Yota Suspension Rebuild

Ricky B

Ricky B

Wiiide Open
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
LKN - Tha Dirty Mo (Mooresville, NC)
Finnally got Done with my buddies Yota (We'll for the most part), tryin to do a project during School when the only time you can work is the holidays cause all your tools are back at home in Mooresville takes a while, lol. Anyway its an 85 4runner solid axle efi, blah blah. No flex pics yet hopping to get some this weekend, some pics below (As a point of Reference my truck is on those bald 33ish tires I've been running since my 40's got slashed) there are more pics on my site in much larger size:

http://www.beastinc.net/VehiclesWorkedon.html

Specs:

-Roughly 7" Lift total
-Chevy 63" Rear Springs w/ Dual Shackles, add a leafs, and 3" Blocks
-Limiting Strap On Rear to preserve the brake line
from snapping (Marlin 24") and rear axle unloading, yet still
allowing for great individual wheel travel
-Relocated Front axle Roughly 3" Forward
-Hybrid lift packs in the front made from Front and
Rear Procomp 3" lift spring Packs
-Front Shackle Reversal to facilitate wheelbase extension, correct pinion
angle, as well as add a little lift
-IFS Yota box mounted with Trailgear Hysteer System Installed


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Why did you do a shackle reversal on the Toyota? In heavy trail use, you take alot bigger chance on bending or breaking the springs now.
 
If it is anything like the other stuff he works on, all it will see are mudholes anyways. I'm with Mangler, doesn't make much sense to do a shackle reversal, all your reasons for doing it are stupid, and there were ways to properly fix your problems without putting the shackles in front. I have seen it happen a few times, first time he hits a rock (if he takes it off-road) then he will probably bend those springs. It does take quite a bit to bend one, but it will happen, just give it time.
 
I know its going to seem like everyone is putting your work down but come on. You were on the right track with the 63s and the rears up front. You installed a nice crossover steering. Then you go and ruin the whole deal by using a 3 inch block in the rear (wheel hop, axle wrap). Its not like 63s are a really stiff spring that will in itself prevent axle wrap, no they are actually very soft which will make the axle wrap even worse.
Then you have the front. You are obviously capable of cutting and welding, so why would you not cut off the spring perches and reposition them to get the correct pinion angle? Instead, you took a good design (shackle in rear) and reversed it to get your pinion angle right. You know they sell kits to put the shackle in the rear on jeeps, so that tells you that the front shackle setup is less than ideal. Also, what about approach angle, thats pretty much ruined now. I just don't understand the whole thought process i guess. You were headed in a good direction, then you mess it up by seemingly doing things in a half assed way. Please explain:shaking:
 
where do u live in mooresville? and those parking lot pics look like hicks total performance's new place?
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I live right off exit 33, and no those pics are from up here at State in the Wood Hall parking lot. I don't even know where hick's moved to, been tryin to find out for a while but nobody seems to know, where did they move to?

Taco and Mangler ->

Actually myself and Taylor (owner) always argue cause he is all rock crawlin, he hates mud, lol.

We did the shackle reversal for the reasons listed above but basically for pinion angle. Didn't want to cut off the perches and rotate due to the wierd shape of the axle right next to the housing.

-Also it aided a little in the lengthining of the wheelbase as well as gave us extra lift needed.
-Another main reason was that if we hadn't used the shackle to provide lift needed we would have had to purchase new leafs with more lift and that just wasn't in the budget.

Before we flipped the shackles around we realized that yes they would somewhat get in the way but we trimmed them as smooth as possible around the leafs. Our reasoning to do so was influenced by other factors as well

-such as jeeps and samurai's both come that way with shackles forward so it can't be all that bad
-We found another guy with a similar setup on pirate with his shackles forward on his Yota
-and I have heard of people with shackle reversals on their jeeps actually wishing they had left it how it was.

cumminsdzl ->

Now I'm sure there are plenty of counter reasons for keeping em in the back for example the bending reason listed above, and so that they won't be so in the way, and I'm not trying to say shackle's in the rear don't have thier benifits or say your wrong at all. I'm just saying for our situation and with the info and support that we found we decided with much thought and consideration that shackles forward would be ok. We didn't just half ass it cause we were lazy. Hopefully it will be ok, but we'll just have to see, there are many tactics people take that are questionable yet work so you never know which way it could go ;)
 
Cool man :D , I'm glad this didn't turn into a I'm right your wrong match and stayed at informed reponses because that how forums should be and it always seems to turn into arguing alot and is dissapointing to see.

