front leaf springs outside the frame rails?

I wasn't saying the L weren't that way. Just that the donor axle and springs may have been set up with front shackles. It just depends.

Since no ones chimed in and said, "for the love of God, NO! don't do it, you'll die a fiery, horrible death!", let's assume that if done in a strong, competent manor, leaf springs on the steering axle may be mounted to the outside of the frame rail.

next question; assuming the fixed pivot point is on the front of the spring (i.e.: closest to the steering box in this case), should the rear shackles of the front spring be positioned above their pivot point (as i've seen in most rear axle configurations), or below their pivot point? I'm thinking they should be above, so as not to increase the height/lift of the front of the truck too much. my initial thought is to find rear axle spring hangers from another truck, and adapt them to duty on the front axle.

what say you?

john

Outside spring mounting is not uncommon. I am confident that you will be OK if the modification is done well. Check out the L110 Shorty build that my son and I are involved in. I/we moved the front springs, at the front mount, to the outside of the frame rails. We made the new bracket design strong and used lots of fasteners. Read the "story". I had to move the spring location to accommodate the fixed spring perches on the front DANA 44 axle that we are using.
I called the number that I used to use and got your humourless monotone replacement. Do you miss the "job"? It has been 42 years for me and I seldom think about it, now.

The big change I see is the 4X4 system, I am no expert, you could move the perches to the stock location, or are you using a new steer box? Geometry is important, I just rolled thru the post, not sure if I got everything.

The difficulty in moving the spring perches, is that the passenger side perch is built into the pumpkin itself. If I use the stock location, this places the drivers side wheel way outside the fender. Also, the stock springs and perches are much narrower than the donor springs and perches, which could present stability issues.

Just using my calibrated eyeball, it looks to me like the donor springs will sit just outside the frame rails, which got me thinking about changing the spring hanger location. I believe that GM used the same width of spring, so I'm going to explore using spring perches and hangers from a GM product.

Sorry about being out of touch guys. It's been kind of a crazy few months. Brian, I'll see if can find your email or PM you my new number.

Kevin, I would still like to get together this summer and get you that engine. In the last few months, I've also taken on yet another odd ball vehicle, an '89 Subaru DL wagon. Lol

John

There was a very good TV special about Subaru and how 100% of it is made in USA. The Subaru has a solid reputation .

Sounds good on the engine John, we will get it done, I assume you dont need the dana 60, I got a couple guys chomping at the bit to get it, let me know either way'
kevin

Sounds good on the engine John, I assume you dont need the dana 60, I got a couple guys chomping at the bit to get it, let me know either way

The difficulty in moving the spring perches, is that the passenger side perch is built into the pumpkin itself. If I use the stock location, this places the drivers side wheel way outside the fender. Also, the stock springs and perches are much narrower than the donor springs and perches, which could present stability issu


Just using my calibrated eyeball, it looks to me like the donor springs will sit just outside the frame rails, which got me thinking about changing the spring hanger location. I believe that GM used the same width of spring, so I'm going to explore using spring perches and hangers from a GM product.

Sorry about being out of touch guys. It's been kind of a crazy few months. Brian, I'll see if can find your email or PM you my new number.

Kevin, I would still like to get together this summer and get you that engine. In the last few months, I've also taken on yet another odd ball vehicle, an '89 Subaru DL wagon. Lol

John