Chevy Springs on a yota pickup

[Tiggy]

i hear that you can use chevy half ton pickup leafs springs and mount them on a toyota and they give you some good flex, what kind of leafs are these and how much lift would it give you.

i`m looking for a new lift kit as you can tell, anything to replace my old one which cant felx worth shit, maby it;s my rear shackels cause they kinda point downwords and not on a angel like they should be.

[muddy_yota_guy]

The 88-98 two wheel drive chevy half ton leafs that are 63" long are the ones to get. I just got them out of a junkyard for $80 for the pair. I mounted mine on my 94 with a shackle that is 9 inches eye to eye, you'll have to relocate the spring hanger and shackle mount to keep you axle in the same place. Heres a link to some pics of my truck with the chevies on it http://photobucket.com/albums/v470/one_fast_guy/Truck%20Project/

[JOKER]

Here is a link to my swap, the front hanger was moved 11" forward.

Chevy spring swap (http://www.4x4republic.com/southwestvoodoo/chevyspringINSTALL.htm)

[Tiggy]

wow, 9 inches of lift, thats pretty good for 80 bucks, is it hard work and what about the front springs, what would u do for that

[muddy_yota_guy]

It's not 9 inches of lift, The lift you get from your shackles is usually half of the legnth of the shackle. the swap is pretty easy if you can weld, have a torch and grinder.

[Kyron]

I recomend getting the rear springs from the same place that you get you front springs from.........

When you finish adding up all your time and $$ for the other stuff needed to make the chevys have the same amount of lift as the front your going to be real close in cost........

Your going to need a 2" block and possiable add a leaf's if you get front springs with more than 3" of lift.....

You can lower the shackle mount in the rear to gain more lift BUT you end up with a nice rock anchor.........


If I were to do it over I would have gotten the rear springs from AllPro when I got my fronts.........

I ended up haveing to buy lifted chevys to match my front 4"....... I spent way more $$ tring to save money by being cheap








Your not forgetting about cross over steering :devillook

[Boost_Junkiee]

You really need to get that shackle off the front of your spring in the front. Thats really dangerous, its needs to be in the back. When you are driving it forward it is ALWAYS loading that leaf spring. Thats bad news man :dunno:

[Kyron]

You really need to get that shackle off the front of your spring in the front. Thats really dangerous, its needs to be in the back. When you are driving it forward it is ALWAYS loading that leaf spring. Thats bad news man :dunno:
Wtf :dunno:

[84toy]

You really need to get that shackle off the front of your spring in the front. Thats really dangerous, its needs to be in the back. When you are driving it forward it is ALWAYS loading that leaf spring. Thats bad news man :dunno:

Does not and is not.I'm thinking of doing the same one day.One of the benifit's of a shackle in front are when running a larger tire when flexing it keep's the tire out of the firewall.I would however put a shorter shackle on with a built in stop so the spring's don't get f'd up.....

[Boost_Junkiee]

let me know how that works out for you, just watching out for fellow wheelers. I guess if it is not daily driven you dont have to worry about it breaking a leaf while your cruising down the highway and killing you.... but it does load the leaf at all times while driving forward and puts a whole hell of alot of stress on the suspension up front. I have always been told by other suspension pro's to not do it and have seen what can happen after a periond of time what it can do. Im just keeping an eye out... :dunno:

[Boost_Junkiee]

Wtf :dunno:go look at his pics he has the shackle in the front, i wasnt looking at the pic you posted....

[fenderbmxer86]

Chevys are a cheap easy flex. Just use a block and make a nice traction bar and you wont have any worries of axle wrap. Im about to do that swap pretty soon so check out my build if your more intrested in it.

[WrenchTwister]

wow, 9 inches of lift, thats pretty good for 80 bucks, is it hard work and what about the front springs, what would u do for that

you can use the stock rear springs off the yoter, put those in front.
of course, some cutting and welding is req'd

[fenderbmxer86]

you can use the stock rear springs off the yoter, put those in front.
of course, some cutting and welding is req'd


No you cant!!!!

YOU HAVE TO ADD SOME MORE LEAFS TO THE PACK!!!!

Dont tell people what to do if you have no idea what your talking about.

You have to build a new hanger, new shackles, get highsteer, build your own pack, get new driveline, blah blah.

Yes it works great but you cant just slap them in!!!!

[RockCrushinToy]

its really not THAT hard to put rears of front, you just need two sets of toy rears to make a hibrid pack of about six leafs and you dont NEED high steer, you can just do a simple cross steer

that is what i have and it flexes bitchin!

