I'm in the middle of the biggest project I've done on my truck so far. After owning my '91 4WD for just about two years in the Northeast, I wanted to make sure the frame was in good shape to resist the snow and ice and salt moving forward. I have a new set of leaf packs from LCE to swap in while I'm at it since each side of the originals has a broken leaf. I've got most of the frame down to the metal with any rust addressed with either a wire wheel or needle scaler and am going to be painting it with POR15 this weekend and then following up with a rubber undercoating spray + a coating of fluid film before it snows for the year. I'm also using Corroseal on things like the gas tank shield (followed up with bedliner) that so far I'm loving.

My current question is the rear shackles. I'm having trouble finding replacements for the originals that I don't want to reuse and the nuts for are toast. I see there are a couple of options like Dorman 722-043 that are listed as the RWD replacements but haven't found any for 4WD models. Alternatively, everything on LCE has some sort of lift which isn't the goal at the moment. Can somebody point me in the direction of a stock replacement? I would love to have a greaseable set.


Here's where I'm at right now, as well as a "before" pic for posterity:

 

Oh second question: My LSPV is really rusty - much more so than any part of the frame was. I'm going to have to replace the hard line that goes to the axle soft-line and everything is rusted to the point of it not being worth trying to free it up. I know there are delete kits, etc. but there's this replacement from "UTSAUTO" for <$30:


Anybody have experience with this one?

 

NO NO No!!! Rubber undercoating is the worst thing you can use . Unless your prep work and application is 100% perfect you get moisture trapped in any air pockets from condensation and it just keeps rusting

Do The POR 15 and apply Fluid Film every fall

Where in the North East the liquid Brine Belt

 

Word of advice, pick up a $20 sand blasting attachment for a pressure washer and do your frame. Once its dry skip the POR15, it really only encapsulates the rust and isnt UV resistent, you would still have rust issues underneath and still need to do a topcoat that is UV resistant, rubber undercoating I wouldnt recommend either. It works great until it dosent and starts trapping moisture rather than letting it breath. I did my bed frame rails and brought everything down to raw steel with my sand blaster and painted everything with 3-4 coats of "Steel-It" and it came out great. Thankfully my truck was a NC truck and is now in FL so it didnt see much in the way of salt but rusted pretty good like most of these trucks. You can pick up a new LSPV for about ~$200 from Toyota but most would recommend just hard-piping in a fixed proportioning valve and just deleting the OEM one.

https://steel-it.com/

 

I know less than nothing about undercoats, but it sounds like they've been covered pretty well.

Personally, I would go with a Toyota OEM LSPV. After all, look how long the old one lasted you. If you amortize the cost over the miles driven, or years it lasted, either one, I wager the Toyota OEM one isn't as much as it seems at first. Just something to think about.

I am sure glad they use crushed lava rock in the snow around here. Gives great traction, but doesn't cause any kind of corrosion. A little hard on paint jobs, but hey...

Have fun!
Pat☺

 

Thanks for the input everyone. I'm committed to the POR 15 but will definitely re-think the rubber underspray. I've been using fluid film for a few years and do stand by it. One of the three owners before me did some kind of rubber undercoat I'm guessing at least a decade ago. It kept the front of the frame pristine and has worn off the back. The frame is in overall great condition, save a few spots, which was really encouraging. My engine only has ~103k and I'm planning on having it a while

I called TrailGear today, who referred me to one of their sister companies. The salesperson said that these would fit and the 4" offset is only 1/2" longer than OEM. Would this even be noticeable?

https://lowrangeoffroad.com/toyota-r...53=833&140=838

I also figured this would affect the LSPV (assuming I keep it) but I think there's room on the threaded rod that connects to the axle to compensate/adjust for the minor height difference of the shackles. Just got off the phone with the local Toyota dealer who's doing some "research" on pricing for a replacement LSPV and a few other odds and ends, including the shackles so how I proceed with a replacement/delete will probably depend on that.

 

I don’t think you should have an issue or notice much of a difference. I’m sure your springs are a little tired so the 1/2” won’t matter too much. If you stick with POR15 make sure you use their topcoat system as well to UV protect the coating. Wool wax and fluid film is always a good idea too. The LSPV should have some adjustment in it as well, I should have added that most people that are lifting it delete it, but since you’re trying to just restore everything there’s nothing wrong with keeping it if that’s the case. Too many years on the Marlin Crawer
forum clouding my thinking!

Here are pics of my frame after I sand blasted and painted my frame with Steel-It.

 

Wow your frame looks amazing - Steel-IT seems great! I'm done with the POR15 and will post some pictures soon. I'm overall happy with how it came out and confident it will provide much better protection to the frame than before; definitely an improvement.

Okay so now for the springs.

1. Front leaf hanger bolt. The left one came out easily but I'm having trouble with the right. After some searching, this seems to be a pretty common problem. I don't really see why it should be so hard to remove seeing that it goes into the steel sleeve, rather than directly into the bushing and the left one came out in great shape. At any rate it's soaking in PB blaster and I'll keep working on it. In the mean time, I'm not sure what hanger bolts I should buy. I'm seeing a lot of 18mm "options" for the truck but the bolt I pulled out of the left is a 14mm diameter and 4" length. What's the deal with that? I don't really want to drill out the existing hanger holes since I would think that would compromise the strength then there's the matter of pressing out the sleeve from the spring. The one I puled out of the left looks like I could use it again - not sure how the right will be - or I could order from the dealer, but I'd rather have a greaseable one if possible.

Currently considering getting this: https://www.4wheelparts.com/p/warrio.../R-BKTR-90308A

2. I ended pulling the trigger on the 4" shackles from Low Range Offroad. Kicking myself since I ordered bushings from LCE but the shackles will come with them. Oh well.

