My leaf springs are 15 years old right now and are showing signs of wear. I have a friend with a set of 86 4runner springs that were taken off the 4runner with no sagging at all. I'm curious about opinions on doing this, if it's ever been done, and general pros/cons.

I'm trying to revive my rear suspension but not lift it more than 1" from its stance right now. If anyone has a better suggestion please let me know. I do go camping and haul occassional. I know I could just add a shackle but that would flatten my leafs further.

I was wondering if a combination long aal and shackle or simpley the long aal would only add around 1-1.5" of lift ... hmmm???

Thanks in Advanced
Chris

BTW - Suspension Setup - SAW T-Bars (cranked maybe .5-1"), OME Shocks and Steering Stabalizer, Idle arm brace, and IFS truss

 

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Wont fit, the 4runner springs are shorter... The leangth changed with the body style change.

 

As was said, the length is wrong, the older springs are 48" long and the newer ones are 51". One valid option though, is to disassemble both sets and combine them to make 1 pair of 5 leaf (or more if desired) packs. Just cut them down to make them get consecutively shorter. Then throw a bolt through them for a center pin. Get some longer u-bolts and bolt them up. You will probably find that they have a better arch, give you a little lift, and can hold a larger load.
I have never personally done this on the rear, but I did do it on the front of my 4runner, the theory is the same, so I think it is worth a try. I just used a grinder with a cutting wheel.

 

is there an AAL that doesn't lift more than 1 - 1.5 " ?

that's a very interesting thing. I'm going to look into that as well as everything else I have been finding right now.

What do you guys think about JCW leaf springs?

 

most aal's claim 1.5" or more, but in all actuality you're more likley to get around 1" out of most of them.

If you have the other leaves to use then you could combine them, and create your own custom leaf to the right height, and load capacity that you want. You're going to end up doing more or less the same thing with the AAL.

If you're thinking about shackles for lift as in your origional post, you can get 1.5-1.75" out of commercially available shackles alone, and would get more with the addition of an aal.

 

How much lift did you gain with your cranked t-bars and shackles? what kind of shackles are you running? how much lift?

 

Depends, you can really get any amount you want from 0-2". Cranking the torsion bars really isnt lift thou, all you do is increase the ride height and make the truck SUPER stiff, there is no added room for tire clearance. You can have custom made shackles for any amount lift you want, thou I dont reccommend going more than 3" over stock length. For every inch of shackle you extend you get .5" of lift.

 

I was thinking of buying some 1.25" lift shackles from DC4WD here in town. Do I need to worry about shimming the rear axle or anything of that nature when adding shackles of that much lift? I have read up on shackles but it's kind of a confusing topic.

 

SInce the shackles themselves only raist the back half of the spring it works like a shim in of itself.... but if you shackle it too much you will will have to shim it the opposite way.. but 1.25" of lift (2.5" longer shackle) shouldnt be an issue...