Pics of 63" springs in the rear of a waggy?

[AwesomeJ10]

I'm swapping in a 14bolt and 63" chevy springs into the rear of my '88 GW this weekend. Already running 'em on the honcho and love em. A rear traction bar really helps control them.

Wondering if anyone had any pics of the mounts and knew how much lift they got?

[Stuka]

Tad has 63" springs as I recall. I do not think they give any noticeable lift over good condition stock springs.

[ClovisMan]

They also move the rear axle a good 6 or so inches toward the rear forcing you to cut the rear fenderwells quite a bit.

[AwesomeJ10]

Well the plan is to move the axle back about 4-6" and then weld on some Jtruck rear flares.

I'm hoping to not get too much lift...

[Tad]

There are some variations in the 63's I have come across.
http://littlekeylime.com/MrN/mrnimages/leaf_springs.png
He calls them 64's which is more correct and lists 3, 4, 5 and 7 leaf packs, I have only seen the 3's and 5's.

I run the 3 leaf packs with the overload removed and they did move the axle back about 6".
Originally that matched my saggy front re-arched 4" lift pack pretty well, I figured they were sagged down to 2" of lift by then.
When I swapped to the newer 74-91 front springs with an extra main spring in the pack that was a pretty good match also.

On a side note:
Shoving the Caddy 425 in there and dropping it 2" lower and 3" back changed my weight balance.
The front came up about 1" but I think I can cure it with a slightly longer shackle in the rear.

Anyway Pics:
Pre-caddy 425



Post-Caddy 425

[Tad]

They also move the rear axle a good 6 or so inches toward the rear forcing you to cut the rear fenderwells quite a bit.

I know that rig, Mike ??? from NM.
He came to 'Cruces with that in 2008.
He's (was, he sold that rig) running my rear kit with the rear mounts swapped left to right.
I probably have some video of it someplace.

[AwesomeJ10]

thanks the for link to the spring chart Tad I've seen that before but couldn't find it. I've got it saved now.

My new 63's are from an '89 chevy 1/2 ton that I pulled myself from the yard. They have 3 leaves plus an overload, just like the honcho. I kinda wish I could have found some newer springs, but I didn't feel like removing the gas tank on the newer trucks... I should probably grab a spare one day...

[Tad]

Check the Yota boards for spares.
It's a popular conversion for the SR5 crowd and they tend to bail on projects.

[srobertsfsj]

Check the Yota boards for spares.
It's a popular conversion for the SR5 crowd and they tend to bail on projects.

[adamsclarke]

Post up pics with the 44044s up front an dthe 63s out back when you are done.....I'm planning the same with modified widetrack flares and am curious about the height!

[BJT]

Here's mine





I moved the axle back 5" and took 5 1/2" out of the rear wheel opening. We cut the front 1" off first so we were able to recreate the factory body line and reuse the factory's wheel opening lip

The rear springs came off a 1990 GM 1500 pu.

The front springs are 2" lift unknown brand. I have 4 degree shims bolted to the spring packs. They are set up SOA. The front diff is a Dana 60 from a 92 Dodge W250 Cummins truck

For the rear springs I used some 3" wide adjustable front spring hangers from DIY4x and out back I used a pair of shackle hangers from Ruff Stuff along with some extra bracing I made out of a 2" x 4" 3/16" thick rectangle tubing I had left over from making my sliders. Also the rear shackles I made from 3/8" x 2" flat bar. They are 6" center line to center line of the bolt holes and 8" overall in length. Additionally I am using a 1" zero rate block bolted to the spring packs from DIY4x too. The rear axle is out of the same 92 W250 Dodge the front came out of and is a Dana 70u with a disc brake swap.

[adamsclarke]

Awesome , thanks. Did you use the factory front spring hanger and just put on a new shackle hanger, or did you put them under the frame? ANy build thread?

[BJT]

No build thread yet . I have to s of pics but just never seem to make the time to do a build thread, o e of these days. I updated my info in my above post about the rear spring mounts.

the front springs are still mounted using the stock hangers. I'm planning on doing a shackle reverse on the front in the near future. at that time id like to switch out the current front springs for a set of the Rancho's.

[surfwagoneer]

Since the rear axle is moved back so far does the rear drive shaft have to be replaced?

ClovisMan I'm planning on putting bushwackers on my GW also, does everything still fit well with the axle moved back so far- after the flairs are installed?

[surfwagoneer]

Is it necessary to replace the rear drive shaft when the axle is moved back so far?

[AwesomeJ10]

Depends on how you locate the axle.

I completed the 63" spring swap just days before the Ouray 2013 trip. Wheeled it down to Ouray and kept breaking the front shock mounts that I had failed to weld properly for the Fox shocks (Fox puts a ton of pressure on the shock mounts). Anyways, my waggy was already heavily modified when I did the 63" springs/14 bolt and I located the rear axle so it was pretty much 'centered' in the wheel well and so I could keep the $$$ 1350 CV shaft that I already had in there. I never did get any good pics of the swap, then I sold the waggy (so I could buy my wife a YJ which she loves).