Hey guys, ChrisFix here.
And today I'm going to show you how to replace your leaf springs your leaf spring
Shackles and your leaf spring mounting brackets in your truck or SUV
Basically any vehicle that uses leaf springs after you're done watching this video you'll be able to replace all of this at home and save yourself a ton of money.
I'm also going to show you how to replace the leaf spring bushings because most of the time your leaf springs are good
The only time they're not good is if they're physically damaged like if they're rusted out or if your suspension is sagging.
In those cases you will have to replace the leaf spring but most cases you just need to replace the bushing and in order to do that
You press the old bushing out and you press the new bushing in easier said than done
But I have a lot of tips and tricks. I'll show you how to do that
So you could get that done properly
And finally, I'm going to show you how to undercoat the vehicle because there is a lot of rust down there
That's the reason why my mounting bracket snapped and damaged the leaf spring
So we're gonna remove the rust,
Undercoat it and its gonna make it last a long time a lot longer than stuck and speaking of stock
Check this out that right
There is level you can see the truck is tilted back to that corner and here is why now check out that carnage
Here's where the leaf spring mounting bracket is here's the leaf spring and here's the shackle and you can see I mean it just snapped
Right. Now the leaf spring is kind of pushed up against the bed of the truck and you can't drive this truck
This is very dangerous. Luckily. This didn't happen while I was driving and the reason why it happened is well cause it's all rusty
It's just crumbling apart
look at that. And besides the rust one issue that we're gonna have it's kind of a pain you can see this side of the
Mounting bracket is bolted in but this side of the mounting bracket is riveted to the frame
So we're gonna have to grind these rivets out or drill 'em out so that we can remove the bracket but besides that
The rest of this should go relatively smoothly
The new bracket has four bolts
So we don't have to rivet it in it'll bolt right in
Now if you were to get one thing out of this video besides how to replace this stuff
I'm gonna hope after this video you guys go and check out your leaf spring mounts and perches make sure the leaf springs good make
Sure, your rust isn't bad a quick inspection underneath your vehicle could save you from a big accident
So now that you know what the damage looks like, let's go and repair it and to do that. We're using all common tools©
We're gonna be using a ratchet some sockets and a wrench definitely have to have some safety glasses
Let's go put those on now and you're going to want a dust mask because we're going to be using an angle grinder to remove the
rivets from the mounts that are holding the stock mounts in and I also have a wire wheel that goes on this angle grinder to
remove all the rust so that we could spray-paint it and finally
You're gonna need a good jack and jack stands so we can lift the rear of the truck up to remove the leaf springs
So let's go get started
Chuck off both front wheels and slide the jack under and jack up the rear of the truck
you want to raise the truck as high as it'll go and
with the truck jacked up as high as we could get it you can see how much that makes the truck tilt forwards and that's
Why it's very important that you use a large wheel chocks in the front on both tires
I also have the truck in park and I put it in four-wheel drive. So the front tires are locked
They're not going to move now with the truck safely jacked up like that
Now we need to get it on jack stands and I am using a larger than normal jack stand
That's a 12-ton jack stand compared to the normal 3 ton jack stand and the reason why is because my truck is up pretty high
So we want to add our jack stand to the frame of the truck
We don't want to put it on the suspension and then slowly let the truck down so it safely rests on the jack stands
Perfect
So with the suspension just hanging there, now we could remove each of our leaf springs
But we want to remove one at a time. So we're gonna leave this side intact
We're not going to touch it and that's going to hold the suspension in place as we remove this side
So let's get started and I'm gonna start by removing all five lug nuts so we could get the wheel out of the way
And that gives us access to our leaf springs. Now the leaf springs are held in at three different locations
We have a front mounting bracket. We have the mounting bracket here that holds it to the axle
And then we had that rear one that's broken, which we don't have to disconnect cause it disconnected itself with all that rust
So all we have to do is disconnect this one and that one and let's start right here. So let's remove the four nuts
We'll get this first one and just as I figured this one is tight and that's why I like these extendable ratchets
It gives us more leverage to break this nut free, beautiful
so now we want to break the rest of the nuts free and
Then loosen them by hand and remove the u-bolt from the axle good then we could do the same thing for the other two nuts
Remove the second u-bolt and the mounting plate as well
so now normally I'd unbolt the leaf spring from the rear mount next but since it rusted through and it's disconnected we don't have to
Worry about that. So finally the last thing to do is unbolt it from the front mount
So let's get our ratchet on the and this is usually a really tough one to break loose
Holy smokes that bolt is stuck
Let's try a longer breaker bar
