I was dicussing what I want to do with my 4Rnr today with the owner of Yota Ray's. I mentioned to him that I liked leaf springs because they are simple and easy to lift. It got both of us thinking:
How much work would it be to tear out the rear coils on a 2nd Gen, and swap in leafs?

I'd guess that it would be no more complicated than doing and SAS(you know what I mean). Cut off the coil mounts on the axle, cut off the "3 link"(can't remember what the support bars are called), and shackle mounts to the frame.

I think it sounds cool, but does anyone actually have any experiance with this idea?

 

It's easy. There are even kits to do it if you aren't comfortable sourcing the parts yourself..

 

Its one of the MOST popular mods to 2nd gen runners. Im starting mine this winter.

 

But how much lift do you want?

 

Here is how to do it:
http://www.off-road.com/toyota/tech/56leaf/index.html

 

I love this forum. lol

 

I personally like coils...?? better ride... seems like they get a little better articulation??

 

i forget what magazine did it recently, possible off road adventures or four wheeler, but someone took a jeep cherokee and did a writeup on converting it to leafs from the stock coils... migth wnat to see if you can dig info up on it, yes it uses a unibody construction, but the general principles are the same as the unibody has 2 big rails built undernath that look amazingly like a framerail.....

 

Except a Cherokee is leafs in the rear stock. Only coils in front.

But changing from coils to leafs in the rear is way simpler than a SAS front - no steering components!

 

oh... oops, mabe it was replacing the leafs with coils
damnit, im dyslexic....

 

For mild lifts with the stock suspension links, coils are fine. If you want more lift and/or better flex, then you would really want to consider replacing the stock links with longer ones set up for more travel. The stock links become the limiting factor pretty fast. Probably easier to put leaves on than to re-design the controlline links. Also, many folks find that when they do a leaf spring SAS, the combination of leaves up front and coils in back can lead to some handling quirks. Maybe with a coil over front SAS, the rear coils would be fine.