Hotchkis leafs: shims or no shims?

[jeff56]

Installed some H leafs today. Let me tell you, it was a bear. Nothing really difficult about it other than the hellacious front hanger bolts that were so tight, but it still taxed my abilities, mainly just because I had never done anything that extensive and was a little nervous about getting my axle buttoned back up correctly. Anyway, it all worked out well, although it took me about 5 hours! Those stinking stock leafs are HEAVY!

Those of you running them, did you install the stock shims with the H leafs? My stock shims were basically melded to the leafs. I tried chiseling them off, but gave up in fear of cracking them as they were so stuck, so I'm running without any shims right now. I have the H leafs and two inch shackles that I'm running on the 1" hole. So far, I haven't noticed any vibration, but I haven't driven far yet.

BTW, I went down another 1/2 in the back, so I'm at 16.5 now. I can't imagine how low I'd have been if I'd have used the 2" hole on the shackles!

[jeff56]

Just came across a how to I had printed on rotating the shims and found it states this:

a vice grip and attach it to the center pin on the bottom of the leaf spring pack. Take a 15mm(I believe?) socket and rachet and loosen the nut on the center pin enough to allow the bottom shim on the leaf pack to rotate.

Hmmm...did I need to actually unbolt the shim, perhaps? I'll have to take a look at my old leafs again tomorrow. I'll :hammer: myself if that was the case and I overlooked it in my haste.

Anyway, my other question still stands: Those of you running Hotchkis or Roush leafs, did you re-use the stock shim, rotate it, or leave it off altogether?

[SILVER2000SVT]

You have an 02 right? I have a 00 with hotchkis leafs and a 2" shackle. My truck didn't have any shim's from the factory. The Hotchkis's are designed to be direct replacement and a 2" shackle doesn't make that much difference in pinion angle. So, I would say if your truck had shim's on the factory springs I would reuse them. If you have vibration take them out and see if it fixes it.
Let me qualify...If you had an 03-04 with the heavier springs that might be different due to a different curvature of the spring.

[L8 APEX]

He has a Harley truck, they are a little "different":twitch:

[SILVER2000SVT]

He has a Harley truck, they are a little "different":twitch:

oh....nevermind then.

[jeff56]

:)