Wait until you crank the t-bars... The proper measurement is 15", or 1 3/8" higher than you currently are set at.

got a set of u-bolts at a shop in town, but they're 11" long!
gonna get them on this evening and see what's goin' on.

15"?!? I'll most certainly need an alignment after that. my little 31" tires already look pretty small.

gonna hop back on later on to address previous questions and comments. been stupid busy lately and slackin' on my web socializing

just getting in from my road test, which consisted of driving all over the city hitting bumps, driving on crappy roads or those under construction, and some highway driving. it's decent. still bumpier than I'd hoped for, AND the rear end is pretty tall still. don't much care for that. I mean, it's probably 2" higher than before, and that was 2" over stock, so I'm looking at the rear end jacked up about 4". it's enough that I noticed I seem to be looking down at the road now, and my headlights need adjusting.

OME seems to pride itself on suspension systems that won't sag, so I think I'm in denial thinking that this will settle in. I'm probably going to have to pull a leaf.

Ratty, to answer your question, my shackle angle's not too far off vertical. I'm actually pretty surprised by that. in fact, the more I think about it, I'm going to have to phone them tomorrow. I seem to remember something in my reading on other sites about two spring lengths. one of the things I noticed yesterday was that these OME springs seem a bit shorter than my old Skyjacker ones. ARB didn't mention the option when I phoned them, but I need to get some answers here. I'm not quite satisfied with what I've got going on right now.

a longer spring would provide more flex right?

There are typically 2 ways to make a lift spring, the first is to keep the arc length equal to stock and thus when relaxed, the spring eyes end up closer together then stock. The advantage here is that the stock spring shackle will work since the spring is no longer than stock. OME springs tend to be made this way.

The second way to make the springs is to make the eye-eye length the same when unloaded and as a result the arc length is longer, since you have more arch with a lift spring and that needs a longer piece of steel to wrap around. The downside here is that you may need a longer than stock spring shackle to accommodate the spring length when it flattens out.

There is typically only an inch or two difference in length between the two options, so not like a 48" long spring will out flex a 47" long spring by a vast margin.

That makes sense, Roger. I guess best to just stick with what they spec out instead of messing with shackles, too.


I did some more reading last night, and looked at recommendations for the different vehicles around the same year, both 4Runner and Pickup. They're all pretty much the same -- the CS009R for the "light" version of rear leaf spring.

I was waiting to hear back from a vendor I found online who differentiates between a 43" and 47" spring in his OME ôkitsö. I also called ARB this morning to verify I had the correct spring for my application, and they don't really know what the length difference is all about.

We did, in fact, however, verify that the CS009R is the correct spring for the 1987 4wd Pickup. The tech also said that the springs will settle a bit after a bit of break-in in 500-1000 miles. He said the springs will be happiest with a little bit of weight, but should not be uncomfortable when unloaded. I won't say they're uncomfortable, they're just not as plush as I think I was expecting after the difference I noticed in the front end. At any rate, I have some bags of sand and gravel at home that I'll throw in the bed for a while to help things along.

All in all, I have to say the ride is tremendously improved. It's still reasonably firm, but no longer jarring, except on the ridiculous stuff.

CURRENT SETUP û POST CONVERSION
VEHICLE: 1987 Toyota 4wd Xtracab
REAR SUSPENSION: OME CS009R Leaf Springs w/greasable shackles
FRONT SUSPENSION: OME 23mm Torsion Bars
NWOR sway bar with polyurethane bushings
SHOCKS: OME Shocks (medium) all around

SUMMARY

• 1. Existing shocks too short; bottoming out on extension, limiting travel; jarring
  2. Front torsion bars too stiff for stock load; resisting ôcomfortableö compression
  3. Rear spring bushings seized due to corrosion on the shackle shafts.
  4. Rear spring bushings compressed/overtightened/not properly lubricated.

I didn't think to grind away the corrosion on the shackle bushing shafts when I originally installed the Skyjacker springs six years ago (didn't really have the tools; I probably just scrubbed them as best I could), so basically, the bushings had too small an inner diameter, and then under the compression of the shackle nuts being too tight, they really just deformed and got so tight that they couldn't even move, except under extreme loading. Upon examination, I could see that they were cut/scored/grooved. So I should have taken a bit more care during the last installation, but I seem to recall being pressed for time or space, as my second vehicle was in rebuild at the time.


