I was quite tired of having my ass drag, the previous owner had installed a rancho lift of
some sort with custom springs up front an add-a-leaf in the rear and extended shackles all
around. The springs had sagged quite a bit in the rear, and with the springs I currently
have up front the rig sat quite unevenly, especially with full gas cans and camping gear.
I looked like a Pre-runner for goodness sakes!
So in my mind I was looking for something new for a rear setup. Originally I was leaning
toward some cu$tom $pring$, but that would cost quite a bit. One day I was surfing on
through the POR BBS and found this 63" Chevy FAQ and I was sold. The main benefits of
this setup is number one cost, the springs you can find for $100 at a junk yard and make
most of the other parts. The downside is that the spring may or may not provide
the lift you desire, however add a leaves, blocks or longer shackles can adjust this.
The other real downside (other than using Chevy parts on a Toy) is the length of the
spring tend to make the hanger and shackle into nice big targets to get hung up on.What I Did: 
Springs: The springs can be found on a 88-98 Chevy 1500 Pickup. The 2wd came with
a four pack (3 + overload) the 4wd are a 5 pack (4 + overload). Most people prefer the
2wd and this is what I was able to find.
Hanger: I used a Budbuilt hanger made specifically for this swap, for $55 is saved
a lot of time and works quite well. If one were so inclined they could make their own
hanger but for me, the cost of parts and materials and time add up to more than
$55. These were welded on the frame about 11" forward of the stock hangers (eye to eye)
on the flat part of the frame.
Shackle(s): Originally I had planned on one long pair of shackles. But after
trying this with my 8" shackles the angle was way to far back, in fact the shackles would
hit the frame. If I was so inclined I could move the shackle mount back, but I don't feel
so inclined. (would I be declined then? Unclinded? un-inclinded?) So luckily I kept the
Chevy lowering shackles and I have used them in a double shackle setup. This has given me
the ride height and shackle angle I want. Eventually (before desert season) I will use some
cut down stock Toyota bump stops (cost=$0) to prevent the chevy shackles from slamming into
the frame, and I will come up with a way to prevent the Chevy shackles from inverting.
When deciding on what length of a shackle to run remember that 45 degrees is ideal for an
even amount of droop and tuck, and generally speaking a longer shackle means more lift but
less tuck.
U-Bolts: I went with the Rockstomper U-bolt flip kit, Scott designed these to
accept up to a 2.5" spring (Chevy's are slightly wider at 2.5" compared to the Toyota 2 3/8").
You could use the stock U-bolts, but you would have to cut part of the springs, not a
good idea. I was quite satisfied with the U-bolt plates, however the hardware that
comes with the kit is of a low quality and I stripped my first set tying to torque them
to stock specifications. Grade 8 or F911 should be used, I have no idea why they were not.
Bumpstops: Purchased some Energy Suspension universal bumpstops. Cheap and
I just drilled a hole through the OE mount. After some trial and error (breaking the shocks off)
I added an extension on the U-bolt plate that added about another 1.5" of bump.
Shocks: Like most people before me the reason I decided to go with these springs
was articulation and travel, thus mounting of the shocks is important because they tend to be
the limiting factor. Most people myself included choose to inbound the shocks, this sorta way /\.
This allows for more suspension travel per shock travel, but the trade-off is that the shocks
have less dampening efficiency. To limit this I picked some high quality shocks that had charge on them,
short body 14" travel Bilstein 7100's to be preceise.
Most rock crawlers use the factory gas tank cross member and mount the shocks to the top of the axle, I tend
to beat the crap outta my suspension in the dezert so this wouldn't work. Bumpass and I (99% Bumpass) built a
separate cross member behind the axle and mounted the shocks off the bottom of the housing behind the axle
(to limit axle wrap). Even as inbounded as possible (this was limited by the hose to the reservoir) and as low
as possible (we didn't wanna "Ford it" and mount them below the axle housing) I had to limit the up-travel by
about 2.5". In theory the "best" way to mount shocks would be through the "bed" but this
doesn't work very well on a 4runner. Also if you have a body lift you can move the mount up, but I don't.
Shocking Update When I originally purchased shocks I got the "long body" 14" travel 7100's,
this limited my compression travel and after a few years of pounding on the truck the cross member me and
Bump built snapped right in the middle. So we went back to the drawing board with some new "short body" shocks.
Eventually Bump built me a dual crossbar cross member that is way over kill
Bolts: I use several 9/16"x5" grade 8 bolts, course thread with lock washers,
personally I find lock washers are much easier to work with than nylon nuts. In order to
get to the bolt on the passenger side spring hanger, I had to cut down part of the bolt,
the gas tank was in the way.Update: I've since upgraded to F911 bolts, with top lock nuts. This setup is more money but they are much stonger bolts and nuts that won't back off.
