Brett Kilby

I have an 87 4runner that I plan to lift next month. I wanna keep it small, 2" suspension and 2" body. My question is, if I put in a 2" aal kit will it only correct the sag and leave me needing more lift to match the 2" gained on the front? Would I be better off with a 3.5" rear aal with a 2" front spacer? I wouldn't mind a little rake but not too extreme.

Charchee

Good question on one of these trucks. Several things to consider. First, know where your torsion bars are set right now. I would adjust them to where your front end is at it's lowest before you start your lift project. That way you can raise it to match the back when you finish. Now keep in mind that this lift may not be a one day project because your front and rear lift components may not be a perfect match on your first try.

I would start with the back at this point. First question is, are your back springs worn out. Even with ok springs, it's going to have some sag back there due to the extra weight of the cap. I didn't like my sag back there but I still had good springs. I used an add a leaf set that was advertised as a 2.5" upgrade. What I actually gained was around 1". Now that is fine because you have a couple other upgrade options to increase it. I didn't check my t-bars first or I may have been level with them adjusted down. Mine were cranked a little but I was just learning at that time. I added some nice 6" greasable shackles which gave me another 1.5" of lift and gave me a pretty good rake downward in the front.

Ok so now I was leaning forward. I went ahead and installed some 1.5" ball joint spacers in the front. I realized how much I didn't like the idea of the spacers as I was installing them but went ahead anyway. I haven't had trouble with them but I still don't really like the design. Regardless, this gave me a nice looking level lift.

My point in telling you my story is to shorten your project by showing you what you probably shouldn't do, in that I really should have lowered my bars, added a single upgrade and then raised the front with the bars to match the rear.

First, check to see if your springs are worn out. If they are, you can buy replacement spring packs or go with the Chevy 63 spring upgrade which you can search on this site. If you just need a little pick me up, you can use an add a leaf, shackles or even a lift block. Just choose one and install it. Then adjust your front and see if you can get it where you like it. If it's still too low in the back, lower the front end back to the bottom, add to the rear lift and then adjust the bars again to make it match.

If you are wanting to do a body lift too, avoid the ball joint spacers unless you find them to be completely necessary. I'm sure you can easily get three inches of good level lift out of a little rear suspension work and the two inch body lift. Should allow you to clear 33s easily. I'm running 32-11.50R15s on mine with no issues.

Brett Kilby

I appreciate all the helpful information hopefully I can clarify my intentions right now because I have a couple more questions. the first question is if I want to guarantee 2 inches of lift in the back above stock should I look for maybe a 3 & a half inch add a leaf kit or should I get a new coil pack and then add a lift? I was thinking of doing the ball joint spacer lift in the front what exactly was your issue with it why did you not like it? I want 4 inches of total lift above stock 3 at the minimum but I only want to do two of that on the suspension. What is my best bet for restoring the rear end and getting right around 2 inches above stock? The front torsion bar position doesn't really concern me too much as long as I can shoot close to 2 inches lift on front and back I can level it out with the torsion bars presumably.

Charchee

This would probably be most helpful to you. Take a look at these four pictures. They are the evolution of my lift. First one is how I found her, second is after the add a leafs I bought off Amazon, third is after the 6" shackle upgrade and the last one is how it is now with both rear mods and the bjs.

The ball joint spacers just put your joints at a lot more angle than they were designed to ride at all of the time. These trucks are old and if you aren't replacing your joints with some high quality parts when you do it, you are going to end up finishing off what is left of them at a much accelerated rate. If the boots didn't leak, they might after the spacers and I can guarantee that they won't be as tough as they were at less of an angle. It's absolutely not a performance upgrade. It's just for looks at the expense of your front end. Now to be clear. If I thought they would break my truck and or get me hurt, I wouldn't have installed them, so take that for what it's worth. Also, I would never have thought of doing them if I had a body lift in mind.

I take detailed notes on all of my work but looking back at them, I'm not exactly sure at what point I took my measurements. Wait a minute. I see what I did. I didn't have before measurements. My first measurements were taken after the add a leafs were installed. The nearly two inches I got came after the shackles. I knew they gave me an inch and a half or so. Take a look at the pictures and judge for yourself.

