This week, I decided to work on the front end suspension downward travel to help increase the weight transfer at launch and get this truck to hook up. Before I started, I measured the static height of the front end in the middle of the fender, then jacked up the front end till the tires were just barely off the ground and remeasured. This truck in stock form had 4" of front end suspension travel.
I then started removing parts to see what was limiting full droop. The first thing I noticed was the front shock looked tight. Sure enough, I loosened it and picked up .25" of travel.
The next component to bottom out was the upper ball joint's threaded stud. The upper ball joint's stud was hitting on the backside of the bump stop. After a little bit of cutting, I removed the bump stop.
Next, I noticed that the upper control arm was binding on the spring pocket right where I did a little grinding to remove the rust and provide a little bit of clearance. By playing with the alignment adjustment for the upper control arm, I was able pivot the upper control arm rearward a little to gain more downward travel. Moving the arm rearward increases caster on the alignment, which actually adds stability at high speed.... WIN-WIN!! Caster acts much the same way as rake on on a motorcycle. More rake (think stretched out cruiser) more stability and easier it is for the vehicle to track in a straight line.
In the picture below, the upper control arm was adjusted so the upper ball joint's general location moved slightly rearward.
While I was in there, I decided to install some half ton coil springs, Moog part #7390. Well the springs are slightly longer than the stock springs, and just 0.006" smaller wire diameter so I actually ended up with the same ride height. So for future reference, go with even lighter duty that the Moog 7390 0.830" diameter springs if you're looking to lower your vehicle.
Next I needed to either buy a longer shock, or extend the shock mount. In keeping with the "budget" theme, I decided to extend the shock mount with a few pieces of 1/8" thick steel scrap I had in the corner of my garage and an old suspension bolt from my bolt bucket.
Finally some pictures of ride height vs full droop:
Now the truck has exactly 6" of front suspension travel at the stock ride height. Hopefully the new slightly longer springs will store just a bit more energy and combined with the extra 2" of front end travel, help this truck hook up.
