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V-Code Leaf Spring Installation

From 2000 Ford Excursion “The Excursion” — documented by E. Long.

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2000 Ford Excursion - Ford SuperDuty V-Code Leaf Spring Installation on a 2000 Ford Excursion The Problem It's widely known that Excursions, while sharing a simi… 2000 Ford Excursion - IMPORTANT : Your front OEM u-bolts for your leaf springs may be different. I ordered replacement u-bolts from the Ford dealer and they were… 2000 Ford Excursion - SuperDuty V-Code Stamping: 3C34 ADA R 249 6 2000 Ford Excursion - SuperDuty V-Code Leaf Spring part number: 2C3Z-5310-HA 2000 Ford Excursion - Remove the lug-nut wrench from under the hood of your Excursion. We'll use the end with the rubber tip to remove the beauty cap on the fron… 2000 Ford Excursion - Pry off the lug nut wheel cover. 2000 Ford Excursion - A tire and a removed wheel hub are shown on a concrete floor. 2000 Ford Excursion - Before jacking up the front end, I measured the height from the ground to the top of the wheel well. You may want to do this too so you can… 2000 Ford Excursion - This install covers the passenger side leaf spring. When jacking up the passenger side, position your floor jack like I did in the above pi… 2000 Ford Excursion - Since we'll need to jack the truck up and lower the front end, I jacked the front end under the axle tube as high as my floor jack would go… 2000 Ford Excursion - With the vehicle secured on jack stands and your floor jack still maxed out under the front axle, now it's time to remove the wheel. Tools… 2000 Ford Excursion - With the wheel removed, we can now remove the lower shock bolt. We need to disconnect the shock so we don't over-extend it when we drop the… 2000 Ford Excursion - With the lower shock bolt removed, you can compress the shock as much as possible to get it out of your way for the rest of the project. Yo… 2000 Ford Excursion - With the shock disconnected, we can now remove the nuts on the u-bolts. My u-bolts actually turned out to be in great shape so I decided to… 2000 Ford Excursion - All 4 u-bolt nuts removed. 2000 Ford Excursion - Slide the u-bolts out from the top. They pull out quite easily. 2000 Ford Excursion - All 4 u-bolts removed. Notice the round mark on the bump-stop from the rubber stopper. This is from constant bottoming-out of the suspensio… 2000 Ford Excursion - Lift the bump-stop off of the leaf spring. 2000 Ford Excursion - Here are the new u-bolts (left) and my original u-bolt (right). Notice how my original u-bolt is more of a "rounded square" than a square.… 2000 Ford Excursion - Unfortunately, the front leaf spring eye-bolts are not easy to get to, so you have to remove the corner bumper supports. Tools Needed: 13mm… 2000 Ford Excursion - There are three 13mm bolts holding the bracket in place. Using an impact wrench makes easy work of the bottom two. 2000 Ford Excursion - The top 13mm bolt for the bumper corner support bracket is in a tight spot. You'll have to resort to a 3/8" ratchet to access this one. Too… 2000 Ford Excursion - Next up, remove the nut from the rear eye-bolt of the leaf spring. Simply punch the bolt through the hole with a hammer. Make sure not to c… 2000 Ford Excursion - Prepare to spend a lot of time on this step. As you can see, I pulled out the Bernz-O-Matic propane torch for the step and headed up the nu… 2000 Ford Excursion - I couldn't fit my impact wrench in this space so I had to resort to using a 1/2" ratchet on the bolt head and a 1/2" breaker bar on the nut… 2000 Ford Excursion - Success! Before you go pounding this bolt out, you'll need to remove a support bracket on the front of the radiator for the trans cooler. P… 2000 Ford Excursion - This photo is actually from the driver's side -- but it applies to the passenger side leaf spring eye-bolt as well. This bolt runs into a s… 2000 Ford Excursion - Fortunately for us, this bracket is simple to remove with a 3/8" ratchet and an 8mm socket. It's somewhat hidden behind the rubber radiator… 2000 Ford Excursion - With the support bracket from the previous step out of the way, you can now punch the eye-bolt out from the front of the leaf spring. Use a… 2000 Ford Excursion - Before we drop the front axle, we must disconnect the way bar. If we don't, the sway bar will prevent the front axle from dropping all the… 2000 Ford Excursion - With the sway bar disconnected from this side of the front axle, the axle can now have full range of motion. 2000 Ford Excursion - Now it's time to lower your floor jack. Keep lowering it until the axle separates from the leaf spring. The leaf spring has a short stud th… 2000 Ford Excursion - The blocker beam on the front of the Excursion was blocking my ability to drop the leaf spring completely out from the front end. So, I rem… 2000 Ford Excursion - Position 2 jack stands under the blocker beam so it doesn't crash to the ground when you unbolt it. Tools Needed: (2) jack stands 2000 Ford Excursion - Unbolt the nuts from the 3 bolts on each side of the blocker beam. Tools Needed: 21mm deep socket 1/2" impact wrench 2000 Ford Excursion - With the 5 bolts removed from each side, you can separate the blocker beam and facia from the front bumper. The rusty bracket will still be… 2000 Ford Excursion - Lift the blocker beam bracket out of the holes in the blocker beam. 2000 Ford Excursion - The coast is finally clear to remove the leaf spring. You can use your 3-lb hammer to knock it out of the spring hangers. The leaf spring i… 2000 Ford Excursion - New leaf spring (left) and old leaf spring (right). 2000 Ford Excursion - New leaf spring (bottom) and old leaf spring (top). There doesn't appear to be a significant difference when compared side-by-side (other t… 2000 Ford Excursion - Reinsert the eye bolt in the front of the leaf spring first (save the rear bolt for the next step for easier installation). The front sprin… 2000 Ford Excursion - The shackle won't initially line up with the leaf spring. No problem, proceed to the next step. 2000 Ford Excursion - Sorry to switch angles -- this is from the driver's side, but it still applies to the passenger side leaf spring, too. Using a c-clamp make… 2000 Ford Excursion - Reinsert the rear bolt and tighten. Tools Needed: 24mm socket (nut) 21mm socket (bolt head) 1/2" ratchet or breaker bar 1/2" impact wrench 2000 Ford Excursion - I also wanted to show this bolt from the driver's side angle as well. You may run into the issue where the front driveshaft interferes with… 2000 Ford Excursion - Jack the front axle back up with your floor jack. Hopefully the stud in the new leaf spring will align with the notch on the leaf spring pe… 2000 Ford Excursion - Reinstall the bump-stop/u-bolt plate. The notch in the bump-stop lines up with the nut on top of the leaf spring. 2000 Ford Excursion - Reinstall the u-bolts and tighten with the new nuts (discard the old nuts). Hand-tighten at first, ensuring each nut is threaded evenly, th… 2000 Ford Excursion - Re-attach shock with lower shock bolt. Tools Needed: 21mm socket (for bolt) 15mm socket (for nut) 1/2" ratchet 1/2" impact wrench 2000 Ford Excursion - The completed install! There's actually room for spring travel again. Conclusion This project was painfully drawn-out as I struggled with s…