Pinion Angle: The swap lifted the rear enough that the angle of the driveshaft
has changed for the worse. I was getting a pretty decent vibration on the way home from
Bumpass' house, but greasing the driveshaft took most of it away. Yet their was still
a vibration at high RPM's, the cheap short term way to fix it was some 2.5 degree shims.
The vibration is gone. When I swapped in the Fabtech 2" blocks they were tapered so I didn't
need to keep the shims
Parking Brake: First of all the driver's side parking brake cable would hit the
springs, my short term solution was to use a bolt in place of the stock pin, this way I
could to hold the cable upright slightly. A more permanent solution would be to install
some e-brake cable exertions, 4crawler sells them
Here
The second issue was that under full droop the cable was binding against the gas tank.
My solution to both of these problems was to install All
Pro Off Road's Parking Brake however this was quite expensive and I have not been
completely satisfied with it up to this point. Seeing as how it is just a cable
I assume you could just extend the line, but I have no info in support of this.
LSPV: I copied what
Roger "4Crawler" Brown
did and used an adjustable turnbuckle to hold the LSPV up, works well and less crap on
the axle the better. Just FYI the bolt you will need is 8mmx1.25, I just
grabbed an old bumper mounting bolt and shaved down the sides and drilled out the top
end of the turnbuckle to get the bolt to fit in the turnbuckle. The downside is if I
load up the back I will not automatically increase the amount of rear braking,
I'll live though.Instillation Tips:
Hangers: On the passenger side their happens to be a gas tank in the
way of your welding. If you are so inclined you can drop the tank, but most people haven't.
The general consensus is that your welds should hold even on just the three sides.
Bushing Removal: I spent many hours drilling out the old chevy bushings with a drill.
In hindsight I believe a hole saw would work much better, short of a 6 ton press. I had
to drill out as much of the bushing as I could before I could smack out the sleeve. Those
bastards were in their tight, even though they were ten years old and cracked...
Bushing Instillation:
Getting the new bushings in was also a challenge, I spent again several hours trying
different smashing techniques with minimal success. Eventually I found my stash of large
bolts and I had an epiphany.
Using the bolts and some washers I was able to apply constant pressure to the bushings.
However they still didn't want to sit flush so I brought them to work and used the air guns.
During the instillation however Bumpass and I (okay okay I made Bumpass do it) had to grind
part of the bushings off to get them to fit, and boy howdy burning poly urethane smells bad.
Shackles: Once I had decided on a 8" shackle I pretty much copied my Budbuilt
Shackles from the front. I used some a 10"x10"x3/8" plate steel and cut 4 10"x2" strips,
however I wish I had done 2.5" and saved myself a cut, for I was using my angle grinder,
which sucks by the way. Great thing about these is it doesn't really matter if your
cuts are crooked, as long as the holes line up. I then drilled some 9/16" holes and
called it quits, if you are the picky type (and if you have seen my rig you know I'm
not) you can round off the corners for the extra bling bling, but my rig has lots of
bling already. If you don't feel like doing your own metal work, Bud sells some
plain shackles with 8" holes for $40. Which now that I look back at it, I should have
gotten, but then again I finally got off my lazy butt and did a little metal fab...PS. Don't look at the rusted hacked up bumper mount, I had to cut some of it to clear and haven't had a chance to re-do it. Conclusions: 
Thus far I have been quite happy with the ride, flex and travel of these springs.
The two major downsides to this swap are, one the spring may or may not provide enough
lift for what you want thus you may want to install an add-a-leaf or some small blocks.
And two because the springs are so long the hangers and shackles are what some have called
"rock anchors," but hey I 'wheel like a Grandma.
How much lift did you get? I couldn't really answer this for I have no frame of
reference. That and suspensions are not static, springs sag, that's part of life. Your
ride height will depend on several variables, how your springs have been treated, their age,
the shocks you run, the amount of weight you have in the back and whoever wins the little
league world series...I'm serious....
Like most things in the "sport" getting the details right and tweaking things until you
are satisfied is the key. I hope my experience and ideas help you in your ideas, but
honestly it will come down to what you want and how you want to achieve that goal.Cost: Springs: $130 Bushings: $25? Custom U-bolts: $80 for set Shocks: $180 each Bolts: $20? Blocks: $40 The looks I get when I tell people what "lift" I have: Priceless Update:
After running this setup I got tired of the rear sitting lower than the front springs. My options to bring
up the rear were to get a add-a-leaf or do blocks. I opted for a 2" block that I got from Fabtech (PN FTSBK2),
these have the pin to keep the blocks in place. After putting in the blocks I swapped out the 8" shackle
More pics of install in the photo gallery Helpful Links: Pirate4x4 Tech Article Yes, this is the Pirate4x4 tech article about 63" chevies Pirate4x4 63" chevy swap FAQ Yes, go here, get your frequently asked questions answered, frequently? Eric's Rear Suspension Eric's personal page for what he did on his first gen 4runner. Back to Tech |