yeah, factory they are known for being the worst riding of the era ... mine however has the stiffest aftermarket lift spring available and is basically a hard tail. if i jack it up by the hitch, the rear axle has maybe 1" of droop, and that includes bushing slop. it's just wrong. i'm pretty sure the PO wrapped up the rear springs doing torque stuff and thought these would help, then added traction bars anyways.
currently i have the 4" spring and the factory 4" block, the factory rear spring is 54". i bought 1998 GMC 1500 3" lift springs that are 64" long. while having to relocate both front and rear spring hangers, i'll do a shackle flip as well. the GMC lift spring should actually be more like a 6" lift for this truck, so with the shackle flip i will get to ditch the block. just lots more betterer. most of my miles are unloaded so this setup should ride/flex WAY better, then i have airride load bags for towing capacity. i'll also have to re-mount the traction bars well under the axle to keep my "link separation"
the front is just a whole lot of tweaking. front shackle is super short factory, so the 6" lift spring is longer to keep that from being inverted. under a good bump the spring eye actually hits the frame (infinite spring rate FTL). longer shackle, easy enough. however this points the pinion down and adds more lift. so i plan to remove the shortest leaf and add 2deg shims. with any luck i'll end up about 1/2deg up more on the pinon and about 1/2" lower ride in the front, all with a softer spring that won't bottom on the frame any more. all that would also help my front DS angles that already got way better with the trans swap.
i need to do the front first so i can set the rear height where i want to match it best. just in case i drop like 1-2" taking out a mid spring or something. TBD
while in the front i'll also re-do the steering stops to maximize turning. that might require some clearance on the shaft yokes, and maybe re-drilling the TRE hole in the high steer arm. you know, just little things ...