Which gives us more leverage and even so this bolt won't break loose
so one trick that
Usually works before we have to break out the torch, is grab a jack and put the handle of the breaker bar on the jack
And then Jack it up this lets us use
Hydraulic power from the jack which could normally lift the truck and instead we're gonna use it to loosen a bolt and this is working
nicely
Perfect
Now we can loosen the bolt the rest of the way by hand, and the next challenge is this bolt is just spinning and won't
Come out. It's stuck in there
so a trick is to get a pry bar behind the bolt like so and
Pry it out as you unscrew it and you can see it's slowly making its way out
Good now we can remove the leaf spring and just be prepared
It's pretty heavy and with the leaf spring out of the way
We could finally remove the rear leaf spring mounting bracket
Now, the first thing we're gonna do is remove these two bolts, or at least try to they're very rusty
So what I'm gonna do is grab a socket and that's a tight fit because the nut is swollen from all the rust
So hammer it on there and then get your ratchet and let's see if we could get this off
Perfect, and I'm surprised that came right off without a fight
Now let's do the same thing for the bottom nut hammer it in there and
Turn that ratchet and I spoke too soon, it figures
And this side of the nut is so broken off and rusted. It just keeps falling off and stripping
So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna be using one of these twist sockets and what these do is they have sharp ridges inside
The socket that grab onto the nut so all we have to do with this is hammer it onto the nut so it's tight
connect your ratchet and
Just what I was hoping for the nut is turning and this is gonna save us a lot of time and effort
We don't have to grind this one off now with the nut removed
We can pry the side off and this is just crumbling apart
It's so rusted and finally remove the two bolts from the back
Now all that's left is to remove these two rivets and in order to do that
I'm going to be using an angle grinder with a cut-off wheel like this
Now it's very important that use the dust mask and eye protection when you're doing this
you don't want to breathe all this rust in and you don't want to get any of this in your eyes
And we're basically just grinding away at both rivets until they're completely gone
Which allows us to hammer the mounting bracket right off?
Good now we could use a hammer on the rivets and then use the metal punch to pop them out of the frame same with
The other one hammer it and then pop it out with a punch. Now that's how you remove the rivets next
We need to remove the rust. So I switched out the grinding wheel for a wire wheel
You just want to get all that loose rust out of there so that we could spray on our rust reformer
And I'm also gonna use a metal wire brush to get into those spots
I couldn't reach with the large wire wheel
and finally
We could spray our rust reformer you want to put on an even medium to thick coat and cover the entire?
Exposed metal surface, make sure you overlap your coats because you don't want to miss any spots
It's important that you seal the entire surface completely
this rust reformer is going to bond to the metal and all the rust and convert it into a paintable surface and
also prevent future rust and
24 hours later after spraying the rust reformer, check this out. This came out beautiful
So I sprayed from that jack stand all the way back to the tailgate and there is no more rust anywhere
Not only did I spray the outside here, but I sprayed the inside of the frame
So both sides of the frame are coated and just so you have an idea from that jack stand all the way to the back
On both sides of the frame that takes one can of rust reformer. So we're going to need another can for the other side
So a total of two cans and if you want to end up spraying in front of your jack stands
You're gonna need another probably two cans just so that you get an idea
So now that we got this coating on here all this rust has been reformed
It's been converted from rust to a paintable surface
But if we leave it like this, if a rock kicks up and chips that paint we could start to get rust again
So what we're gonna do next is spray and under coating now. This is a rubberized coating
it's flexible and it'll prevent rocks from kicking up and
Damaging anything and it's also thick coating so we don't want to spray this just yet
First thing that we want to do before we spray anything is install our brand-new spring mount
We want to have this up flush against the frame
We don't want any under coating in between this and the frame
So to prevent that we'll go and install that now so grab the mount and the bolts are gonna go right through these four holes here
but first we want to put some medium strength threadlocker on all four bolts to prevent them from coming loose from
Vibrations and now it's ready to mount to the frame and it should slide right into place now hand tighten all four nuts
and
Finally torque them down to 75 foot-pounds
Out with the old rusty spring mount and in with the nice brand new one that looks awesome
now before we start under-coating
There's one more thing we need to do and that is grab some tape and tape off any surfaces that are mounting surfaces
So right here the spring mounts
We don't want to get any build up on here from the undercoating the under coatings thick and it will build up and it could be
uneven or it could raise the surface this we want a nice smooth surface for the spring to mount on same thing up here at
Our front spring mount we want to make sure that we have a nice smooth surface for the spring to mount and for our bolt
