Please advise (almost stuck) - urgent need info for leaf springs for 1995 4x4 Ex cab - Solved

In the all excitement I did not take any pictures - broken leaf was scary enough. It is held together by the second one and rivet at the center.

I can order poly bushing from RockAuto (2 sets for 47 dollars including shipping, customs and VAT) but I would get them by the end of the next week - to late for replacement. This will be my option if original bushing do not work.

 

Before I beat this horse to death let me ask one more question. What do you guys know about Dorman - OE Solutions 929-400 Leaf Spring? Any good? I just found an option of buying them on Ebay with shipping to Poland. Of course shipping and import fees almost doubles the US price so total for a pair is $625.82 so it is actually the best price I could find ($362 for a pair, $132 shipping and $131 customs paperwork and VAT).

 

They're cheap crap, Dorman always is. That said leafs are pretty old tech, im sure someone is making them for Dorman. I've broken a few leafs packs like this and rebuilt them. It's not hard, hopefully your blacksmith knows his business.

 

Thanks, good to know. You are right, I am probably sweating over this. I'm sure "my blacksmith" knows what he is doing. I mean he is servicing the entire fleet of trucks and vans in lower Silesia area. He said I'm lucky to come this time of the year as all companies trying to run crap out of their fleet to max out the delivery before the end of the year. A couple months ago it was different story - trucks were lining up the street for service. Now he has one or two per day.

I also asked him if it makes sense to do both sides at the same time, and he said it is not worth it. The other side might break next day or as well might be good for next 10 years. If it ain't broken, don't fix it. My kind of guy

 

I am glad this worked out.

I had faith someone had to be able to fix this .

This way if the other side gives you issues you know where to go.

 

I will know for sure on Monday. For now my "luxory" 4Runner is doing a pickup work. Just bought 1000 sq feet of vinyl flooring - that is over 1800 lb. Had to run twice to get it picked up. Can't wait to get my Tacoma back to service.

 

Here is the happy ending to the story. I drove to the shop this morning at 7 am. I decided to wait and watch. I was curious how these 25 years old bolts in the suspension hold up. The blacksmith also said, that the repair time might take two hours if there are no problems taking all bolts out or it might be much more if they have problem with rust. Let me tell you, all bolts and nuts were just dirty from the dry mud, bot otherwise healthy with no spec of rust on them. He reused them all.



It took one person less than 20 minutes to wrestle the spring out of the truck. Now I could see the damage.



Actually it was the second leaf broken, not the main one, so the axle was held firmly in place. Apparently it must be broken or cracked for some time before I noticed, judging from the look of the break line.



It was just under the u-bolt so it was really hard to notice it without looking for the crack. Only when it started to squeak, it got my attention.

Having an opportunity to get under the truck in the oil pit I checked the other spring, and this one does not have even a crack. It is a keeper.



After taking the leaf apart he made a new spring that matched exactly the shape of the broken one. There was a danger that the maybe the other side will need also a new leaf, if the truck sits uneven under the load. However after new spring was assembled and installed the height difference was less than 1/2 inch, that is less than a weight of few gallons of fuel. So we call it a day - the whole process from drive in to drive out (including paperwork) took less than 2 hours, and cost me 74 dollars.

I learned a lot about this guy's business. Most of his work is not a repair job, but redoing suspension to adjust for specific load customers are going to do. For example some truck company has a 1 years contract for hauling a cement that is heavy, so they come over there to replace springs in their trucks to carry more weight. After the contract is done, and for example they get a new contract for hauling wood, they come over again and redo the suspension for lighter load. Because this is easy, cheap and very reliable, his customers prefer the suspension change over the airbag install. Airbags are not reliable as a steel springs, he told me. And I believe in that.

He told me, if I need to make my truck to sit higher for longer travel or sit the same but have a suspension to hold 1 ton, he can do it no problem. For my needs however I will keep the stock suspension but install the airbags I bought, as 90% of my driving is empty, and very occasionally I will want to load more than half ton of stuff. It this changes, for sure I will come back to his shop to get my suspension made. This guy is great find and a keeper.

 

Ding Ding Ding we have a winner and a very good contact .

I really hope you gave him a good tip for the amount of money you were going to spend or at least tried.

I know I would have thrown him a $100.00

 

This is not over yet, the driver side is still original, it will go out any time

 

I've broken two passenger sides now but never a driver.

 

I will be installing airbags when I have time and place. Hopefully this will save springs a bit.

 

That's probably unnecessary unless you intend to haul a lot of weight regularly.

 

Actually based on the "blacksmith" saying, if I want to haul a lot of weight regularly, I would be better of with custom built leaf pack. Much more reliable than airbags (metal springs never leak air ). But if most of my driving is empty, than heavy duty springs would create a harsh ride. In that case inflating an airbag only when I need heavier load would make sense.

What I meant by "saving springs" with airbags is just for occasion of heavy load once in a while by not bending these springs into a "frown face".