FNG from Oakland

Welcome to Tacoma World! My wife trained all my kids to drive a stick on my daily driver, I ended up replacing the clutch twice (no one got under the car in the driveway with me). Nice that you can do this for them.

 

See if you can get the leaf packs off that 04. It would be easier to start with a stock leaf pack. But you said the coil overs you got had 2 inch lift rings... does that mean the 04 you are getting parts off of has a lift? You can lift a known stock leaf pack relatively cheap and easy with an Add A Leaf from @Wheeler's Off-Road Inc they have 1.5 or 2.5 AALs.

The problem is if the 04 your getting parts off of has a lift, what did they do to it to lift it? A stock leaf pack should not have a block in it. And the stock leaf pack should have 3 leafs plus the overload spring. The pack may also say Mexico on it.

 

I'm thinking that if I have both front and rear off the same truck then I should be in fairly good shape for starters.

Here is how the fronts look now...




and here is what the rear looks like...



I know the bottom leaf has been flipped, leading to a really harsh ride in the rear. They did put Bilsteins on it at least, but not getting much action setup like this. I will try to flip that leaf back over this weekend, that should help the ride, and it's sitting really high in the back now with the changed front springs, so that block probably needs to go too, but then do the shocks still work? Hmmm...

 

That looks like more lift than those blocks will make. The overloads may hold it up by being ip side down, but I think you mighht have lifting shackles too. That is a bunch of lift. Do you have a pic of the leaf shackles?

 

Ok... so those appear to be stock shackles. So I would guess the previous owner achived the lift by installing the blocks and flipping the overloads.

My suggestion is flip the overloads and pitch the blocks in the garbage. You can lift it cheap, easy, and correctly by getting 1.5 inch AAL or a 2.5 inch AAL.

If your front rings give you 2 inches of lift, the 1.5 AAL will (pretty much) level it. The 2.5 inch will give you a bit of a rake.

I don't think you need to go get another set of leafs for what it sounds like you are trying to accomplish right now.

 

Thanks for all the input, Matt. I will have a go at it tomorrow, after I locate some stock u-bolts and new set of lug nuts.
On the old FJ-40 I used longer shackles to get the lift, super easy to do in a few minutes and it worked great, stock springs were beefy...I guess these springs are a lot softer?

 

These Tacoma springs have a habit of de-arching. I don't know if it is because they are soft or there is more weight relative to the spring rate of the leafs compared to the old FJs.

You can do the lift with shackles @Wheeler's Off-Road Inc sells those too. I just think it's easier and better to do the AALs rather than shackles (for these leafs) for what you're doing... and dang it... I think I have a set of stock U-bolts sitting in my garage. I know I have a full set of stock lug nuts.

 

Matt, thanks so much for the offer, damn nice of you sir! Wish you were closer. SWAT Offroad opens at 9 this morning, I'll give them a call and see what they can do for me.

 

So, strike out on the u-bolts this weekend, as a result, ass-end is still way up in the air. I did pull the rear wheels, found that they had 1.5" spacers on so removed those and pulled the drums to check the brakes...leaky seal on drivers side of the rear end, brakes are all slimy on that side, which explains another issue of the e-brake being tightened beyond normal. Also noticed that the power steering housing moves around when turning, so need to order up the bushings to fix that. Watching the You-toob to learn about these things.

 

Damn that sucks! Always sucks when you're itchin to do something but can't get the parts in time. Did you order the U-bolts?

 

I tried to buy them local with no luck, but was referred to a place, Betts Truck Parts & Service in San Leandro, they made them up for me on the spot! I also went back to get a locator bolt for the rear spring packs as I had to cut the last one off to swap the helper spring. So far so good, now the only thing I need are rear shock bushings, which I did order because nobody local had them...not easy to order just the bushings for some reason.
Anyway, everything back together but the shocks, hope to have that resolved maybe tomorrow if the parts come in.

 

word.
i can dig it.

 

Update. Rear springs corrected it's drivable now (still waiting on new shock bushings, jammed the old ones back in for now). I picked up a new set of wheels yesterday (for CHEAP on CL) so it feels MUCH better on the road. Still a few front-end issues to resolve, lower A-arm bushings close to shot, power steering bushings definitely shot, and need to replace the D-side upper ball-joint. I have a few smaller parts coming in today (door handle, rear window latches, dome light)...also need to turn-up some headlights and front markers.

 

OK, hyper15125, whaddaya suggest sir?

 

I ran out to Grass Valley...Made a new friend in the process!


Met up with Ryan from 4X4 Labs, he's parting out a couple Tacos...I picked up the exhaust I need to get Black Betty smogged, and a few other bonus parts while I was there.

First long trip in the old girl, just shy of 300 miles. Ran great! Still need some real tires, these did pretty well all things considered, but not a lot of traction in the wet...4WD works though.