[muddy_yota_guy]

You really need to get that shackle off the front of your spring in the front. Thats really dangerous, its needs to be in the back. When you are driving it forward it is ALWAYS loading that leaf spring. Thats bad news man

Jeeps have been running shackles in front and alot of them are daily driven, with the proper leaf setup in the front, you don't have to worry about a dd with shackles in the front. I graduated WyoTech and went through Chassis Fabrication there, thats where i did my sas and chevy rears. If it was dangerous to run shackles in front i think i would have learned about it.

[fenderbmxer86]

Jeeps have been running shackles in front and alot of them are daily driven, with the proper leaf setup in the front, you don't have to worry about a dd with shackles in the front. I graduated WyoTech and went through Chassis Fabrication there, thats where i did my sas and chevy rears. If it was dangerous to run shackles in front i think i would have learned about it.

Another cool thing about shackles in the front is you dont need a long slip driveshaft.

its really not THAT hard to put rears of front, you just need two sets of toy rears to make a hibrid pack of about six leafs and you dont NEED high steer, you can just do a simple cross steer

that is what i have and it flexes bitchin!

well if you have a 85 or older you have to change your steering, which means money.

And you need a ifs steering box.

What i ment is, its not just a slap in type thing, you have to build the spring pack, get a front hanger, get some shackles, Mount the steering box, and buy some sort of cross over steering.

No its not hard, but if you dont even know how to mount a simple set of 63"s do you really expect him to do the R-O-F swap?

[RockCrushinToy]

ya it is definetaly more difficult than a chevy rears swap, but i say go for it cuz if you just start going at it you will learn how to make it work!

[fenderbmxer86]

ya it is definetaly more difficult than a chevy rears swap, but i say go for it cuz if you just start going at it you will learn how to make it work!

So true.

Just dont "go for it" with the steering please. :grin:

Most people with any mechanical expierence could hook up steering but if you dont know jack then dont do it.

[RockCrushinToy]

that is true with the steering, mostly because your life can depend on steering haha!

as long as you got a pretty good design and some nice strong codder keys in your steering parts you should be ok right??

haha

[fenderbmxer86]

that is true with the steering, mostly because your life can depend on steering haha!

as long as you got a pretty good design and some nice strong codder keys in your steering parts you should be ok right??

haha

Yeah should be "ok"

JUST DONT BE DRIVING NEXT TO ME OR MY FAMILY!!! :grin:

[keyice]

ford fullsize also run shackles up front as well as other vehicles, when springs compress you are taking caster out of the steering axle, is it really a problem with handling, not really if you are running stiff springs, but with soft flex springs you are push the laws of physics. it is easier to just put the hard end of the springs in front, shackles in back. Chevies in rear and rears up front aren't that hard to do but if you move the hard mount end in the front springs you will need to lengthen the driveshaft and I would recommend a high pinion or a rotated front housing. with 2 inches llift, two extra inches forward I have to lengthen my shaft 5 inches

[fenderbmxer86]

Front fj80 is hp

[keyice]

yes fj80 are high pinion, pretty spendy too that is why it is cheaper to rotate the housing, the whole point of either is because the third member is offset unlike the rear you need to alleviate the steep angle the driveline accures on passenger side droop to much angle coupled with short driveline makes it bind, dual case help alleviate this problem also(can't spell)

[fenderbmxer86]

How do you rotate the housing?

Just flip it 180degrees and then get reverse cut gears?

[keyice]

4x4wire.com has a write up, my buddy up in sac has 15 front housings or so I was going to rotate them and sell them if anyone is interested figure 150 a peice but it will take time i have to may projects going now

[JOKER]

An easier but maybe not cheaper solution is a double cardon CV at both ends of the front drive shaft with shims.

I have 4.5" of lift with 6 deg. shims and 1 CV on the shaft and it works just fine.

[keyice]

shims on a steering axle are not a risk I am willing to take, but do as you will

[85 toy]

and you really dont need the new front hanger eather im runing my rears
up front with a six leaf pack and 6in eye to eye shackles pinion angle is
ok and yes they do flex like crazy.

and in the rear im runing ranger springs with a one inch lift block
and 8in eye to eye shackle with a second shackle to mount the springs.
and they moved my axle back like six inches. which is what i wanted
this set up works awsome thought i will have a wrap bar in the back.

[keyice]

I put the know hanger in for bump on the frame factor, without longer front shackles I saw a couple of guys do this(grant I take them as idiots for half the mods they have done) but the springs were sitting on the frame almost, I have a 5mge engine in my mine its a little heavier than a 22r so I needed more clearance on the rear of the front springs without sacrificing my shackle angle to buckboard straight up and down. and yes rears do flex nice, but I think it d crawler with astro van coils that thing flexes

[JOKER]

shims on a steering axle are not a risk I am willing to take, but do as you will

I have run steel shims for 5years with no problems, but you make yours as difficult as you want.