[Che]

Looking at my Sierra from the front it seems like the leaf springs are fixed a bit too close together on the diff, and it has a slight inward camber... not a lot, but doesn't quite look like a square fit to the eye.

I can't afford to fix it right away - upcoming money is needed to sort brakes exhaust, door... the list goes on. Even so - where do I go to / what do I do to fix this kinda thing? And also - what's it likely to cost? I'm guessing I don't have the right tools to do it myself.

[BlueSuzy]

Pictures?

[boballan82]

With leaf springs you have a rigid axle and as such camber is not really adjustable, the spring position is dependant on the shackle position on the chasis again not adjustable.

[Che]

Tried to take pics, but not really translating in the images... just gotta see it I guess.

[royce]

The stuff is all located in a spot, for the springs to be too far in on the diff end would of meant somebody cut the perches off, ground it all flat, made new ones and welded them further in, why would anyone do that?

go get a tape measure and check, they are fine

[Moph]

Fixed this on the rear of mine last night Might be the same on yours. The photo below is what my hangers looked like before - notice how the LHS one kicks out to the left.

Reason turned out to be that I had done up the U bolts with the spring only held on by the front hanger (rear shackle not on) and that was kinking the spring. With the spring in place, held by front hanger and rear shackle, jack the underside of the spring off and then loosen your U bolts right off. Give the spring plate (that the U bolts go through) a couple of taps with a hammer to loosen it, then tighten them all back up. Tighten them loosely first so that the plate just contacts the spring all over. Then tighten each of them up incrementally. My rear shackle is now pretty much dead vertical.

[Che]

Cheers Moph, looks the same as my problem... I think the springs bushes needed replacing for the RWC (when I bought), so maybe reinstall was a bit of a rush job. Glad it's not a major operation.

[Moph]

Okay did the fronts tonight. They were WAY out - probably 5-6mm outwards at the bottom of each of the front shackles.

Dropped spring off entirely then did up rear hanger followed by front shackle. Replaced front shackle bushes with Nolathane bushes instead of rubber which had flogged out in no time flat. Torqued everything up - 90Nm on rear hanger with steel sleeved captive spring bush; by feel and 'squish' of bushes for front shackle, making sure I over-tightened a bit to seat bush, then backed way off, then tightened to spec. Finally lined up spring locator pin with perch and plate, held it all together with the jack, U-bolts in and torqued up incrementally to 40Nm, then 60Nm, then 80Nm. Shackles are now dead vertical

I think my main difficulty was when I did the RUF I did the rear hanger first, then the U-bolts, then the front shackle - mainly because I made up the rear hangers first, then drilled the perch/U-bolt plate, then fabbed the shackles. Doing the U-bolts up without the spring being properly aligned stuffed me right from the start, and rubber being so soft and having 'memory' soon shagged out and that was it from then on.

Did both fronts tonight in about 3 hours, including some stuffing around with the shocks, so not a big job at all. Oh - and having an Ingersoll Rand compressor with Chicago Pneumatic air wrench / air ratchet ROCKS for working on cars!!!

Hope all goes well with yours

[Che]

Good to know - my front end's bad alignment looked alittle more extreme than the rear pics you posted. Just glad it's not unfixable accident damage.

[Moph]

Don't stress - mine were pretty bad...