'84 SR5 Pickup 20/22R Hybrid Project

[Cheesemaker]

Those beds on the 2nd gens are horrible.  The seam is the killer of them.  Especially in our wetter environments.

FYI, a 3rd gen bed fits perfectly on there. 

[Plainview]

Hmmm, that's interesting.  I wonder how well it fits the body/character of the cab though?

I do have a rust-free bed in storage.  I plan to strip it completely down and do whatever I can to ensure it won't rust at the seams.  This may include drilling out the factory spot welds, treating the metal, then welding it all back together.  I'll need to talk to some good body men to see what the best way to deal with the situation is, but that's down the road a ways.

Suspension and H4 headlight conversion up next.  After that I'll probably get a header because I think the stock manifold is choking this engine at higher RPMs.

[Cheesemaker]

Here is my 87 truck with a 89 bed.  Remember the 2nd gen and 3rd gen frames are identical. 
http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=32961.msg481584#msg481584

The 3rd gen bed is slightly wider in the belly, by maybe 3/8" on both sides.  But its barely noticeable.  Most people don't realize they are two different models, because the body lines match fairly well. 

I love the body of the 2nd gen.  But I hated the 2nd gen bed, because they rusted out big time along the seam, and crap would get in behind the panels in the bed.  I love the 3rd gen bed better over the two.  This is how I got my truck because the 87 had a service body on it, and the owner kept that, and put it on their 89 extra cab, and put the box on the 87. 

[Plainview]

Huh.  That's pretty cool, I had no idea and it's definitely one of those things that if you weren't looking for it or knew what you were looking at, you probably wouldn't even notice.

Thanks for the info!

[Plainview]

This weekend was supposed to be suspension weekend.  Things didn't quite work out as planned.

First thing that happened was that the shackles, bushings, bump stops and brake lines didn't arrive until Saturday afternoon.  "No problem" I thought to myself, "leaf springs are easy."  Ha!

For reference, I went out and measured my current ride height so I'll have some frame of reference as to what this all accomplishes.  Since I don't know the official measuring points I just chose 4 arbitrary points that made sense to me.

The bottom of the body seam in front (this is the driver's side):



And the bottom of the body itself in the back, just at the front of the wheel opening (also driver's side):


Measurements on the passenger side were slightly different.  1/2" higher at the front and 1/2" lower at the rear.

Then I unboxed everything and laid it all out on the floor.



I put each bushing in the place where it should go.... See anything wrong with that picture?  Yep, short 4 bushings.  To top that off, 4 of the bushings I received are the wrong size, so essentially I got shorted 8 bushings.

Okay, I can still get the rear springs in and I'll do the fronts later when I get the missing bushings.... (ha!)

But, before I begin I need to remove the extra leaf from each spring pack.  This was actually really easy, and about the only thing I got done today.

Upon disassembly of the spring packs I noticed that the friction pads as shipped from OME had hardly any lube.  One or two were almost completely dry (worse than this one).  So, I busted out the tube of moly grease and proceeded to slather it all along the length of each leaf.  Hey, if a little is good, more is better, right?



Here's one of the fronts being reassembled:



Now to get to work.  Put the truck up on jack stands in the rear with a jack under the pumpkin and get busy with the breaker bar and some 18mm and 19mm sockets.  Everything came apart fine (I hosed everything down with aerokroil yesterday afternoon) except for the front hanger bolts.  The nuts came off but darned if I could get the bolts out of the brackets & spring.  Over the last 31 years the bolt and the steel sleeve in the bushing have become one.  The sleeve and bolt turn in the bushing but the bolt will not slide out.  On the driver's side there's room to swing a hammer and all that did was bend the hanger, so I stopped.

The sleeve and bolt are hardened steel and even though I knew it was futile, I went at it with the sawzall anyway.  Two ruined blades later I succumbed to the futility of it all.  I can borrow a portaband from work tomorrow and that will take care of the driver's side.  The passenger side may still present a problem.  I can get the portaband blade up in there on the outboard side but the gas tank is in the way on the inboard side.  The tank is full and I REALLY don't want to have to drop the tank again.  Guess I'll see how it goes once I get the portaband.

