Drop

[chris1htx]

i did a 2" 4" drop on my truck a few months back and i am assuming there is a little "wear and tear" with the front end now. the past few days i noticed that every little bump i hit the truck wants to slam down. i'm get nervous when i see a bump in the road approaching. should i change something out or is this the way it is going to be?

[77ChevySharkBite]

I don't think it should be like that. I don't have a dropped truck but that just doesn't seem like it should be happening. How's your shocks look?

[chris1htx]

the shocks look fine. they still look brand new

[77ChevySharkBite]

when you did the drop did you cut a coil, or use drop spindles for the front?

Because I know people will cut coils, but I have a friends dad who did that on his 76 and said it made the ride horrible. Bouncy and everything.

[chris1htx]

i was attempting to do a lower drop at the very beginning, i had drop spindles installed but they kept locking the brakes. so i installed the original spindles back and got a new smaller spring to get it to drop.

[77ChevySharkBite]

It might very well be the springs, hopefully other guys will chime in too that have experience with the dropped trucks.

my guess is that it's the springs, my first solution would be to get drop shocks or better shocks to see if that improves it any.

[LEEVON]

Did you get an alignment? Which springs did you use (manufacturer and amt. of drop)? You should be riding like stock at only 2". As for the cut springs, trust me with only one coil cut you won't notice. I've got 4.5" in the front and stock shocks and it rides like a dream. Something is wrong...don't go throwing money at shocks just yet. Most drop shocks are junk. 2" at the wheel is more like 1" or less at the shock, so the stocker has adequate length no problem.

[chris1htx]

Yeah i got an alignment. i had bought a McGaughy drop kit for a 5" 6" drop but the spindles didn't work out so i just used the lowering springs it came with it. i had bought bought some drop shocks but like you said they were junk, so i went back to the stock shocks and the truck was riding really well and now this happened to me

[LEEVON]

I wonder what happened with the spindles? Did you know there are 2 different rotor thicknesses? 1" and 1.25".

You could always yank the McG springs and cut one coil off yours, although I don't really suspect that is the problem it would be a free solution.

[chris1htx]

Yeah I know there were different sizes for the spindles I made sure I double checked before I got them but for some reason they kept locking up the brakes.

Do you think it could be the shocks?
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[77ChevySharkBite]

I'm not much help as I don't have my truck dropped but I just swapped the shocks on my truck and can tell a heck oh a difference on it, my old shocks were shot and when I would go over like speed bumps it would go pretty low I was afraid to hit one going too fast myself.

So maybe it could be the shocks?

[chris1htx]

I'm skeptical on that being the problem because the shocks are just a few months old, but then again that could be the problem. I think that's gonna be the first thing I try
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[77ChevySharkBite]

Well do this as a simple solution, if you have the time take one of the shocks off and see if it's easy to push in and if it slides out on its own, and well if its easy to slide in and doesn't really slide out on it's own you have a bad shock. Reason I know is because i just went through this myself and truthfully it's almost night and day between old shocks vs new ones.

What brand shocks you get?

[chris1htx]

I don't think there is a name brand associated with them lol. Got them from your local autozone paid about 30 bucks each
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[77ChevySharkBite]

Ahh....that might very well be your issue then man, try what I told you first and go from there man. Because that's the only thing I can think of that would cause it to "bottom" out everytime.

I'm not sure if I've asked you, where about in Houston you located?

[J Knight]

It sounds to me you didnt cut out the bumpstops and you pinched the brake hose when you had the drop spindles on. You may have already ruined the brake hose and they may need to be replaced. You also need to cut out the bumpstop mounts.
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[Tx Firefighter]

You say the spindles kept causing the brakes to lock. Did you bend and route the brake hoses after installing the spindles ? That's a must do.
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[chris1htx]

Originally Posted by 77ChevySharkBite

Ahh....that might very well be your issue then man, try what I told you first and go from there man. Because that's the only thing I can think of that would cause it to "bottom" out everytime.

I'm not sure if I've asked you, where about in Houston you located?

Yeah i might end up doing that it wouldn't hurt to try. I'm in the north houston area, yourself?


the brake hose weren't bent i made sure of it. I got frustrated with it and just went with the springs. I'm kind of glad that i didn't leave the truck that low a weekend of flooding came out of nowhere. if i cut out the bumpstops wouldn't i be hitting bare metal if the problem still persists?

[77ChevySharkBite]

Originally Posted by chris1htx

Yeah i might end up doing that it wouldn't hurt to try. I'm in the north houston area, yourself?

I'm about 20 minutes outside of downtown Houston.

[chris1htx]

So I checked out the shocks and the shocks seem to be pretty good. I removed the rubber bump stop and it felt a little better but still hit a tab bit. I'm debating on removing the metal bracket
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