I bought a set of DJM rear 2" lowering shackles today after work and from reading some instructions posted on the net and seeing how simple it appeared to do, I started on it in the driveway this evening.

Whoever said this was a "30 minute job" is full of !*^#%! or their truck must be different from mine.

The problem? my upper shackle bolts, the ones that attach to the back of the leaf springs, have the head towards the inside of the truck, and are about 8" long. I can't remove them, they hit the damn frame! I can't get the leafs high enough to clear the top of the frame because they bottom out on the floor of the bed just enough to keep the bolt head from coming out.

My GMC is a 2002 Sportside X-cab. Maybe you guys have different bolts, or maybe your original bolts went in from the outside of the shackles?

This SUCKS!

My truck is currently sitting on jackstands, with a hydraulic jack under the axle (as per instructions), wheels are off, shocks are disconnected from the axle, and front leaf spring mounting bolts are loosened a bit. I also had to remove the entire heavy-duty towing package frame to get the lower shackle mount bolts out, it was in the way of those.

Did your bolts come out from above or below the frame? I can't drop the leafs any further, they hit the hangers and stop, and I can't go any higher because they hit the bed floor. THIS SUCKS!

I might have to just cut those bolts off and go buy some and stick them on from the outside of the hanger. What a pain in the ***.

Tony

 

When we did mine, we used two jacks and did one side at a time. One jack on the front slightly raised, and one on the rear, jacked pretty high. You have to play with the height of each jack to get the bolt to line up to remove. I used two open end wrenches on the bolts. Also, is your driveway level? I had to move mine to level ground to do mine. I hope this helped some. Good luck!

 

Driveway is perfectly level.

I've moved that leaf spring full travel up and down and the bolt still hits the frame when I try to slide it out. It was easy to get the nuts loose and removed, but the bolt will not slide out on either side of the truck due to the frame being in the way.

Bolt is about 8 inches long, inward travel is only about 3 inches before it hits the frame. This sucks!

Tony

 

To the best of my recolection this was a 1 beer project. 1 Beer and half an hour. I used the Summit $40 rear shackle.

I had to jack the rear, use my tall jack stands, drop the hitch, drop the sway bar end links, remove lower shackles bolts first, raise rear end, remove upper bolts over frame and reverse for installation. I don't recall having spent much time doing this mod...the Hotchkis rear swaybar was far more time consuming.

Richard

[ March 13, 2002: Message edited by: oxidizr ]</p>

 

Mine was easy as well. I had to remove the hitch to get the upper bolt out but it did clear the frame. The best I can remember mine came out below the frame. Also, why did you remove you shocks? You should not have had to do that.

 

There is a gap for the bolt to pass thru between the bed floor and the frame, but the outer diameter of the leaf spring (where the bolt passes thru) hits the bottom of the bed before it can go high enough to slide the bolt thru. It hits the frame. I need another 1/2" upward travel to get that bolt thru that gap.

Why did I remove the shocks? I was getting frustrated and got online and found DJM's website and they have instructions posted that say to disconnect the shocks. It does make it easier to move the axle up and down though.

So, my two-week old truck is sitting in pieces, up on jackstands, with the rearend loose and no wheels. Looks like a theft recovery <img src="gr_grin.gif" border="0">

Tony

 

I just loosend the bolts holding the bed down. I left the two front one's tight so I wouldn't have to realign the bed.

I found this out the hard way too. The stepside beds have that ridge running down them preventing the bolts from going up high enough.

Skid

 

Greg called me and told me his stepside bed had to be lifted a 1/2" or so to get his bolts out also. NOW I know <img border="0" title="" alt="[Sad]" src="gr_sad.gif" />

It was easy, there are four bolts holding the back of the bed like skid above mentioned. Just loosen those about halfway out (no need to remove them) and then I just jacked up the rear axle until the leaf springs bottomed out on the bed floor, then continued to jack it up until the leafsprings actually lifted the bed off of the frame. Bolts came right out, easy!

skid, you are correct, its the welded seam where the side of the inner bed meets the bed floor and forms a ridge. That ridge would not allow the shackle to go high enough to get the bolt out. DOH!

My truck looks great now! Whew!

Tony

 

Glad you got it done. How does it drive ? Any vibration ? The fleet sides will clear w/o bed lifting. Tony, I could have helped at little more Lake Somerville had a better cell phone antenae out there.

 

No drivetrain vibrations, rides just like stock <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" />

Me happy! I'll take some pictures this Saturday at MTI with their digi-cam.

Tony