I re-read your post and to answer your question about the blocks, niether of us were too happy about having to use the 3" blocks but the pirate4x4 yota faq section has the chevy spring swap listed at giving you roughly 2 to 3" of lift and when we sat the yota down the rear almost went to stock heigth to about maybe like 2" of lift heigth and that was with the add a leaf already installed and the way we set up the rear dual shackles it adds another 1" or so so we were kinda force into using the 3" blocks due to misinformation :( we were hoping we could do like 1" blocks or maybe 2" but I didn't work out that way . . .

Course, when does a project ever work out the way you had origionally intended it to . . . . :shaking:
 
trust me i have a jeep with shackles in the front and it RIDES LIKE ASS compared to shackles in the back becuase it forces the shackle to move FORWARD over bumps verses backwards witch is natural for them when u hit a bump forward.... and there new place is up on mainstreet by the whatever plant thats up there not sure what it is...
 
sorry but putting the shackles in the front instead of the back to fix the pinion angle because "due to the wierd shape of the axle right next to the housing" is HALF ASSED im sorry but its true
 
It was a combination of the axle shape plus as I listed above new lift springs weren't in the budget so that pretty much determined it, and like I said above we decided to flip around the shackles after reasearching it we didn't just do it cause we wanted to get it over with, lol. Anyway, thanks for the info on Hicks, course I havn't actually ever got anything from them b4 but at least I know where they are in case
 
i wouldnt buy from there... they never want to help you out... id spend the extra time and hit tarheel 4x4 in charolette they are GREAT to deal with in my experiance
 
Yea, I havn't really had a shop do anything for me in a while since back before I knew how to work on my own stuff (several years ago) and back then I made the mistake of letting 4wheelparts do my gears since they were having one of thier "half off labor" sales and havn't had anyone do anything for me since then. I just like knowing where Hicks is just incase type thing, not planning on ahving any work done there. Personally the only shops I would take my stuff to if I needed something I couldn't do are Carolina Rockshop or Rock Monkey 4x4.
 
now if you had to get a good pinion angle on the front, did you keep in mind to rotate the knuckles? Or are the tires now steering into the ground? Just a thought (call it constructive criticism)... Only reason I even mention it is because of the dangerous effect it will have on tire wear and higher speed handling...

Hugh
 
you guys are dumb, blocks in the rear, shackle reversal for more lift? it dosent make any sense, that thing is tall enough for 4d's. i run 37s and no lift and my truck body looked way better than that thing. lower it down and cut the fenders, you will be much happier
 
I hate to say it...I'm with metto on this. The shackle thing-- because it looks funny....thats not a good enough reason to make it ride like a covered wagon. have fun when it spits the blocks out, we had fun didn't we Shawn(metalmangler):)
 
Yea i mentioned the block thing in a post in the suspension tech forum, but the blocks are just a temporary thing, I should have clarifyed that better, we just put em in there to even out ride height for now, later this summer were gonna either put in longer shckles or make longer ones to hopefully eliminate the blocks all together. Also we are gonna fab some type of plate or hook up some type of strap to eliminate the primary shackle when we want to to prevent unloading. This Yota is far from being done this was just stage one, were planning by then end of the summer to have dual cases, long travel shock setup w/ shocks, rock sliders, and a make a square tube front D-shaft.

*at the moment he's riding on 8" travel procomp shocks from the previous lift and no front d-shaft, so yea this yota is def not done yet*
 
you do realize that to get rid of a 3" block you need a shackle approx. 6" longer than the ones you have now right... you sure you want 10"+ long shackles??? might want to start looking for some better springs... i think there was a pair of 6" lift 63" chevys for sale on here the other day if you dont wanna re-do the mounts
 
Yea I saw those, were gonna mess around with it and see what we can do as far as eliminating those blocks as much as possible, aint gonna put in a 10" long shackle, lol, don't worry bout that, but that will be our first step towards reducing the block size, next step after that might be lowering the front mounts for the rear springs some as well, ya never know it's a work in progress
 
UNBREAKABLE said:
I hate to say it...I'm with metto on this. The shackle thing-- because it looks funny....thats not a good enough reason to make it ride like a covered wagon. have fun when it spits the blocks out, we had fun didn't we Shawn(metalmangler):)
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After that incident, I will never run blocks again. Justin, if you would have been on the highway, you would be dead!!!!!!!!
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Just something to think about!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
nothing wrong with shackles up front. use some sense and it will work awesome.

think about it...it moves the same way a linked front moves.
biggest thing to worry about is slamming it into a rock/stump/whatever and kinking a spring. but you can do the same thing backing up. thats the chance you take running leaves.

the angle looks a little steep to me, but thats all.

oh and blocks are ghey :flipoff2:



ps, i would brace those front shackle hangers...
 
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