surprise surprise! I'm making another change again.%)
decided that I want a 2-1/2" suspension lift. so for the rear I allready have a set of Wild Horses 3-1/2" lift springs but rather than deal with the expense of trying to move these and then purchase new springs I decided to go the route of removing some leafs. for starters I removed the third one down from the top along with the to smallest on the bottom. this give a drop in thickness of .72" and I'll have to see where it settles once everything is reinstalled. when I had the 3-1/2's in briefly the rear sat extra high so hopefully my estimation will work out well, and if I need a little more height or capacity it will be simple to add one or both of those bottom leafs back while still in the truck.
also, for reference, I measured 7.5" from the axle tube to the frame as it sits now with the new stock height 5 pack springs. and using the 200 pound human compression test, those compress an inch upside down on the floor where my "new" 8 pack springs compress less than half an inch.
and just for fun, for the leafs I removed, the small ones don't give much under my weight but are pre-loaded when tightened in the pack. as for the long leaf, 200 pounds seem just about the necessary amount to flatten it right to the ground.
for anyone that is looking to mess with their spring packs and comes along and finds this it's easy enough with a couple of large enough C-clamps.
a quick rundown of what I did:
remove the bolts and spacers from the retainers in the middle, the two outermost can stay and help aid keeping things together.
clamp a couple C-clamps on the spring pack and remove the center pin.
loosen clamps and remove desired leaf(s), the third one down will slide out the front no problem.
putting them back together is a little more tedious with all those little spacer plates. just start lining things up and get the pin started then use the C-clamps to suck them back together. a small hammer works well to tap things around so the pin will drop through. once everything is in place, tighten the pin, remove the clamps and put the bolts and spacers back in the retainers.
done
