I have a SAS front and the stock coil rear with longer springs. The rear end its maxed out and I feel the leaf swap will be safer than trying to redo all the links.

Have any of you tryed the 63" Chev 1/2 ton springs in the back of the 2nd gen 4runner? How did they handle the extra weaght of the runner? Would I be better off looking for the rear springs out of a 1/2 ton 4x4 chevy with the 5 leaf packs? or 3/4 ton springs?

I mainly use the truck for camping and exploring so I need somthing that will take 500-800lbs of gear but still flex well.

Thanks for any help!!

Jeremy

 

I would have liked to try the 63" Chevy leaves when I swapped my rear end to l, but have always seen blocks required to get the trucks to sit level. I knew the 4Runner would be heavier still, so went with All-Pro leaves instead.

I have 4" Marlin leaves in the front, 6" All-Pro in the rear. Even with that, my rear end sagged. I have finally got things level now but I imagine if I put 500 to 800lbs of gear (that's a ton of gear by the way) in the back that my tail would droop for sure.

Maybe you could do some work on the spring mounts themselves to gain some height or go with some really long shackles. You are going to want to have your 4Runner sit tail high when empty and will run stiff to be able to handle that much gear.

I wonder if you keep your coil/ link setup if you could not do something with air springs to regulate height and handle different loads.

 

Yeah I think I'm going to give them a shot and see what there like. I have some 63" springs out of a 1/2 ton 2wd that I'm going to use to make a costom pack. I have the Chevies, AAL, and the main leaf out of a F250 rear pack. I hope with a combow of those I can get it flexing well and take the gear for camping. Looks like all my gear is about 300lbs, last time I checked the weaght of the truck loaded I had part of a Zodiac in the truck, hence the 500lbs of gear.

I'm going to try and get the brakets and other bits over the next day or two and maybe do the swap this weekend.

Jeremy

 

Today I picked up a rear axle compleat out of a 93 V6 PU with 4.56 3rd and all. This will make my swap much easyer as I will not be waisting hours cutting and grinding my housing down.

I have also sourced a pair of 1/2 Ton 63" springs off a 4x4 (5 leaf) with 58k miles on them. All the spring hangers I'm getting tomorrow as well as the stock to make the rear shackles. I have the AAL and the extra leaf out of a 3/4 ton ford so I should be able to make somthing that flexes good but still has good road manners.

I have also found a pair of bilstein 5150's (12" travel) to go along with the front.

Friday I hope to have all the parts togeather and start on the swap Saturday.

Jeremy

 

I was able to get all the stock hangers cut off on Saturday and cleaned up ready for the spring hangers. I ended up gettign a 3/4 ton 5 leaf pack, I'm hoping that this alows me to run a minimal rear block.

Tomorrow night I will be tacking the hangers in place and see how it all sits.

Jeremy

 

i have the 63's in the rear of my 4runner.... i am currently running 3" blocks to level it out. i'm looking to get rid of them by blocking by the scissor shackle and / or having the springs re arched. i love the amount of flex i get out of them. I also may try going to a fabtech spring for lifted applications and seeing if i still get the flex out of it like i want.

 

That looks good, how much lift did you have on the front? I have a TG 3" front of mine. I will not be running the scissor shackel set up on mine and am going to try running a 7"-8" shakle. With running the 3/4 ton 4x4 springs I'm hopfull that I will not need a lot of block. I may need to take out a leaf to get a decent ride and flex though. I hope tonight we can have hte truck on the ground and see what it looks like.

What kind of shock setup did you run?

 

I have 4" rancho lift springs up front... but i'm not sure how much of the 4" i'm getting considering i bought them used and there is a v6 sitting on them not the 22re they are designed for.

I have Procomp ES9000s on all corners. 12" travel up front and 14" in the rear.

 

Great! thanks for the info. I have a v6 sitting on my 3" TG springs and its high. I would like ot have a rear rake in the truck over the ass sag look I had before the leaf swap.

Tonight I should know were I'm at with this.

Jeremy

 

Well thanks to the help and use of one of my friends shop we have the swap 99% done. Tonight all I need to do is get the upper shock mounts made and bleed the brakes.

The runner sits much better now than it did with the coils. I now have a bit of a rake to the rear and it feels a bit stiffer. I'm looking forward to gettign it done tonigth and home to finish the last few things before my trip this long weekend. I have a 3" block on it but I think a 2" block will work much better so I will swap that around in the next week or so. I still have to take out my 2" BL as the truck is way taller than needed for 33's.

Jeremy

 

Any one running the stock rear DS with the a TG 4" rear lift or Chevys? I have a drive line viberation and want to get an idea what you needed to do.

The truck is done and I drove it home, ride is much improved over the coils and maxed out links. I need to measure it tomorrow to see what I'm sitting at for hight. I also want to make new rear brake lines and get my e-brake working too.

Should get most done tomorrow night, and some pictures.

Jeremy

 

I ran a stock drive line for a year until i bent it... now i have a custom that has been extended 3 inches.

 

Ok thanks, I thought there was to much viberation. I had my drive shaft come apart at the slip, I alinged the joints but think I may have done it 180 deg off. I get viberations from 5mph up so somthing is way off.

My pinion angle is better than it was with the coils, and the angle out of the tranny is not that much more. My rear shaft is a good length, and I'm not at the end of the yoke.

Jeremy

 

Jeremy, your driveshafts need to be "in phase" that is the yokes must be parallel to each other like this>>

You WILL have vibrations if they arent

 

Thanks very much for that picture, I did get the shaft back in in phase but I'm thinking I may have got it 180 deg out. there is 2 ways that will be in phase on the shaft I do not know if it will make that much of a diffrence though.

I may just need to get a double cardon on the rear but thats more $$ and this front a rear set up as used up most of that.

Jeremy

 

Usually the shafts are pretty much the same 180 deg..... the only difference is the zerk fittings but the vibration caused by those would be negligible.....More than likely it is an pinion angle and/or CV problem

 

Any info on how much lift you got after the springs? I am looking to do rears up front and 63's in the back, wondering if the runner will sit level.

 

With 3/4 ton 4x4 springs and a 3 block its a bit taller in the back than the front. I would say I have about 6" in the rear and 5"-5.5" in the front. I did remove the overload spring from the pack and even with out it I have no problem with axle wrap at all.

 

Do you have any pictures of how you mounted your rear shocks?

I have torn the upper mounts we made off driving it down the street. I was using my procomps (for a 4" lift) that were in the rear with the coils. So I made a tab on the top off of a pice of 1.5" x 3/8 steel square tube. Tonight on my first test drive they both tore the welds off so I now need to make somthing stronger and for an eye to eye shock.

I leave for Oregon in 6 days and have a ton of stuff to get done on the truck this was not one of them lol.

Jeremy

 

Here is how I did mine.