 

Maybe the left side was removed so easy because it was the wrong Bolt

If your worried about drilling out the spring hanger simple to reinforce the back and front with the holes drilled you require and weld in place.

Unless your into quite a lot of jumping and hanging the axle in the air putting lots of strain and hard landings drilling the hanger to fit the correct size of your new springs

After my first all day adventure trying to remove the Spring Hanger bolts they seize to the steel sleeve I tried everything torch air hammer nothing worked

I just cut them off front and rear with a cut off disc pry the hanger apart enough and pop the Spring out I just buy the new bolts from my Dealer Hardware prices were not bad

I don`t mess with U-Bolts they get cutoff

Happy Suspension up grade.

 

The hanger bolts were stock and to be honest I'm not really sure what else you were trying to say in the last post. Ended up ordering replacement hanger bolts for ~$5/ea from the dealership. Once those and the shackles come in I should have all the hardware to bolt everything back together. Next up is the underside of the bed. I flipped it vertically to get a good look and am sure that I could spend another couple weeks on just that. I'm pretty sure the original owner must have sprayed a rubber undercoating on it out of the factory because under the coating the metal is perfect. Only the areas where it is coming off have bits of rust. For now I'm going to hit it with the power washer and the worse areas with the needle scaler, reinforce some of the metal areas around where the mudflaps bolt in and call it a day so I can get the truck back on the road. Maybe I'll revisit it next summer.

Here's where I'm at right now. I think I missed the sweet spot timing-wise for applying the second coat so it came out a little drippy in some areas which is a little annoying but overall I'm happy with it. For the center round bar, I punched out all the weak spots with the needler so it's got some holes in it now but is mechanically sound.

 

Oh also, after ~4 days of soaking with PB blaster, whacking with a hammer and hitting it with the impact, I finally got the right side leaf spring out without having to cut anything. Just takes a bit of patience and muscle

 

Okay so I got my hangers in and am picking up parts from Toyota today but now have encountered another little issue:

The stock shackles have a 18mm bolt that connects them to the rear leaf hanger on the truck and a 14mm bolt that goes through the leaf spring.
On the leaf spring (both stock and the LCE replacement I got), there's a steel sleeve through a rubber bushing the steel sleeve accommodates the 14mm bolt.
The "direct fit" shackles I got from ARB (ARB OMEGS12) has 18mm bolts both top and bottom. Thinking back on my researching shackles, I don't think I saw any that had 18mm and 14mm bolts. The shackles are unavailable from Toyota. This must be a fairly common thing that people encounter - what have others done here?

 

Wondering if you ever figured your shackles out? Same frustration on my end. I ordered new OME rear springs, etc., for my 94 4WD as a complete kit from Rocky Road Outfitters last year and just now getting around to installing. I should have opened the box when I got them...lol...no shackles or bolts, just new bushings. I called and they said the plan for the "kit" is to re-use the old ones. Sure. Angle grinder took those off. Like you, I don't want to lift it, Im going to get enough "lift" from the new springs. Did the shackles from low range work? I'll post up what I find as well. Thanks!

 

Hey yes, sorry I had meant to update the thread but got caught up!

Yes - I did end up going with the shackles from AP. It's part number AP-306728. It actually ended up being a lot easier than I was making it out to be. The shackle set comes with two sets of bushings per shackle - for both the spring and the hanger - , and I just pressed out the ones that came installed on the LCE springs I ordered and used the ones that came with the shackles. For the LCE springs, that meant pressing out the inner and outer steel sleeves, as well as the rubber in between. You can see in the picture below that I got the sleeve+rubber+sleeve out in one go for one of them and the outer sleeve came out separately for the other (didn't make my "pressing tool" big enough). The truck is back together now. At first the rear did sit up a little bit higher than I had thought. I just took it camping up to the North Maine Woods (only non-paved logging roads) which really broke everything in. I think that it may sit up a tiny bit higher than it did before now, but it's not noticeable. Plus, I'm sure the original leaf packs were sagging from where they sat in 1991 so it's probably the height that came out of the factory!

Here's the springs with the bushings that came with the kit installed:





Painted axle, almost ready for the bed to go back on:



Here's how it sat after a couple of weeks of driving. You can see the shackles peeking out at the rear:





When I started the truck before putting the bed back on, the main fuel line was leaking. I must have disturbed it somewhere along the way and the rusty hard line broke through - I'm glad it did while everything was apart. Tracking down the correct fitting to mate with the one coming out of the fuel pump hanger was a little tedious. Hopefully this will be of use to somebody down the line - here's what I ended up doing:

From Extreme PSI:From Summit Racing:The final operations being: Fuel hanger > Extreme PSI connector > 24" -6AN hose > Fuel rail Connect -6AN > Fuel Hose > Clamped onto whatevers up front (for now)







A couple more of how it sits (with top and some gear) after being pretty battered on several hundred miles worth of non-paved roads:

 

That's not "battered"! That's what these trucks live for, so to speak. It's how they WANT to be treated. The more the better.

Just keep up on their maintenance, and they are more than happy to keep on bouncing all over the landscape. ANY landscape

Keep boonie hopping!
Pat☺

 

Thanks for the follow up. I am going to get the shackles from Low Range ordered now. I use my 94 (Blue Betty) as my daily driver work truck. She has been "dead in the water" since early April when the timing chain guide disintegrated into the oil pan. Getting parts has been a struggle. Replacing the timing chain guide took me down the rabbit hole of "as long as I am in there", and I have never done this extensive of a repair before. Basically a minor engine rebuild. It has been a learning curve, but fun. Fun as long as she fires up when I finally turn the key again!! I am waiting on a header from LCE and then she will be back together minus the new rear suspension. I'll try and post up some photos when she is back to getting battered : )