Just curious if anybody has pics of a pickup lowered by reversing the spring eyes and removing leaves only? No dropped axle, no axle flip...I am curious specifically about front axles, since rears are pretty straight forward. Thanks!
Anything! I am sure there will a slight difference between models and years, but the ride height should be similar among them.
You won't get it "slammed" that way, but you can still bring it down a bunch. My '52 Ford has the stock leaf springs and front axle, leafs removed front and back. No reversed eyes, but the front springs are de-arched.
My '37 dropped about 2" or slightly more with only leafs removed. Keep the two longest leafs and remove every other one under them. Joe
Just about every community has a spring shop that is capable of re-arching your springs and reversing the spring eyes. If you bring them the springs it's not very expensive. Beware of unintended consequences when removing leaves. Doing it as Joe H says above ^^^^^ will work fine in most cases, but you'll encounter increased body roll and increased suspension travel at the same time. And, with less spring control you'll need to add some heavier shocks to control jounce and rebound which will also increase. A combination of re-arching, removing some of the shorter leaves and good quality gas-filled shocks will probably get you where you want to go - with a more pleasant ride as well. Installing front and rear anti-sway bars - available for F-1's and F-100s - will go a long way towards making your truck truly pleasant to drive as well as being lower. Good luck!
you take to many leaves out of the rear u may get spring wrap . it allows your rear end to twist the springs .
Funny because I just did this on my F1, removed every other leaf, and it wraps bad also. Seems to cause worse wheel hop, not that a 170hp flathead really smokes the tires up... but still, it's annoying. Traction bars from the '70s look corny in my opinion, I think some type of rear ladder bars ala Pete&Jakes would probably cure it and look the part? Sorry for the thread hijack. If I had to do it over I might just buy replacement spring sets, they're supposed to ride really nice. Or like said above, have the springs re-arched at a good shop.
Depending on what this is on and what you want to do with it, I have had luck flipping shorter flatter front mains (typical 40-60 through 60's truck front leaves) without re-arching them. That way your eyes are reversed to get you an inch or so of drop, but then the main forces the others below it into i flatter arch. This alone put a buddies '57 f100 almost on the bump stops, with an otherwise stock pack. This took some careful work with some C-clamps and a bench vice to get it all together. Im not saying its a "good" way to do it, but it was simple, effective, and seems to be working well a year later. For the rears you can pull out leaves but try to have the pack taper down in length as you go down. You don't want to have a few long leaves at the top, and nothing else supporting them below. This is a sure way to end up with a "S" shaped spring pack that axle hops like mad. Typically ill leave the stock main and 2nd leaf in place, and then remover every other spring from there, trying to leave in the stubby on all the way at the bottom of the main pack. That little guy does a lot to support the leaves above it and keep them in control. I also keep out any overloads if I can help it, unless I really see a good reason to keep it. For example, if the overload is long, thick, and flat, it can sometimes take the place of multiple regular leaves and get you sitting lower, but ride quality can suffer. By doing what I described previously you should end up with a nice 5-6 leaf pack with good handling and ok load capacity for a driver / shop truck, and still be able to lower it a good 3+ inches. Or there is always the possibility of relocating spring and shackle hangers in the rear.
Keep in mind the amount of spring settling your specific truck has had will effect your results on any of the above. I have seen guys buy 3 inch lowering springs and find they had almost no difference.
As for spring wrap, or wheel hop, do as the old Mopar racers used to, clamp the front of the leaf pack together and leave the back loose. This lets the front act like a solid traction bar and the rear half control the ride. My 250 doesn't have enough power to spin a tire, so wheel is no problem for mine! I did add a sway bar to the front, just for the reasons mentioned above. The truck was much softer with leafs removed, both in ride and sway. The heavy sway bar took care of that. The teflon liner I added between each leaf really helped soften the ride even more, plus quite down the road noise. I had too stiff of a shock all around and went back to a car shock instead of a truck shock. It still rides like a short wheel base truck, but it's so much better then stock ever was. Joe
for sure. i've never done it on any of my vehicles, but my buddy john bought reversed eye; 2" lower springs for his '56 big window ford. got them installed and the truck set an inch or two higher than with the old springs.
can someone take a few pics of the set up and which leafs are remove, newby here on lowering at a budget...or no budget...lol...................thanks
I lowered both my '49 F-1 and my '55 F-100 by removing a few leaves from the spring pack. The short leaves are stiffer than the long leaves… I think both of my trucks wound up with front leaves front and five leaves in the rear. You don't need pix… just do it! If it's wrong it will be easy to fix...
spring man told me never remove the leaf under the main spring . i had already done just that . i think that contributed to the spring wrap .
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