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Need Advice - Rear suspension

Graphics

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Colorado
Hey guys, was hoping get some advice.

Couple months back i noticed my driver rear shock was making some noise. I assumed it was shot and needs replacing.. then it kind went away and i thought i could stretch it a bit. But now I'm noticing mild vibrations above 40mph (only under power). Since I've owned my 98 i know the leaf springs have been sagging a bit over time. And now i feel like my u-joints are going. So, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing the sagging of the leaf springs and degradation of the shock cased the rear axle to lift and apply pressure on the u-joints to cause them to fail?

Im looking to replace the shocks, leaf-springs and u-joins. Am i overlooking something? I feel like this had a cascade effect and I'm not 100% sure it may affect something else.

Thoughts?
 
Sounds like routine maintenance to me. Stuff wears out, and you replace it.

Not inspecting/maintaining/fixing things you know will wear out leads to cascading failures.
 
Sounds like routine maintenance to me. Stuff wears out, and you replace it.

Not inspecting/maintaining/fixing things you know will wear out leads to cascading failures.

Its not quite what i asked... I'm would like to know if there is something I'm missing.
 
Replacing parts is good.. What else is broken? Lol.. How are your shackle bushings looking? When you do the shocks, prepare for the bolts to break and have grade 8 bolts on standby and some wire to fish the bolts through the mounts. I went with the Dorman leafs with bushings and new shackles too. The bolts on the leafs were horrible to remove. Completely stuck. Took hours and hours and hours. Otherwise the rear end is pretty simple. I broke a u bolt with hardly and torque removing the nut and had 4 new ones made at a spring shop down the street. Definitely get new u bolts beforehand.

Hows the front end look? Ball joints track rod, etc. Front shocks?

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U-joints wear into a certain angle and replacing worn parts or lifting changes that angle, so they may vibrate under certain conditions until they wear into the new pattern. If they are shot, they are shot and need to be replaced. It's no more complicated than that. When I changed my sagging rear leafs I got vibes on heavy acceleration for a few weeks then it went away.... but they weren't "shot" as in didn't have any noticeable play.
 
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