tacotacotaco

Hello all, this will be my first post on YotaTech.
First...Just to be clear, this particular ZUK mod is where you beef up your rear suspension in order to haul more gear, or in my case, help rear leafs that are way past due for replacement. It involves adding a coil spring either over the upper and lower bumper stops, or doing away with the stock stops and making your own bracket in order to keep the springs in place.
I am a college student and have been dreading replacing my sagging rear leafs on my 96 Tacoma Xtra cab. The leafs on it were not broken, but were straightened out pretty bad to the point where I thought they were going to invert. $250 bucks was about the cheapest I found for a new OEM leaf pack(lame). That and what would be a hellacious afternoon swapping them out for a light tinkerer like me. I had been reading about the ZUK mod that I guess became popular due to the dreaded 4-runner sag. It sparked my curiosity to find out that this could also be done on the tacoma. I figured that for $50 bucks, I could see if it could fix my problem. My only hesitation was that there was not a lot of info. on the ins and outs of this mod for the average guy. I don't have a whole machine and welding shop at my house and am restricted heavily by money. I needed to know exactly how much I was going to have to spend and exactly what needed to be altered so I didn't have to go to the local garage 100 times. This is the main reason I chose to do a write up on this. I will do my best to answer ANY questions that people have about this mod...that is if anybody has any, heck, maybe this procedure is so vanilla that no one has any questions. I do not off road often and therefore chose this configuration for highway driving with a little "fun" in the mud and gravel on the weekends. *THIS IS MY FIRST POST I PROBABLY WILL LEAVE THINGS OUT, PLEASE ASK ANY QUESTIONS AND GIVE ME TIPS FOR REVISIONS* THANKS!

Problems I was having that I attributed to my weak leafs.
-sagging look
-not able to load down bed
-truck handled corners very poorly (rolled badly, Y-axis)
-mild axle wrap
-bottoming out at times, felt EVERY bump in the road

Questions that I was trying to answer BEFORE I started Purchasing
-Use custom springs, use front or rear TJ coils
-choose a bolt on method with light fab, or one that required welding and medium fab
-would the TJs be too stiff of a ride? (this is what I read)
- WOULD THIS MOD ALLOW THE USE OF STOCK SHOCKS AND MAINTAIN STOCK HEIGHT (a HUGE issue)

A pic of the rear end b4 the mod


A pic of the rear leafs b4 the mod, note the space between the stops


What I decided on and the procedure.

- I chose the route of least commitment and fab. Rear TJ (Jeep) pigtail coils that fit over the bottom stop without cutting and over the top when 2" was taken off the upper end of the spring.
-I found rear TJs on ebay for $40 including shipping.
-I took them to the local garage and the guy took a cutting wheel on them for the minimum charge of $10. The only real fab. in this project is to cut 2" off the top of each of the coils so they fit around the upper stops.
-Rented STRUT spring compressors from auto zone....available for a refundable deposit, SWEET!

1. Parking brake on, chocked wheels, cracked lugs on first rear wheel.
2. Trying to find a place to jack the truck up that lets the rear axle droop was harder than expected. I decided to use the side frame rails. This was only achieved with the help of a couple of 6x6s and 4x4s seeing as how my floor jack was not tall enough. Pic below...

3. Placed jackstand under rail as extra insurance
4. Removed wheel
5. Clamped compressors onto spring....on the drivers side, there are brake components that interfere with the spring compressor nuts. You need to slide the compressors around a bit so that do not interfere with any upper or lower components while still having the compressors on opposite sides of each other. On the passengers side, there are no brake components to worry about, but you still need to work around the frame and such.
6. Orientated the spring how I wanted and slowly released the pressure on the springs.
7. Put the wheel back on and let the truck down.

These steps are repeated for the other side.

WOW what a difference.

Ground to bottom of fender measurement Before: 3' After: 3' 3.5" on drivers (gas tank), 3' 4" on passengers side. The front wheels also received more clearance, I forgot to measure but it was probably almost around an inch.
The leafs are HAPPY...literally. Pic below of the aftermath.


