Suspension lift

[Larry_R]

McGuyver,
Your M880 has a 4" suspension lift right?
How is your drive line angles, and did you have to wedge any of the axles to decrease the angles?
My parents had a 78 Ramcharger that we put a lift on (around 6") with 36-14.5 tires. We had a lot of U-joint problems until we wedged the axles. It made it better but not a complete fix.
Later on I would like to raise mine up a little, but I don't want any problems. Full time 4X4 is not the greatest thing to put a lift on. Thanks.....<img src="emoticons/icon_smile_big.gif" alt="Big Smile">

 

[McGuyver]

Hello Larry,

you shouldn't have any problem running a 4" lift with your M880. I've been running mine with 4" of lift for over three years now with out any problems at all. I did, like you suggested, put 4 degree(?) shims in to compensate for the angle. Acually I ony put them in the front, the rear block has a taper built into it. I've got a 2" block and 2" add-a-leaf in the rear. I'm thinking of replacing them both with deeper arched 4" lifted springs. This might get rid of the shudder I experience while braking (axle wrap.) One other thing you should do if you lift your truck is "clearance" your CV-joint on your front drive shaft. This consists of disassembling the joint and grinding off the excess corners and material (such as the stops) on the yokes in order to allow greater operating angles without binding. I did this to mine, and it has worked great. When you go to do this, look me up again and I'll give you a tip on getting the CV-joint disassembled (it's a real bear.)

 

[Larry_R]

McGuyver,
The CV joint is one of the problems that we had. Unfortunatly I've had my experience with them. Your right, their a pain in the butt! One thing we didn't do on the Ramcharger is "clearance" the CV joint like you said. I would be afraid that by grinding on it, it would make it more likely to break under stress. But if it works, then sounds good to me.
The body work and paint are the first thing i'm going to do to it (yucky red paint), the lift will come next. Thanks for your input..

 

[McGuyver]

If you "clearance" the yokes correctly, It shouldn't affect the strength at all, or at least very minimally. Basically what you do is grind off the sharp corners in the thick sections until you have a nice uniform thickness all the way around the hole where the U-joint cup presses into the yoke. Next you grind off the stops that limit the degree of angle the joint can bend. These stops are only there to prevent you from binding up and damaging the joint while it is removed from the truck, so you need to be carefull after you reassemble it that you don't "kink" the joint and damage it. There is no danger of this happening after you install it in the truck (unless of course you really overflex your suspension down, but then you'd have the same problem even if you hadn't ground the stops off.) To me, it just adds peace of mind knowing that with the additional lift, I'm not in danger of binding up the joint and destroying it.

Good luck on the paint. Keep us informed on the progress, eh? <img src="emoticons/icon_smile_thumzup.gif" alt="Thumb Up">

 

[macawpat]

I was told that the front joints were a very week point anyway on the dodge. My friend who owns and operates a 4 X 4 shop sent me out to buy a suburban 71-83 front axle and swapped out the outer joints only. It changes the front look a little with a silver cap instead of the nut but a little paint will make it indestructable.

 

[Elwenil]

I take you mean he swapped the knuckles and hubs? This is somewhat common for people not wanting to deal with the wheel bearing design on '75-'79 full time 4WD Dodge trucks, though swapping to '80-'93 Dodge W250 hubs is much more common and generally cheaper.

I know this is a 7 year thread, but for anyone reading it, putting shims under the front axle is a horrible idea. It may help the pinion angle a bit but it makes a drastic change in the caster angle which leads to spooky steering. In most cases all that is needed is to grind the stops on the Double Cardan joint on the front drive shaft to allow it to work at the tighter angle. If more is needed, a swap to a particular GM front shaft can help, though I cannot think of exactly which one at the moment. Shims in the rear can help but generally all you are doing is changing the angle on one joint and not the other which leads to vibration and shorter U-joint life. There are "correct" ways to fix the driveline angle issues but most are very expensive and so compromises are made. Cheap tricks like shims and dropped transfer cases just make worse problems and should be avoided.