Chevy springs

[81yoat]

Hello all. I have recently acquired an 81 toyota for a hell of a deal and Am itching to start building it. I was wondering if anyone could provide me with some info on swapping chevy springs in the rear and putting the rears up front. I have invested hours in reading old posts about this and are hoping someone will tell me what all I will need to do this swap. I have access to tons of chevy springs and of course my old rears. I know that I will have to go to crossover steering for the rears to go up front, but I am unsure about everything else. Any help is appreciated. Oh and by the way this truck is only going to be a tral rig.

[bbagwell]

For cross-over steering you are going to need an IFS power steering box.

[KToy]

move both rear hangers.

youll need new hangers either make them or buy them from marlincrawler.com

youll need a drop hanger in the front to get some decent pinion angle and possibly get your knuckles cut and turned.

youll need shackles or fab some.

all the bolts and hardware.

take the overload out of the chevy pack and you need to stack up a couple of toy rears to support the motor.


good luck.

[jvmin]

81's from what I hear have a really short front drive shaft so the further
forward you move the front axle the better. and the higher you lift it the
more your angle problems
as far as moving the steering forward is concerned your limitations are the
radiator wall/body mount that will be in front of your steering box

you can cut it out a good bit and go as far foward as you can with the
steering box. the tie rod and drag link will hit otherwise.
then move the axle forward as far as possible.
that will help your approach angle some.
give you firewall/cab clearance and relieve some of the angle on the front
shaft and lengthen your wheel base a bit

another option on that is the short arm for the box to give you a litle more
clearance. you can drill your front spring perches on the axle housing to
move it forward some too. but a really flexy 81 is going to have front drive
shaft issues. a crawlbox set up will help that problem.

you'll need to aquire a power steering box and the power steering unit unless
you have one.
high steer set up
I had to run several extra springs in my front packs to get them to support
my engine, winch, and bumper weight. but I had several packs laying around.
you'll have to get a longer steering shaft to go from the cab to the steering
box. or modify yours
if you don't run a new front drop hanger you'll have to run boomerang type
shackles for frame clearances or spaced shackles with longer bolts.
if you do run a drop hanger you probably need to get the knuckles rotated
for pinion angle corrections. but since your talking trail only you may get
away with out it. you can move the front axle forwards a good bit during this
process that will help with all the driveshaft problems.
you'll need longer shocks
taller front shock towers or your shocks will be your limiting factor

honestly though you could just hammer out the fenderwell firewall area.
Cut the fenders out as far as you can stand it.
Take the rear overload leafs out of it.
Do the rear shocks in a / \ to the frame brace under the bed.
Extend the rear shackles a good bit.
extend the rear and front brake lines.
cut the front towers off of it and throw some ford towers in there
get some longer shocks
weld the diffs
throw some 33" to 36" meats on it
and wheel the crap out of it like it is.

[81yoat]

Well I can come up with ford shock towers, but is there any specific year/model that I should go with? Also if I make my own shackles for the front what should I watch out for. I mean I know that I can make them but I was curious to see what some of you guys have done and what works well. I have a welder and a cutting torch, but I have never built a truck before. I am trying to learn all that I can so that I do it right the first time. Also I have read on a few posts that some people have used the 63" chevy springs and wished that they had gone with a shorter spring. What would some of you guys or gals reccomend. There really aren't all that many rocks out here so I dont think that I will have a problem with the springs dragging on everything, But I do want it to flex pretty good.

[KToy]

my long 63 are nice rocksliders.

got mine out of a 92 2wd 1/2 chev truck.


for shackles make them 4 or 6 inches eye hole to eye hole for front and maybe longer for the rear.

get flat stock metal in 10 foot lenghts for 10 bux 2X10x3/8 thick

[jvmin]

I love my 63s too especially with the skids I made for the front hangers

[81yoat]

Yeah I thing that I am going to go with the 63's. I want it to flex as much as possible. Also, I had read somewhere that in order to use the rears up front that you had to use a banana shaped shackle? What is this all about?

[KToy]

toy rears are longer than stock front... square peg in a round whole sorta thing.

www.budbuilt.com

they have the shackles youll need.

[81yoat]

Do any of you happen to know wich year or years of chevies had the 63" springs? Ihave a buddy that has all kinds of chevy springs, but I went over there today and the longest ones that he has are 56".

[mallkrawler]

88-98 1/2 tons had the 63 inchers. I'd try to find the oldest ones you can. That way they are good and broke in. Just don't run double shackles. Move you rear shackle hanger instead.

[81yoat]

what do you mean dont run double shackles? I dont have a clue what double shackles are. Wouldnt you have to move both of the spring hangers in order for the pin on the leafs to mount to the rear axle?

[wyatt]

You can avoid moving your rear shackle mount by running one shackle straight back along the frame and then one off of that down to the spring. It is cheap, easy, and simple and gives you unbelievable droop. It is also the most dangerous invention ever made. My truck rolled right over the first time I tried going down a hill. DONT DO IT. Make a new shackle mount and weld it four inches back.