B-52 GM Truck Front Spring Hangers
By Neil Pickett

In the Beginning
Back in the day, I discovered that in order to get around well off road, you better having all tires pulling for you, to get you to your destination. I naturally progressed as did everyone I wheeled with. We bought lift kits, bigger tires, lockers, bigger axles, bigger tires and progressed in that fashion. There is a lot to be said about doing it right the first time. Making use of what parts you have and purchasing the bare minimum to make your rig more affordable, all while making it work better where it’s meant to be used. I had beat my K5 pretty well, before swapping all of its parts over to a ‘78 Short-Bed GM Frame and added a ’95 S-10 Cab to make it "smaller". After wheeling it with the swapped-over parts, I realized I could benefit from having a lower center of gravity. Plus, I was plagued with stiff 6" lift springs that absolutely did not flex! I heard about a cool bracket set, which would allow longer front springs to be added – all from a company called DIY4X. I called Kert Cohoon and ordered a set of B-52 brackets, and in a few days they arrived.

Lower Center of Gravity
I had heard that installing Stock 52" springs off the rear of most ½ and ¾ Ton GM Trucks, into the front of same vehicles would yield approximately 4" of lift. With my truck having 6" up front, I was willing to lower it down, to gain hill climb ability and side-hill stability. Lowering the truck was a good thing and gaining suspension travel was an added benefit from going with this setup. My factory brackets were beat, so having new ones made from ¼" would really help.

Kert offers this bracket kit for all ‘73 to ‘80 GM 4x4 frames as well as the ‘80 to ‘91 frames for the K5, Suburban and 2+2. For the 4x4 GM Pickups, the year end is at ’87. Be sure to order the correct bracketry for your frame. The folks at DIY4X will be glad to help you.

Added Suspension Travel
It is no secret that adding longer springs (eye to eye measurement) will yield more travel, if installed properly. The longer spring has more lineal length, which in turn allows it to use up more of the shackle’s arc. Proper placement of the shackle is key to finding the perfect balance between up and down travel.

At first Glance
When the package arrived, I noticed a few things right away. These brackets are beefy, and built for abuse! The brackets are made from ¼" plate steel, which has been cut by a CNC Plasma Cutter, and shaped by someone with "great skills". The welds are top notch and appear to be laid in by a professional. All of the bracket hardware is included, as well as captured bolt hardware for the inside of the frame. The hardware is Grade 8 serrated flange hex bolts, for a superior lock once in place. The nuts welded into the capturing hardware are also of Grade 8 locking type. Upon inspection of the captured hardware, I noticed DIY4X actually stamps the letters "TD" and "BD" meaning Top Drivers side and Bottom Drivers side.

To keep things straight and ready for installation, I assembled the brackets by inserting the hardware into the holes shown in the photo below.

It is self explanatory how the bracket is installed; but for sake of argument, I have the photo above, which I took before painting the brackets. The bracket on the right is the right hand (passenger) bracket and the one on the left is for the right hand (driver) side. The bolt holes shown with hardware are the set that I chose to use. This is closest to the factory bracket if you were to use this kit and install your factory front spring eye in the rear hole (larger holes on bottom). The kit is built to utilize the factory rivet holes – this is why I took caution when removing the rivets. Kert built this kit for flexibility, by adding a second series of holes for locating the spring hanger 1" further forward from factory. It is noted that these holes are not needed for a 52" spring installation, unless the user wants to adjust the shackle angle precisely. This is a nice feature and makes these very functional for future upgrades to longer springs. With this, we are on to the installation.

Installation
Prior to deciding to go with the B-52 kit, I had made some bad choices and actually welded a stinger onto my factory brackets. This made removal a little harder, but a good plasma cutter or torch will make short work of these brackets.

I checked ride height up front by using a factory hole in my frame. My frame is a 1978 model, so yours may look different than the photo. Ride height was recorded as 36".

Be sure to block the vehicle securely, then jack the frame up to take pressure off the springs. I used a High-Lift jack and jack stand under the frame near the shackle, but would recommend a vehicle lift, cherry picker or other safe method. Never get under the vehicle or try prying while the suspension is unloaded – the vehicle could fall and without a spring hanger it would collapse more than usual. With this in mind, I chose to do one side at a time and left the tires on the vehicle for easy positioning of the axle. I removed the u-bolt; then removed my existing front spring, leaving the shackle installed.

I removed the stinger, then the factory brackets. You will be removing all of the front spring hanger brackets, including the radiator support bracket, "L" bracket and the spring hanger assembly. I actually torched all of the rivets out by knocking the outside head off of them with a plasma cutter. I then used a large hammer and chisel to remove them fully. I was careful not to burn through the brackets and frame – especially the frame, as this is what you will attach the new brackets to.

After removal of the factory brackets, I cleaned up the frame with a flapper disk in my 4.5" grinder. I also punched out the remainder of the rivet, which was left after removing the bracket. A good tip is to grind flush the extra "flashing" left over after removing the bracket. This allows you to easily punch out the remainder. At this point, you can prime and paint if you desire. While you are at it, paint your B-52 brackets as well. You are nearly ready to install the brackets.

