Lifted Pictures

You look warm in the first photo!

 

Approximately


3 inches

 

Neck Surgery. I was wearing a neck brace. I had to wear it for 6 weeks.

 

Looks like new springs. They will settle after time.

 

I emailed BDS in regards to their 2 1/2 inch lift needing shims and they said the shouldn’t be needed. Guess I’ll find out.

 

Before


And after 2.5" skyjacker lift

 

What size tires are you running Henri ?

 

I just installed the BDS lift. Instructions say to mount springs with the part number to the front. The front spring has a tall bolt through clamp in the front and a bent over clamp in the back.
I could tell no differences otherwise and mounted with the bent clip to the front. There is an issue with the tie rod ends and drag link making contact with the bolted clamp on the passenger side.
Spring shims help to correct this by raising the drag link and pitman arm. This also helps to correct the drop from the pitman arm and steering geometry. I used 3 degree shims but will probably
change to 5 or 6 degrees. Shims will reduce your front lift somewhat.

 

33s

 

Here is a pic of the Jeep I picked up last week. It has BDS 4" lift springs and a 1" body lift with 33's. Keep in mind the 304 is currently out waiting for me to build the 401 I have for it so the front is slightly higher than normal. All work was done by PO......including the glow in the dark powerbait green which is going away soon!

 

No shims required. I also have the BDS 2.5” on my ‘66 for the last 6+ years.
(The worn out Pro Comp 2.5” also did not have shims)

 

There is a difference in the springs, for front and back, and for direction. The double wrap clamp goes to the rear, same for the front. (Hence the single wrap is facing forward.
The springs should also be labelled which ones are for the front and rear. (I’ll do a separate post with pics)

 

Here’s the BDS 2.5” on my 1966. The springs have labels on them for the direction of installing, at least mine did.
The double clamps on the spring packs face the rear, for both front and rear springs.
The need for shims should not be required (I do not have shims) Runs true and straight, no binding, no death wobble. Only needed an alignment.

 

That paper tag looks good for being 6 years old...lol. Looks like there may have been some changes by BDS over the years. That said my rear springs have 4 clamps and the front has 3.
2 are bolted through and 1 is crimped over. Military wrap on both ends of all springs. The spring part numbers are painted on the top of the spring and should face forward. I installed my front backwards and will have to change that.
I may add add a 4degree shim at that time. Note: this also places the tie rod ends to interfere with the clamp which is an inch or so tall. Renegade II did a video on how he fixed the problem.
My u-bolt sizes came in at 3@2 1/2" and 5@2 3/4". Should have been 4@ 2 1/2", 3@2 1/4" and 1@ 2 7/8". This is with a tapered axle Dana 44 and Dana 27. A call to BDS and the answer was to
put them on, tighten them down and let the axle tube form the radius of the bolts. A 1/8" maybe, but 1/4" is a lot of stretch in my opinion. Sorry, long winded story and hope this came out ok.

Do you have any pictures of the front? By the way, I have the one piece tie rod and Saginaw conversion. Thanks, John.

Never mind, as I see you are running the Ross steering. Thats like apples to oranges. Love your Jeep, though.

 

Here's my '71 with 2.5" BDS springs, 32x11.50 tires, and a Buick 350 V8 in the front. I made 1" longer front shackles because the BDS springs ended up lower in the nose than I liked. It's not due to the wight of the Buck 350. It's the same basic weight as an F-134.

 

2.5” springs, 5/8” body, 33” tires

 

Thank you!
Yes, they shipped you the incorrect u-bolts. Surprised about that. Just like you mentioned, my kit came with 4 @2 1/2” (for the rear Dana 44) 3@2 1/4” and 1@ 2 7/8” (for the front Dana 27) All 1/2” diameter. (Had to modify the spring plates)
They should ship you the correct ones!!

 

Front

 

I was not impressed with their answer! Their website does not list 2 1/4" or 2 7/8" u-bolts. They are sending more u-bolts and at least [1] at 2 1/2' for the rear. I reused my old ones until this gets straightened out. Rancho RS-714 is the correct
kit for the front and I pointed that out to the tech I spoke to. Looks like I may be buying new bolts. I had ordered this spring kit direct from BDS. If I was to do it over, I would get the springs and shocks separately from whom ever advertised the cheapest price and source the u-bolts myself. It may be that this is such a small market for them that they just don't care. We see this with other suppliers of Dinosaur parts.
.