Alright so today we’re working on a ’99 Tacoma.
This one we’re replacing the back leaf springs.
You can kind of see on the leaf spring right here how it bends up and in towards the truck
instead of giving the truck its support it needs.
Normally this wouldn’t be a huge issue but it has started to break his back shocks.
So come around to this side.
You can see that this leaf spring is doing the exact same thing, but it is also snapping
his shocks off.
So this is completely not even attached to the truck anymore.
Alright so we got the tire off.
It is a 21 millimeter bolt for these to get the lug nuts off of the tire.
Then I put the tire underneath the axle right there just so if anything does happen with
the truck, the axle won’t drop and damage the drum or anything like that.
And then I have a jack underneath the back part of the frame…another jack here, and
then I just put the cinder block under there for fun, just cuz if the car ever does fall
it could cause a lot of damage to the car as well as yourself.
So having a few points of contact underneath the truck would be beneficial to everybody.
Anyway the nuts underneath this are 19 millimeter.
Same with this guy right here, and the one on the back.
And then right now this is pretty stuck just because the truck has probably never had this
bolt taken off.
So sometimes they fuse together.
So what I’m going to try right now is I have the jack underneath the end of this wrench
and so I’m going to just jack and see if I can get it to spin a little bit.
So on the frame end of the leaf spring, the bolt is actually seized inside of the leaf
spring.
So I had to cut right here on both sides to get rid of the bolt.
So the inside of the bolt is still inside the spring.
I just used a drill with a cut off blade.
It was about one charge per side, here and here.
You can see right here where I had to cut off the bolt.
So the bolt is still inside of the leaf spring and I had to chop it off on both sides with
that little cutter bit on my drill.
So, it’s a pain.
Rust sucks.
If the nut ever gets stuck inside of this little ratchet head, the easiest way to get
it out is to stick it right back on the bolt where it came from, hit it out, and then unscrew
it just like that.
So this is the rear shackle right here, and on the rear shackle there is a one 19 millimeter
bolt on this end.
It’s actually coming off pretty easy probably because there’s a lock nut…lock washer
on this side.
So once you get this 19 millimeter nut off there’s one up here as well, 19 millimeter.
And then this little bracket just kind of pops away and lets the leaf spring slide out.
So this is the rear shackle right here and the rear shackle is normally supposed to slide
out, but this one, just like the front of the leaf spring, seized inside.
So no matter how I tried to turn this thing, it’s just stuck.
You can see that there’s a metal ring inside in-between the rubber and that is just fused
together with the bolt.
And I’ve looked around on a couple different internet forums and really the only way to
get this apart is either cutting it with a plasma torch, or if you’re a poor college
student, grab a drill and a cutting tool and kind of hack away at it.
So once I got that cut off, the head of it is still fused inside and so what I’m doing
right now is I’m taking the drill to it and just drilling out the same sized hole
that it would have been if this bolt wasn’t retarded.
There we go.
Got the bolt in there.
I’ll put a washer on the other side.
And that is how you resurrect your old stuck shackles.
Now that that’s in, I’ll be able to put it back in with the leaf spring and get everything
undone.
I also…I unclipped this break line from the break so I could lift the leaf spring
up and out of this.
So this little stopper was on top of the old leaf spring.
I’m just going to take it and pop it on top of the new leaf spring after I kind of
clean it out a little bit.
So when you’re putting the new hardware into the shackles make sure that you grease
it up just a little bit on the inside.
This keeps it from binding with the new leaf springs.
Basically this is just being nice to the next guy who has to take apart your rig.
As a side note, make sure when you put this in your tool box that the lid is not upside
down on a hot day.
Okay so I got the new bolt, washer, and I got a locking washer and the other nut on
the other side.
And this right here, there’s a little nub on the bottom of this that fits inside this
little hole.
So when I align everything again I got to make sure that hole goes into place, but I’m
going to put the back shackle on first so I’ll know exactly where to put the axel
when I load that back on.
Also as you raise the axel up into place, the little hole will also shift this direction
as well.
Alright so as far as putting everything on…when I first started I left the nut out here just
so I could position everything while it was still loose.
And then I came here and attached the u-bolts again and tightened them all evenly around
the edge…got need to turn here, turn here, turn here, turn there until they’re all
tight.
Reattach the shock.
I’ll link another video right here.
This video shows how to remove and install the rear shocks on a Toyota Tacoma.
So go ahead and click that if you want to watch it.
You can see I put the stopper back into place and pinched that back down with the u-bolts.
So now that everything is tight and torqued back down I can go ahead and throw the tire
back on and that is it.
I’ll put a link in the video description for the leaf springs.
On Amazon they’re pretty cheap.
I’ll try to find some hardware as well.
And then as far as the rear shackle goes back there, if you have the time to wait for a
rear shackle go ahead and buy one of those.
If not, the way I showed you how to resurrect the thing works just fine as well.
This side that I’m done with is one inch taller than the other side.
So the other shocks were worn down to the point where it has one inch of sag in it compared
to brand new shocks and leaf springs.
To get to the driver’s side back leaf spring, you need to take down the back tire…um,
the spare.
So you take the part, the hardware, that you get from where you drop the tire down and
you stick it through the little hole in the top of the license plate, right above the
bumper.
And you stick it in and then just ratchet down the tire.
That’s where that connects.
And that will give you room to work with the bolts on the other side of the…this thing.
Anyway, if you have any questions be sure to leave them in the comments.
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