front spring hanger repalcement time, pull bed or drop tank?

[racsan]

well the title says it all, i need to put on new front spring hangers and i can either try and pull the bed off or drop the drive shaft and try to slide the fuel tank to the center of the truck to gain access to the inside of the drivers side framerail for the l.f. front spring hanger to be replaced. would there be enough room (if any) if the bed was removed to get to the back side of the frame? dropping the tank doesnt look easy, and ive heard where messing with the fuel lines could give me some headaches as well. some one has had to have done it before. i did the rear spring hangers a year ago, thought the fronts were good for awhile but now the metal above the spring eyes on both sides is rusted through. i may have to torch off the bed bolts, last year when i had the cap off i thought id take the bed bolts out and anti-sieze them, they wouldnt budge. im not sure as to how well the fuel take could move to the center either, there in a front "snout" to the fuel tank that goes over the driveshaft carrier bearing crossmember. there is no room to even get a finger between the fuel tank and frame from under the bottom of the truck, let alone a hand with a bolt in it. ive got my hangers, just looking for which direction i need to go in.

 

[89PBR96]

I just bought new ones for mine yesterday pulling the bead off is easy if the bolts will come out easy enough that is what I'm going to do that way I can clean the frame up and paint it also

 

[kkjb4x4.0]

I took the bed off my 97 when I did my hangers. You may need to heat the nuts under the bed a little. Removing the bed was by far the easiest part of replacing the hangers. As far as the tank goes, I have yet to do that side of the truck but I did presoak the hardware in penetrating oil to make removal a little easier.

 

[railman]

on my 96 we just undid the tank straps and slid it over enough to get the bolts in and a wrench....

no need to undo the driveshaft or anything...plus i left my bed on as well...didn't see a need since it was the tank that was in the way....

l8r, John

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

I just loosen the tank straps and slide it over to get the bolts in the back side.

 

[bigdan002001]

Taking the bed off makes things soo much easier. I used a 4.5" angled grinder and just ground the rivets off from the outside and then used a pneumatic air hammer to punch the rivets thru the frame. Worked really slick and fast. With the bed off as well, you can get to the clips that hold the fuel lines to the tank and pull the vent tube much easier as well. I just unbolted the two straps and placed a floor jack with a block of wood under it. I jacked up the frame real high and put a jackstand under my rear reciever hitch to hold up the rear real high. Then I put a concrete block and a couple of 6x6 under the tank and slid it over towards the center some resting on the blocks. The front stayed up in the crossmember section. My straps were very thin and cracked badly, so went to autozone and bought two new tank straps for like 20 bucks. I did all four spring hangers at the same time. Only problem I ran into was when i went to turn the front bolt out on the drivers side, the entire bracket busted off the truck. I tried and tried to get the bolt to turn out while chalking the rusted parts with prybars and ended up twisting the eyelet end of the spring and ruining it. So I had to buy new replacement springs from JCWhitney. They were too tall and so I had to remove my lower 2" factory lift blocks so the truck would have the factory 1.5" rake again. I am now waiting on my 2wd U-bolts to come in from another member online to bolt the axle back up to the frame. I also used a wire buffing brush on my grinder to clean up the frame and crossmembers and primed and painted everything. Looks much much better. I also replaced both rear shocks while i had the bed off as well. Taking the bed off can be done by yourself as well. I used my engine hoist and bought two 7ft sections of chain which I made an "x" in the bed from tie down anchors at each corner. Used picker to pick straight up and drove truck out from under the bed. Hope that helps?

BigDan

 

[shane96ranger]

Sorry to be the village idiot here, but I assume this is talking about the leaf spring mount? How does that go bad, and how do you know you need to replace it?

 

[CD97ranger]

I just replaced mine on the driver side, did it without dropping or moving the tank and without taking off the bed. Plus I did it in the rain. I had a tarp set up over one side of the truck. I also ground the rivets and punched them through the frame. Im gonna tackle the other side this weekend before it rots through and breaks, I dont see any need to take off the bed or anything

 

[railman]

Sorry to be the village idiot here, but I assume this is talking about the leaf spring mount? How does that go bad, and how do you know you need to replace it?

when it sorta looks like this one....

l8r, John

 

[shane96ranger]

Ouch!!