I was helping one of my buddies on his truck the other day and he has a 1st gen pickup and he got the 3" lift springs from skyjacker just about a year ago and this is what they look like now. Figured I would show yall this in case you were planning on buying some!

 

Looks to me part of the leaf pack is missing, Please do not dis a Co. just because you Helped a buddy. Buying some of what? Leaf pack # so we can confirm a visual? I am sure Skyjacker is reputable. But! Keep us posted on the fix. Thanks

 

He said he didnt remove any leafs or anything, he put them on just like they came and this is how they look a year later. I dont know what he plans to do to fix it but I gave his some coil springs to do a ZUK mod in the back so that may help his situation

 

the problem is not with the springs and I am sure someone here is gonna agree with me on this one. look at those photos closely. I see something missing that should be on there with any lift spring. Other than the fact they don't have an overload leaf in there. Which is why these are bent the way they are. What is it? Bump stop extensions. the springs were most definitely over extended because the bump stops were not extended. Overloading the truck that has no overload spring probably doesn't help either especially with the lack of the extensions, but since I don't know the owner of the truck I can't say that for sure.

 

Yup. He doesnt overload the truck cause he is in college and its his daily driver and he has to comute back and forth. But an overload spring probably would have been a good choice lol ill have to ask him about that one haha

 

Ayup that flat spring on the bottom's not there.

 

how could one overload the front of a rig with cargo? theres no room for anything lol.
also most aftermarket front lift springs (skyjacker included) do not come with an overload spring.

and this could be a dumb question but, how could the springs be over extended?
wont the springs (regardless of lift height) hit the stops at the same point?(right when the springs get flat).

the only reason you would need to extend the bump stops would be if you installed longer shackles and lowered the front hanger correct?

i could be way off, its late lol

 

those are stock shackles.

For springs that are supposedly a year old they look like they have been on the truck for 25 years, you positve he got them new.
Positive he hasn't jumped the truck or anything like that?

And why post a 1st Gen issue in the 86-95 folder?
Will figure out where to move this thread.

 

Leafs went flat or negative arch too many times. Operator / installer error.

 

flat is ok right?

again, how could they go negative if he has bump stops and factory shackles and front hanger?

 

I have a 3" skyjacker lift on my truck and it looks like you are missing a few leafs in that pack. I've had mine for over 3 years now and are still going strong.

 

5" SkyJacker springs





Alright folks...quiet down...class is in session. First, those ARE atleast 1.5" rear leaf spring mounts/extensions. NOT SHACKLES. Of the home-made type too by the looks of them.

I've seen my fair share of solid axle leaf spring shackles. Which are at the rear of the leaf spring pack in most cases. ALWAYS on stock Toyotas. And the shackles aren't even shown in that group of pics, so who really knows if they're lift shackles or not? Or does it even have shackles at all. Which would be colossally stupid if it didn't. And would be a big-time contributing factor as to what happened to those springs there.

So, does it have lift shackles, or no shackles by chance?

MegaManX268 care to elaborate on that?

 

I agree with you scuba.

I however disagree with Mudhippy:
I think you are wrong:
in the middle of this pic of parts I removed off my 1st Gen when I redid the front suspension you will see the Shackles:

they look like what is posted here,:

What you can not see in the upper picture is the topend of the shackle due to the front body mount obstructing the view:


The pics shown are indeed stock 1st gen front Shackles.

 

man to me now that I am looking at that shackle, it looks like that shackle is not a shackle at all and its a half a shackle welded to the frame too. Also it doesn't look like there is that body mount even there.


Lift springs will have a greater distance between the factory bump stop than factory springs. This will cause the spring to get longer than a factory spring and will possibly cause the shackle to bottom out on the frame making the shackle point a fixed point leading to the spring to go into a negative arch.

Yes flat is ok, factory bump stop is ok as long as the shackle is long enough to allow the leaf to get long enough to flatten out.

 

It is definitely a 1st gen shackle, whether or not it has been welded is another story, but you can not see the top of it because it is obscured by the front cab mount,
I took this one at about the same angle:

Stock shackles were staggered instead of spacers like aftermarket

 

would a stock shackle be too short for even a 3" lift spring to allow that spring to lengthen while it flattens out because it hits the frame when it tilts back? I've seen that happen before but mainly in an SAS'd rig.

 

yea thats what i was thinking.. though i think his shackle might have enough throw for the 3" springs. reason being is that his shackle is vertical at ride height. with out testing its just a guess though.

 

That could very well be...but it still seems to me by looking at them that they are either too short and/or have been hacked and welded to the frame in some manner. They seem to be angled forward, not straight up & down or to the rear like they should be too, very weird. Something just don't look right to me...

Thanks for showing those stock shackles, I looked every where for some pics but found none. What I've seen used mostly for SASs are the stock straight type shackles from the rear leafs used for the leafs on the front. Or after-market straight type like you show there. I don't recall ever seeing any stock type like those. But I've only seen 2 or 3 1st gen trucks that were in stock configuration first hand. And they sit pretty low...guess I never bothered to look.

 

toyota 1 that's not vertical if anything like mudhippy said its leaning forward. and the spring is not effectively shorter because of the negative arch it has now. which means that thing was probably pitched back when the leafs were normal.

 

that spring does not have negative arch, its flat with a slight warp in it. and when there flat there at there longest point. so if anything the shackle was at a worse angle when it had its arch.

and if it did have negative arch, it would be shorter. just like when it has positive arch its shorter. because when a spring is flat its eye to eye measurement is at its longest point. any arch being negative or positive is going to make the eye to eye measurement shorter.

that shackle is pretty much vertical. maybe forward a slight amount.
regardless the shackle being where it is would have enough throw for a 3" lift spring.
i mean don't get me wrong the shackle angle is not correct by any means. i just don't think at that angle it would put the spring in a bind.