Switched builds... traded for a '85 4runner

[81yotalove]

Right now my current setup allows me to drive up something that is 24 inches tall and still have all other wheels on the ground. Front setup is crurrently stock hanger, stock shackles, 3 inch front downey's that were used and worn in. As stated in the post above I only got about two inches. I have some cheap white shocks that were given to me, about 9 inch travel in the stock toyota mounts. I have not altered bumpstop or steering yet. When the shock bottoms the springs are slightly negative and tire is in firewall. I can use the rest of the shock when suspension droops. Rear setup is comppletely stock even down to the shock mounts. The stock shocks limit my down travel and tire rubbing the frame limits one more inch of up travel. However i will be changing suspension, shocks and mounting points, and steering soon.

I like medicdb's rig also. it seems to work awewsome in slow stuff. Although lack of suspenion travel would not work to my benefit in desert terrain. im sure that pure rock crawlers with like no up travel and all droop would be fine.

i was initally going to use some 4 inch springs but now i know that it would have been to high. i really like these downey's. They flex good and dont allow for a lot of break dive. i just dont know how im going to move my front axle forward and still use them without swapping out the main leafs for toyota rear mains. i need the extra spring length for a good shackle angle.

[CSR73]

Too bad Downey went out.  Nobody offers anything less than 4", that I've found.  I'm hoping a homebuilt pack of leaves with a mix of front and rears will yield a 2" gain in height and the inch or so forward placement that I'm looking for. 

If I had your Downey's, I'd probably just drill perches and plates back a lil' bit and not mess with hangers and shackles.  Running rear main leaves as flat as I'm planning will push my shackle way back if I don't move the front hangers.  May have to fab my own hanger to move the front mount forward but keep the amount of drop to a minumum.  Then I'll need to drill my perches to keep the axle from being 2.5" forward.... 

[81yotalove]

are you planing on running highsteer? two inch lift wont give you a lot of uptravel before hitting bumpstops before you smash your oil pan unless you do what medic did.

I really want to keep my downey's so my first try to get my tires out of my firewall will be drilling the perchs. and i will place the ifs box forward far enough if i do end up doing hanger and ruf later if that makes sense. i really do not want to tub though so bfh will help some with that problem.

here is some other pictures of my profile picture. i was checking all the clearances.


tire well into the firewall, front shocks bottomed.

front droop. this is what i had to flex on. no forklifts lol. the stump is 18inches and the beam is a 6x6 i can get to the end.

just an idea of my current setup and what im working with. if i can get rid of the rubbing and longer shocks. i think i can get 30 inches. which will be plenty.

[4x4yota]

mine flexes great with stock suspension, shackles and steering just did longer shocks and a 3/8" axle relocation plate from sky moving my axle 3/4" forward and it sits level

[wakkjobb]

    Yay, stock flex!!! 





>>Dan

[CSR73]

I had planned to try hi-steer.  Already have the IFS box.

Chop the oil pan or chop the tie rod?  2" uptravel should be all I need... 'cause that's what I'm accustomed to having (if that) with my negatively arched stock springs!  Probably will run push/pull 'til it limits me or breaks.  But x-over with 2" minumum is what I think I can live with.  I think I can make it work.

are you planing on running highsteer? two inch lift wont give you a lot of uptravel before hitting bumpstops before you smash your oil pan unless you do what medic did.

I really want to keep my downey's so my first try to get my tires out of my firewall will be drilling the perchs. and i will place the ifs box forward far enough if i do end up doing hanger and ruf later if that makes sense. i really do not want to tub though so bfh will help some with that problem.

here is some other pictures of my profile picture. i was checking all the clearances.


tire well into the firewall, front shocks bottomed.

front droop. this is what i had to flex on. no forklifts lol. the stump is 18inches and the beam is a 6x6 i can get to the end.

just an idea of my current setup and what im working with. if i can get rid of the rubbing and longer shocks. i think i can get 30 inches. which will be plenty.

[CSR73]

Not bad for a stock truck!    Level, right now, is all I want.  Will see how the cut down 2nd leaf changed the ride height.  I have a pair of brand new white shocks that came with a WJ 2" lift I did a while back.... look like they'll give me a lil' more downtravel.

mine flexes great with stock suspension, shackles and steering just did longer shocks and a 3/8" axle relocation plate from sky moving my axle 3/4" forward and it sits level

[81yotalove]

with longer shocks the stock leafs will flex more for sure. my thing wtih the fron not being lifted some was the bottoming out on bumps. i had like 1.5 between bumps to frame and it was a rough ride. my downey's ride so much nicer and doesn't bottom out.

ride height next to my dad's fj60


nice stock flex 4x4yota. are you clearing your 33's full stuff and lock to lock steering just 3/4 inch forward?