TO ANSWER SOME OF YOUR QUESTIONS


Greg, definitely right on the torsion bars. designed for a winch and heavy bumper. no good on my stocker. Between the torsion bars and the overly stiff KYB Monomax shocks... frankly, I can't tell you what was happening. I don't know if I just wasn't getting easy enough compression, or whether it was simply springing back too hard/fast. Whatever it was, it was rough.


The shocks aren't that old, and when I took them off, they all still seemed to ôworkö okay, as in, stiff on compression, and all rebounded just fine, albeit slowly. They were definitely stiff though. Think Rancho 5000, only in a gas charged shock.

I just set my 25mm bars for the proper ride height; no more. I think that was the 13.5-14ö, so I didn't do any extra cranking.

The sway bar did not seem to have much effect on the overall ride, as Snowtoy said.


I have to get some specifics on the tire pressure, but I was running them pretty close to the number on the sidewall I've dropped them down to about 28psi & 30psi, and that helps too. I'm going to have to have a closer look and use the chalk line trick.

2ö longer than stock would probably have made a nice difference on both front and rear after I loosened the shackle nuts and shot some lube on everything, so good suggestion there.

The Skyjacker spring pack was 3 leaves + 1 overload. The OME spring pack is 4 leaves plus what looks to be 2 overload. Oddly, the OME leaves don't appear to be any thinner than the Skyjacker ones, in fact, if anything, they might be a little thicker.


yeah, I just went with the anti seize on everything. I'll see how it works out. The cool thing now is that all the bolts, shackles and bushings work freely, so maintenance will be much easier.


guys, thanks a lot for the help and suggestions. I still don't have a full understanding of suspension design and what modifications (longer shackles, springs, adding/removing leaves, etc.) affect which ride characteristics, but I can say that I'm pretty pleased with this OME System and learned a few things along the way. I might have been able to get by with getting longer shocks and greasable shackles for my existing springs and torsion bars, but I was having a really hard time finding anyone that could get me a shackle kit for my Skyjacker springs, which use a non-standard bushing diameter. So, the more I wrestled with spending any money at all on my existing suspension and not feeling sure I'd get what I wanted out of it, the more sense it made for me to just suck it up and go with something I felt reasonably confident would give me what I was after.

Ratty, photo of the shackle angle as requested.
OME's built an anti-inversion tab into their greasable shackle brackets.



Shackle angle shown is with about 300 lbs. of stone & sand in the back of the bed to help settle the rear springs for the next 500-1000 miles.

When you compare brand new aftermarket parts to fatigued oem parts its hard to gauge whether you are getting actual lift from the new parts or whether the difference is only from how much the springs have sagged and how fatigued to torsion bars are. If the truck has been used fairly hard off road the torsion bars will actually twist permanently and you will lose height and spring-rate. using shocks for valved for suzuki samurai could result in to light of dampening and may lead to a harsh ride. BTW all of the control arm hardware and leaf spring/ shackle should be tightened on the ground under the full weight of the vehicle. Otherwise the bushing will be in essence preloaded against compression travel.
As an additional side-note: Cranking the torsion bars does *not* Increase the spring rate.
The only thing it does is add preload which can raise the height of the vehicle which increases the vehicle's scrub radius (the distance the tire has to move to the outside of the vehicle during compression) which also makes susp. compression difficult. It also facilitates increased upper ball joint wear.

that's good info about the spring rate not changing, although I've never really understood this. how can excessive preloading *not* affect it? are torsion bars not progressive?

in other news, I got the OME steering stabilizer on last night. I never even realized how sloppy my steering was before. that old Rancho stabilizer that was on there was "skippy" when I tested it out afterwards. it had some dead spots at the beginning of the stroke where there was no damping and would just slip before grabbing again. this is probably why I was feeling my steering a bit loose and wandery, not to mention jarry on hits.

anyway, I'm completely sold on this particular OME Suspension Kit as a *system*, like they recommend. hands down one of best vehicle upgrades I've made. great improvement to handling and ride quality, even when loaded up, just like they advertise.

Torsion bars are single rate, they don't get thicker or thinner as they twist. But the suspension works differently as they are cranked up:
- http://sdori.com/SDORI_Theory_Of_Operation.html