Ok... I'm from the XOC board, and I know about searching, but I have yet to find the answer I'm looking for. A friend of mine has a '94 4Runner, and the ass end is beginning to sag. I know this is a commom problem, and I've seen the obvious remedies (replacing springs). My question is this, he just spent $2k putting a new engine in his truck, and is now on a VERY limited budget. What is going to be the most cost effective (not ghetto) way to right this wrong? Also, he has little knowledge of automotive mechanics, but I have a bit. Whatever suggestions I get, is this something we can do ourselves with no special tools? Sorry to come over here and ask possible stupid questions that have probably been asked a million times before, but I'm just looking for something a little more specific than I've already seen. Thanks for the help, and I'll see ya on the trails!

 

The springs cost around $150. Is this within the budget? You can do coil spacers with the stock coils as an alternative. No need to lengthen shocks or brakelines, etc. Assuming you just want to level it out, right?

Look at Downey, Performance Products or OME for the springs. Not sure on the spacers. If he's gonna wheel it, go for the springs.

 

Rear spacers from Downey or Cornfed Suspensions are a little over $100, I think. http://www.cornfedsuspension.com

http://www.downeyoff-road.com/Catalog/

 

swapping coils or putting in spacers is all doable on your own.

And thanks for searching!

 

Definately put in better springs. Spacers are just a bandaid fix for a too soft spring. My Downey HD's added about 1.5" of lift and it rides much smoother than it ever did with the stock springs. Also - I can load all sorts of stuff in the back now (hundreds of pounds) and get no ass sag. Spacers can't do that as mine would sag with as little as two people in the back seat.

 

I went the Coil Spacer route on mine about 6 years ago. I went to Auto Zone and bought 2 pair of the twin bolt-type spacers.....one pair for each coil spring. I jacked the truck up and inserted two spacers per coil.....I placed one spacer on an outer part of the coil and the other on an inner part. I repeated this for the other coil spring on the other side. I adjusted each spacer until I got both sides even and the desired ride height. It did take several iterations of jacking the truck up to take the load off of the coils to make the adjustments easier and then lowering the truck to check the height. I did find the spacers 'walked' around the coils over time. To prevent this from re-occuring, I reset the spacers until I got the correct ride height again, and then I bought 8 small hose clamps. I put hose clamps around the coil.... one either side of each spacer to 'lock' them in place.

This has worked so well that I have not up-graded my coils....in fact I forgot that I had done this until you posted this.

Is this too ghetto?? If I was a hard core off-road person, it would not work too well over time, but since my Runner sees limited off-road duty, it works for me and my wallet. I think the spacers and clamps cost less than $20 total at Auto Zone.

David

 

I'm sure Adrian will chime in, he uses Cruiser coils. I think you can get them very cheap out of a salvage yard. I'm not sure what years will work.

 

Yup, I am cheap.

Pair of short side cruiser coils ought to fix it. Mild adjustment of the torsion bars and you are styling. Add $40 for a panhard drop and BAM! You could still get some cheapo shocks and be in under budget.

If you want cheap, I would look for some used spacers. I let mine go, lightly used, just a while ago.

You could do it once with Downey's since they include the brake line.

Spring compressor is not needed to do this. I put in my cruiser coils that are uber long with my shocks attached in a gravel parking lot using only a pry bar and a lot of cussing.

 

I wasn't calling you "cheap" I just knew you advocated the use of used cruiser coils for this fix. And, I never consider it cheap when you use your resources wisely.

 

Good call on the cruiser coils. I wasn't sure if the short side ones wourld be too tall for leveling the guy out or not. Just to clarify, what years of cruiser should these come out of, or should he just call up Slee Offroad? Also, does someone have to get the coils off of 2 cruisers to get a matching pair of short-side coils? (I think I know the answers, I was just hoping to get all of the info here for the newbie who needs help)

 

Yeah, I need this info.

 

No worries Jim, I just wanted to reiterate the fact that I did it that way. When confronted with the issue, I had a lot of options. I do have 3 ARB's, so this would fall in the category of correct appropriation of funds. Going this way was the cheapest by better than $100.

I called Slee since they were up the road from me this summer and I did not have time to hit yards. Not sure they will sell you a mismatched set, but it would be worth asking.

If you go this route, you are looking for 80's series 4wd Land Cruisers. I want to say that is 91-98 IIRC.

I have two tall sides because I have a heavy rear bumper, spare and the like. I sold the short sides to a guy on ODW and he got a solid 3" of rear lift, but he is bumperless in the rear. Just wanted to add that disclaimer.

 

so do the 80's series come with one short coil on one side and a longer coil on the other side?
Thanks

 

Yeah, I had to buy two sets to get two tall side coils.

It ended up that I had 4 coils that looked to be three different sorts of things. One was noticeably longer. One was slightly shorter than that, but still longer than the other two, but it was off like half a coil compared to the long one. The other two were the same height, but were off around a quarter coil.

When I had the first set, whichever side of the truck had the shorter coil was around 3/4" lower. I thought I would buy another pair since they were so cheap and that solved the problem.

 

Thanks a lot guys... I really appreciate the help... I've given Jason (the friend) a link to this, so hopefully he'll stop by and show his appreciation, also... I think we should be able to handle it from here, but if not, we'll be back! Oh, and if there's anyone in the Austin area ever looking to do some wheeling, look me up!

--Kraig
Sorry for the parking lot picture... can't ever seem to get any good offroad ones...