To go through, any nuts or bolts any threads on the bolts
We want to tape up so they don't get clogged and I did the same thing to the mount in the rear
I taped it off. So when we install our spring it'll slide right in
Okay
Now we're ready for the rubberized protective undercoating same as a rust reformer spray on medium to thick coats and make sure you overlap
You can see how thick this stuff is when it sprays out and that's what provides the protection of the paint underneath and don't worry
It looks brown now, but it's going to turn black later when it dries
So cover everything that you just painted with the rust reformer with a nice thick layer of rubberized undercoating and already this looks so good
All right
So with the undercoat drying now is the perfect opportunity for me to show you how to remove the old bushing from your leaf spring
And install a brand new bushing. Now why would you do this?
Well, your old leaf spring in most cases is gonna be perfectly fine
Unless it has physical damage or your suspension was sagging you could reuse the old leaf spring usually just the bushings are bad
And that's better than going out and buying an expensive new leaf spring
I thought I'd need new leaf springs because my suspension collapsed but it turns out that these are fine
so what you could do to save a lot of money is
Install new bushings now to do that is really simple
You just need a saw, a hammer and a torch and I'm gonna show you how to do that right now
The first thing we need to do you see how all this rubber is
expanded outside the leaf spring this is going to make it really difficult when we have to push this rubber through the leaf spring so
we want to use a hacksaw and cut all this outside rubber off by working our way around the bushing until we can remove the
Rubber piece just like that
Now we want to grab our torch and heat up the outside metal of the leaf spring which is holding the bushing in
One thing I see people do all the time
Incorrectly when removing bushings is they put a flame directly on the bushing and catch it on fire sure that will work eventually
But you're creating a lot of unnecessary smoke. You don't want to breathe in and it wastes a lot of time
So all you actually need to do is heat the outside of the metal surrounding the bushing for about two to three minutes
You'll know when you're done heating it up because you'll see the rubber on the edge next to the metal begin to bubble and separate
from the leaf spring
once the bushing separates shut the flame and get a socket that fits the inside diameter of the bushing and Hammer the bushing out and
While it's still very hot use a metal wire brush to clean the rest of the rubber out that's stuck to the inside
So we have a smooth clean surface to install the new bushing into
Now in this case we only have a rubber bushing with a metal sleeve on the inside but on some bushings
We have a metal sleeve on the outside and that metal sleeve will get stuck inside here in that case
You get a saw and remove the blade and reattach it so you could saw through the thin outside metal case of the bushing once you cut through the metal remove the saw
Then you get a chisel or a screwdriver or something and just hammer out
Right on the edge of this metal piece to knock it out and it's that simple
Now luckily, my bushing is just a rubber bushing with a metal insert. So we don't have to do that
All we need to do is make sure the inside is clean and then we could install our brand-new bushing since this is still hot
The metal is expanded. So it'll make pushing this bushing in easy spraying a little bit of lubricant on here
Like silicone will help the new bushing slide in easily
Then we could carefully tap the bushing to get it started and once it's in get a socket that fits on the outside metal shell
Of the bushing and hammer it in the rest of the way until the bushing surface is level with the leaf spring surface
So there you go out with the old broken bushing and in with the brand new one. It's that easy to do
It's very cost effective
And once you get both of the new bushings in we could finish up the job and install the leaf spring in the truck
So going back under the truck
Look at this under coating this came out awesome it coats everything so it looks good
And so it protects the metal so it won't rust again
now with that all done and dry we could install the leaf spring and
We want to install the shackle first and we want to do this when the leaf spring is off the truck
So we have a lot more room to work now
This is the stock shackle and I do want to do a little bit of an upgrade
This is a shackle from a Chevy or a Dodge and if you look at the difference between these two the Chevy and dodge one
Is a lot beefier. It's thicker the welds are better and it's a lot longer
So what that's going to do is that's going to allow us to either pick the stock ride height
Or if we move the bolts here or here we can lift the truck in the rear
So with the stock shackle, it would install just like that now with the aftermarket one
We can install it at the exact same ride height, but I'm gonna lift it up just a little bit
So we have a slight increase in the lift of the truck. So we'll add our bolt
With the bolt in add a little bit of medium strength thread locker since this is a high vibration area
And you wanna hand tighten this nut. You don't want to tighten it down all the way
You don't want to torque it just yet. There's a bushing here and a bushing here
And anytime you have bushings on suspension components. You want the suspension to be loaded before you torque down the bushings?
