Need help to ID current M1009 lift amount

[bschermann]

My M1009 came from the prior, prior owner with a lift installed. It has front spring packs, ~4" sway bar drop brackets, a tubular steering link adapter (not cast). The rear has a home made shackle drop with a 2" block under what I assume is stock springs. The truck has D60 & 14bolt pickup axles and sits on 37x12.50x16.5 hummer tires on steel wheels.

Stock front bottom bumper height is 30 1/2 " at the center. Rear stock bottom bumper height is 31 1/2" under each black out lens.

So with all of that, can anyone help me to determine how much lift this truck has? I suspect 6", but would like to know what the stock M1009 bottom bumper height is for a comparison. The truck really sits to high to be practical for my 51 yr old butt to climb in and out of. Also if anyone knows what lift company makes a tubular steering adapter (from driver side knuckle to pitman arm) that would be great (sorry no pics)

If this is really a 6" lift vs 8", I'm planning on swapping the front springs for some 4" leafs and removing the rear 2" block. Not sure if the sway bar drop bracket needs to be swapped or the tubular steering adapter. If I need to trim fenders so be it.

So what do you think? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Brian

 

[Recovry4x4]

Pics would be helpful.

 

[richingalveston]

if you have 37's with no trimmed fenders then you have a 6 inch or taller. need picks of what you have. sounds to me like you have front 6 inch springs, rear 4 inch shackle flip with two inch blocks to get the 6 in the back. to go to 4 inch, you will be fine in the back but a lot of fender trimming in the front. I recommend a 5 inch by using a 4 inch lift kit and add ORD zero rates in front and back so that you can re-center the axles in the wheel wells and you will only require minimum trimming. my avatar is my 1009 with 37's on re-centered hummer rims using 4 inch front springs with zero rate moving the axle forward a half inch allowing me to only trim the front of the fenders and not the back of the front fender. (fenders not trimmed yet). I have d60 and 14 bolt axles which will give another quarter to half inch of lift due to the larger axle tubes and slightly taller perches. I have a four inch shackle flip in rear which moves the rear axle forward so I corrected it with a zero rate in the rear and I have no rubbing issues in the rear. I do not have the measurements from the ground at the bumpers at this time. I believe my floor at the drivers seat is 36 inches from the ground.
sounds like you may have some home made steering parts which I would never trust. If you do not have cross over steering then you should really look into it.

Cross over steering with a bourgeson steering shaft makes the truck handle like a sports car.
post some pics up and many here can help you out.

 

[bschermann]

Notice the tubular steering adapter that connects between the knuckle & pitman arm, not home made, any idea what company makes this? So now with picks what do you think? Any idea what manufacturer made the drop sway bar brackets.

Rich I like the idea of the zero rate leafs to move the axle forward/back. I got a line on a new set of skyjacker C140S 4" front leafs a guy is selling, that haven't been ever installed was planning on getting them to do the lowering.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

 

[86m1028]

A few different company's made that link.

Look at Superlift

 

[richingalveston]

from the picture you have a 6 inch and possibly 8 inch lift.
from the description, I thought you were talking about the pitman arm being tubular not the drag link. Your drag link is not home made however the rear shackles are. The rear shackle mounts may not be dropped, they just flipped the shackles it is hard to tell. The rear springs may not be stock looks like they have been taken apart since they are missing the rod that goes across the top on the rear bracket. The shackle flip will give you two inches of lift on stock springs and stock hanger location up to two more inches depending on drop achieved by home made rear shackle mounts . with just a shackle flip, two inch drop shackle mounts and two inch blocks your max rear lift is 6 inches in the rear with out changing springs. I would measure the rear springs (eye to eye) along the bottom of the arch and compare to stock length, this will give you an idea of how much lift you are getting from the rear springs if any. by determining the rear lift you will know what you have in front.
measure your front springs and compare to stock and you can determine the front lift.


when I compare your pics to mine, it looks more like an 8 inch lift than 6. I have a 5 inch lift and my tires sit at least three inches higher in the wheel well than what your pics show.

nice looking truck. Measure your springs and determine if they are stock or have been changed and then go from there to determine what the other parts are doing to get you to your current lift amount. Only definite change I would do would be to get new rear shackle mounts. get rid of the rear blocks and exchange with zero rates then do what is needed to match the front lift to the back.

 

[bschermann]

861028: Thanks for the superlift iinfo

Rich: Thanks for the additional info. Now that you pointed it out I think its only a rear shackle flip, not flip & drop. You also got me wondering on whether those are stock rear springs or not. I'll get under there and measure the front & rear leafs. Do you happen to know what the stock length numbers are for comparison?

I'm getting some driveline noise from this setup. At times it sounds like the transfer case/trans is binding up & may explode, course it hasn't. 1st owner rotated the 14bolt up to point the yoke at the T-case, but no there is no cv joint in the lengthen rear shaft. Plus as previously mention it sits high, hard to get into, guess some grab handles could help. I have these 37" tires plus some TSL SX 38x12.50x16.5 to run on it. Would not mind trimming a little fender if needed.

Thanks for all the help and recommendations. Trying to determine if those front 4" springs I found for sale will help me out or not.

 

[richingalveston]

I am not at home to measure mine, I would bet the binding you are hearing is the top u-joint in the driveshaft or the angles are mismatched causing the vibration. you could try dropping your t-case a little more to see if it clears up the issue just need some spacers and longer bolts to do this. With that much lift you really need a cv style rear drive shaft like the front because these will run fine with the top and bottom angles being different. you have to rebuild the t case and change the rear output to a flange style like the front. If you hear the noise when the truck is on the rebound from a bump, meaning the rear end is higher than its normal stance, you probably have a u-joint binding, if the noise is when you give it gas and load the rear driveshaft then it is probably an angle problem.

you could have both problems I did with my 1009 because of the longer transmission (4l80e) and the 5 inch lift, my rear driveshaft had binding when I hit a bump and vibration under load. I am still working on my Magnum/205 install. I rebuilt the 205 to have flange outputs front and rear and I am considering a Tom Woods high angle rear driveshaft.

 

[bschermann]

I spent some time looking at the superlift catalog. I think my M1009 has the 4" adjustable drag link (not for sure its SL's) Also noted that I have a 3 " drop sway bar brackets installed. Could not find any part number markings on front or rear springs. I did some leaf spring measurements along the bottom of the packs eye center to eye center as best as I could. Front (~49") DS 48 3/4" PS 49 1/8" , Rear (~53") DS 52 3/4" PS 53 1/8". Wheel well to top of tire front ~12" rear ~11 1/4". So I know that the back has a 2" block, shackle resversal, no drop for an additional 2" total known 4" plus either stock springs, 2" lift springs or 4" lift springs. Based on what Rich has shared I think the truck has 6" or 8" front lift so the Rear maybe either 2" or 4" lift springs.

I wish some would chime in with stock bottom front & rear bumper heights for a better comparison.

Rich explain your magnum/ 205 setup please. I have a couple of gm 205's

later

 

[86m1028]

Frts look to me like 8's

I have a stock m1009 I could get you measurements from it
tomorrow but it has no motor or trans in it.

 

[bschermann]

86M1028 That would be great if you could give me bottom bumper measurements off your stock M1009. Thanks. Could you also tell me in number of leafs in the stock rear spring packs. I'm suspecting that my truck may have an rear add a leaf.

I bought up a set of unused CS140 4" skyjacker front lift springs with poly bushings for $200.00 on Friday. Think I'm going to start collecting parts to go the route Rich did with 4" lift and zero rates.

thanks