Tightening up rear suspension

[speedsterept]

Ever since I installed the rear DJM flip kit I get a lot of vibration in the rear. Some drive train (drive shaft) vibration at very slow speeds which is okay I guess but even worse, every time I hit a bump the rear of the truck rattles (noisily) and everything is bolted down tightly too. I also installed drop shocks with the flip kit. Any of you all every have these noise problems? Can be annoying. When I jack up the rear of the truck the rear suspension seems real flimsy (the axle bounces up and down real easy) as if the leaf springs don't even exist or serve a purpose at all. I installed a leaf spring helper kit to try to help stiffen up the rear but that didn't seem to help either. http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/images/smilies/icon_confused.gif

 

[rngrdngr]

when you say "flip kit" your talkin about the axle being placed on top of the sprigs ,right?

i did that to my last ranger and had no problems. that sucks. call djm and see what they say.

 

[sparkdic]

It sounds like ur pinion angle is off to me, when I flipped the rear on my truck I bought spring perches from summit, set the pinion angle and welded them on. You can also use pinion shims. Also make sure u put the flip brackets in right, they should move ur rear diff back a lil because when u move the rear end up u actually bring the driveshaft closer to the tranny so when u go to leave from a stop and at low speeds when u give it gas and the rear squats it jams the driveshaft into the rear of the trans, which is bad. Also make sure everything is real tight, you should torque everything down with the truck on the wheels. get everything snug then put it on the ground crank everything tight. Hope any of this helps.

 

[speedsterept]

I'm going to try the pinion shims and see what they do. I have some shims that I bought when I first bought everything I just don't know if they are 2, 4 or 6 degree shims. As I recall I think that I didn't install the shims because I wasn't sure if they would stay securely in place. They wont slip out of place will they (sparkdic)? I check all of the bolts periodically and everything is always torqued and tight. I will also take a look to see if the axle locater brackets with the offset hole are positioned correctly over the leaf spring center bolt and extending the rear end back 3/4 inch as they should. I think that I checked that before and it seemed that everything was positioned correctly. I want to make sure that the drive shaft isn't getting jammed into the rear of the transmission. As for the low speed vibration I tried the drive shaft carrier bearing shim kit to see if it solved the vibration and it actually made it worst so I took it off. Do any of you two (sparkdic or rngrdngr) or anybody else have noisy undercarriages? I used to drive a 1986 dropped Mazda B-2000 for years (until it was stolen) and I never had any undercarriage noises with that truck.

 

[sparkdic]

I never had problems with the 2 degree shims on my 94. But i do remember that there wasn't much of the centering peg left above it, so a 4 or 6 may be iffy. If it is too short, even for your liking, u can cut the pin out and replace it with a grade 8 bolt. I just tighten the first nut down with the threads sticking up and then add nuts up to the top to fill the space and keep the perch tight on it.
As for my 97, i get very little chatter (enough that only i notice it) so I haven't messed with it any further, i just keep up on the u-joints. Hope any of this helps ya...

 

[rngrdngr]

i used a 2 degree shim too and it worked great.

i sound insulated my ranger so i never had to hear any outside noises.

kind of funny my lowered ranger was stolen too. the cops found it but it was so striped i told them it wasn't mine so i didn't have to deal with the truck.