Styer86

Hello everyone first off I am new to the forum.
I picked up, about a month ago. a 1986 Toyota Pickup Longbed 2WD 22R 5spd manual with only 97000 miles on it.
I had to replace tires, clutch master cylinder, and recover the bench seat. Other than that its pretty perfect and runs like a champ. Also added a Thule Rack on the bed rails to carry my bikes.

I have recently started thinking of lifting it a little. I think it just sits to low as it is stock with 14" and 195/75R14. I would like it to sit just a little bit higher with larger tires.

My ideas are as follows:
4Crawler 1" body lift
4Crawler 1.5" ball joint spacer keeping stock torsion bars not cranked
either add a leaf or longer shackles in the back
possibly later on add an e-locker, LSD or a detroit soft locker
Pacer 342B black 15" rims with Kumho Road Venture SAT KL61 235/75R15 Tires

My biggest concern is if I will be able to fit this size tires using the stock fenders with the amount of lift gained from the above listed lift options.
Also will the gearing in my stock 5spd manual gearbox be fine to push these tires around?
And lastly I believe it has the original shocks on it will the be able to handle the lift?
I will mainly be using this truck on the road with very little off road use. just some toying around the yard.

Please throw out any ideas you have. they will be much appreciated.

liveoffroad

your truck looks really clean, good find! i had one that looked just like that but not a longbed, i'm jealous!


i sold it about a month ago. in answer to some of your questions, i ran 235/75/15 tires on the back of it for a while so i could drive on the highway (mine was a 4 speed not 5) so they will clear just fine in the back, even w/o a lift. the front had a lot of room also so i would GUESS that they would clear but i've never tried it. worse case you might have to trim the front fenders a little but like i said, i doubt it. as far as a lift goes, longer shackles would be the easiest but you could also ad a leaf, that would gain you a couple inches (i tried it on mine but it rode too rough). i lifted the front of mine 2" just by cranking on the torsion bars and it didn't ride too bad at all. just courious, why do you want to lift it, just for looks? one reason these trucks get such good gas mileage is because their low and aerodynamic.
just my 2cents, hope it helps

Styer86

Mostly I was just thinking of doing it for appearances. This is not a daily driver for me. I usually only use it on the weekends. Still trying to decide what direction to go with it. leave it stock or lift it. Also thinking about putting a small stereo system in. Just a receiver and maybe two 6 1/2" or 6x9 in the doors.

Also here is the recovered bench seat. Not a fan of how high the seat belt is. May lift seat or install 4 point harness or something else.

Robert m

iTrader: (2)

the only way to get any lift without cranking the torsion bars is to get lift spindles. 2wd balljoint spacers will not lift the truck them selfs without cranking the torsion bars. what they do is space the upper arm up so your not ridding around with the arms on the bump stops all the time and gives you back some bump travel. you can also crank in more lift this way but the ride will be stiffer.
as said above, shackles in the back will be easiest thing to do and they wont really affect the ride. if the shocks are the factory ones, id definitely replace them. you wont need anything fancy or longer because your not going to change the factory mounts and youre not going to be exeding the factory limits of the suspension travel. you also said youre not going to be beating this thing offroad so no need to spend a lot on them.
for tires, i had 235/75-15 on my truck and it rubbed on the inner fender at the cab pretty bad until i did a 2'' bodylift on it. after that, i had no problems and i liked how they looked.
now after saying all that, since you just replaced the tires and if you want to lift it a little, then i would just level out the front and be done. keep it simple, cheap, and with a good ride still. dont worry about going bigger until the tires need to be replaced again. then go up to like a 29'' tall tire and see if you need more lift to clear them.

also on my 94, there are 2 holes on the B pillar for seat belts mounts about 2'' or 3'' apart. the bottom one is covered by a round sticker. look on yours too see if you can drop it down a few inches.