Giving this a Monday bump. I was able to work on the truck a little bit this weekend and it ended up being more eventful than I was expecting.
Fair warning, it's a fairly lengthy post, so jump to the bottom for a TL/DR if you want.
First, I got the catch can plumbed up and installed. I may change the mounting location later, but that's where it's sitting for now.
Next up was getting the new LCA's installed. Simple task, right? Not so much.....
Somehow broke a camber plate without touching it or the UCA.
Also managed to explode a strut assembly and ruin a Bilstien.
I had been hearing some noise up front, so I decided to check that the main nut was tight. Stupididly, I hit it with an impact, shearing the threads off of the end of the shaft. Thankfully it was laying down. I was at the front of the garage and the strut shot under the truck, out of the garage and to the bottom of the driveway. I got extremely lucky and only have a small scrape on my hand. I had to go to advance and get a new strut assembly since it was all they had in stock and I needed to get the truck out of the garage. Thankfully I was able to get it so that both sides sat even with eachother.
That actually brought something else to my attention - The spacer stack I used on the repaired side provided 3.5" of lift, but somehow both sides were even. After seeing that, I think I am truly at 3.5", not 4" like I previously thought.
Thankfully, the strut is getting replaced free of charge. I purchased it through amazon and due to the nature of the failure, they decided to replace it for me, no questions asked. It should be here Tuesday. All I have to do is send the old one back.
With the new strut coming, I'm thinking about changing how I achieve the amount of lift I have. Most likely, I'll set the bilsteins back at 0 and use the new upper spacer (2.5") in conjunction with the old upper spacer (.5"). This combination should give me 3" or 1/2" lower than current height, making it ride a bit better and not strain the lower ball joints as much.
I'm also tossing around the idea of either getting new leaf springs or getting a deaver J1 mini pack.
http://performancelifts.com/deaver-gm-mini-pack-j1.html
My current leafs are sagging pretty bad and basically riding on the overloads. It seems pretty typical on these trucks, but it's making the rear ride fairly rough. I'm leaning more towards the idea of the deavers for 2 reasons. First off, they are much easier to install than a brand new leaf pack since they just replace the overload. Second, they would eliminate the need for a lift block since they provide 2" of lift on their own. They may not ride as good as a new leaf pack would, but with how they work, they would help correct the bit of sag the old leafs have and get rid of the lift blocks.
TL/DR - Installed catch can and new UCA's, blew up a strut assembly, strut getting replaced under warranty, may change front setup, and thinking about improving the rear suspension.
