In general a panhard bar is a bad idea with leaf springs. People think they keep the frame and axle from moving side to side when in reality, they actually force the axle to move side to side. [insert Jedi hand wave] This is not the solution you seek.
One thing to consider for your use is a lot of swap crossmember and motor mount systems are pretty light duty which is often (probably usually) fine in 2wd/street use but offroad is a different story. Shameless self promotion here: we (ORD) have a crossmember and motor mount system that is well...
We were able to put a regular bed on a cab and chassis truck by moving the rear axle forward with an offset plate and making the bed to cab gap a little bigger than normal. It was a single wheel truck but the axle location part of the puzzle was the same. I think you'll want to plan on wheel...
The difference between 2wd and 4wd is the output/sector shaft. 4wd is splined part way around and uses a crossbolt to clamp the pitman arm to the shaft. The 2wd is splined all the way around (with a taper fit for the pitman arm) like just about every other sector shaft in the world and has a...
There seems to be a few of us with pretty good winter experience with a variety of vehicle setups here and my experience drops inline.
Open front for snow driving, period. Handling suffers severly when the front wheels are tied together in any way. I've had negative feedback from the amount...
One idea you might look at since you mention a stepping stone to coilovers is mounting a 2.5" coilover shock but not using the coil mounting hardware. This can get you to a point that linking the truck and using the shock as a coilover is that much easier. Coilovers are just a 2.5" shock with...
You can use the factory adapter with the short 32 output shaft, no problem. That output shaft is built long enough to be sort of universal. The 10 spline system was never good but at least with the 205 it was easy to replace. There's a 10 spline 203 buried in the yard at my parents old house...
Since the chart was already referenced above, here's the info directly:
https://www.offroaddesign.com/fox-performance-series-2-0-smooth-body-remote-reservoir-standard-travel-1.html
The way to verify a spring problem is:
1: put them side by side on the floor and they should be the same height or very close to it.
2: swap sides. If you have a spring problem, the problem will move with the spring. Most of the time, if the springs are the same height on the floor and you...
That is correct, sort of. You put 2 separate things in #2. The side brace to the frame rail is essentially an angle iron with a couple of bushings that bolts to the side of the T-case and the bushings attach it to the frame rail. These were in the earlier 70s trucks and were a bad idea.
The...
Front eyes are 9/16 x 5
Rear eye stock is 7/16 x 5 on both top and bottom. 88-91 went to 9/16 on the lower only. 7/16 isn't awesome for any sort of hard use and the stock shackle plates are often a problem with wear and strength too. In an effort to solve the problem, if you have one, I'll...
We often put a hose clamp around the whole master to clamp the lid down better so they don't leak when we're at funny angles offroad. It seems a little butch but solves the problem.
I'm a big fan of 2-3" of lift on a K5. And also a fan of CV driveshafts on the rear of K5s. I fought my original K5 for years with driveline vibes and finally relented and put a CV on it and haven't looked back. It's always worth trying with a stock driveshaft if you can since sometimes they...