New Axle

[MTUH3]

Or at least is looks new now..... :thumbs:

Gonna have to change my sig line soon

 

[06 H3]

nice! Cant wait to see the spring over...Now there is about 10 of us!

 

[alrock]

Cool, looking forward to the progress.

 

[3Hummers]

So when does the work start?

 

[4speedfunk]

Nice. You'll love the SOA. 12 degrees of separation (between the pinion angle and the perch angle) seems to be the sweet spot.

 

[MTUH3]

So when does the work start?

Works been going on since mid August. Between house projects, babies, shores, and hunting this is taking a long time. So far everything is taken off the truck and all the new stuff is welded on. I am to try and bolt everything together today / tonight. Doesn't look like I'll get to NAPA on time today for the brake lines and stuff, but I will probably bend up some coat hangers for a template

 

[MTUH3]

Nice. You'll love the SOA. 12 degrees of separation (between the pinion angle and the perch angle) seems to be the sweet spot.

That is about where I am at, at least last time I measured....

 

[atvspeed4]

Are you stock height in the front? Congrats for diving into the SOA!

 

[MTUH3]

Are you stock height in the front? Congrats for diving into the SOA!

Torsion bar adjustment in the front with the Trail Duty set up. Reading up on Bebe's SOA thread and others, I should be at close to the stock rake angle when I am done. I have a little bit more I could go up in the front, but will decide once everything is together.

You sig says you have a broken leaf? That is what started me down this road

 

[atvspeed4]

Did you just buy new factory leaf springs after you broke one?

 

[MTUH3]

Yes, I jut picked a new set up from the dealer. I was not too concerned with the spring going again, or not at least for another 6 years

 

[atvspeed4]

Yes, I jut picked a new set up from the dealer. I was not too concerned with the spring going again, or not at least for another 6 years

I'm really nervous to do so if mine failed after 80,000 miles and only three offroad trips. Keep us updated though! Im excited to see yours when its done. Are you using the stock pack or just the main leaf from the h3 pack and tahoe springs like bebe did?

 

[MTUH3]

Stock spring pack for now, I'll adjust if need be, but I think 06 and 4speed also used stock packs

 

[06 H3]

Yea I'm running stock springs they are the original leaves that came on the truck. They were on since day 1 minus 10k miles with lift springs. They have about 90k on em so I'm worried they are gonna go soon. Who knows...a part of me wants to run em till they break or till they don't lol

 

[atvspeed4]

Stock spring pack for now, I'll adjust if need be, but I think 06 and 4speed also used stock packs

hmmm well if that works I might have to consider doing it too. 06 has the rancho in the front and 4speed has a solid axle in the front so I figured that if I just have a torsion lift in the front it wouldnt be enough. Please post up pics and a parts list when your done.

 

[MTUH3]

Will do. Goal here for me is to keep the factory rake angle on the truck, by avoiding extended shackles and helper springs like I ran before. I'll copy over my install thread when I have it finished.

 

[06 H3]

Do you think the shackles and helper springs increased wear and stress on the spring causing failure?

 

[MTUH3]

Shackle, may be. Helper springs really only ever did anything when the truck was weighted. They were on a pretty cool shackle set up. Another 06 truck out by me had the same spring failure. More off-roading than I get to do, but the same style of wheeling. I lead to believe it is a fatigue failure, may be heat treating, or a different material, or a process issue led to it, but I would take a stab that this is limited to trucks that hit a lot of trail. When I get the spring looked at by the materials lab, if it comes back as a High Load, Low Frequency fatigue, you can bet it was from wheeling. If it is Low Load, High Frequency, I may think it to be materila / process based issue. Which may have been corrected since

 

[MTUH3]

I figured the like new axle deserved some like new shocks. These are a set of Fox 2.0s I picked up a couple years ago. I painted the body and Fox was nice enough to put a new set of decals in the mail for me this morning.

 

[06 H3]

looks awesome! One thing...When the truck is weighted down check to see if the leaf spring center pin is directly under the bumpstop. Mine was but I dont think CJs was so he put it back as the spring perches are adjustable.

Cant wait to see the final result. let me know what happens to the spring results, I do tons of wheeling and would gladly take a stronger main leaf as long as I dont lift it anymore.

 

[4speedfunk]

I'm still running stock H3 springs with a Colorado/Canyon add-a-leaf. I have some 52" Chevy 1/2-ton leafs...just waiting for an opportunity to tear stuff apart. I like speedy's 2nd leaf mod, to support the main leaf instead of merely adding one to the bottom of the stack.

After you get done with the SOA...pay close attention to the where the tire sits within the wheel-well (when viewed from the side). Doing the SOA creates so much lift...that it tends to shift the axle forward. So to compensate you might have to shift its mounting point rearward on the springs. This doesn't have anything to do with where the bump stop hits...its more to do with keeping an equal distance both in front of, and behind the tire (centered in the fender opening). Its a minor thing, and most perches have (3) holes on them for making this adjustment. Its nearly impossible to guess on this...you'll have to drop it down and look at it from the side with all the weight sitting on the springs. In my case I had 2" clearance in front of...and 5" behind each tire! (it looked very goofy). It got even worse when I put the 37"s on. As I compressed the suspension, the front of the tire came very close to the inner fender at full-stuff. So, I simply un-bolted the U-bolts and moved the axle rearward using the front hole on the perches. Suddenly I realized why there were three holes on them!

Of course this pulls the yoke further out of the T-case...so I lengthened the driveshaft too. You might have to do that anyway. I'm probably sitting 5.5" over stock.

 

[MTUH3]

I anticipate needing a longer driveshaft but that will probably wait until spring. I am going to keep it off the trail for a while. I have had the truck weighted down on the tires while everything was tacked in place. It may have been .5" forward of the center of the wheel well. I am less worried because of the 3 adjustment holes.. An old Ford suspension guy suggested I go to a military wrap on the springs, but I was not in the mood to pay for custom springs.

I check the motion of the truck too. As the suspension compresses, the axle moves back slightly. I tried to plan that the bumpstop would impact center of the plate. We will have to wait and see if that works out as planned...

 

[MTUH3]

I also have decided to run new lines on the axle, not sure which way to go, so looking for opinions. Do I go over the spings (rear of the rear U-bolts) or to I run the lines along the back of the axle, under the springs?

 

[4speedfunk]

I just re-used my stock lines, in a similar location...had to bend em a tad in a few spots. Sounds like you got a handle on the rest of it.

 

[MTUH3]

My stock ones had to be cut, the nuts go all stripped and such. Rust and broken bolts have added hours of time to this project