I cleaned up the factory rivet holes with a die grinder and carbide bit. I was careful not to enlarge the holes. However, I did discover side to side; the factory rivet holes are not precisely in the same place. The B-52 kit is perfectly symmetrical and not the problem - I will touch on this subject later. I started by installing all of the hardware through the frame with the capturing hardware inside the frame with nuts facing outward. I was sure to install all bolts in place, prior to tightening. I did not use a torque wrench – I just tightened these down tight 1/2" impact. I tightened the bottom bolts, then worked my way to the top pair. You will notice the frame conform to the bracket as it should.

After the bracket is installed, I readied my 52" spring pack for installation. I found that after removing the factory bushing assembly, I required a spacer for my new Energy Suspension poly bushings to fit correctly. I found that 1 ¼" EMT conduit, has the exact thickness I needed to duplicate the factory bushing casing. I cut these to the width of the spring pack and pressed them into place.

The bushings were then installed by hand and pre-greased with chassis lube. Kert offers this bushing kit, but keep my EMT trick handy if you remove the factory bushing casing as I did. Checking dimensions, I noticed that the newly installed bushings were a press fit for the B-52 bracket. I decided to make a small bevel on the top edge of my front bushings – this made installation easy. With the springs complete, I was ready to install them.

I re-used my old spring eye hardware, as I had previously installed a greasable bushing kit. Install the front of the spring first and tighten – I chose the second hole from the front. Install the shackle bolt into the rear spring eye and tighten. Take a look at your rear shackle angle and adjust in the spring eye hole locations as required. You have four to choose from, plus the ability to move the bracket forward 1" from the factory location.

Once the spring is installed, you can now lower the chassis down onto the spring perch pin location, then install the u-bolt to factory specifications. With one side complete, you are ready to move to the other side. We completed both sides and took a measurement and noticed, I had dropped the truck 6"!!! I was completely happy with its new look.

No two frames are the same
This is a true statement. GM did not precisely mount their spring hangers from what I can tell. The holes in my frame were 3/16" higher on the driver’s side were than the passenger. I had to elongate the holes this difference in order to install the brackets. This is not a problem with the bracket, as they are fixture welded to remain perfectly symmetric. I had no problem with elongating the holes, as the bracket is triangulated and will not move once tightened down.

Overview
I am completely impressed with the ease of this installation. I spent more time cleaning up and painting springs and brackets, than it took for the actual installation. This B-52 kit saved me much heartache by being cheap, simple, yet versatile.

We backed the truck out of the shop and started throttling it around the parking lot. We immediately noticed the need for an anti wrap bar up front. When I rebuilt my spring pack, I only used 4 of the 6 leaves. When this happened, I took some rigidity out of the spring pack, making them wrap badly. I liked having the truck lower, so this is the decision I chose to stick with. I had Adamik Offroad fab and install a torque arm to alleviate the wrap problem.

At this time, we also chose to relocate all of the shock mounts on the front of the truck for more clearance, and complete use of the shock. I installed 10" travel Pro Comp MX6-R shocks set for 2" of up travel and 8" of down. We could max them in up and down travel. On the ramp, we noticed that my driveshaft was bottomed out at ride height. I had it shortened which turned out to be a mistake – read The Test below.

The buzz around the GM Community is that the 52’s would give me 4" of lift. With my four leaf pack, I had nearly a stock spring height. I still believe that more lift could be easily achieved by using replacement or re-arched factory rear springs to take the years of sag out of them. Plus, do not remove as many leaves as I did for desired results. With all of the driveway testing complete, we were ready to wheel.

The Test
We chose Flat Nasty off road park for a testing grounds at the aptly named Carnage Crawl

The very first thing I noticed off road is how close my high steer ram was to the oil pan and so on. I also had a driveshaft to exhaust system contact, which would later be fixed. We headed down trail 4, which is an intermediate creek trail with K5 sized holes dug into it for a washboard effect. This was full of good-sized boulders to climb over as we traversed the washboards. About 20 minutes into the trail, I heard a large bang. I climbed out to find the front driveshaft had pulled out its slip – meaning the truck had more down travel than the shaft could handle. We immediately limited the down travel of the passenger side to keep the shaft intact. The effort was futile, but a new long-slip shaft would be later installed. What did I find? These brackets could bash the rocks and did not bend at all. They had white rock rash all over them, but no apparent damage. The truck could flex way more than before, especially downward.

I later fixed these problems listed above, but not before destroying some hydro ram lines (pinched between engine cross member and ram).

The Bottom Line
Bottom line is – this kit works and works well. It worked too well for my first time out. I found that if I had done my homework prior to taking it to Missouri’s baddest park, we would have been fine. Even as low as my truck was and short amount of up-travel, it still cleared my Offroad Designs high steer kit and hydro assist. I would recommend modifying the engine cross member for higher clearance. I had a 2.5" drop draglink, which I later changed out for a straight. Basically, you will want to remove all of those lift associated items and bring all of your geometry closer to stock at ride height. This has been a great experience and I thank Kert Cohoon of DIY4X for letting me try out his product.

www.DIY4X.com