Tacoma Spring refurbishing

I DO see considerable pitting, but it isn't the number of pits that concern me, it's the depth of a few that does, this is why I "scale" my potential donors with the edge of my grinder removing a small amount of material around the suspect area , a slight wear mark from anti squeak pads is generally just that & not a fracture of impending doom.....

*not his leafs
**leaf basher

 

Thanks Doug, we'll grind it down before painting. It was just a concern because I think that's what caused the one to break. Wondered if we should hit the JY or not.

 

Finally got a set of springs from a mid 70's chevy. The leaf packs were 5 springs including the overload. This leaves me with 3 springs to work with. Out of those 3, the longest is 48", next is 42", and the next is 35"... But they're elliptical and I have a 2nd gen. With that being said, what lengths should I cut them to? I plan on using all 3 leaves but can't figure out whether I should build off the main spring or leave the top two and build on those.

 

Interesting questions to which I have no answer, but bump for Doug to possibly help y'all

 

Actually you have 4 to work with....

I used the top leaf of my donors and just cut the ears off

 

Good idea, figured you could do that. All the same thickness

 

If you just do the 63's mod just plan on relocating the hangers so you maintain drive shaft length (oem) unless you plan on longer shaft/sliding yoke

 

Finally finished up this mod today. Found a set of mid 70's Chevy 1/2 ton 5 leaf pack on craigslist and cleaned them up with a flap wheel. Primed them with 2 coats of Rustoleum primer and 2 coats of Rustoleum bed liner. These aren't rusting anytime soon. Also made custom leaf spring clamps via @4WD's method, worked out great. 3/8" of all thread with nylock nuts. Threw on the Toytec ubolt flip kit and tacked the OEM bump stops to the plate until I get a set of superbumps.

 

NICE! How many leafs did you add to the stock pack? I want about 4" lift and a good carrying capacity

 

Thanks Matt. I added 4 leafs to the stock pack. Removed everything below the main leaf (including the overload) and built off the main leaf. Didn't even remove it from the truck, just added the leafs in descending order and got them lined up.

 

Did you cut to the lengths as said by Doug? Also, I'm lucky, I have an extra set of brand new leafs from my recent frame replacement to work on on the bench

 

Also, love your avatar/profile pic haha, Bubbles

 

I did, except the longest leaf from the donor pack came out to 48" instead of the recommended 49". Not sure how much of a difference it will make but other than that I followed his instructions on the cut lengths.

 

Okay, great man! Now I just gotta find myself a junk yard with good donor packs. Easier said than done

 

So, it's been a while, but I wanted to report back on how things have gone with my leaf packs.

Background -- I've got a 5 lug, spring under axle design, so to get serious load carrying (usually ~600-700# of carpentry crap on board) and a tiny bit of lift, I should have found some heavily arched springs at the junkyard. I didn't know any better, so got some normal ones off an old Suburban.

Since I had no clue if anything would work, I decided to keep my stock leafs in one piece and have replacements ready to bolt in/out as needed. For that, I got a pair of donor leafs locally off a TRD OR, and just kept the top leaf with the eyelets. I bolted 3 more underneath (no overload) and started tearing stuff apart.

Once I had my factory leaf off, I was getting more nervous, because my "new" leaf pack was about 1" shorter in height that the factory pack. In other words, my ass was gonna sag more from the start. Once I jumped on the leafs, I realized that the new pack was way stiffer than the factory pack, so I put it together just to see.

Turned out that the extra stiffness offset the reduced arc and the slightly lower stance from having 4 leafs vs 3. My new ride height, normally loaded, is about 1" higher than it was. It doesn't handle much different from before -- maybe just a tiny bit stiffer. I don't think I'm banging on the bumpstops anywhere near as much as I was before.

Even though I re-used various squeak pads, I was getting b%$t*rd squeaking from the back. My wife and commuting buddy would look across at me every time it squeaked with that look of, "I f*&^%$# told you so, you cheapskate. You should've just gotten this done properly." Or at least that's how I interpreted her look. Strange thing is, everything settled in after about 3 weeks, and it doesn't squeak at all anymore. (Whew!)

SO, if I was to do it again, I'd choose better at the junkyard and get a tiny bit more lift. I could've saved some money by not buying the TRD leafs, but I really liked having a spare set as an insurance policy. All told, this was still a good cheap mod for me.

Thanks to Doug and everyone that's offered advice in this thread. I couldn't have done it without ya.

 

Been reading through this thread as best as I can. I was just wondering if anyone has tried to just double up on 2 sets of trd leaf springs to make them stronger? I don't need anymore lift I just need to carry more wait in the bed of my truck for work.

 

I think I've seen pix of your existing leafs here, and if I'm right, they're pretty beat up. So, stacking marginal metal on beat up metal might not be your best option.

 

Yes the current leaf springs on my truck are trashed but I have a new set and then someone is selling another set online that I was thinking about buying but not sure if it'll work. I wouldn't be using the ones that are on my truck they would be 2 new pairs.

 

I would use the new set to build off of and add 2 Chevy leafs if you can find a donor pack. I don't think 2 leafs would give you much lift if any, but would benefit you much more than 2 OEM packs together.

 

Cool thanks man. I will have to start looking