Well, half way through my install, one side is done. I used 2 floor jacks, one under each axle to raise it up, pull the wheels and supported the frame on jack stands, left the axles on the floor jacks to help line things up.
First thing I learned is an 8" c-clamp is not heavy enough, it would bend just pressing the bushings in, so I tapped them in with one of the old bolts as others have done. Seemed to me the bushings would distort or something once I got them in, the bolts were real tight, too tight I figured so I used emery cloth wrapped around a punch on the ones where the leaf attaches to the frame, took a bitta time.
Front leaf spring lined up fairly easily. I found playing with the floor jack I could get the shoulder of the nut end of the bolt to line up with the hanger, then it was easy to tap the bolt home with a socket over the grease fitting and a hammer.
The rear axle was a different story, just couldn't get things lined up, probly cuz I had a 2x10 under the tire on the other side to level the trailer in my driveway. I screwed around with it for a while, bolt in, bolt out, using a brass drift to try to line it up, that eventually I lost a few chunks of bushing on both sides of the springs. So I had to drive out the bushing using a socket (that was fun!) and put a new one in, followed by more emery clothing etc. :(
To line up the spring 2nd time around I put a ratchet strap from the axle to the back of the trailer so I could pull it back and raise it with the floor jack at the same time, got the shoulder of the bolt to poke through then drove the head of the bolt flush again with a hammer and socket. (Now that I think of it a pipe wrench on the leaf spring near the bolt mighta enabled me to twist the spring enough to line up the bolt with the hanger hole.)
For the front leaf I put the grease hole pointing toward the front, at the rear it was pointing toward the rear, figured with the weight on the axles that would give me the most room for grease to go in, not sure if that's right or not but made sense to me. :B
So I gotta find a new bushing at a local hitch or RV shop, will tackle the other side in a few days, forecast for the next little while is rain.
Couple things on the kits itself, by the time it got here a couple zerk fitting was pretty mangled, bent at an angle, I had to change them. There's a lotta weight in the box, the parts are not wrapped at all, everything's just thrown onto the box and things bang around in transit I guess, they could do something better I think.
Thanks for the tips Les.
Will
