tj884Rdlx

hi all,

about two mos. ago i replaced flat OE leafs with OME CS009s medium flex (not HD) and OME light duty shocks. i bought these because of the great price and high praise from YT'ers.

after install, i had to do a lot of work to get my pinion angle right. i still don't think it's right, since there's still some hum-hum vibration from the back end at highway speeds.

anyway, i figured these things would have softened up by now. they have definitely dropped down a few inches, but the ride is harsh and bouncy on pavement. i haven't had time to drive off road yet.

IS EVERYONE'S RIDE HARSH AND BOUNCY WITH THESE SPRINGS?

my head is now constantly slamming the headrest, and it's getting annoying.

WILL ADDING A REAR BUMPER/TIRE CARRIER MAKE MY RIDE SOFTER?
am i just too light right now? are these springs made for a higher GVWR? i could just chill with these until i can afford bumpers/sliders/sound deadener that will bring its weight up.

OR should i sell 'em and get something else, like from Rancho, for a more street-friendly ride?

all opinions welcome!

tried4x2signN

so you bought the springs only? Not the shackles and shocks to, right?

That could be your problem b/c as far as I know the OME stuff is designed to work with the shackles and shocks in the KIT.

I didn't know you could or should use them a la carte...

tj884Rdlx

i had new shackles fabricated by a driveline shop who worked on fixing my driveshaft/pinion angles.

i have the recommended shocks with the springs, as i mentioned above. i also replaced all bushings with poly.

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

How long are the shackles bh to bh? What's your shackle angle? How are your shocks mounted? Could be any number of things causing your problem. Too light to wrong shocks to bad shackle angles. My OME stuff on my 84 pickup is plush compared to the stock suspension. I have customized mine a lot and used Bils.

OutlawMike

Well, you know my opinion, as I was one of the people to recommend them at the time.

Mine ride perfect on the road, not to harsh, not too soft. No issues with bouncing or lack of compliance. Far better than the stock ride.

I am running the stock shackles, just swapped over the new bushings for the old rubber bushings.

I am running the medium rate OME shocks, as they call them. N92's, I think.

My pinion angle measures within 1/16" (measuring along the top and the bottom of the driveshaft from the output flange on the T-case to the input flange on the diff). Not much of an angle difference.

I run the spare BFG AT 33x10.5x15 with a ProComp steel wheel under the rig in the stock tire location. Offroad I have a swing down tire carrier that goes into the receiver on my Marlin Crawler rear bumper. Nothing much else beyond stock for weight in the rear when I drive around town, oh, a fire extinguisher is always back there, but that is not much weight.

So, what is going on with yours? Did you remove the hard stop / sleeve / tube thing from your stock springs on the front eye so that you could re-use it with the new bushings in the front eye of the springs? The OME kit does not come with those parts, I had to burn mine out of the stock rubber bushings and clean it up. If you do not have them in there, you could have it all bound up in the front eye.

Did you put a liberal amount of lube on the poly bushings when installing them? I slathered the stuff on mine and cleaned up the excess after driving it a few hundred miles.

As for the driveline noise, did you make sure to get the driveline back in oriented properly? It has to be clocked properly so that the U-joint imbalance cancels out. I had mine balanced and new U-joints put in when I did the swap.

Check your rear trans mount to make sure it is not sloppy and changing the angle under load.

I would be interested to find out what the root cause is, keep us in the loop.

Mike

tj884Rdlx

shackles bolt to bolt are 3.5"

the shackle angle is shown in the picture. i didn't have a protractor to try to get a rough measure.

the shocks are mounted stock, and all new poly bushes everywhere.

the springs and shocks are CS009R and N94, each rated med. duty and matched for 86-89 rear. the shackles were custom fab to fit at a d-shaft shop.

i may have to ride out to alabamie and show you. there's gotta be something i'm missing.
RIGHT REAR SHACKLE. you can see the angle vs. the hanging mud flap

RIGHT REAR UBOLT

LEFT REAR FRONT SPRING MOUNT

tj884Rdlx

MY D-SHAFT MEASURES 46 5/16th" on top and bottom, flange to flange, just like you described. you can see the angle in the pic below.

the 3 grease zerks on the shaft are aligned as pictured in the FSM.

the bushes all look pretty greasy still.

for the front spring bush, no i didn't have the special OME one since it's different size than stock. i went to a local 4x4 shop and they helped me find one that was just the tiny bit too big, and we grinded it down to fit in the spring eye. it seemed like a good fit when we installed it.

right now i have the hard top on for a little extra weight, but there's no spare back there. still, that is not what's making my ride so harsh. i cannot go over speed bumps slow enough. the whole truck hops.

DSHAFT TO PINION.

