well I did suspension lift on my '97 f-150 about 3 months ago,and I was having no problems untill a month ago.There is this loud noise coming from my leaf springs(not a squeaking noise but a nasty creaking noise) so what did was get under my truck and re-thighten all the bolts thinking it will solve the problem.It did'nt do any good since the niose did not go away,if anybody has any suggestions that can help me on this problem I will appreciated a lot.

 

If it's in the springs, try spraying some White Lithium grease all over them and bounce it up and down as you're doing it. Eventually it will work in between the leaves and stop the creaking noise. WD-40 may work, too. IF that's what you're hearing? Good luck!

 

If it is a poping or creaking noise check the front bushing at the eyelet in the leaf spring, the rubber bushing itself is probably pushing out of the eyelet which will make the spring rub on the hanger, that's where you get the noise . dan

 

Make sure your back U-Bolts are tight and you have all the clips that hold the leaves in line. My 97 does it all the time. I just grease the leaves and tighten up. If it's severe I'd have it checked out, it's not worth taking chances.

 

heroes,

You're probably not going to like this, but here's my experience.
I've had my leaf springs replaced once at ~15,000 and have had squeaking since day one. Since then, I've tried to have them replaced within the warranty and they wouldn't. Now that I'm past the warranty, they will definitely not replace them unless I pay for it. The dealer has said its a design fault in the bushings and that they just plain wear out. There isn't a separate bushing they can simply replace, they have to replace the entire leaf spring. Since its a design fault, why doesn't Ford replace them for free!!?? The dealer couldn't answer that...despite the fact that I took the truck in before 36,000 miles to fix/replace everything before my warranty was up.

I found a TSB on the matter on www.nhtsa.gov but Ford says they didn't issue any of the TSBs that I've shown them.
They can re-grease the bushing, but thats only a short time fix.
There's other issues with my truck, but they're for another post.

Good luck.

 

Ford does make a replacement bushing for the rear leaf spring at least for the 2wd. it's F65Z5781AA for the front and BA for the rear the only thing I'm not sure about if is the Z is right or if it's supposed to be a 2. Dan

 

How did you lift the rear?

New springs?

Blocks?

Or add-a-leafs?


That makes a large difference in helping you solve this issue.

 

If your springs are stock (having lifted the truck some other way), Ford puts shipping straps on the rear leafs to prevent side-to-side movment in transport. Dealers are supposed to remove as part of PDI, but they didn't remove mine until I bitched about the noise.