Lift questions????

[kevinr1970]

Might be better in the suspension section but I'll start here.

I swapped the 2” lift springs from my parts truck (’85 GMC ½ ton swb) to my good truck (’86 GMC ½ ton lwb).

Before I started the swap, when the trucks were parked grill to grill, the hood and bumper of the ’85 parts truck was noticeably higher than the ’86 good truck.
The ’86 had 33x9.5 and the ’85PT had 33x10.5 tires. When off the trucks the tires looked to be almost exactly the same height.
On the ’85PT I measured the distance from the center of the front hub to the edge of the fender (straight up) at 23-1/2”. The distance on the rear was 24-1/2”. On the ’86 it measured 21-3/4 to 22” (little different side to side) and 22-1/2”.


My problem is now that the lift is on my ’86 the ’85PT still sits slightly higher than the ’86? The kicker is that the ’86 is sitting on the 33x10.5’s but the ’85PT is sitting on 31x10.5’s????

The rear of the ’85PT is on jack stands so it will come up some when I mount the axle and set it on tires. It should bring the front down a little bit. I wouldn’t think it would come down more than just about level with the ’86 though. But with a 1” drop because of tire size and a 2” drop in springs the ’85PT should be 3” lower than the ’86.
When I measure the ’85PT it is now about 23-1/4”. The ’86 is about the same. The rear of the ’86 is noticeably higher but it looks like it is jacked up in the back – it slopes down to the front.
I measured the shackles (? the rear mounting brackets for the front springs) at I think 4-1/2” from bolt hole to bolt hole. It was the same on the ’85 parts truck.

WHAT AM I MISSING HERE??????