[4x4yota]

it clears great no problem and i do wish it didnt bottom out so easy but I found running a firmer shock helps prevent that but now I want to run high steer cuz now my stock steering is my limiting factor

[CSR73]

ride height next to my dad's fj60

Looks good!  I love the stance! 

Another thing I've thought about doing is a dropped front hanger a 5" shackle.  I've seen that done with stock springs and hi-steer.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=915054&highlight=ol+blue  2nd page, post #35 shows oil pan clearance.

[4x4yota]

yeah Ive been watching that build too but rather than doing the 2wd oil pan I thought about raising my motor up 1" to help clear... just a thought...

[81yotalove]

csr: thanks for the complement on the stance. i think it looks really nice. once the f 150's are in the back it should level out and have more droop.

i have read some of that build before. pirate has a lot of cool stuff with a lot of junk too lol. post 35 does show room at ride height but it only looks like he has two inch of up travel before they will contact the oil pan. i went and measured my up travel although i dont have hysteer yet at the moment i have 4-5 inches. once hysteer i'll lose an inc im guessingh. i have been thinking of the drop hanger. but the way i see it if im going to go through the trouble of doing it i might as well move it an inch forward while im at it and run rears for the extra travel, length for the shackle angle, firewall clearance, approach angle and extra wheelbase.

im totally for keeping it low. but sacrifcing up travel and suspension function isn't worth it to me. the ride is so much nicer with more up travel. if i end up 24inch to the frame with my 35's but have more travel im for it. 1983 hilux on the board is local to me and i have been in and drove his truck with 35's and 26 inch to frame on 5 inch allpro's front and rear and the suspension functions beautiful. but it just a bit to high for me. im shooting for 23-24 frame ride height after spring swaps and everything.

4x4yota now that you bring up that the steering limits you has me thinking. im going to flex it again with my passenger rear up so my passenger front droops and see if i get more travel because the stock draglink limiting it.

[4x4yota]

if your going for a 23-24" frame height and 1983-hilux has 26 w/5" springs then go with 3" trail-gear springs and run factory hangers and a 4.5-5" shackle snd that should put you at about 23-24" frame height ...maybe?...

and as far as the drag link limiting me Im not running a track bar up front and it all depends on where I steering when flexing cuz that all factors in ho close the drag link is to the axle andreall limitsmy steering at full drop and makes turn a pain its no prob when just flexing and posing but when out in the hills its a problem

[CSR73]

Finished up adding a leaf to the negative arched front leaf pack this morning (a cut down leaf, 2nd down from top of a donor pack).  Gained about an inch of lift.  I have close to 2" uptravel before the bumpstops hit now!



This is a pair of shocks I had in the shop.  14" compressed... I needed 13.5" minimum while compressed.  They will work for now.  The good thing is they're over 20" extended, compared to the 17" extended Toyota shocks that came on the truck.  Looks like I gained an inch of droop at the shock (18") while flexed up on the hill next to work.

[4x4yota]

looks great keep the ball rolling its giving me motivation to keep mine going

[CSR73]

looks great keep the ball rolling its giving me motivation to keep mine going

I'm trying!  

The added inch or so or uptravel improved the ride on the rough roads leading to my house.  A few of the rough bridges around here would bounce me all around the cab before.  Much better now that the axle is not riding on the bumpstops.

When I started this truck 5 months ago, we were having heat indexes of 114*-117*.... this morning was 19* actual temp, the wind chill made it feel a lot colder.  Gotta love Tennessee weather!

[81yotalove]

nice to see you got some work done. i almost replied earlier asking if you added leafs to the front yet and i was thinking about your idea of the drop hanger and longer shackles. mix in some toy rears to the stock front pack and drill perches an inch back would give you more up travel and room for hysteer without to much lift. just an idea. ive been thinking of doing a drop hanger, 5 inch shackles(have them already) and my downey's with perches drilled for firewall clearance.

[CSR73]

ive been thinking of doing a drop hanger, 5 inch shackles(have them already) and my downey's with perches drilled for firewall clearance.

Sounds good.  Plenty of room for hysteer but still a fairly low ride height.  If you go with one of the pre-fabbed SAS hangers, I think they'll drop the forward eye of the spring ~1/2-3/4" (IIRC, It's been a while since I changed hangers on a SFA truck).  They can be flipped around to keep the spring eye from moving forward of the factory location.  That wouldn't mess up your shackle angle with a stock length spring.  If you're drilling perches to move the axle and not worried about moving the spring.  The 5" shackle will drop the rear eye 1-1/4" over a stock shackle.  3/4 + 1-1/4 = 1" gain.  The pinion will be rotated down a lil' bit.

