Broken coil spacer and tired springs. What would you do?

[rang-a-stang]

This morning my son nailed a curb and split the leveling spacer (his words, not mine) in his 86 4wd. We do not know what coils are on this truck (stock or aftermarket). I "assume" it has stock coils and a 2" spacer lift. The rear has a lift block that looks to be about 2" and the truck sits very slightly nose down. We have added Toughcountry 2" drop brackets for the I-beams because camber/handling was pretty bad when we bought it but now (prior to nailing the curb) alignment and handling is pretty darn good.

He does not want to put more lift on this truck right now and is fairly broke so cost is important...but he wants to fix it correctly, too.

I think he should order a set of Skyjacker 1.5-2" (part number 132) front coils and just chuck the spacers. Again, I assume he has stock coils that are probably fairly sagged at this point so a 2" lift coil should get him back to level.

The problem is, if he already has leveling coils in there and we replace them and chuck the spacers, now he is 2" nose down.

Question: Is there a way to identify the stock coils vs aftermarket? Are the stockers marked? Do stock coils have more or less coils or thicker/thinner wire compared to others?

What would you do?

 

[rumblecloud]

Start over.

I know his budget is limited so that maybe out of the question.
Not sure how you could ID the coils- free length is out, number of coils, weight, coil wire diameter. It probably doesn't matter since they should be replaced regardless.

EDIT: Just replace the springs with stock. The front will sit a little lower, but his budget won't.

What shocks are on it and in what condition are they?

Assuming the rear is in decent shape, a leveling set-up in front would be my choice.
That can include leveling coils only (assuming the shocks aren't undersized -- since he's been riding around with spacers in the springs already, I guess they're ok) or...

Leveling coils and shocks...

Or a washer lift, with standard size heavier duty coils - again, assuming the shocks are ok.

Do you have any images of the current set-up?

 

[rang-a-stang]

Start over.
I know his budget is limited so that maybe out of the question.
...
What shocks are on it and in what condition are they?
...
Do you have any images of the current set-up?

Yeah, not in his cards to start over but it would sure be nice!
I will check shock brand and part number tonight when I get home and post up. They still dampen well but are quite old.
I will also get pictures of the front suspension and post them up.

 

[gaz]

rang-a-stang,

If I understand correctly, the I-beam drop brackets offer 2" of lift (I am uncertain how well this works without dropping the radius arm brackets), with these drop brackets installed, I would purchase SkyJacker 2" lift coils.

If the front is too low with the 2" coils, you could use rubber coil spacers (they are slipped in between the coils and offer about ½" of lift. Could also just pull the rear blocks to lower the rear as long as your "U" boots are threaded far enough to permit the drop.

Whatever it takes to align after that, do as necessary, when practical.

 

[rang-a-stang]

rang-a-stang,

If I understand correctly, the I-beam drop brackets offer 2" of lift (I am uncertain how well this works without dropping the radius arm brackets), with these drop brackets installed, I would purchase SkyJacker 2" lift coils.

If the front is too low with the 2" coils, you could use rubber coil spacers (they are slipped in between the coils and offer about ½" of lift. Could also just pull the rear blocks to lower the rear as long as your "U" boots are threaded far enough to permit the drop.

Whatever it takes to align after that, do as necessary, when practical.

The I-beam drop brackets (Tuffcountry part number 20813) allow correction of camber for up to 1.5-2.5" of lift but do not actually provide any lift as fast as I know.
******************************************************************************
Here is the front suspension as viewed from the front. You can see the big/front/passenger side drop bracket from here but small/rear/driver side is hidden.

Here is the driver side from the front. Arrow to the broken puck.

Passenger side

Driver side from the back looking forward. If you look over you can see the small/rear/passenger drop bracket.

Radius arms are stock/originals. The bushings are brand new Moogs. I do not see anything bent or abnormal but did see the tire contacted the rear of the front fender and creased the fender (in yellow) and the tire mud lugs dented the chrome stip (red arrows).

Only one shock has a label on it (all the others have worn away or are completely unreadable) and it is this:

Front shock stamping:

On full droop (one side lifted but I have a sway bar still so it may go a little further):

I do not see any markings on these coils and they are both just painted black. Looks like Skyjacker 2" coils are about $160 and the pucks look to be about $110. For $50 extra, I would rather get the coils...

What do you guys think?

 

[gaz]

While I have never seen a truck front end with only ½ of a suspension lift installed (i-beams dropped but not the radius arms), if it were mine, I would purchase the Sky Jacker 2" coils and expect to need an alignment.

 

[rang-a-stang]

We talked about it for quite a bit tonight. He decided to order a set of Skyjacker 132X 2" lift springs AND the coil spacers. I got aluminum ones so hopefully they will be a little stronger.

Our plan is to install the springs (no spacer) and put it down and see where it sits. If it sits like it did before the broken spacer, the spacer gets returned. If it sits lower, we will add the spacer and see where it sits. If it is nose up, we will put the old coils back in and return the Skyjackers. All parts get here Friday and Saturday so hopefully this weekend this will be over. In the mean time his truck is parked.

 

[rang-a-stang]

How much should I expect a new set of these coils to settle over the next 2 months? up to 1/2"? I have only really ever replaced leaf springs in my Jeep.

 

[ericbphoto]

How much should I expect a new set of these coils to settle over the next 2 months? up to 1/2"? I have only really ever replaced leaf springs in my Jeep.

With the Skyjacker coils, I would expect about that much.

 

[rebuild83]

skyjacker 132x on a 83 long box 4x4 gave me 1.5 inches I added a .5 inch steal washer spacer and have a total of 2 inches increase in height

 

[rang-a-stang]

Crap. I just realized, I won’t have a spring seat or isolater since it currently has the rubber’ish spacers there. Are the spring seats the same for all TTB 4wd rangers? I only see them for 90 and up…

plus 4WD TTB ranger are almost non-existent in SoCal wrecking yards… where should I get them? Amazon? McParts?

 

[bobbywalter]

Crap. I just realized, I won’t have a spring seat or isolater since it currently has the rubber’ish spacers there. Are the spring seats the same for all TTB 4wd rangers? I see them for 90 and up… plus 4WD TTB ranger are almost on-existent in SoCal wrecking yards… where should I get them? Amazon? McParts?

Seat should still be there

Get new spacers ...


I would have jacked it up and unloaded it and clamped that one that tight or put a pipe in there for now.

 

[rang-a-stang]

yeah, that's a good idea. Tonight when I get home, I will pull it in the garage, and remove the springs/spacers and take a better inventory of what I have.

Clamping it would work but the spacers are only $40 so I would rather just either swap them out or replace with springs. I also ordered some washers so if we need to do a washer lift along with the springs, we can.

 

[rang-a-stang]

Nope. No spring seats. Should I order 2 FOTZ-5A307-A?

 

[bobbywalter]

Nope. No spring seats. Should I order 2 FOTZ-5A307-A?
View attachment 72226

Thats why it broke.


Junkyard....or nos if you can find em