It was just going to be a gear change...

[KidVermicious]

Just a simple gear change. Drop the diffs, get them to my guy, badda bing badda boom.

But no.



Dirty nasty 3rd, I need to get my skid plate back on.



Donor springs from a Tacoma of indeterminate year.



Go Ducks!



Board member Puppetz lends a hand. Thanks for the assist, man, it made the day much easier!



Donor pack pulled apart.



And inserted in my existing springs. What you're not seeing is the several hours it took to get the leaves inserted and trimmed, and then the several more hours it took to burn/chisel/hammer/otherwise inflict pain on the old bushings to get them out.



Driveway carnage.

To come: get the diffs to my gear guy, clean up and paint everything, install rear diff armor, install new spring packs, install diffs, reinstall axles. Depending on budget, there may be new shocks and a rear disc brake conversion somewhere in there. Stay tuned!

 

[combatmedic]

Not bad! For a 1st gen anyway

 

[Hyde802]

Thats sweet dude! Have you played around with that leafs your going to run yet?

 

[KidVermicious]

Thats sweet dude! Have you played around with that leafs your going to run yet?

I haven't. I added the second and third leaves from the Tacoma pack to my original saggy springs, and I'm hoping that they'll bring me to about 1 inch over stock. I won't know for sure until I get the axle cleaned and painted and get everything back under the truck.

I've got 2 weeks and no days off until our next club run, so it could be tight. Everything always takes longer when you're doing it for the first time.

 

[puppetz007]

Happy to help! Soon we'll be getting into all sorts of fun with my truck. Here's a shot of one of those bushings that took blood, sweat, tears, fire, and finally a sawzall to get out.

 

[elimontfort]

keep it up.

 

[KidVermicious]

Well, booger. I got the springs wrestled onto the truck (those Prothane bushings are tight), and it's sagging a 1/4inch to the left. I'm hoping it's just the bushings hanging up, and that it'll settle out. I'm gonna wheel it next weekend and see what happens. Otherwise I'll hafta pull them off and trade one of the leaves I added to the other side. I should have expected a little droop and done that in the first place, dammit.

I could just stick a 1/4in shim under the saggy side.

Nah, I'll swap leaves.

Axle armor is on, too. You get no pics of that cuz my welds look like half-priced crap. Rear third is in, I'm out to wrestle the front chunk into place now, and then we'll see just how bad I wind that motor out with 5.29s and 31s.

 

[SV_Dude]

You get no pics of that cuz my welds look like half-priced crap.

Ugly welds can be fixed with a little bit of grinding and some paint

Where's the pics??!!!

Oh, and with 5.29's you really really want those 35's you were talking about.

 

[KidVermicious]

Ugly welds can be fixed with a little bit of grinding and some paint

Where's the pics??!!!

Oh, and with 5.29's you really really want those 35's you were talking about.

33s (or 255/85s, to be specific) with the auto. 35s if I had a manual. And they're coming, but it'll be at least another week. I have a set of used 285/75s that I can throw on if the KM2s take too long to get here.

 

[mytyeerinpie]

Hey kid, I got those 63" Chevy leaf's I am throwing in the back of mine. Once I get it done I will post progress so you can see if they are more worth it than the Taco springs. I am battling some pretty bad bushings that neither fire nor hammers will remove. I would love some more detail on how you got yours out. Oh and how you cleaned them. A drill and wire brush take friggin forever.

 

[KidVermicious]

Hey kid, I got those 63" Chevy leaf's I am throwing in the back of mine. Once I get it done I will post progress so you can see if they are more worth it than the Taco springs. I am battling some pretty bad bushings that neither fire nor hammers will remove. I would love some more detail on how you got yours out. Oh and how you cleaned them. A drill and wire brush take friggin forever.

It's sitting at least an inch lower than it was with the ZUKmod, low enough that I'm worried about rubbing the 33s. I can't afford OME, so if I end up needing more height I'll probably go Chevys myself rather than mess with my existing pack more.

And holy crap, the bushings. The shackle bushings came right out, I'm assuming you're talking about the spring eye bushings. I took my propane torch to the rubber and just burned and scraped and burned and scraped and burned and scraped some more until they were mostly out, the inner sheath will come out at some point during all that. Then I took a sawzall to the outer sheath and made a couple cuts about 3/4in apart, and peeled that strip away with the cold chisel. That let me collapse the rest of the sheath away from the spring eye and pull it out. It went pretty quick on the second one once I knew what I wanted to do, the longest part was burning the rubber away. That'd probably go quicker if you had access to MAP or oxy-acetylene, but I don't know what temp the springs lose their temper at...

 

[KidVermicious]

Ok, so here's a question for everybody - how does your front chunk mate with the chassis? It bolts to the frame in two spots, is there supposed to be a rubber bushing or something between the mounts and the frame?

 

[KidVermicious]

Bonus question! Anybody know what angle the LSPV is supposed to be at stock height? I'm not going to install a proportioning valve until I get around to upgrading the rest of the brake system, and I'd like to have the LSPV working correctly until then.

 

[nevada]

i believe it comes out parallel to the ground.
basically you want it up, when sitting on flat ground.

 

[SV_Dude]

Bonus question! Anybody know what angle the LSPV is supposed to be at stock height? I'm not going to install a proportioning valve until I get around to upgrading the rest of the brake system, and I'd like to have the LSPV working correctly until then.

I don't think it's the angle so much that matters. Look at the pin that sticks down from the LSPV. With NO LOAD in the back of your 4runner, you want the rod to be just touching the pin and not applying upward pressure on it.

FWIW: I took off that rod from my lspv and pushed the pin all the way up and tied it in place. My brakes work great and from what I can tell, there isn't and odd wear from the rear drums.

 

[KidVermicious]

Thanks, SV. I tied mine up too. So far so good, but I expect to be dropping a couple ledges this weekend so we'll see what happens then.

It definitely runs a higher RPM on the freeway with the 5.29s in, but it RUNS, too - I got it to 85 before I decided the RPMs were a bit much . 75 was my practical limit before, and that was with a tailwind. The rear lean settled out, too, it must have just been a sticky bushing. The truck is definitely lower than before - maybe a little too low, but I won't know for sure until I get the new tires and can see how they fit. If it comes to it, I've got another leaf plus the overload from the Tacoma pack I can stick in there if I need another inch or so. The ride is stiffer as well, but I'm willing to trade that for the increased flex I expect.

Before the Zukmod

After the Zukmod

And now



If the new tires fit, I'll be relaxing the Tbars to level it out, which will give me even more flex. :hungry:

 

[KidVermicious]

Kevin – I apologize for the delay on your tire shipment. I confirmed with the warehouse that the tires are shipping today from Reno, NV and should deliver on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. I had dropped the order a month ago but apparently someone in the warehouse did not push the final button to get the shipment out the door.

About freaking time.

 

[KidVermicious]

KM2s are on.

It looks farther down at the rear than it really is due to the slope of the driveway, but I think I'll need to add another leaf or two anyway. It's actually only about a 1/2inch down at the rear with the springs set up the way they are, but it looks like that 1/2inch is about what I need to make sure I can stuff without rubbing.

 

[Footofgod]

Looks good! So how about front and rear bumpers?

 

[KidVermicious]

Looks good! So how about front and rear bumpers?

What about 'em? I've got a tube bumper on the rear that'll work until I build a tire carrier, and the approach angle is good enough that I don't really need anything on the front until I get around to adding a winch. I had a crappy old smittybuilt on the front that I took off and I don't miss it.