LEFT REAR SHACKLE FROM THE BACK. bolts are 3.5" on cent.

tj884Rdlx

tj884Rdlx

n92s list as FJ60 fronts. i have n94s.

my measures appear to be 46 5/16th" on top and bottom of shaft, flange to flange (outer sides of)

OutlawMike

Probably the N94's then, I was just throwing it out off the top of my head.

Your pinion angle should be spot on with those measurements.

I suspect your leafs are bound up in some way, but I can't tell you where. I was thinking about your post as I drove to work this morning, mine rides great and I can haul ass over speedbumps, it just soaks it up.

Since you have custom shackles in the back, I might suspect something is going on there. Are there sleeves in those shackles to keep the bushings from being over compressed by the the bolts? The bushings need to have those hard stops in there so that they can get relative motion with the shackle.

Keep us posted.

Mike

yotaman85

your shackle angle is a little steep, and why do you have two overloads on the rear springs? do they come that way from OME.

tj884Rdlx

they DO come that way. i was considering pulling a leaf out. possibly the leaf BEFORE the two load leafs. but i know these OMEs are supposed to be all matched and calculated and i didn't want to jack it up.

i will have to loosen, regrease, and retorque all the bushings and bolts.

i didn't know my angle was that great until i measured it. but i didn't know to measure it til yesterday when i got the suggestion here, so THANKS FOR MENTIONING THAT, MIKE!

this voice in the back of my head that says "you shoulda kept the stock leafs and just did the zuk coil mod".

i hate that voice. i usually will get him too wasted to speak when i've had enough. hah!

Fink

I had Wabbit install my rear OME lift and not only did I get a much taller result than I was shooting for but I did have a pretty violent driveline vibration.

I was hoping it would settle after the install but they did not settle much and the driveline vibration was still there when I sold it a few weeks ago.

I would do a test and put several hundred pounds in the back (if you have friends my size it would only take a couple) and drive around to see if that helps.

The ride in mine was not bouncy at all, it almost rode better than my Tacoma did to be honest with you.
I did have the extra weight of the topper though - I never drove it with the top off after the lift so I can't compare that for you.

I would call ARB and see what they say, they have some pretty awesome dudes up there and most of them have Toyota's.

Fink

OutlawMike

No problem, Roger (aka 4Crawler) deserves the credit on that, he mentions that technique of measuring the top and bottom of the flanges to determine the angle difference on his site.

Just to confirm, are you sure that you have sleeves in each of the bushings, the one in the front and the two in the rear on each spring? If you do not have sleeves in there, then you do not have a hard stop to ensure you do not over compress the bushings and bind the suspension.

A good idea posted above to put some big dudes in the back and drive it to see if that smooths out the ride.

Also, maybe they shipped you the 2 1/2" lift springs instead of the 2"? Those are higher rate than stock springs.

Good luck

tj884Rdlx

update:

i went back to 4wheelparts and asked them to look over the whole thing. they said it was all set up appropriately. they greased the heck out of everything greaseable, then told me to air down to about 28psi. so i did. my ride has improved significantly. so it may have been the air pressure all along.

it's still a firm ride, but not so shocking now. i am going to hold off on pulling a leaf, because i have stock bumpers, and i figure anyone running OME springs has heavy duty bumpers/sliders for a higher GVWR.

after i get bumpers, sliders, a spare tire, then i'll see if i need to pull a leaf. i'm thinking it won't be a problem by then. hoping anyway.

highonpottery

iTrader: (1)

i could be wrong and i'll have to check when i get home, but i don't think my OME leafs have 2 overloads, just one. i'm pretty sure it's just 4 leafs + one overload. maybe you have the HD leafs? do you always roll with the top off? that would have a big influence on the rear.

95taco4x4

The CS009R's are four leafs with two overloads. The only note I see in the application guide is 85-89 4Runner automatics require modified rear springs. If that's the case you'll need to contact one of the tech guys at ARB-OME.

aw.eenink

hey i have a 88 4runner sr5 3.0 v6 4wd. I want to raise the rear end 3 to 4 inches. so what should i do?

tj884Rdlx

i spoke with ARB about that. it's def. 2 overloads on the med. duty, and they say if you're going to remove a leaf, DON'T take one of them. they suggested the 3rd, but it's got a brace around it so i think i'd take the 4th instead.

but i am holding off 'til i have the truck fully loaded. i still need real bumpers, sliders, and a spare 33". that should weigh the truck down quite a bit, and hopefully i won't need to pull a leaf at that point.

i usually do leave the soft top on always, but i put the hard top back on after finding the springs so stiff. they've broken in quite a bit, but it's still jarring, even with the hard top on.

tj884Rdlx

pilates?

hah! j/k

do you mean, to restore the proper ride height of sagging leafs? if so, the simplest answer to this question, in my mind now, is the ZUK COIL MOD. do a search for it and read up. the info on how to, and what parts to buy where, are all here in this site. google search is quicker.

it is an easy fix with a lot of endorsement by peeps here who tried it. very affordable, minimal labor.