Another thing I'm going to have to figure out is what to do about the bump stops.  I ordered the Rancho XL9000 shocks for a 3" lift since I'll be pretty close to that with the 5" shackles adding a little height.  Those shocks need a 2" taller bump stop to prevent them from bottoming on full suspension compression, so I ordered extended bump stops and this is what I got:



Obviously they don't fit.  I'm hoping I can modify them to make them work by cutting the urethane and the metal base plate approximately as marked.  I'm open to better ideas...

So for now the truck sits on jack stands with the rear axle supported on a couple milk crates until I can get those front bolts out, and hopefully I can get the bushings I need to do the fronts ASAP as I won't have time to work on it this next weekend.

[79coyotefrg]

  why are you removing a leaf from the packs???

[Plainview]

http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=98858.0

I ordered the heavy duty springs in case I need the extra spring rate down the road.  Price increase over medium/light springs was less than ordering an extra leaf later would be...

[79coyotefrg]

ok, i see that now, but rancho shocks are known for riding rough.  I run Bilstiens but if you put those 9000's on the softest setting you should be fine.

[Plainview]

Another "probably shoulda got those instead" are the OME shocks.  People were ragging on them for being expensive so I figured they must be outrageous but I actually could have got them for less than what I paid for the Ranchos.

Oh well, no point in second guessing before I've installed and driven on them.

[Plainview]

Victory is mine!  It's all just a matter of having the right tools.

I borrowed a portaband from work today and it made short work of the sleeve and bolt in both springs without any damage to the hanger.  I really need one of these in my collection since the sawzall can't do it all.



Here's a side-by-side of a grungy old stock spring next to a nifty new OME.  I didn't have the time or energy to install them tonight, but will get them in this week. 



Replacement bushings for the ones the vendor didn't send are on their way via Fedex and should be here Wednesday.

[4xChinook4]

Excited  to see the new ride height.  Hope it's not too stiff. And I noticed you are a bit of a hoarder of cranks?? Haha are those all toyota ?

[Plainview]

I got the rear springs in tonight but didn't get the shocks or brake line in yet.  I ended up drilling out the holes in the front hangers to accommodate the much thicker greasable bolts from Marlin.  I see now why people are saying these springs are too short -the shackle angle is poo.

I jumped up and down on the rear bumper and it flexed really smoothly, and quite a bit at that so maybe the shackle angle won't kill me and the springs definitely are not too stiff.  I was worried about pushing the rear axle back as the later model springs have more length in front of the axle which is why I didn't order them.  I may end up having the shackle hangers relocated but will drive it as-is for awhile and see what happens.  Lots of people have installed OME springs and said they ride great and they must all have this same issue, so maybe it's not so bad...

Somehow the fact that I didn't order bolts for the fronts of the springs completely got by me 'til I started installing the springs and I ran out of the shorter bolts for the rears (using two of the longer front bolts temporarily).  Guess I'll be calling Marlin again tomorrow.

the ride height went up a bunch!  More than I expected.  I'll wait 'til I get the fronts installed to take pictures but it looks like I got at least 3" out back.  I wonder how much it will settle?

I'm going to have to get creative about mounting the big bump-stops too as cutting them like I planned won't work due to the shape of the metal embedded in them.  It's not flat across the bottom like I thought it was.

The cranks are all Pontiac.  There's 4 350/400 cranks, 1 428 crank and one 455. See the post further up-thread with all the stuff laid out on the floor and you can see a complete Pontiac engine and a couple blocks in the background.  I have 3 bare 400 blocks, a 455 block, and a complete (running when pulled) 350 socked away.  I also have a '72 Formula 400 Firebird with a running 455 in it and a '73 Firebird rolling shell.  If those engines weren't so big and heavy (bigger than a small block Chevy, but not as big as a big block) I might consider putting one in this truck!

[Plainview]

 

The rear shocks are too freakin' short!  They sent me the Rancho RS9144 which is for 2" lift even though I ordered the CS010R springs which supposedly give 2.25" lift from the same company and told them I'd be running longer than stock shackles which would add to that.

Right now I'm actually over 3" lift out back without the front springs installed yet, which is kind of surprising.  With the shackles almost vertical (they're real close right now) a 5" shackle should only add a little less than .75" to the ride height (assuming stock shackles are 3.5") for a total of not more than 3" with those springs.  right now, without the front springs installed, I'm measuring right about 3.5" lift!  (just under 25.5" to the spot I measured before).

