I just finished lowering my 87 D150 with kit parts from ebay. I thought I'd share the experience.I bought the 4" rear shackle kit and 2" front lower A-arm kit (pocket for spring like the van control arm). The seller is radz4rydz.

The parts are good quality and they fit well. I received them quickly too. They do not come with instructions. I recommend also buying new leaf spring bushings. Cheapest I found them from a reputable brand was Moog PN SB266.for about $7 on Amazon. They're cheap to have on hand. My bolts were seized up so bad I had to heat them to get them out thus ruining the spring bushing. You'll need a 3/4" drill for the front because the new control arm has a larger bolt mounting it to the frame.

The front went as expected, no issues. The rear was quite difficult. The kit comes with longer shackles for the rear of the leaf and new hanger brackets for the front of the leaf. To remove the old hanger brackets from the frame, one must grind the head off the rivets and drive them out. They are difficult to get off, to say the least. On the driver's side it's more difficult because the fuel tank is in the way, had to temporarily shift the fuel tank toward the center of the vehicle to get it done. Here are pictures before and after. It looks OK but I wish the rear were another two inch lower. I still have 6" between the top of the axle tube and the bottom of the frame rail which is more than enough for a cruiser. I might pursue a leaf spring shop to shorten/flatten my leaf springs. Ebay also offers a axle flip kit rather than the shackle kit. The axle flip kit is said to require frame modification (clearance notch for axle tube), welding, etc. It's said to lower the rear 6". Looking back, the flip kit probably would have been the better route for me.

I think some lower profile tires will help it look better. What do you all think?


before lowering

after lowering

 

forgot to mention, those are 255/65-17

 

Looks great!!! Nice job!! As for the wheels and tires!! As long as they don’t rub! I like it.. really fills in the wheel wells.. but it’s your call!!👍🍻🍻

 

If the rear was about 2in lower it would match the front. You can always by a 2in block lower kit for the leaf spring to add to your shackle kit. They are pretty inexpensive, cast kits from mancini racing are $64 billet $94

 

Lowered the back 2 more inches, re-arced springs. Pictures are a little crooked but sits level.

 

Looks great! For me id say thats oerfect height not so low you scrape but low enough. I have a 72 d100 im looking to do similarly. Was the 2" drop via spring pocket the only thing you did to the front? Also your shackle kit did it just lower the mounting point? Meaning the bolts springs mounted farther away from the bed floor?

 

Yes that's all I did on the front, the lower control arms with the deeper pockets. It turned out to be more like 3 in on the front but it was advertised as 2 in.
The rear kit has two parts. On the front of the spring it includes a new mounting bracket that moves the spring pivot point closer to the bed floor. On the rear of the spring it includes a longer shackle that moves the pivot point closer to the bed floor. It is a difficult kid to install. AsIAs said in the original post you have to move the fuel tank and the rivets are really really hard to get out.
Then on top of that I had to rearch the springs to drop it another 2 inches to get the truck level. I think a better route would be to flip the spring and put it on the bottom of the axle, but I have not personally done that.

 

Good to know! I havent found anything but block lowering kits for the rear. I was thinking you might could achieve the same thing by fabing a longer bracket and bolting it to the existing one and then bolt the leaf springs into the then longer bracket.

 

Looks good! I’m in the middle of doing this to my ‘78 but I couldn’t decide wether to do the drop spindle, lowering spring or the lower A arm. Hoping to have it done this fall/winter if I can get my GTO sold.