So we're gonna wait for this and we're gonna install the leaf spring right now
so we'll get the leaf spring mounting block that the spring sits on and put it in place and
Now we could go and install the leaf spring on the axle
one thing to note some leaf springs are
Directional meaning they have a long side and a short side and on my truck you want to install the long side towards the back?
So always double-check with the leaf spring on the other side of the truck to make sure you're installing it in the correct direction
Next we could install our u-bolts and our mounting plate and if you take a look at the mounting plate
It says for and aft so we want to make sure that we set that up
exactly how it says to and it looks like the mounting plate isn't gonna fit so since this is an aftermarket spring this nut is
Just a little bit too big to fit in this hole
so I'm gonna use a file and file away some of the material in the hole and hopefully
Perfect that gave us the extra clearance
Now you get our u-bolts in that just go under the axle and then it should slide through those holes
Same thing with the other one under the axle and through the holes now
I'm gonna add a little bit of medium strength thread locker right to the threads and then get these nuts started on to the bolt
Now we want to tighten all these nuts evenly so tighten each one down a little bit at a time
So tighten the nuts on one u-bolt and then go over and tighten the nuts on the other
U-bolt and keep tightening them back and forth. Then we can torque all four nuts down to 80 foot-pounds
beautiful now
It's important that this is nice and flat and easiest way to check that is to look at the thread height on
These bolts all four bolts are about the same height
If one bolt was up a lot higher than all the rest undo the nuts and retighten it
So each one is even it's important that this is nice and flat
So you have a good flat surface that it's mounted onto now that this is good
Let's go and bolt up the rear shackle get the shackle in place and slide the bolt through the hole
Then get the nut and tighten the bolt into the nut
So with that bolt tightened down but not torqued. Both of these bolts still need to get torqued next
Let's go to the front of the leaf spring and get that bolt aligned and pushed into place and then tighten that down
*RATCHET NOISE™*
And just in case you didn't notice
I used all brand new fasteners because the old fasteners were rusted and
Because the threads were messed up if you're gonna do this job you might as well do it right while you're in here get new
Fasteners plus I don't trust these because all the rust they could fail on you
So with all the bolts loosely tightens, we now want to jack up the rear of the suspension
So the leaf springs are loaded with the entire weight of the truck
So get the jack under there and lift the suspension
until the truck barely lifts off the jack stands then you know
The full weight is on the suspension and then we get torque down both rear bolts on the shackle to 80
foot-pounds good and torque down the front bolt as well to 80 foot-pounds and
There we go. We are done installing the leaf spring on this side. So now let's go do the other side
So with a little bit of editing magic™, here's the before and the after and that's what I'm talking about
What a difference. So this side was just as easy as the other side brand new springs. All the rust was removed
We under coated it and brand new shackles and mounts and we are done on this side
So now we just need to put both wheels on the truck and as always torque them down in a star pattern so they go
On evenly, okay
so all that's left to do is jack up the truck a little bit remove both jack stands and
Let the truck down on the ground for the first time with its brand new leaf springs
All right
now that is a proper thorough guide on how to replace those old leaf springs the shackles the mounts that are rusted and those
Degraded bushings in your truck or SUV. I'm glad to have this back on the road
We also undercoated it and we gave it a little bit of a lift and that looks perfect
Now I'm going to be putting this truck right to work and use it for what it's designed to do
I need to get all these old used drift tires and bring them to the recycle center. So i'll load that up
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