Coil bucket shims

[bigmuddy]

Basically, they are a shim/wedge that sits between the knuckle and the bottom coil cup that enables your coils to sit vertically instead of slouching left or right.

I know its not a popular idea but one of the vendors used to supply them and for the life of me I can't remember who had them, BCB seems familiar but does anyone remember them?

Full disclosure I have had them on my rig for years without issue.

 

[Broncobowsher]

If the coils are bowing left and right, the coil seat is probably bent.
Looks like you only have a 2½" lift. That should only put a little forward bow to the coils. About as much as the caster correction needed, so about 4°

 

[DirtDonk]

I think the vendor you’re thinking of is Ron Boggs at Sierra Broncos.
Don’t think BCB did them, but maybe at one time.

 

[bigmuddy]

I think the vendor you’re thinking of is Ron Boggs at Sierra Broncos.
Don’t think BCB did them, but maybe at one time.

Yep I think you are right.

 

[bigmuddy]

If the coils are bowing left and right, the coil seat is probably bent.
Looks like you only have a 2½" lift. That should only put a little forward bow to the coils. About as much as the caster correction needed, so abou

I recall comparing the cups with new ones from a buddy and with old ones from my stockpile of stockers, they were fine. So, while I agree, I don't believe these are bent.
Correct 2.5" lift with the Cage long arms and I believe the front coils are WH progressive units. may also be from BCB, hard to remember as they have been on a looong time.
The Cage arms have some built in castor already and I have pushed it giving me about 8 deg and almost flat pinion angle, so I run one of those weirdly shaped trunnions to the get the front driveline to attach.

All that said, I am in the mode of redoing a lot of stuff and am considering a set of Migs coil cups as an upgrade. If it's gets rid of the shims, I wouldn't be mad about it.

 

[eBronc2]

Instead of shimming the coil buckets where they bolt to the radius arms/caps, what about shimming the coils themselves, inside the buckets?

There are numerous sizes and type of rubber coil spacers with a groove for the coil to sit in, grab some and cut them at an wedge/angle, then set them into the buckets, rotate them to get the coils straight(er), and see how that works.

I have a full-width. high pinion Dana 44 under the front of my '71. I did not move the upper coil seats on the frame - so, the coils sat at angle because of the width difference between the upper and lower coil buckets. Not ideal.

I have the heavy duty welded lower coil buckets from Wild Horses, plenty of room to set some rubber coil spacers cut an angle in them, to bring the bottom of the coils more into line with the stack of coils of the spring itself. Painted the buckets black, with black coils, the small wedge of rubber spacer at the bottom is almost impossible to see. Yes, the coils are slightly angled outward, top to bottom, but it's minor, and how many coil springs sit anyways.

 

[bigmuddy]

Instead of shimming the coil buckets where they bolt to the radius arms/caps, what about shimming the coils themselves, inside the buckets?

There are numerous sizes and type of rubber coil spacers with a groove for the coil to sit in, grab some and cut them at an wedge/angle, then set them into the buckets, rotate them to get the coils straight(er), and see how that works.

I have a full-width. high pinion Dana 44 under the front of my '71. I did not move the upper coil seats on the frame - so, the coils sat at angle because of the width difference between the upper and lower coil buckets. Not ideal.

I have the heavy duty welded lower coil buckets from Wild Horses, plenty of room to set some rubber coil spacers cut an angle in them, to bring the bottom of the coils more into line with the stack of coils of the spring itself. Painted the buckets black, with black coils, the small wedge of rubber spacer at the bottom is almost impossible to see. Yes, the coils are slightly angled outward, top to bottom, but it's minor, and how many coil springs sit anyways.

Not sure I would trust that over the long haul.
These didn't bother me much as the bolts go through the cup, then the shim then into the arm so really no way it's coming out without major issues.
Still considering moving to the Migs coil cup and see what happens. Again, though I think my bend in the coil is from the long arms?

 

[DirtDonk]

Bends in coils come from any direction, but two main directions on a Bronco. With two more inputs sometimes coming into play.
One is the angle of the arms at the radius arm caps (where the coil cup mounts) and whether it's aligned with the coil tower above it.
Second is the location of the axle to either side, or center in the frame below the towers.
The third "might" be how the springs are retained and whether or not there is any clamping "English" applied to the coil wire itself.
The fourth can be if the cup is distorted from age and use. This usually applies only to the original cups and clamps.

In other words, you really only care about it at ride height, because that's where you normally view it. Otherwise it's changing constantly as the suspension moves up and down and the springs compress. So where you set it, and how straight the springs look, they're going to be changing at some point.
So it can usually be "fixed" but might take a couple of fixes to do it.

If you center the axle in the frame, using either an adjustable trackbar and/or trackbar drop bracket and/or riser, then that aspect is taken care of to the best of your ability.
If your radius arms are made in such a way as to set up the spring cups in a correct line with the upper tower, then you're good to go there. If not, you either make custom cups that do align them, or shim the cups.
If your stock cups are distorted, get new ones. Easy.
If the new ones clamp the wire too tight, you might try a different one, or tweak the existing one. Most of the aftermarket cups do seem to leave the wire a bit loose though, so I'm not sure that would even be an issue.

So there's one take on the subject.

Paul