Why rears up front?

[eightyfive]

ok, i am almost done making my pack.

1st tuff country main
2nd stock rear mil wrap
3rd stock rear 3rd leaf
4th stock rear 4th leaf
5th long half of stock rear main
6th short half of stock rear main

im just have problems drilling the holes! FREAKIN SPRINGS ARE HARD! what kind of drill bits do i need?

[whiteman]

A really whole bunch of a lot of good ones 

[crapyota]

i used 85 rear leaves 2 sets just added mainleaf from second set seems to be working and i definatly like my aproach angle alot more since the rears moved my front forward and my homemade hanger my front ended up moved 3inches forward. i have more pics in my build up thread.

[eightyfive]

how are you using push pull with rears up front?

[yotaboy79]

thats not push pull thats hillbilly cross over

[eightyfive]

oh, i see now. should of looked closer..

[crapyota]

yes its the we dont talk about it  crossover!! until i can save up for the hy steer. got to get shocks and gears first. made a complete extra steering set up for trail repair if needed. i know its frowned upon but when you on tight budget you gotta do what you can so i can

[yotaboy79]

hey for trail only its not that bad a buddy has run that set up for atleast a year of hard wheelin with no problems except a few bent and even torn tie rods because it hangs below the springs but its gotten realy sloppy and it is not road worthy at all any more

[crapyota]

it should last and i got extra iam happy with the rears up front though . mails here i can go know and get shocks post up pics on my build in a couple days

[eightyfive]

finished installing the springs...

im going to need to pull a leaf, its a pretty stiff ride.

the lift nicely matches my rear lift though.

the problem: which leaf do i pull to soften the ride?

[Azo]

ok let me cut to the chase... rear springs is the cheapest way to get some lift and crazy flex in the front. my question is

1) do you have to get a longer drive shaft?
2) how much lift does it give? (will it clear 36's)
3) what would be a good matching set of springs for the rear? thinking about marlins but dont know what size.

sorry if this has been covered before.

[yotaboy79]

longer drive shaft = yes you will also need longer splines or it will separate just lenghtening the shaft is not enouph thats why alot of people build square tube front shafts

lift= depends on how you build the springs im clearing 36's with mine

rear springs= a modified set of ranger springs would do good

[Azo]

how did you set up your springs? did you just throw them in? or did you mix and match them?

[yotaboy79]

the main leaf is a stock 2wd toyota rear spring next its a cut down main leaf from a waganeer front pack then the remaining leafs from the waggy pack mixed in where they would fit and cut down as needed im realy happy with the resaults
heres a pic

[Azo]

looks good. what does the waggy springs do? is it just to make it stiffer for the ride hight? and why a 2wd? is it any different then a 4wd?

[yotaboy79]

i just used what i had laying around doesnt matter 2wd or 4wd the 4wd will have more leafs to work with

[BMFN_TOY]

yeah 9 leafs per pack.. i could actually add 1 more leaf to stiffen it up just a hair because its just a weeeee bit to soft for rompin in the snow..  either that or the rearend is to stiff.. i havent figured it out just yet..


but yeah  i dont really believe in the springs most suppliers sell  because every truck is different..  different weights in bumpers, shackle lengths, tire/wheel combos everything !  i mean yea they are good for the majority of people  but if you want the best preformance for your truck.. gotta build them or have someone build them for you.

Just out of curiousity, what springs did you mix in with your 51" rears? Also, can you post a pic of your shackle setup?

Thanks
Jeff

[Siringo]

I did a rears up front swap one weekend when I had nothing better to do.

Here's what I did, rightly or wrongly and what I found. By the way when I did the initial install I used all stock bits and pieces.

1 - The rears moved front axle forward 1.5 - 2 inches forward which was great coz I was hitting the rear of the front fender with band new tyres. So that fixed that problem.

2 - I had had an aftermarket set of springs up front which gave me an extra 2" of lift, after installing the rears up front I got an extra 1.5 inches of lift on top of that, so that's neat.

Now the problems started and I have to agree with what others have said, each truck is different, this is what I found.

3 - The front drive shaft wouldn't engage at all, wouldn't even sit in loosely, just fell straight out.

4 - Brake lines were stretched out completely, I wasn't game to lift a wheel on a gutter in case they broke

5 - Steering was totally out of whack by 180 degrees, couldn't hardly turn right.

6 - Front shackles were pushed right back hard up against the chassis due to the rears being longer.

I've only been able to take her up the road for a test run on the flat, but I can already tell I've got heaps more flex.

So what have I done so far?

1a - Built my own front square drive shaft to fix point 3. It wasn't too hard.
2a - Ordered longer brake lines to fix point 4.
3a - Bought a 2nd hand drop drag link to fix 5. Never fiddled with one of these before, but it was so easy to fit and adjust.
4a - Built my own boomerang shackles to fix 6. Didn't gain any extra height with these though, they just flattened out the springs. But it got rid of the shackles/chassis problem.

So the problems are listed and fixes mentioned. So from here I'm..

1b - Getting new shocks coz my old shocks were almost maxxed out just sitting on flat ground.
2b - Fitting shock hoops so I can take advantage of the flexxy rears up front
3b - Looking at upgrading the steering as I don't think the stock steering will last too long.

Oh I forgot. Here's what I did with my rears. I don't have a flip kit on the front and the drag link comes ridiculously close to the U bolts and springs so I am really limited to how many leaves I can put in the pack. So all I did was keep the largest 4 springs as they are, remove the 2nd smallest spring and re-insert the overload spring, but put it in backwards.

Why backwards I hear you ask? Two reasons, the first is, that aftermarket set of springs I mentioned sank down around the spring perch and it sand down more over the front of it than the back of it. This made me think that maybe there is more weight over the front of the axle than the rear, so by putting the OL in backwards it MAY help?? The other reason was, why not!

I'm going to play with this pack anyway and see what I end up with as soon as I get it all back on the road.

HTH.

[yotaboy79]

your definetly going to need to switch to a crossover or  hysteer system and carry and extra stock j arm untell then cuz it will break sooner or later

[Marc P]

I found some HD leaves on the back of a 82 2wd pickup with ladder rack and shell.

I took the over load out and added 2 yj leaves in its place...Hoping they will work well on the front of my 95 runner.

Before


After