I love my old Toy,an 85 regular cab with the straight axle and fuel injection. But it's getting harder to find reasonably priced parts. Last week I had to pull our 89 Ford flatbed tow truck off of a job site. My driver had tilted the bed back to use the winch cable to pull out a 1 ton Chevy that was REALLY stuck. He was sideways on a slope, loaded. with bald tires and axle deep in wet Georgia clay. My driver was.nt watching the pressure gauge, and blew the high pressure hydraulic hose. So now he was stuck too, with the bed back and down. My Toy danced around quite a bit, but freed the tow truck anyway, thanks to a rear EZ locker and 31 x 10.50 BFG KO's. Then I went in for the Chevy. No luck. Broke my 20,000 pound strap, and my right rear main leaf. It took a Bobcat and a trencher to get him out.

Yeah, I know this is a 'wheelin' site, and most people like to jack 'em up, but my off roading usually consists of USFS roads to get to hiking trails, and I like my truck just as it is. Just try to find these springs for stock height. I found one place on line that had them, but wasn't interested in paying $350 including shipping for a new set. That or $458 each from Toyota.

I have a customer who buys Isuzu pickups to fix and sell. He does a great business, and one of them, a '91 (I think)4x4 diesel just sold and will be picked up by someone from Seattle! Anyway, he recently hauled in a '93 two wheel drive for parts. It had a new set on springs under it, and it got me thinking...

The front and rear eyelets are a perfect fit, even the shakles and frame bushings are the same. The only differance is that the locating pin is 1 1/4 inches further back. The slip joint easily makes up the difference, but the axle sits back just a bit more in the wells. The hieght is perfect, the ride quality is excellent. I don't have any clearance problems, but I may drop the U-bolts and drill the locater holes in the perches back 1 1/4 inches just to square them up.

So there you go. Now you don't have to pay thru the nose to keep your old truck stock. A little ingenuity goes a long way. I kept my old springs in case I wanted to add a leaf to stiffen it up, but I don't think I'll have to. I gave my friend $100 for the pair of springs.

I've been thinking this guy does such a good business in Isuzus that I should start doing the same with old Toyotas. What do you think? Would there be enough interest? I don't have much time right now, as we stay very busy in the 5 bay shop I run, and will be buying in about a year and a half. But it would definitely help suppliment my income if we slow down this winter. Here in the south, there are plenty on clean bodies truck available. I'd like to stick with the older ones, since newer ones are all over the used car lots, and I would prefer a niche. Help get me started. What would you like? Straight axle trucks? Fuel injected? 2 or 4WD? I'm an 18 year ASE master, and can do clean mods with the best of them. I could build to custom specs if wanted. Let me know...

Actually that sounds like a really good idea, out here in Phoenix it's not exactly easy to find what you want without payin big bucks for it....SAS trucks, and especially SAS 4Runners are quite hard to find in good condition. Many people do what I did, settle for an IFS rig and then hope that later on you'll have the cash for SAS.

Older rigs are def. the way to go. I'm talkin anything pre 1990, before they started makin them look more like what the Taco' would be......anyway figured I'd throw my 2 cents in and good luck with that man!!

I know i would if i could....maybe someday i will, but i'm only 19, going for a mechanical engineering degree.

I had a spring shop make me a spring and install it for $220 CAD and they made shure it matched the saggy other side. Worked great.

I would be interested. I've got an 85 utility 4runner (no back seat no carpet) that I absolutely love and it's got the infamous reverse-arch (aka worn out)springs front and rear. I need 4wd and clearance for snow and getting to trails, but I leave my serious off-roading for my mountain bike. I think that there is a call for decent stock springs, and I'd definitely be interested.