I even removed one leaf from the pack, which should lower the ride height the thickness of the leaf (about 3/16") plus a little for the reduced load capacity of the spring.

Of course I put the boots on while wearing dirty gloves and greased up the bushings before realizing they were too short so doubt I can even send them back now.  My bad for not checking the part number and actual length before trying to install them... dang that pisses me off.

Looks like I need the RS99143 which is for 4" lift provided those won't be too long once the spring settles and won't give problems when the truck is loaded down.  Rancho doesn't have a 3" lift offering.

At least they got the front shocks right (provided the springs don't give too much more than the advertised 2" lift in front).  I have the RS99115 for the front, which is for 3" lift.  With the OME 2" springs and Marlin 5" shackles up front I'm REALLY hoping it doesn't go over 3"...

I'm also really hoping these springs settle a fair amount.  I didn't want to go over 3" lift and would prefer to be closer to 2.5"...

How does a 2.25" lift spring minus one leaf plus a 5" shackle end up giving 3.5" lift???

Edit...  Yah, I'm really tired today and not thinking clearly - the 217K mile OE springs were worn out and sagging, duh.

[Plainview]

If it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any at all.  Do other people have these kinds of problems?

The company that sent the shocks is saying they'll work with me on replacements.  I cleaned them with a rag soaked with brake cleaner and they look fine now so I'm hoping they'll just do a direct exchange for the Rancho RS99143 which is for 4" lift applications.  Those should be fine with the tall bump stops (which I still haven't mounted but I have some ideas).

OTOH, the company that sent me the shackle and bushing kits keeps getting things wrong.  First they shorted me 8 bushings.  They sent the right bushings and they're here so that's taken care of.  Then, when I realized I didn't order bolts for the front of the springs I called and ordered them and had them send Fedex overnight.  They sent them to my old address!  I can't figure out how that happened, I've ordered a bunch of stuff from them in the last month and it's all come to the right address, but this overnight shipment of two bolts got sent to an address I haven't lived at in over a year.  Fortunately it's only ~10 minutes from where I'm living now so I drove out there and the people that live there now were home and still had them.  But, when I got home and opened the box they were missing the matching nuts...  These greasable bolts are a lot bigger than stock and use a coarse thread so I can't reuse any stock nuts.

Am I whining?  Yeah, probably, I'll try to stop that...

Tomorrow I'll go to Tacoma Screw Products after work and get nuts for the bolts and provided nothing else screwy happens (like the front shocks turn out to be too short) I should have everything done but the rear shocks which are probably going to take a little while to get the exchange taken care of.

I also ordered extended brake hoses but they don't fit the stock brackets.  I hit the hardware store today and am pretty sure I found the solution for that.  If it works I'll post the details on that later and I'll be sending an e-mail to the supplier with what I did and a suggestion for improving their product.

So much for a simple leaf spring swap and shock & shackle upgrade being simple!

[79coyotefrg]

with the 4 inch shocks I'd definitely put those leaves back in.  especially if the springs were supposed to be 2.5 inch lift.    Once you get them broke in you'll be wanting that extra leaf back

[Plainview]

The springs are only supposed to be 2.25" lift but I'm also running 5" shackles now which adds another ~.75" to that for a total of about 3".

According to Rancho's website they don't have an application for 3" lift, only 2" or 4".  The 2" shocks were about 1/2" too short to even reach the mounts with the truck weight on the springs so the 4" should be just fine.  I'd be surprised if the springs settle more than 1" but yeah, I can always throw the extra leaf back in.

Those bump stops are friggin huge - at least 2" taller than stock and way beefier so won't let the suspension compress as much when it does hit them.  I'm probably going to have to rig something that will raise them up a bit more just to be able to mount them.   I'll be sure to measure the compressed length of the shocks though to be sure there won't be any problems.

[Plainview]

If anyone is still paying attention, would you mind taking a look at the thread I just started in the Suspension forum (http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=98914.0) about rear suspension travel and giving your input there?  I really need to get this figured out so I can finish this bit of the project.

Thanks!!!

