The rear springs were taken apart and painted the same as front, and I added the two bottom leaves out of the stock 56" rear springs that were already on the truck. This was an HD-model M1008, and I used the top block that separates the helper spring from the rest of the pack as a zero-rate 3/4" lift block to even the lift in the rear with that of the front. To check this out, I took a pic from the side and used the paint program to measure the lift of the front and compare it to the rear. They were both the same with about 150# of the remainder of the old stock springs in the bed. I also rebuilt the rear axle same as the front. The wheel bearings had been packed with grease to keep them from running dry, but this creates another problem. As one can see, the adjusting collars in the differential have small holes through which the gear oil travels to lubricate everything. These holes were all but plugged with the grease. The wet hubs sytem in the 14BFF rear axle does just fine with gear oil only. I also changed it over to synthetic oil after I was done cleaning her up. In the close-up of the adjusting collars, one can see how I marked them with a small punch to get them lined up correctly so I would not change the lash adjustment of the gears. If you take this apart, it is a good idea to also mark the saddles to keep them exactly the same when reassembling. Also, you need to count and note the number of turns the collars took in order to remove the ring gear. For mine, it was all the way to bottoming out on the right one, then turning it back to the first time the marks liined up, and two complete truns on the left one, which gave plaenty of clearance for removal and reassembly. it was also easier with the axle out so you didn't have to support that 50# or so while trying to start a saddle bolt. Overall, it was a long process, and still is not done. For one thing, the 6-degree wedges I used on the back axle were too much, and the pinion angle is actually high rather than straight, so I will be changing those to 4-degree ones as ASAP and see how that looks. I ordered those and a nice set of 5/8" U-bolts for the rear from Kert at DIY4X.com as well. He is a truly great fabricator and doesn't mind talking to you on the phone to make sure he knows what you want. I'm running 3-degree ones in the front BTW, and that was after trying both the 2 and 6 degree ones. Got to keep some sort of caster angle going. Next, I will be rebuilding the TH400 transmission and doing some typical modifications on it in case I ever change over to a big-block gas engine. That will not happen anytime in the near future however since I have already re-sealed the 6.2 diesel's bottom end, replaced the oil pump, timing chain and gears, and water pump along with a few other PM things.