[CSR73]

Argh!  Gotta drop my fuel tank and clean it out.  The fuel filter decides to get blocked up with rust and junk at the worst times.  Today at one of the busiest intersections in town.  The other time this happened a month or 2 back, I was at the same intersection!  Got out and pushed the truck thru 3 lanes of backed up traffic into a parking lot.

I have a few things I want to do while the tank is out.  Notch the "horsecollar" so I can raise the drivetrain for a completely flat belly, and maybe go ahead and fab and weld a couple of frenched hangers for F150 springs.  I don't have the springs yet, but know the specs.  I think when ran reversed, the eye is 11" forward, like 63" Chevies.  I want them 9" forward so I can use the original Toyota shackle mount at the rear eye, and drill the perches 2" forward (if there's room, haven't checked that yet).

[81yotalove]

i think you can drill an inch forward but from what i understand the f150's have a lot of spring wrap mounted backwards thats why i was going to mount mine short side forward. plus im going to french it in a little to keep it low. just a though i'll post up a picture of what i mean.

[CSR73]

Yeah, after I posted that I got to thinking about an axle perch.... maybe 3.5-4" long... couldn't redrill 2" forward.

F-one-fiddy's couldn't wrap and wheel hop worse than my stockers!  I didn't built an anti-wrap bar with my last Toyota on 63" Chevies... didn't need to.  I made one for my old Samurai with 2" wide CJ fronts in the rear.  Made a world of difference.  Already thinking I need to build one for this 'yota.  Especially if I go with reversed 2WD F150 leaves.  Gotta have the long side to the front with my bed and frame bob.  Thinking I won't create a rock anchor if I french-in the hangers, and shouldn't gain too much lift.  Just want to equal the 2" or so lift I expect to gain from a hybrid RUF pack.

[81yotalove]

i forgot you were bobed. the f 150's will be the way to go and long side forward. i dont plan to bob mine its a short bed and i need all the bed for camping. after i do my rear im going to try out a 6 leaf ruf pack and see how i like then maybe try to get my downey's to work if i dont. make a hybrid pack with rears on top and downey's on bottom. pretty much standard builds on toys ruf and chevys/fords lol.

[CSR73]

pretty much standard builds on toys ruf and chevys/fords lol.

I didn't set out to build another typical "cookie cutter" Toyota... but sometimes you just gotta go with what works and is readily available!

[81yotalove]

i wasn't trying to criticize, im doing the same thing. i was just saying that ruf and chevy/ford are common. why spend a lot on springs when these are proven combos like you said. thats the way i looked at it. sorry if you took that the wrong way.

[CSR73]

i wasn't trying to criticize, im doing the same thing. i was just saying that ruf and chevy/ford are common. why spend a lot on springs when these are proven combos like you said. thats the way i looked at it. sorry if you took that the wrong way.

No offense taken, at all!  Sometimes you realize, as much as you would like to do things your way, different from the rest... the path of least resistance is to just do what's tried and true!  We can still make a RUF our own, with our own combo of leaves, etc.  I have searched and came up with a good combo for my rig, i think.  I don't want to hack up a perfectly good hysteer tierod, or swap a 2wd pan, just to go lower.  With the right bumpstops and plenty of droop, I can do what I want to do with 3" lift maximum, with 36"+ tires. 

That won't happen 'til my bank acct gets over Xmas for a wife and 4 kids.... lol!  That reminds me.... need to check my lotto numbers!!! 

[CSR73]

Finally got around to pressing bearings onto my spool this morning.  May try to get it put in today.

[Peterbuilt84]

First gen is coming along nice, cool build

[CSR73]

First gen is coming along nice, cool build

Thanks! 

Rear axle is all spooled up!  Just got back from a test run.  In tight turns, the inside tire scoots along nicely with 35 psi.

[4x4yota]

let me know how that spool install goes I want to try and do one my self one day

[CSR73]

let me know how that spool install goes I want to try and do one my self one day

It's locked!  One solid axle across the back with no differential action whatsoever!

Not too complicated.  Just be sure to use locktite when you put it back together.  I learned that lesson after installing a Detroit EZ-Locker in a Samurai years ago.  The carrier bearing caps worked loose.

Backlash you'll be able to set 'by feel'.  When you pull the 3rd out, hold the pinion and rock the ring gear back and forth.  Put it back together to that same amount of slack.  I think it should be around .006", if you have access to a dial indicator.  Bearing caps.... an old timer told me once to go one hole past finger tight.  I'm sure there's an inch pound number out there if you search around.  I also reused the tabs that bend over against the ring gear bolts, a little extra security against bolts backing out.