truck is a 95 hardbody xe reg. cab 2wd, and i don't plan on amping up my power too much (maybe a turbo.....maybe) but it is an auto (i know......).

On another note, I have a 93 q45 sitting in my garage, trunk is smashed in. Are there any parts i can use for my truck? For example, the brakes? I believe the engine is still good. and will eventually swap that in (...maybe....).

Thanks in advance for your inputs everyone!

gei

you can probably make the brakes work... i know they work on 240's... so maybe

what you described will help the handling a lot... but doing a proper re-arch so that you don't need the blocks will help more

as far as shocks... i recommend KYB monomax or bilstein HD... or if you really want it to handle... get KONI's

Thanks for the tips and recommendations, PEZi720!

what would the recommendations for rear drop shocks after a 3" block is installed?

you wont need rear drop shocks because the location of the lower shock mount itself is not moving if you think about it just the axle.

and as for front shocks nobody mentioned this yet, but if you wanna run super low in the front, like me, your shocks will bottom out before you hit the bumpstops, if you are running superslims. one easy way to remedy this is any year ford pinto shocks for the front. you will need to swap the metal sleeve in the bushing though not too hard to do.

thats how mines lowered.

hey i was wondering about lowering the front of my hardbody. was told not to crank down the torsions becuz i would have problems with bottoming out. any suggestions? and one more question. will 18s rub after being lowered? i wanna go with about an inch and a half of side wall but dont kno if they will rub. if you have any ideas im all ears.

should i do four inch or three inch lowering blocks

sr20hardbody96 wrote:should i do four inch or three inch lowering blocks

Three is pretty low and if you do not use a low profile bump stop at that point, you are in for some serious hurting. I wouldn't recommend 4 for these trucks. If you want it that low, you need to do bags and do it right.

I'm running three inch blocks on my truck and even with low profile bump stops and the stiffest shocks I could find locally, I bottom out on big bumps all the time. I can only imagine what 4 inch blocks would be like.

i finally lowerd mine the right way after driving around on torqued torsion bars and blocks for the longest, i now have it on 2" drop spindles in the from with kyb monomax and lowered a bit with the torsion bars as well(tire is tucked just a bit). and for the back i went ahead and bought kyb monomax shocks and 4" drop leaf springs. the car drives so much better, its like a whole different car now. the only problem i have run into which i found out after it happened to me, is that when you put on the drop spindles and drop it with the torsion bars a bit the inside of my rim begins to run on the bottom on the drop spindle. and it makes it a bit difficult to do an alignment cause you have to cut the tie rods. but it is do able, the only solution i found out to make it stop rubbing the rim on the inside is getting bigger rims. as of now im still on the stock 14x6. im most likely going to be getting 16x8 all around(not what i want, but all i can find).

I'll add some advice. DO NOT TRY THE STUPID IDEA of removing the two overload springs in the pack. I had a friend convince me to, It only lasted a week. The single spring is not enough. Truck bottomed out all the time! Rode awful! I now have 3" blocks and left the bottom overload spring out. Rides good, and I live in the country, so I drive on some pretty crappy roads! And can handle most weight I have put in. Next is shocks.

I have a 4x4 and I like the way the front sits and not so much on the rear!! I haven't measured the rear but its definitely higher than the front!! Is it possible to lower the rear to even out the truck?

On the 4WD, you'd have to re-arch the springs.. or go custom fab to make them sit below the axle. In your case, the best option would be to raise the front to match the rear.

PEZi wrote:On the 4WD, you'd have to re-arch the springs.. or go custom fab to make them sit below the axle. In your case, the best option would be to raise the front to match the rear.

Thanks man!! Yeah after taking a really good look at the truck I came to the decision of buying a leveling/lift kit!! If only I had the equipment to cut and weld so I can move the leafs under the axle!!

So I'm looking to drop 00 frontier 2wd.
I have the blocks and ubolts ready.
As I was reading the instructions, I noticed I need new shocks, do I really need to buy them? I mean, the current ones work fine but if I need to buy new ones what should I be looking for? Any brands in particular that I can get at autozone?
Or can I still use the current ones?

With blocks you will not need new rear shocks. On the other hand the front shocks might need to be replaced but that depends on how low you are planning on dropping the truck. I dropped mine 2-3" and running KYB Gas A Just shocks seems to be working alright for me. If you are planning on tucking the wheels most recommend putting Ford Pinto shocks in the front because they are shorter and do fit.

Well I'm just looking to drop the rear since the front is already low.
I think I will go with a 2.5 drop.

With blocks you should be all right with the standard size shocks.

Any of you guys care to elaborate on the front shocks a bit more...
I'm a noob to the truck world. I recently got an 89 D21 and it was lowered already, but it bottoms out in front all the time and the passenger side shock feels like it is blown. The rear was bad as well, but I got a set of helper leafs from Advance Auto and solved the problem. The previous owner got some shorter shocks at front, but I forgot from which other car or truck came from. I have no way to go ask the guy again, so please help. I have raised it a bit already and it's better, but I need to get new shocks. I like how it looks, so going back to stock is a no no. Thanks.

Edit:
A pic of the truck. I will take pics of the shocks tomorrow in daylight.

Ford Pinto shocks are the ones you need.

Thanks! I google it and found an image of the exact ones I have.


I saw that the ford pinto was what I needed a few posts back, but I didn't know that was it. ...so no other hoccus-poccus? I would like to have a stiffer ride up front. Will aftermarket torsion bars will be my only option?

EDIT: Look what I found on this site. Seems there is range of mustangs the use the same Shock (74-78). http://www.shockwarehouse.com/site/prod ... -Front-End

ok, Now I still feel the truck is too soft in the front. I searched and find out you can get some stiffer torsion bars, but I think they are a bit out of my price range. If I go the new torsion bars route, I also have to replace the shocks to better dampen the stiffer bars. I found good and expensive options out there for the ford pinto and mustang II.
My question is: has anyone done some sort of DIY spring assisted front shocks for this trucks? Sort of like a coilover type deal. I found some good coilover kits for the pinto and will be nice if I can sort of put together something like that. I could get some cheap springs since they wont be supporting the whole truck and some good shocks from some place else. Anyone here have seen or done something like that? ...or I'm totally crazy.

Nice good info

I'm am going to lower my 1996 hardbody what is a good cheap shock that will give me a stiffer ride then the stock one when lowered?