With the front engine cross member cut, primed and painted, we moved out to the rear suspension and proceeded to remove the OEM leafs and shocks in the rear and install the UJOR rear springs and shocks. We wrestled with the drivers side rear shock as it too was rusty up top and had no intentions of coming out BUT the biggest fight was with the rear shackles. The bolt was seized in the bushing and had to be cut and pressed out. I started to just order some new ones but with some quick thinking and a press in the shop, we avoided that scenario. Some new shackle bolts and u-bolts later, then rear suspension was done.
I wanted to make sure this beast could fit in my garage (94 inch door) so I opted for 4in rear springs instead of the 6" springs.
Next up was getting the front shackles sleeves installed. Pretty straight forward install using the supplied UJOR jig to cut the frame using the plasma.
On the 7.3 vans, the fuel pump is right in the area where the shackles are installed on the drivers side so we had to be careful while cutting the frame. We used some shielding to achieve this and removed a few bolts on the fuel pump mount to get it out of the way.
Drivers side
Passengers side
After welding them in, they were primed, painted and the springs were hung!
Dana 60 IN!
This was a great stopping point...about 13 hours in and that pretty much concluded Saturdays work...At this point, I was pretty impressed with how much had accomplished considering we took a break for lunch and dinner. Food and water were definitely needed to stay focused and energetic...cont'd
