I have a 1978 Dodoge Little Red Express Truck that I am converting to a 4X4

I purchased a 1977 Dodge W100 short bed as a donor truck and it had 6" high lift blocks under the rear suspension that I ASSUMED were after market. As we were doing the body swap I removed these blocks and now have found that the rear of the truck sits 6" lower than the front of the truck. It APPEARS that the front suspension of this donor chassis is stock suspension.

I am about ready to reinstall these lift blocks but wanted to see if anyone knew anything about this situation and if indeed these are factory items. If not I guess I need to know what could possibly be the problem here.
Thanks in advance.

Darryl

from the factory dodge 4x4 trucks had a 3-4" block in the rear. If the truck had a lift kit put on it afterwards then there will probably be 2 blocks in the rear unless someone spent big money to do a skyjacker rear leaf lift on it...

Wait a minute, are you saying that the dodge power wagons had a factory lift to them? Was it just the machos?

all powerwagons!

Cool, now excuse my questions, but were lift blocks common from factories in that era? Did Dodge offer the largest lift blocks? And do factories still install lift blocks in the trucks made now-a-days? One more thing, the original center caps for the wagon wheels were plastic, right?

some of the other MFGs did, and some did not use them. some of the dodges have blocks still in use to this day....
yes, original caps are plastic

My old '83 Ramcharger has lift blocks in the rear as well. IIRC, this was the manufacturer's way of saving money because they used the same leaf springs for both the 2wd and 4wd trucks. Also, the flatter spring rides better than a deeply arched spring.

If you are going to wheel the truck hard, I'd suggest losing the blocks and installing longer leafs in the rear. The blocks contribute to axle wrap under hard acceleration and just look cheesy IMO.

One thing I found interesting about the old-school solid-axle desert racers like Rod Hall's Class 4 Dodge is that he ran with the springs mounted UNDER the axles both front and rear. I am told that this gave him a better ride and helped control the axle wrap.

As you know I sold these things NEW we received one & only one from Dodge w/ lift blocks in it. This W200 Custom had been used @ MN state Fair for display purposes but it came to us w/ a lift in it!