1985 Toyota Pickup - Orbit-Eye Toyota

Steve has been around off-road trucks, both fast racers and slow crawlers, for many years. He pointed out that not only must bolts be the correct overall length, but they must also have the correct shoulder length. The bolts that came out of Harrington's front shackles were too short in the shoulder, leaving the shackle plates to pivot atop the threads. Since threads are actually notches in the round bar stock, this misplaced pressure can cause the bolt to fail given sufficient time and stress. Fortunately, the bolts were replaced along with the shackles and springs.

Orbit-Eye springs are available with Orbit-Eyes in both ends of the spring, or one end only. For our dual-duty Toyota, we chose to use Orbit-Eyes in the forward end of the front springs. Out back, we went with Orbit-Eyes in both ends. AOR's Kevin Grove recommends this combination as a great go-between setup for owners who need stable street handling and superior trail performance. Steve secured the shackle end of the front springs and snugged the flipped U-bolts into place. This set the stage for changing the front spring hangers.

Orbit-Eye springs are available with Orbit-Eyes in both ends of the spring, or one end only. For our dual-duty Toyota, we chose to use Orbit-Eyes in the forward end of the front springs. Out back, we went with Orbit-Eyes in both ends. AOR's Kevin Grove recommends this combination as a great go-between setup for owners who need stable street handling and superior trail performance. Steve secured the shackle end of the front springs and snugged the flipped U-bolts into place. This set the stage for changing the front spring hangers.

The AOR spring hanger indexes into the frame using the contours of the Toyota spring hanger.

The new spring hangers were tack-welded one one side only, which let Wilson adjust the hangers until the holes were aligned. A small-diameter tube ran between the bolts as a gauge, and the alignment was adjusted using flat-blade screwdrivers wedged into place to adjust the spacing.

Once the hanger alignment was achieved, more tack welds were added. The final welds fixed the hangers solidly in place.

Done. Well, mostly. The hangers were welded on, the shackles were bolted up, and the U-bolts had been snugged. It remained to be seen if longer front brake lines were needed, and whether or not the tie rod would hit the drag link as the springs compressed. We asked AOR for front springs that moved the front axle 2 inches forward. Pushing the front axle forward has two benefits: It adds firewall clearance when the front tires are stuffed into the wheelwells, and it gives a better approach angle.

With the front suspension ready to test, Wilson turned his attention to the aft section. Since the rear springs are longer than stock, we needed to measure forward on the frame for proper hanger placement.

The new mounting location chosen, we then cleaned the paint off of the frame to give a clean, bare metal surface to weld onto. A small air-powered die grinder fitted with a sandpaper disc made this quick and easy.