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Posted by Chriscase [75.36.34.185] on Monday, November 29, 2010 at 18:54:11 :
Drives nice with the 4 1/2° shims in place. The slight wander I had thought might have been bump steer is gone. A bit of caster makes it want to go forward just enough that the little messages from pebbles don't get heard.
I took my spring packs apart to change to longer center bolts. I had made the shims with a small area around the center bolt milled parallel to the upper side. Now the center bolt holds the shim to the pack, without a bunch of spacers under the head of the bolt.
During disassembly I noted that the 90wt gear oil I had tried to massage into the springs did soak all the way in. And it had turned a bit gummy. For clean up I only scraped off the old oil and some rust flakes, wiped them down, and re-assembled with a dribble of 90wt.
Some think it is debatable, but I do feel the 'spring lube' is beneficial. They even used to sell special grease. And some of you might have gotten to know an ambulance that had sheet metal wrapped over burlap, the whole saturated with oil. And some springs have a dimple stamped in to hold a grease pad. Later, plastic and teflon were used between the leafs. But here is my 'massage' method:
Support truck by it's frame, and disconnect any shocks. Using a stiff parts cleaning brush, try to brush in 90 wt on the sides. Do inner and out. If you have a nice driveway, protect it from drips. Now the technical part, step on the hubs, rhythmically, to get the axle bouncing. Much flopping about is wanted to work the oil in. Brush, bounce, repeat. Leave it up on the jack stands overnight, try to let it creep in. Wire the shox out iof harms way, and go for a drive. Hit dips, bumps, up and down driveways. You'll know you have freed up a rusted solid spring pack because you start to get motion sick from the bouncing. Now re-connect the shox and enjoy the ride.
I did mine about two years ago, and they were still oily today.
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