YJ Springs Under a Toy

For this swap, we came up with a set of used Dick Cepek 3.5" lift springs meant for the rear of a Jeep YJ.  The springs were well worn, and the previous owner had added a couple of leaves to each pack for added weight carrying.

To put these in the front of Trevor's Toyota, we had to make a few changes.  First, the springs are wider than Toyota springs.  YJ springs are 2.5" wide and Toyota springs are 2.36" wide.  To get the YJ springs to fit the stock Toyota hangers, we first removed the front eye bushings and ground down the eye of the spring slightly - removing a little more than 1/8" on each side.  We then shaved down the bushings to get the complete front eye narrow enough to fit the Toyota hanger.  In the rear we did the same, but also bent the aftermarket lift shackles slightly to mount the springs.

The location of the center pin posed another problem though.  It's location meant that if we just bolted the axle on as-is, the axle would actually be moved back towards the firewall by roughly 1/2".  To get around this, we re-drilled the perch on the axle spring pad toward the rear approx. 1.75" which worked out to moving the axle forward 1.25" over all.  You can see more on re-drilling the spring perch here.

These springs flex very well, but initial testing found that on droop they would actually invert the front shackles.  A little more work and we built some bumpstops to limit the shackle inversion and we haven't had a problem since.