77RogueRunner

Well, got my front basically done and wanted to flex it out, but I didn’t like blocks in the back and thought that would hamper the full range of motion. The Chevy 63’s seemed to be a popular choice and has been done many times before so I went to my local salvage yard to hunt a pair down. In the hunt I passed a 00 Tundra with the 3.4 that caught my eye. I looked under it and saw some SUA leaves and thought to myself there might be some instant lift from these in an SOA setup. I passed up the Chevy’s and got the Tundra’s being that they were going to be the same price (50.00 if I pull)…….



These springs measure approx 55” and will not fit in the factory mounting location for proper tire orientation. The pin to front center is 3 ¼” perpendicular down from eye to eye and 3 ½” along the curve. I split the two and called it 3 3/8”. Turns out the OE rear shackle is approx 3 3/8” center to center which makes the plate side of the shackle a perfect measuring tool for centers. First you need to make yourself some mounts. The front mount is box that has been cut down, the inner spread will have to be 2 ¾” similar to the factory of 70mm. To conform to the frame curve I sliced the front and bent it up, welded it up and boxed the front for a “slider” effect. I scribed lines at 2, 2 ¼, and 2 ½ on both sides from the top of the mount for bolt location (I used 2 ¼”). Note that the OE hanger is not symetrical side to side like I originally thought. The two sides will look like this for proper mating (this is the d/s).....






For the shackle rear tube, I made it like the factory…..



One of thee things I like about these springs is that they aren’t too long so I can take advantage of the factory hanger to mate to for the strength aspect which gives me more surface area to weld to also (I‘ll take advantage of any factory welded stuff whenever I can). Not only that but they aren't as low on the frame which lends itself a more factory look. The best way I found to mount these were to clamp some straight stock to your factory hanger running forward to create a “channel” in which to slide your new hanger into. This will locate it side to side; then just make sure it is tight to the top of the frame and tack….



At this point you can use the plate side of the rear shackle for proper front locating. Bolt it to the factory front mount on the outside and simply swing it up and forward to one of your scribe marks. Punch it where you like it and repeat for the other side. Use a drill bit matched to the factory hole which is a bit over 14mm….



Here is the p/s done and ready.....



For the rear mount…After you made your tubes, measure 3 3/4" back from the OE center of the rear mount to the new center. When doing this give yourself enough meat to mate to the factory hanger like the front. You can see how the two mounts fit together in the next pic. This pic is also with the factory hangers lengthened to 4 1/2". I lengthened the rears for a few reasons. First, I wanted to drop the rear of the springs a proportionate amount to what the front dropped to keep my overall pinion angle where the factory wants it. Also, the longer shackle gives me a scoche more lift and will work better with the longer springs being that there is greater range of motion. Here is the shackle and loaded angle....



At this point you’ll have the front mount and back mount ready for the leafs. The Tundra factory bushings are 17mm inners but I had the factory 14mm bolt and corresponding drill bit. I decided to used the 88 OE (rears) front bushings for the Tundra bushings. As many of you know these are metal encased rubber with a metal sleeve in the middle to encompass the mounting bolt, they will have to be pressed or beat out. The next part was probably the worst part of the swap, removing the outer sleeve. The best way to do this is to slit the outer sleeve at two opposite sides, then run the grinder on the sleeve as you’re pulling on it with a pair of pliers. The heat from the metal will release the rubber and all you’ll have left is the rubber and inner bushing. Like I had hoped, the rubber was a press fit (with a heavy duty c-clamp) in the Tundra’s with a little WD for lube on the way in…..



Now, if you want about 2 1/2 to 3" of Toyota lift, toss these suckers in. I needed about 4 to match my TG 3" fronts. This is where the OE leaf pack comes into play. You've already harvested the bushing out of them (unless you just bought some new ones to keep your OE pack in order) so you'll be cutting your old pack down. Here is a pic of the difference in spring thickness, the thin leafs are the OE's (I ended up using all 3)...



The OE pack adds about 1 inch overall from the leaf thickness, plus the extra leafs hold your arch up a bit better. When I cut the OE pack down I just measured the difference in the Tundra leaf lengths (about 4 1/2" on the ends) and used that same # to cut my OE pack coorespondingly. Basically keep subtracting 4 1/2" off the end of each cut from the previous, although you can cut them down however you want. Here is a pic of the side stance. The shackles come just below the side skirt of my rig.....still pretty stealth and no worries about departure hang-ups on them...



Finished stance and tire orientation. This is also with a 1 1/2" b/l for my 5vz-fe and the tires are wore 265/75r16's.....



I've put about 200 miles on this setup and this is the best yet as far as ride quality goes (have yet to ride in a Chevy sprung rig). The springs are already worked in so there should be no saggage. Overall, using as much of the factory parts and not counting the cost of the bit, this set me back about 75.00 and 2 days....but it's all Yota....

3uzfte

Do you have any SOA pics? Pretty sweet, it's nice to see that you didn't just pick up the 63's. This is nice because I'm sure there's tons of trucks that have usable leaf springs. Thanks for the good write up.

iamsuprman13

This is awesome, I am all about keeping it a Yote...so this is exactly the kind of thing I want to see!

4x4YOTA

iTrader: (2)

I hear nissan titan springs work really good aswell and provide about 3-4" of lift

4x4climber

That is awesome! I am all about keepin it as much yota parts as possible! And, this is great for a budget. Keep us updated. I am gonna try the out sometime on my 85' when I can find a pair!