Pic of the lower bumper-stop with coil on it...


There is plenty of clearance between the spring and the wheel...Pic below...


Look at the clearance now...(pic is taken at a downward angle but you get the picture)


REMEMBER, I HAVE STOCK SUSPENSION COMPONENTS AND DID THIS WITH NO INTENTION OF LIFTING.

The coils might have put the rear a bit above stock but hey for $50 and a little effort, I can deal with some rear rake! Pic...


Were the perceived problems fixed? YES!
-does NOT look saggy
-I'm sure it will handle heavier loads
-the truck handled great, barely any roll around harsh corners
-axle wrap issues have disappeared
-definitely have not bottomed out

I took the truck out for a drive on a dirt gravel road to settle the springs. The ride was better than I ever remembered. There were some nasty washboards all along this road but I barely felt anything.

BOTTOM LINE

I think that this mod is more legit than people give credit. I also think that when configured in a more permanent manner, it can be far superior to AALs given the spring factor you use. I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS MOD!
Thanks for playing along guys....seriously, any questions just let me know.

-Taco^3

JAvendan

nice work and great write up!

joel

ZUK

iTrader: (1)

Nice job TTT

I was gonna say that now you can carry alot more payload than before but I was starting to think about the 1996 c channel frame ends.....and then I realized that maybe you'll be just fine because of where the load is being placed now. Nice, clean, and simple. I get this feeling that you're an M.E. student? Was I close?
ZUK

edit----You're right....not much has been done on the Tacos with this kind of mod. The Taco dudes will like this write-up.

tacotacotaco

If by M.E. You mean music education, and then you hit it right on the money

obscurotron

Is it possible that with only spring tension keeping them in place that they will rattle around, or worse, pop out? That's an EXCELLENT mod that I might try on my '04.

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

So what is securing the coils to keep them from popping out if the rear suspension droops?

:wabbit2:

tacotacotaco

You would really have to TRY and pop these springs out. I'm not sure of the measurement of the suspension at full droop, but I can tell you that it was a lot. That being said, I had to compress the stock TJs a BUNCH in order to fit them inside the bumper stops. They do NOT rattle one bit...and I have been trying trust me Dirt/ gravel washboard roads, it only seems to settle and secure them more rather than loosen them. I only cut the top enough to fit around the upper stop...to the point where they almost didn't fit around the stop. I think you would either have to be a rally driver flying over jumps, or major off-roading/rock crawling in order to unseat the springs. I just don't see it happening. They are in there SOLID! And don't think that the use of these diminishes your travel...at full droop the springs were tight...as soon as I lowered the truck off the jack in the least bit, they began to compress. I'm rambling, I know, but I'm trying to relay that they are in there GOOD! Bottom line and as I've said before, I drive the highway a lot, but also drive rural VA back roads. This application suits me perfectly...probably overkill in some ways. If you're worried, use a more permanent application. I used this one because I was still weary of the Mod., if I didn't like it, there was no welding/cutting fab. done to the truck itself. The options/configurations of this Mod. are practically endless! Thats why it's so AWESOME! You could make your own brackets in place of the upper and lower stops. The bottom one comes off after you loosed the U-bolts I believe, and the upper is easily cut and ground down smooth. Then just weld a piece of steel pipe(that fits inside the spring yo want to use) onto a steel plate. Weld to the top and secure with the U-bolts on the bottom. Voila! From here you can add any spring you want. Maybe one that is a bit longer than you need with a low spring rating so it compresses how you need it to and allows for mondo travel. ANYWAY.. I got to stop talking ... did I answer your questions? Let me know

Taco^3

Gerdo

It sounds like they are not going anywhere. If they are tight at full droop, I wouldn't worry. They may have a little more play with one tire at full compression and the other at full droop.

From what it looks like, there is a lot more keeping them in place (bumpstops) than the coils on the rear of a 3rd gen 4runner.