Shackle Flip FYI

[bmchevy1979]

For those of you that haven't noticed LMC carries the front leaf spring hanger for the rear of a k5 for around $25 each I pondered on the idea of using these for the rear as a shackle flip so I bought a pair of them to try out and recently my old 12bolt decided it had taken enough of my abuse and grenaded itself so I decided this was the time to do my flip while I also finish my 3/4ton swap and put my 14bolt ff with locker in. It was pretty straight forward I drilled out the stock rivets for the spring hanger 4 per side and I left the bottom two the hold the support strap but I would recommend removing those too. In my case I left the hanger in the stock location but if you plan on running stock 52s I would move it forward by about 1in making for a better shackle angle. I reused the factory support all that was required was to trim the corners off until it fits the new bracket snuggly. Then I set them where I wanted them Marked the top 2 holes as those are the only holes that work on the frame back there. I drilled these holes then bolted the hangers to the frame using grade8 7/16" bolts then marked and drilled the bottom holes through the hanger and frame rails then installed bolts in these holes. Now if you move the hangers you will now reinstall the support bracket on the bottom of the frame this may require you to weld up the original holes then drill new ones depending on how far the bracket is moved. This will result in a 3-4in lift that is way cheaper than the shackle flip kits you can buy and atleast as stong as the factory setup more reinforcement could be added by using angle iron that is as wide as the hanger and bolted to the other holes in the hanger and to the bottom of the frame then gusset the bracket but I believe this to be a little over kill. It turned out better than I expected it to if you have any question feel free to ask I'll do my best to get back to you

[bmchevy1979]

Here is a pic of the rear support made out of angle iron I was talking about this isn't mine and if you do this I would gusset the angle iron

[SoCalK20]

Thanks for taking the time to share. Good work.

[bmchevy1979]

Thank you. It's no big deal for me I figured if anyone else was wondering about it atleast something will come up when they do a search all the kits they sell are basically bolt ons but they cost around $200 and this cost under $100

[RedRoad]

Ive been running that same setup for over 20 years on my 73 Jimmy. I ordered the brackets from the dealer back then for $35 each and $20 for the lower bracket.

Highly recommended!

[RANDY COX]

I remember my 74 Blazer 4x4 FULL REMOVEABLE TOP, I loved that thing someone had converted a full top to a half top, it was pretty neat...