Lift opinions...flexy as possible

[rjpotts]

Hello all, I'm new to this site, and fairly new to 'yotas.
I'm going to buy a 79-85 Toy ASAP. Most of the 4-wheelin' I and my friends do is rock crawling and a little trail riding.
I'm looking to go full-width (already have a Dana 70), flat bed, cage (external), gears, lockers (lincoln or otherwise), possibly dual t-cases, etc...
I'm considering 4-linking and coil springing the rear also.
I want a VERY capable toy but I don't want to completely break the bank.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
R.J.

[ryan]

Impossable. you are going to break the bank with those ideas. :grin: If you want a cheap way to get better flex, you can use chevy leafs. You can then put your rears in the front and that will move your axle forward 2 inches. This will leav you with some money to do the dual case and lockers, then later down the road when bank has some more money you can upgrade to coils. Just an idea.

[rjpotts]

Come on, it can't be that hard to convert to coils. I'm planning on doing it all myself (that'll save some $). I know how to set up a 4-link properly, I have all the welding/cutting tools necessary, and sources for steel and parts.
I really want to do this, but if the Chevy springs work as well as y'all say they do, I may run that until I want to get a little more wild.
So, what year springs should I look for? And junkyard springs, or new lift springs from a company? Any driveshaft issues? How much lift does it offer?
Sorry so many questions, I'm excited about getting back into 4-wheelin'. I've been racing diesel trucks for the last year or so and I'm sick of having one toy.
Thanks,
-R.J.

[ryan]

If you have the know how and shop then coils would be sweet. This is what
I want to do so that I can chop off all that hang over in the rear. As for the chevy leafs, they come from a truck between 88-98 perferably a 1/2 ton 2 wd. Others will work, you just have to take some leafs out. There are no driveline issues and it lifts the truck about 3-4 inches. For complete info on this, you can go to page 3 of the thread page and click on leafs. There are some links there that will answer all your questions and also show you how one guy did his install.
I bought mine at Tear A Part in Salt Lake for $40.

[KToy]

whats your budget ?


if u have a 4000 dollar budget then do what you want. if its 1500 then leafs are the way to go.

[rjpotts]

I have a pretty good size budget. KToy, my 1996 Dodge 2500 std. cab 4x4 Cummins (low 13 sec truck) just got totaled due to a head on collision with an idiot that fell asleep. (Off subject, but I saw your sig).
One way or another, I'll be getting about $15K and keeping my salvage. So I figure after buying another truck just like the one I had, I'll have something like $6-7K left over, not including my pain and suffering settlement which should also be substantial.
While we're on subject, does this sound like a bad deal? I found an '83 'Yota new 22r (4-speed) 3" lift, 3" body, new 35" MTR's, Yukon 4.88's (f/r), Yukon spool rear, new clutch, flat bed already fabbed and usable (I'd change it eventually), warn 8000, power steering, and some other stuff I'm sure I'm missing. The owner said he doesn't really want to sell it but he would for $4500. Truck is in great shape, drives great, looks great, etc...
Good deal, or no?
Thanks for the input, keep em coming.
-R.J.

[TrucksChixnbeer]

Chevy rears coil fronts dual cases with 5:1's and 5:29's lock up the front with a lockright and weld the rear Leave the toy axles and buy longfields and you will give your friends penis envy

[leorn]

sounds like you can do what you need to. I can't speak about coils. As for leafs the chevy swap hangs out the back to far for me. I think you will be much happier if you can set up a good link. As for that truck it doesn't sound like anything special. Especially without fuel injection.

Spend some good time studying on pirate4x4.com (http://www.pirate4x4.com) marlin (http://www.marlincrawler.com)

there are other sites, but this question has been thouroughly explored and you should get some good ideas to get started.

[TrucksChixnbeer]

my chevys dont hang out the back at all :lol:
you move your front spring mount fwd 12"s and its lines up pre****************edly with the stock rear one

[leorn]

my chevys dont hang out the back at all :lol:
you move your front spring mount fwd 12"s and its lines up pre****************edly with the stock rear one

to avoid confusion.
they extend 4 inches further to the rear from the center pin. no they don't hang out past the bumper, but I think my 56" alcans (1/2" further in the rear) are rock magnets. jmho

http://www.wildyoats.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=6193
Yours would be 1" forward of this. you also have shortened your wheelbase 1".

[rjpotts]

I'm wondering what works best now. I know there is more than one way to skin a cat, but I've read about people moving the front hanger forward everywhere from 9" to 13" and some moving the shackle hanger back up to 6" and some not moving it back at all.
Does anyone have definite measurements as to how far to move each hanger to keep the rear axle in its stock location?
When I do it I'm going to hang pins for my own piece of mind, but I would like to know for sure that I've got the right numbers just in case.
Thanks,
-R.J.

[81toy4x4]

See if you can get some cheap coils from a junkyard, maybe front coils from a cherokee or something. Then I bought some schedule 80 pipe for my link arms and 1/4 inch 3"x3" square tube to make mounts for it all. It didn't cost very much at all maybe a little over $100 for all the metal. Then your set, if you have all the metal working tools. We had a mill to do all my mounts for the axle and the crossmember we built. Overall you could probably do a coil job for under $300 depending on the coils you get.

[high4runner]

hey thats my truck on the left!!! :lol: anyone wanna buy it??

[81toy4x4]

Lol, how much you want? I'm going to coils in the front this winter with histeer. I bent the tierod into the axle and dented it the other day. But how much for the truck minus some shit.

[high4runner]

minus what? just got a 92 cruiser so im decidin wether to make it a wheeler/street machine and sell my truck...or keep it and have the best of both worlds...only sucky thing is the land cruiser has an ARB bumper...but doesnt have the winch mount...

[81toy4x4]

Let me know a price, hell idk.

[high4runner]

4000....less if i take stuff off of it....thats what i got into it....minus the exo cage