My situation could have been a lot worse.

[Chuck A]

I've been rebuilding the steering and suspension on my 1500. beautiful night
last night, so I tackled the coil springs with the truck out in the driveway.

Replacing the original stock height springs with new stock springs went pretty good. However, once the job was done I realized just how saggy my old springs were. The truck is now too tall to go back in the garage!

Can you imagine how much worse my situation would be if I had done the job in the garage?

Looks like I'll be spending the long weekend with a concrete grinder shaving my garage floor surface down an inch, arrgh!

[rsavage]

Drive it around for a couple weeks as they may settle in some. If you take your cap off, you can get it in out of the weather while you see if they will settle. Coils in the pockets correctly? By the way, nice looking GMC!

[CUSTOM/10]

Lol, I had to put a new garage door in when I put new Springs in my 4x4. It was just a 2in lift but I have a flatten my tires to get it in.

Gary

[Chuck A]

Originally Posted by rsavage

Drive it around for a couple weeks as they may settle in some. If you take your cap off, you can get it in out of the weather while you see if they will settle. Coils in the pockets correctly? By the way, nice looking GMC!

Good advice rsavage! I think they will settle and hope it happens prior to the change to lousy Ohio weather. I'll probably leave the cap on because the added weight might help with the settling. I'm pretty sure I got the springs installed into the pockets correctly, but will check again just to be sure.

The old rear springs were really soft. With an empty bed, the coils would stack up on each other with no gap. I'm not sure the PO didn't heat them up for a lowered ride height. See picture. What do you think; just worn out or heated up?

[Steeveedee]

Hard to say whether they are just worn out or not, to me. Yes, lucky you did it outside! When we moved into this house, we unloaded our Astrovan in the garage and then discovered that it couldn't make it out. We had to load it back up to clear the door and then unload again it in the driveway.

Yup that's a nice looking truck!

[Sevens]

Originally Posted by Chuck A

Good advice rsavage! I think they will settle and hope it happens prior to the change to lousy Ohio weather. I'll probably leave the cap on because the added weight might help with the settling. I'm pretty sure I got the springs installed into the pockets correctly, but will check again just to be sure.

The old rear springs were really soft. With an empty bed, the coils would stack up on each other with no gap. I'm not sure the PO didn't heat them up for a lowered ride height. See picture. What do you think; just worn out or heated up?

Looks to me like they were heated up. I think they would sag more evenly throughout the spring instead of just the three middle coils.

Just my opinion; someone else may have more insight on this..

[REDROCKER652002]

I vote for taking the shell off. I don't remember those being all that heavy, so it would not affect the spring sag all that much. If I remember correctly, they are pretty simple to get on and off. But, I have not had anything like that on a truck since my dad's old 70 Ford 1/2 ton. Good luck, and yea, great looking ride.

[67/Heaven]

Drop some air pressure in the tires, that may give you enough clearance, its a pain but that way you can schedule the concrete work at a later time

[mkmc69]

Originally Posted by rsavage

Drive it around for a couple weeks as they may settle in some. If you take your cap off, you can get it in out of the weather while you see if they will settle. Coils in the pockets correctly? By the way, nice looking GMC!

Ditto on the coils being correctly seated in the pockets. I just changed my 67 over to disks and dropped spindles. Had the same thing happen to me. Did not notice it until I dropped it back down off of the jack stands. One side sat higher than the other, even with the original springs re-installed. One side was in fact right, the other not.

[mr48chev]

I'd be looking for barbell weights at yard sales or figure out how many cement blocks I needed to drop it enough to get in and out.

At least you figured it out before you hit the door.

[72c20customcamper]

Originally Posted by Chuck A

Good advice rsavage! I think they will settle and hope it happens prior to the change to lousy Ohio weather. I'll probably leave the cap on because the added weight might help with the settling. I'm pretty sure I got the springs installed into the pockets correctly, but will check again just to be sure.

The old rear springs were really soft. With an empty bed, the coils would stack up on each other with no gap. I'm not sure the PO didn't heat them up for a lowered ride height. See picture. What do you think; just worn out or heated up?

Mine sagged just like that on 68 50th . Kinda doupt the PO did it as it was owned by a church .

Fabricator friend of mine made 39 Ford rat rod dually pickup . Did the whole thing in his shop drove it home went to put it in the garage the rear tires stuck out about 10 inches wider than the overhead door. He has to take the outer tires off when he puts it away.

[LockDoc]

-
The springs are actually made that way but there should be some space between the center coils. As weight is added it makes it a stiffer spring as the center coils compress and rest against each other. They are called variable rate coil springs. I would say that the OP's are worn out or it has been severely overloaded.

LockDoc