Lowering frustrations *HELP*

[kursed]

I don't know if we installed something wrong or i have defective parts somewhere but something went wrong. i bought all belltech stuff installed the stuff on the truck yesterday and now the passenger side of the truck sits 2" higher than the driver side. also the front passenger lower a arm touches the bottom lip of the inside of the rim.

we used 3" spindles, 2" springs and nitro2 drop shocks up front, brand new ball joints as well

4" springs out back

[crawdadfox]

Did you index the spring's into lower controll arm pocket's? Make sure the coil is in the upper pocket. Also did you have any rubber isolator's on the factory spring's? Did the truck lean before? I would say if you have that kind of lean one of the coil's is not seated properly.

[drman929]

Since you say one control arm touches the rim, I wonder if they messed up and didn't give you the same spindles.

[kursed]

Originally Posted by crawdadfox

Did you index the spring's into lower controll arm pocket's? Make sure the coil is in the upper pocket. Also did you have any rubber isolator's on the factory spring's? Did the truck lean before? I would say if you have that kind of lean one of the coil's is not seated properly.

no lean before, the front springs are indexed, no rubber isolators

Originally Posted by drman929

Since you say one control arm touches the rim, I wonder if they messed up and didn't give you the same spindles.

we measured the spindles, they look fine, maybe something to do with the 8" wide truck rally rims? because the drivers side is pretty close, doesn't touch like the passenger side but close none the less...

[see ten]

It's always been my understanding that a 3" drop spindle combined with a 15x8 rim is just about guaranteed to scrub somewhere. I've never ran them so I don't know firsthand.

[bad6772]

Ditto.

[ChevLoRay]

On my '69, I decided not to run the 8" wheels I had, because the backspacing on them threw the outside of the tire almost an inch outside of the front fenders. 7" wheels were no problem.

On my '96, I couldn't use the 8" wide wheels we had, with their 4-inch backspace, because the backside contacted the lower A-frame. 7-inch wide wheels with a 3.5-inch backspace cured that problem.

Later, I bought new tires (I run 245-60's up front and 275-60's out back) and had Wallyworld mount them. They wouldn't do it on the vehicle if I brought it in because they have a policy against the mixed/odd size combos that won't let them do that for us. I suppose some suit-happy dimbulb is the reason for that. They said, "You can't rotate them, if they aren't the same." I told them I didn't intend to rotate them. So, it was a carry in/carry out job.

Anyway, I looked at the tires and put them in their correct location on my '96. However, something wasn't right. Long story short....the tire guy assumed the wheels were all the same width and didn't put the right size tire on the right size rim, even though I told them up front of the difference. I took it to another shop to get the wheels balanced with Tap-A-Weights and they found the problem, corrected it and presented me with the bill.....which I successfully got reimbursed from Wallyworld. The tire guy said he never looked at the differences and that made me ask how he was able to balance them...you gotta set the wheel width on the balancer. No answer.

[kursed]

ok i corrected the wheel issue today. i put the stock 15x6 rim on the front and it did fine. i'm ordering a set of vette ralleys for it 15x6 front with 205/70-15 and 15x10 for the rear, still undecided on rear tires.

the damn thing still sets 2" higher on the left. i know there has to be someone out there with the same belltech suspension that i'm running. we looked it over again tonight and i'm now thinking maybe the drive shaft is pushed too tight and has the truck in a bind which could cause the passenger side to lift?? i really have no clue right now though.... i'm too tired to think straight...

i'll call belltech in the morning, and if they can't seem to come up with an answer i'll call summit. if they can't figure it out, i'll put stock springs in the back with 4" blocks and see what happens.

[Kid]

My history with "western" , Bell tech, & any 2.5" drop spindle, with the 7 & 8" GM factory rims, I had to remove a portion of the lower control arm flange, or it would keep grabing & sliding my wheel weights around when making contact at certain points of suspension travel. Not sure what to think about the uneven side to side stance, other than what's said above aboput indexing the spring in the pockets.

[uncle]

Don't take this the wrong way,but next time spend the extra dime and get your parts at ECE.

[kursed]

who's ECE? i thought i was spending the "extra dime" when i dropped a pile at summit on everything "Belltech", i agree though to some extent, i'm starting to second guess all the good things i've ever heard about belltechs suspension components.

[uncle]

Early Classic.

[see ten]

+1 on Early Classic Enterprises. These guys are top notch!

[kursed]

ahh... didn't know they were top notch. i thought belltech was THE suspension company

[ratrod67]

Did you have the control arms off the truck? If you tighten the bolts holding them on while suspended they will not allow the truck to sit properly.

[kursed]

nope, left the control arms on.

i just looked at ECE and the price difference is crazy, i got ripped for belltech ****.

belltech 3" spindles $312
ECE 2.5" spindles $250

belltech 2" Front springs $156
ECE 2" front springs $115

belltech 4" rear springs $173
ECE 4" rear springs $115

dammit... that's $116 and i didn't even figure up the shocks all around... wish i had looked into ece before...

[Riveted1]

Well, they are, but the ECE guys have our trucks figured out to a "T". I bet it's something simple somewhere, like the springs not being seated. Have you driven it around a bit?

[chrislehr]

Originally Posted by kursed

ahh... didn't know they were top notch. i thought belltech was THE suspension company

read a LOT more on here before your next major purchase

[crawdadfox]

Bell tech is top of the line in my opinion. I just done my 72 friday, 3" spindles with 1" springs front, 2" coils & 2 1/2 blocks in the back with 8" ralleys. I had to trim the lower arms but they work fine. Back to your problem...at this point i would pull the coils back out in the front and measure them. Keep track of which side they came from. If they are the same size try swapping them side to side. To save some time, bust the lower balljoint and the tie rod loose take the lower shock bolt out, strap the upper a-arm, spindle ,rotor, caliper assembly up to the frame, then you can just lower the lower arm down to remove the coil. Of course you need some fairly tall jack stands and a floor jack. Put the front back together and measure it. 1 /2" to 3 /4" lean is not uncommon. You can cut the coils as a last resort 1/2 wrap= 3 /4" + or -. If that doesnt get you close you need to start looking at the rear, i find that you can change the height of one corner by raising or lowering the opposite corner ( lower the right rear it raises the left front) Sometimes its a pain in the a$$ to keep pulling stuff apart, but it's worth it in the end!!!

[Boog]

What shocks do you have on the rear? Also is the front leaning more than the rear or vice versa?
Disconnect the new shocks and check for levelness? Swaybar?

[kursed]

yeah the springs are all seated, drove it about 5 miles on a fairly bumpy road, no change...

[tdave00]

Could be your coils like the guys have said, but I would do a once over on the shocks too. If one of them were sticking or bound up it could affect the stance, and that should be an easy check. I doubt that's the problem since you have driven it, but just thought I would mention it.

[steelhorse]

Switch and measure the springs as stated above.Also make sure your shocks arent bottoming out

[PanelDeland]

I would check the sway bar first.It may be binding on the rear of the differential and not allowing the truck to rest it's weight on the springs.

[kursed]

no sway bar


we dropped the shocks off, same problem.


the front has settled some so most of the problem is in the rear now.


i'm going to switch the rear springs this week or weekend and see if that fixes things. if my left side is higher than the right after the swap then i'll know it's the spring, if not, then i'll see where else the problem could be. thanks for all the help guys, i'll keep ya updated.