Fixed my saggy a$$ed 4Runner

[zombie]

Last night after waiting weeks for a friend, I gave up waiting and did it myself. My friend has already done this to his truck so I was looking forward to his help. I added some leafs from another set of 4Runner springs and raised the rear end about 3.5 inches. took me about 2 .5 hours in total and was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I was amazed that everything came apart so easily. I am so used to working with rusty cars up here in the great white north. That I that I was able to take apart the origional suspension on a 20 year old truck with hand tools was great. There was absolutly no rust. I love Texas trucks.
I will post pics of the job later when I have access to my camera and can upload them.
It feels like a new truck now and I cant believe how well it handles the bumps and ruts in the construction zone I drive through every day.
I spent $30 on the springs and $35 on longer u bolts. Pretty cheap fix and I have lots of leafs left over should I want to raise it any more in the future if it settles much.

 

[gotmud?13]

hey zombie. so what exactly did you do to your rear suspension. just add leafs? you stated that you paid 30$ for new springs. do you mean shocks? i think that it would be quite funny to try and run a truck without any kind of shocks. lol a pogostick on wheels. but back to the point. where did you get the leafs? auto wreckers? i was thinking of getting the add-a-leaf kits on the net, but if i can tear the leafs off an old school runner in a boneyard, im laughin. where did you get the longer u-bolts?

 

[zombie]

I got used springs off another 4Runner, friend got the u bolts made up for me, only need to be half an inch longer than stock. I will post some pics as soon as I get a chance. It was pretty easy to do. Just added a few more leafs. Any leafs will work that are the same width so they fit between the ubolts. I have heard of people using wider ones and grinding them narrower to fit.

 

[gotmud?13]

any time you apply heat to spring steel, you lose the integrity of the springs, as grinding away at em to make them more narrow, involves either heat from friction from the grinder, or if you choose oxy torch or plasma, same thing, heat will kill your springs. that is the theory behind "california lowering" heat the springs until red hot, and then sit in truck to lower. but i am definatly going to add some leafs. i took my truck 4wheelin for the first time on the weekend, and wow. i now see the yota craze. this truck handles beautifly off road. my camera died just before the mud came