Look at my first picture and see if yours sits like that. My rear end sagged but the springs actually didn't measure out to be bad. The bow in them was within the normal / fair range for a 1st gen. If your spring packs look almost flat, then you need to replace them. Again, look at the Chevy 63 upgrade. If they are still ok, then my best guess as to how to make 2" would be the smallest add a leaf you can find and some nice 6" shackles.

Oh and one more super important thing. When you do your first spring upgrade, don't cut your new u-bolts off close to the nut yet. If you want to go back and add some more lift, you will need the extra length. I can't remember when I learned this lesson, but I know it cost me a $50 set of u-bolts that I had just put on the week before.

Brett Kilby

I'm still really on the fence about what to do. I want 4 inches of lift, and I had originally wanted to split it between body and suspension, 2 and 2. But I've heard alot that it's better to leave stock suspension alone, would I be better off doing 4" of body lift, replacing the leaf springs to stock, and throwing rancho 9000's on it? We're doing custom bumpers already so lifting them would be a breeze. I just like the idea of raising the frame also, so I was planning to mimic your 2" lift process and adding 2" of body lift after, but you said you wouldn't have done the bjs kit if you had planned on body lift, why exactly? That's the plan I have in mind, I plan to replace the bushings, ball joints, and shocks, and throwing on new 33x10.5x15s. Also, you suggested the smallest add a leaf? I'm looking at the 2" toytech bjs lift which come with add a leafs. If I put those in along with the 6" shackles will it be mostly level? Did your add a leafs advertise 2" of lift? I'm gonna be buying this stuff next month and I don't have any budget room for error, I wanna be on the trails asap, and with the most reliable setup for my price range. I also plan on doing the diff drop to correct the boot angles, I was told that would relieve the stress put on by the bjs kit. I really appreciate your help so far.

Charchee

I think this is the leaf package I bought although the description is no longer there. Probably due to folks complaining about smaller than expected lift.
https://www.amazon.com/Explorer-Pro-...ype=automotive

The thing about 1st generation 4Runners is that no two of them sit just alike. Some have more sag than others so that's why I was so detailed in my previous responses. The add a leaf was step one for me. Get it back up to normal ride height. Step two for me was to level it. They still sit lower in the back when the rear height is in spec. Shackles were a good upgrade option for me because my old shackles were squeaky. When I added them, I had gone too far and then moved on to the bjs, which were the shortest I could find. I only wanted mine to sit level. I'm two inches lifted now because I went too far with the rear. If I had lowered my bars all the way down before I started, I would have probably stopped after the add a leafs but I'm glad I didn't now.

As for the body lift. You need to really research the installation of a 1", a 2" and a 3 or more inch lift. They can get complicated. 1" doesn't require much if any extra work. After that you may (probably) need to add some brackets to your radiator and may need to modify your steering shaft. Both of these are links between the body and the frame which you will be separating. I would elaborate but it's best you do your research. Some of the install articles are many pages long in order to cover all of the stuff that lift companies don't tell you when you buy them.

The diff drop kit is a very good idea if you do the bjs. My spacers are on the shorter end and with the front end of the truck off the ground, my cv axles now bind. I have to get them lined up right before I lower the truck or they will stay bound. The diff drop kit should reduce or eliminate this issue.

I know you are on a time and budget constraint so here's what I would probably do. Toytec kit you mentioned with diff drop kit. Adjust torsion bars to match. If you feel like you can stand another 1.5" in the back, order some shackles. Amazon can get them there overnight. Research body lifts. If you made me put one on mine, I'd do the one inch because I don't want to go modifying my steering shaft and radiator for one inch. Some folks might say you don't need to bother with these two mods but the reading I did had me convinced that I would have to.

I do like Toytec products by the way. I once ordered a 2.5" lift for one of my 3rd gen 4Runners from them, thinking it would make it sit level. It turned out to be nose down just a hair. The 3" was only a few dollars more and included one more piece that was individually priced at like $75 or something like that. I called just to see if they would let me buy those parts at a discount. They not only charged me the few bucks that it would have been originally but overnight-ed them to me for little of nothing and didn't even tell me they were going to do that for me. I was so excited when I got back to town on Friday and they were there to install over the weekend.