Monday, July 5, 2004  -  Had the day off today, so while my wife went shopping for diapers for our newborn son, I headed down to the shop for a few hours. I wanted to get the Dana 60 installed this afternoon...and it was a successful afternoon.

I reassembled the two rear spring packs and installed the PST polygraphite suspension bushings. I was impressed over the quality and fit of these bushings...everything was included and fit as it was supposed to. I then reinstalled the spring packs onto the rearend and torqued down the U-bolts. Upon installing the rearend, I found that I had to loosen the U-bolts a bit, to allow everything to center itself. Once everything was installed, I was able to re-torque the U-bolts. I also left the main shackle bolts finger-tight, since I can't torque these down until all the normal weight from the body will let the suspension settle down to it's normal driving height. If I were to torque them down now, it's possible it could adversely affect the suspension travel, due to the bushings binding up.

Here is a few shots of the installed rearend:

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

Fig. 1  -  Here's a shot of the PST polygraphite bushing kit for the Flex-o-matic rear springs, including all bushings, inserts and bushing lube.

Fig. 2  -  Here's one of the PST bushings installed.