What to do if its too stiff?

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basketcase

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Hey guys. My 87 runner had severe sag when I got it so I replaced the rear leafs with OME. Not sure which ones but it rides like a tank now. (this was years ago I did this, and I've just been dealing with it). I'd like to see what I can do. I've read a bit about removing leafs to soften the ride. I dont tow with this truck and the heaviest thing I routinely haul are my dogs. I'd like a nice smooth ride. When I put the leafs in, I also did BJ spacers to level it out. That wasn't quite enough so I gave the T bars a couple turns as well.

So my question is, is it going to get me where I want to be if I remove a leaf or 2? Which leafs? I assume this will lower the rear. I've read about shackes to bring it back up? How do I know how much I will drop when I remove leafs, or do I just have to do it and see?

Thanks for the advice. I did search, but its kinda a vague topic to try and find keywords for.

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Looks like they make a few different springs for it.
Yours are probably the heaviest ones, that is usually what folks buy.

Great if you carry a load of tools or tow, otherwise they are far too stiff.

How many leaves in your pack?
I'd try taking the shortest one out, and go from there.
Or next to shortest one.

Unless you want to just order the soft spring pack from them, and sell yours to get back some of the cost.
 
WVhillbilly said:
Looks like they make a few different springs for it.
Yours are probably the heaviest ones, that is usually what folks buy.

Great if you carry a load of tools or tow, otherwise they are far too stiff.

How many leaves in your pack?
I'd try taking the shortest one out, and go from there.
Or next to shortest one.

Unless you want to just order the soft spring pack from them, and sell yours to get back some of the cost.
Click to expand...


I wish I knew which ones I got. I'm sure I can figure it out from either the number of leafs, or the numbers on the pack. I am pretty aware of how important it is not to order the heavies if you dont need them. I ordered the standard light load springs for my FZJ 80 when I did that and it rode great. I like to think I would have ordered the right ones, but anything is possible.
 
fourwd1 said:
Luckily this thread is not what i expected from the title.
Click to expand...

The title is half the reason I originally clicked on it.

I wheel with a buddy who has a 1st gen and he had to remove a leaf to get it to articulate easier and have a better ride.

I believe he removed the next to shortest leaf IIRC.
 
basketcase said:
I wish I knew which ones I got. I'm sure I can figure it out from either the number of leafs, or the numbers on the pack. I am pretty aware of how important it is not to order the heavies if you dont need them. I ordered the standard light load springs for my FZJ 80 when I did that and it rode great. I like to think I would have ordered the right ones, but anything is possible.
Click to expand...

Drive my Samurai for a while, your ride will feel plush. :heh:
 
Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure the cs010r (the heavy duty OME leafs) are the same as the cs009rs but just include OME's optional add a leaf. So pull that leaf and maybe one more and you should be good to go. Also my leafs say cs009r in huge letters on top, dunno if yours have the number to or they've worn off.
 
keep in mine when pulling leafs it is recommended that you not re-use u-bolts since the threads are rolled, not cut..so they can be distorted
 
Great looking 4runner! Love the red.

I installed an ome suspension kit no bj spacers on my 4runner (87 as well) about a year and a half ago and the thing was so stiff. In fact, I'm still dialing it in. First thing I found when researching this was the ome nitro charger shocks are valved very stiff. What shocks do you have on yours?
Second was the ome torsion bars are way too stiff unless you have an aftermarket bumper and winch up front. Did you install theirs? The first thing I did was switch back to the factory torsion bars. This helped a lot but it was still way stiff with the shocks.
I ordered the medium rear springs with my kit and after some research found that the rear leaf to remove is the third from the top.

Armed with some new shocks (bilsteins) I removed the rear leaf and installed the new shocks front and rear. WAY better. My next step is to do a tire chalk test to make sure I'm not over inflated causing a rougher ride.

Hope this helps, good luck!
 
Cali 4runner said:
I'd remove the rear leaf, see what the front looks like, then loosen the torsion bars to lower the front.
Click to expand...


I thought about that, but if I drop the front my tires rub. Even now if I flex too much it rubs. I really need to find better wheels to tuck these 33 12.5s under the truck better. Then I could probably do that.
 
This is a simple one...

A lot of guys run 44psi in big tires like that, they go with the max on the sidewall. You should be using the pressures marked by Toyota on the door, despite the larger tire size.

Heavy duty tires like that with stiff side walls will jar you to death. I ran all 4 my ATs at 26 to 28 psi on the street and it made a huge difference. The 4Runner is really really light, and large ATs are made to support extremely heavy vehicles. The more the vehicle weighs, the higher the recommended pressure. The 1st gen 4runner is very light, therefore they call for a low pressure. The max side wall rating is for the maximum weight vehicles the tires can support.

I can tell there is too much pressure in the tires when that picture was taken.
 
89FourRunner said:
This is a simple one...

A lot of guys run 44psi in big tires like that, they go with the max on the sidewall. You should be using the pressures marked by Toyota on the door, despite the larger tire size.

Heavy duty tires like that with stiff side walls will jar you to death. I ran all 4 my ATs at 26 to 28 psi on the street and it made a huge difference. The 4Runner is really really light, and large ATs are made to support extremely heavy vehicles. The more the vehicle weighs, the higher the recommended pressure. The 1st gen 4runner is very light, therefore they call for a low pressure. The max side wall rating is for the maximum weight vehicles the tires can support.

I can tell there is too much pressure in the tires when that picture was taken.
Click to expand...


This is actually an excellent point. I cant say for sure what the pressure is in the tires in that picture. I THINK I set them to 32 at some point but I cant be sure. I know when I had the 35s put on my tundra they set them to something in the 40s or 50s which I thought was odd until I found the info on toyo's website with the relationship to load rating and pressures. I have to assume I then did the math on these, but I'll check.

I actually do regret going with the 12.5 tires. I went against warnings, and knew the downfalls. I just thought I wouldn't care that much. I do. They SUCK in snow, they rub, mileage sucks. But they look cool and surprisingly the stock 22re and gearing really isn't that slow. Any more than it already was :) Ideally I'd like to find some 17" wheels from a newer runner and get a more reasonable sized tire on there. Its just hard to justify since these literally have like 3k miles on them and you get hosed on the used market.

All that being said, when I had crap 31x10.5s and no crank on the T bars, it still rode like a pissed off donkey. I think maybe I made a bad choice on the rear springs too but I think I can fix that with some modification.
 
My Samurai is about half the weight of your 4Runner I'd guess.
But, I run 10 ply recap 31x10.50s on it.
I run 15-18 psi on the street, you can't even tell.
I can run it down to 5-7 psi before it looks like the tires are low.

Try 30 psi, maybe 28.
If it handles odd just increase the pressure.

It's not going to make up for stiff springs, but it might take the edge off the bumps a bit.
 
I'll certainly give it a shot. What do I have to lose? As long as I check for funky wear and excess heat. Wonder if it would effect mileage.
 
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