I want more flex, remove leaves?

[myexonenine]

I have an 84 4Runner and it has 2.5" lift Lovell leaf springs front and rear. I just lost the lower leaf from the rear left side and was thinking of replacing both rear lower leafs, but... I would love to get some more flex and thought I could do something while its all apart, so what can I do?
I was thinking of taking out some of the middle springs to soften the packs and put on some extended shackles to regain the lift, does this sound like a good idea? and if so which springs should I remove?

front packs have 6 leafs and the rears have 7 (except the left now which only has six!)

[DeadlyPeace]

You could remove some of the lower leafs and replace the shackles with some longer one. Which leafs to remove will be basically a hit and miss kind of thing. I'd say to start with, removing the same lower (I'm guessing you mean the first or bottom) leaf that is missing from the rear left and then maybe the third one up. See how it sits and how much difference there is in the height. If it's too much put the first one back in. If it not enough then remove the second one up and maybe put in the first one back in. Of course you'll need to replace the missing lower (first) leaf if it seem like it will be one of the leafs you'll use.

FYI: Most aftermarket shackles only go to 2" longer.

[92rocdoc]

While your in there you just as well move your rear shocks. The way that they are set up in the 84+ trucks drives me nuts. They have one facing forward at about a 60 degree angle and one faceing backwards at a 60 degree angle, take em both and turn them 90 degrees mounted on the front side of the tube. That my friend, will give you a few more degrees of artic. Otherwise, like Deadly said, build your own shackles make them 4 or so inches longer, just dont go over 8 inches long, then you start getting a weakened shackle and no one wants that. Be sure and face your shackle pointing backwards at about 50 to 80 degrees and make sure both shackles are set up "exactly" the same otherwise you'll have road driving problems. You could at the same time, put a revolving shackle on there but personally, I wouldn't suggest it, thats when you start having over extension problems and all kinds of stuff. Well, good luck,

Scott

[hybridtoys]

Pick up a set of rear springs off a 96 ish chev 1500 you will get tons more articulation and the ride will be super smooth. You do however need to move the front mount forward but its well worth the effort, you can cut yours off and reuse "as I did" or pick up new ones pretty cheap from marlin crawler.
Just as a side note the original shocks are set at an angle like that so Toyota could use nearly all the same shocks "until the taco's" and still keep the ride stlye,90 degrees is good but pick the right shock ride style as your changing the angle altering the movement/ratio slightly amplifying the ride style of your particular shock.
And nobody wants to see backwoods style 8 inch shackles, not to mention the scary deflection when you want to take some curves. If you do make your own, use a cross bar to connect the two sides of the shackle, like an "H"
I’m not sure if you have power upgrades but removing leafs can lead to early leaf failure, do to axle wrap, mostly that’s if you have big tires and see the throttle more as "an on/off switch" than a pedal.
Good times!

[myexonenine]

I have removed the first and third spring and made 75mm longer shackles, might need to make some longer shackles to regain height or make some rear blocks. I can't be bothered looking for chev leafs seeing that we do not have many american pickups here in aus apart from the f trucks.





I have not changed anything on the front, but it seems to be flexing enough for me. With front and rear lockers this amount of flex should keep me happy.

I also made up some plates to move the axle back 20mm, and now it clears the front fenders fine but I had to remove the rear bumper side bits, I'm making a new rear bar with wheel and jerry can carrier.

[stice316]

I went through this also. My truck has add aleaf crap in the back on stock springs. Me not haveing alot of knoweledge about this started with what i could see. First shocks werent long enough so i got a pair of ford super duty shocks and repositioned them to allow for the added length <a href="http://s154.photobucket.com/albums/s247/stice316/?action=view¤t=shocks.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s247/stice316/shocks.jpg" border="0" alt="ford super duty shocks"></a>
Next I seen the springs were not allowing the flex so I did what i think is called a buggy leaf thing <a href="http://s154.photobucket.com/albums/s247/stice316/?action=view¤t=100_0108.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s247/stice316/100_0108.jpg" border="0" alt="buggy leaf"></a>
A little scary looking but has held up for 2 years now. Next the tires hit the frame and my crappy wood bed so I cut off the bed and put on wheel spacers. this is the flex i get now but am going to go with 63" springs next it would have been easier and a newer rear end they are wider. <a href="http://s154.photobucket.com/albums/s247/stice316/?action=view¤t=yotarf.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s247/stice316/yotarf.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> Good luck