[4xChinook4]

Sorry bro i dont have input on the shocks. Or suspension. But im still paying attention.  :bigthumbsup:

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

[LittleSteve]

Or, take the leaf pack to bits and re fit just the longest with the bushes in it then pack that out with flat steel and box section till its as thick as it should be. Reasemble with shackles as it should be.
Then take a rachet strap and pull the axle to the chassis till its almost flat, then as the others have said measure up and fit shocks etc. because it willl be so soft you will be able to jack the chassis up with a small bottle jack between the spring and chassis (the factory jacks are great for this) to push the axle down to make sure your shocks have adequate extension. Then when youve got everything figured reassemble and grease the contct areas of the springs, dont be shy with it.

Or summin along those lines, you will be able to do all measurements and checks without having to move the truck

[Plainview]

Well, after getting all kinds of the wrong parts, and getting shorted some parts, I'm *almost* done with the suspension install.  I don't know why I didn't catch it sooner, but I also got the wrong steering stabilizer so the worn out stock one will have to last a little longer...

Anyway, now that I have the springs and shackles installed on all 4 corners I've run into another problem - the front driveshaft is too short.  I had really hoped I was done with large expenditures on this truck for awhile and that I could start taking it out and driving it but now I guess I'm going to have to have a driveshaft made.

With all the weight on the springs the driveshaft is pretty well extended.  At full droop it's right about to separate.

I should be done with everything tomorrow except the rear shocks which I'm still waiting for (should be here tomorrow or Thursday) so will take some pics and post them up then.

In the meantime, any suggestions and input on front driveshafts that are appropriate for a daily driver and don't cost huge $$$ would be appreciated.

[79coyotefrg]

head to your local salvage yard and find a truck or 4runner of the same year with the automatic   I believe they had slightly longer front shafts and slightly shorter rear.   I could be wrong though.

[Plainview]

If true, that would be really cool, thanks!  Finding an automatic '84-'85 truck or 4runner will be the big challenge...

There are a couple of driveline shops near here, I'm not working tomorrow so will contact them and see what they say about lengthening the one I have also.

[Plainview]

Well, the suspension work is *almost* done.   Still waiting on the rear shocks - the vendor said they had them in stock on Monday when I ordered them but when I hadn't gotten a shipping confirmation by Wednesday I called them and they said they'd ship them that day.  Why they waited three days to ship something that was in stock...   This is the same company that sold me shocks for 2" lift along with springs for 2.25" lift knowing I was also going to run longer shackles and a steering stabilizer that is not even the right application for my truck.  Other people seem to have great experiences with them so I don't know how I get so lucky.

Still need to bleed the brakes and install the rear bump stops too.

Anyway, the stock suspension must have been sagging pretty badly because I ended up 4" higher in front and 5" higher in back than where I started!  I don't know how much these springs will settle (if at all) but I do hope it comes down just a little.

I also discovered my front spring perches aren't flat.  Tightening down the U-bolts put a mustache bend in the springs.  Guess that's one more thing on the to-do list.

I have more pictures to post but it's late and I don't want to deal with it right now.  Going out of town for work 'til next Wednesday so no more updates 'til next week sometime.  Until then, here are before and after pictures:

[Plainview]

Been super busy the last two weeks working two jobs but things are calming down now.  Dropped the front driveshaft off at Drivelines NW for a complete rebuild and lengthening today. They'll have it done Monday or Tuesday.

Going to finish everything else tomorrow (bleed brakes, install rear bump stops and shocks) as well as replace the power steering idler pulley bearing as it's pretty noisy (ordered a replacement from Amazon) and hopefully get the new head lights installed.  Also going to start on some bed extenders and headache rack built out of unistrut.

[Plainview]

Here's how I got home from work today:




Here's why:



Lesson learned - don't skimp on a $13 section of hose when replacing everything else under the hood...

[redneckcustoms13]

When I did the sas on mine I pulled that hose to b3 able to torch some stuff, looked at it, said to myself... why replace that it looks fine.
2 days later it blew out 20 miles from home. I feel your pain

[Plainview]

Bed extenders and H4 conversion housings with stone guards installed:











The passenger side stone guard's a little crooked because one of the retainer screws is missing.  Anyone know what size those tiny little screws are?

[redneckcustoms13]

Love the old school looks on this rig

[4xChinook4]

I second that ^^^. Shes lookn real sharp.!!

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

[Plainview]

All loaded up and ready for 4 days of camping.



Properly christened.  No more shiny new suspension parts: