When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Recently picked up this '82 with the intention of restoring it. I had one over 30 years ago and have kicked myself everyday since for getting rid of it. Anyway it had the stock skinny pizza cutter wheels on it when I got it but a buddy gave me these wheels and tires from his '82 Chevy pickup. The tires are 31's and it looks like there is still quite a bit of clearance.
Has this truck been lifted and what can I look for to give me the answer?
I would have to say yes. It's not much, maybe just an add a leaf kit, or some aftermarket springs. I would guess no more than 1 to 2 inches, or 3 inches at most.
I put new shocks on it all the way around but it still rides like crap. Very stiff ride. Is that just the way these are? I can't remember how my old one used to ride. Granted, it was over 30 years ago, and the truck was only three years old at the time.
What shape are the leaf springs? U shaped or w shaped?
Any writing on the leaf springs we could determine who makes them.
I think most people with first gens describe them like riding a wagon but there are things you can do to improve your comfort.
What shocks did you put on?
What shape are the leaf springs? U shaped or w shaped?
Any writing on the leaf springs we could determine who makes them.
I think most people with first gens describe them like riding a wagon but there are things you can do to improve your comfort.
What shocks did you put on?
Back springs are "U" shaped and the front ones are about flat. I just bought some cheap KYB's for now as the one that were on there were totally gone. So these are know for the rough ride? My ultimate goal is to put 33"s on it with a 3" suspension lift like I had on my old one. What do you guys recommend for a suspension lift and are there any out there that provide a little softer ride? I been out of the game for a long time...
The game is strong! Theres a lot of options out there.
I got an 1980 im building. I put kybs on it like you.
But i have a set of old man emu springs waiting to swap in. They have good reviews for mild driving and offroading.
I dont care about extreme flex like a lot of people who rock crawl.
I looked at other brand springs but saw very mixed reviews and id rather spend a little more if it keeps my ass on the seat and head off the ceiling.
If you want to fabricate and move your axles around theres a loooot of options. Ruf- rears up front, often with chevy springs in back. People do f150 springs in back. A little searching will give you plenty of info.
What is the goal of this vehicle? Daily driver? Crawler?
Back springs are "U" shaped and the front ones are about flat. I just bought some cheap KYB's for now as the one that were on there were totally gone. So these are know for the rough ride? My ultimate goal is to put 33"s on it with a 3" suspension lift like I had on my old one. What do you guys recommend for a suspension lift and are there any out there that provide a little softer ride? I been out of the game for a long time...
the suspension is based off a Conestoga Wagon, it is gonna ride rough
Like a tank in that it was rough. Really rough. My setup was stock springs and Bilstein shocks. Nothing fancy.
My experience with my 83 is that I have no interest in a solid front axle truck. Except that I love first gens. But if I were buying a later model truck, I would avoid the 84 and 85, and only buy an 86 or newer. For anything but hardcore rock crawling, I just don't see the benefit of a solid front axle. Except that they come on really cool trucks...Someday if I have a ton of time and money I'll do an IFS conversion on a first gen! That'll make people scratch their heads.
I know there are ways to make these trucks ride smoother, but as far as a stock setup, they're a really, really rough ride.
Mine is relatively smooth with 63" chevy springs in the back and ProComp springs in the front. ProComp struts all around. High steer is a must with a lift. I've got around 4" of lift and 35x12.50 tires.
These rear ends are so light compared to the spring rates that are available that unless you're driving around with a refrigerator in the bed there isn't much to compress the suspension and get it soaking up bumps.
I don't have much beef with solid front axle vehicles. We also have a Jeep JK Rubicon that gets daily driven and when everything is tight it rides extremely smooth. I'm sure coil springs and factory 4-link front and rear help with that, but I don't attribute any harshness specifically to having a Dana 44 up front.
Maybe if I drove something with IFS I'd think differently!
I would have to say yes. It's not much, maybe just an add a leaf kit, or some aftermarket springs. I would guess no more than 1 to 2 inches, or 3 inches at most.
X2
A quick way to determine any lift is with the steering straight ahead the Pittman arm should be more or less vertical.
Add a leaf "kits" from that era were basically made for one thing...lift it cheaply so you could put bigger tires on. Coupled with old school hydraulic shocks rendered the suspension virtually in-operable.
As for shocks, stop peeing away money and get Bilstein's. I've had KYB's, they were O/K, definitely an OEM upgrade. I've had Rancho 5000's, on a full size truck towing a camper they may be good but on a light truck, well they are definitely old school. On my truck there is about a 1" add a leaf to level it done by a spring shop and it rides so nice now with the Bilstein's the wife will actually ride in it...not so with the Ranchos.
If you want the rear to ride smoother the trick of the day was to remove the helper springs but at the cost of spring wrap and axle hop during hard acceleration. Thus every monkey and his brother offered some kind of trac-bar, traction shock etc.
Now the other monkeys get to throw some poo...(sorry 83 just my $.05 of experience)
I'd take a well designed solid axle leaf spring set-up any day over an IFS. I got both and just about every time I drive my 04 Taco I wonder what the hell were they thinking when they figured this cluster F*** IFS was better. There are just so many more parts to wear out, many of which are more expensive and more time consuming to replace. My Taco has had no less then 4 pair of struts, 2 sets of coils, ball joints, control arm bushings, inner and outer tie rods, and almost an alignment annually. Other than being less choppy on the highway, the ride and handling of the Taco I'd rate at sub-par to the 83. Any sort of rough road the 83 will drive circles around the Taco. Yes I can drive the Taco for 10-12 hours and still stand up straight, not so with the 83. IFS belongs under cars, not trucks, but everyone wanted a pick-up that rode like a Cadillac.
Last edited by Old83@pincher; Oct 16, 2019 at 08:55 AM.
I'm also on the fence about IFS vs Live axle.
I have driven mainly IFS vehicles and bought my 1980 because I hate the thought of snapping ball joints or something on a rocky road. However there are a lot of really capable, durable IFS vehicles that put in hard miles off-road. There's a good video on youtube of Ronny Dahl comparing live axle vs ifs (
).
One thing I don't understand is the lack of coil springs on toyotas. I know they are light vehicles and they were produced (in my limited understanding of it) as kind of affordable 4x4s but why not give them coil springs?
If I do ever buy a jeep, it will probably be because you have a stock set up with a live axle AND coil springs.
OOps. Didnt mean to embed the video. I apologize if that's an issue.
Last edited by swampedout; Oct 16, 2019 at 08:40 AM.
Oh I don't take offense. My experience is with one truck only, my 83, and it may have had suspension issues causing it to drive the way it did. I just know whenever I got into an IFS Toyota, I breathed a sigh of relief. I agree though, my Tacoma has been causing me a lot of work and money lately on the front end. Only took 21 years and 260,000 miles to start acting up I've also recently done inner and outer tie rods, lower ball joints, and my upper and lower control arm bushings need replacing. But...that's the first time in 21 years and 260,000 miles any of those were replaced. I don't have experience with a well-tuned, upgraded solid front axle. As far as problems, a knuckle rebuilt sure ain't cheap or easy, and pretty much immediately starts leaking again. But of course you can ignore the leaking.
The game is strong! Theres a lot of options out there.
I got an 1980 im building. I put kybs on it like you.
But i have a set of old man emu springs waiting to swap in. They have good reviews for mild driving and offroading.
I dont care about extreme flex like a lot of people who rock crawl.
I looked at other brand springs but saw very mixed reviews and id rather spend a little more if it keeps my ass on the seat and head off the ceiling.
If you want to fabricate and move your axles around theres a loooot of options. Ruf- rears up front, often with chevy springs in back. People do f150 springs in back. A little searching will give you plenty of info.
What is the goal of this vehicle? Daily driver? Crawler?
I'm getting the idea this is just how they ride. I was young back then and don't remember. As long as nothing is really wrong mechanically I'm good.
To answer your question about my plans for the truck I plan to restore it and make it my daily driver so I don't have to drive my Duramax around town. Any off roading would be real mellow since I have a couple RZR's for when I want to honk it on out there.
If 33's will fit on it as is, awesome, I will upgrade the shocks later to something high quality. I just wanted something cheap and quick since my head WAS bouncing off the ceiling when I first got it.
[QUOTE=83;52432156 As far as problems, a knuckle rebuilt sure ain't cheap or easy, and pretty much immediately starts leaking again. But of course you can ignore the leaking.[/QUOTE]
100% true. Is a knuckle rebuild a more than once in a life time occurrence? My take on knuckle rebuilds, (short of a complete tear down and rebuild of the whole truck) are caused by lack of maintenance or panic caused by grease leaks interpreted to be gear oil leaks. You really can't mistake the two.
If you followed the recommended maintenance for the knuckles, you were suppose to repack them after off road use or operating in water/wet conditions. How many of us really did that? The danger with not keeping them greased well is dirt and moisture settling into the lower trunnion (kingpin) bearing and causing rust/wear. If the vehicle has no abnormal steering issues, camber/caster issues, looseness etc., you can reasonably assume they in good condition.
As far as the leaking goes two dealerships told me the same thing, if you're re-packing them regularly, don't worry about it and they will do that. One of the dealerships said that's a good thing as its keeping out dirt and water. The FJ series use the same design and were produced for 30-40 years and I never heard of guys doing rebuilds on them until recently.
I'm not really slagging the Taco (or its IFS, despite its flaws is one of the better out there),as mine too has a rack of miles on it (610000KM's, about 380000 miles nearly twice the 83's) but it really wasn't pounded that hard off road like the 83 was. The difference between me being 20ish and 50ish! I guess what I'm saying is that the added complexity (for lack of a better term) over a solid axle really IMO doesn't gain any substantial benefit. Recall too that most of us had (have) short wheelbase 79-85's which itself rides choppier over a longer wheelbase. I have to disagree completely the section in the video about ground clearance. True the static ground clearance of IFS may be more, but as we all know the suspension goes up and down and when an IFS vehicles suspension goes down so does its ground clearance, a solid axle stays the same. Two, what ever goes or doesn't go under the front axle/IFS set-up goes or doesn't go under the rear, and most of our vehicles are solid rear axle as well so one could argue rear axle clearance is the limiting factor. Quite often especially with full size trucks the rear diff has a larger ring gear diameter. The alignment segment I have to partially disagree with too. Briefly camber is a machined in spec with solid axle, if its out you either have worn/improperly installed kingpin bearings/bushings or you bent the axle. If toe is out you probably bent the tie rod (likely to more positive) if caster is out you got sagged springs or lifted it to the sky. With caster and lift its important to install caster correction shims that will also lessen front driveshaft angle. Thus even though the video correctly said there isn't much adjustment, there isn't much to go out of adjustment normally.
100% true. Is a knuckle rebuild a more than once in a life time occurrence? My take on knuckle rebuilds, (short of a complete tear down and rebuild of the whole truck) are caused by lack of maintenance or panic caused by grease leaks interpreted to be gear oil leaks. You really can't mistake them.
What about a vehicle with unknown history that is oozing gray stuff? My current dilemna.
As for the underlining, im not a mod but i think the forums auto-link particular keywords to product websites.
I appreciate your knowledge on these subjects. Im currently building my 1980 so still coming from more experience driving IFS vehicles. But I think at the end of the day, we lean towards straight axles so we can pound em. But all the while creating comfortable set ups.
I also wonder if we will ever get a compact pickup with a straight axle ever again.
Last edited by swampedout; Oct 20, 2019 at 02:44 PM.
Oct 7, 2019 | 05:22 PM
I've also recently done inner and outer tie rods, lower ball joints, and my upper and lower control arm bushings need replacing. But...that's the first time in 21 years and 260,000 miles any of those were replaced. I don't have experience with a well-tuned, upgraded solid front axle. As far as problems, a knuckle rebuilt sure ain't cheap or easy, and pretty much immediately starts leaking again. But of course you can ignore the leaking.
