There are several different options available for lifting the rear of the Toyota Tacoma, including add-a-leafs (AAL), shackles, and blocks. For a breakdown of pros and cons of the different types of lifts and rear lift information, visit Cornbred's Spacers real lift FAQ page at http://member.aol.com/cornbredsspacers/RearliftFAQ.html.
The following is a demonstration of a typical add-a-leaf (AAL) install. AALs are basically an added leaf spring that is placed into the stock rear leaf spring pack, adding more "spring" and arch to it, and as a result, lifting the vehicle. There are different types of AALs — some are short length springs, others are almost as long as the factory springs. Lengths, stiffness, and lift height vary by brand.
The AAL used for this lift was the Procomp AAL kit, part number 13120 installed on a 1999 Toyota Tacoma Xtracab with the TRD package. The kit comes with 2 new AALs and 4 new long center bolts about 4 inches long. The extra length bolts come in handy during the install. You will only use 2 of the bolts to install.
You will need several pieces of equipment to install an AAL. You will need a lift or jack capable of completely and safely lifting the rear end of the vehicle off the ground — so high that the axle hangs by the leaf springs and the tires just leave the ground. You will need jack stands high enough to support the frame at that lifted height, and a good floor jack capable of supporting the axle. You may also need a pair of high quality C-clamps to hold the leaf springs together while you work on them.
NOTE - very important!: If you do not have the proper equipment to safely lift and support the vehicle, go have a professional shop install the AAL.
DO NOT USE HIGH-LIFT JACKS TO SUPPORT THE VEHICLE WHILE YOU WORK ON IT — GET AND USE JACK STANDS. A high-lift jack is too unstable to use while working on a vehicle, and can easily tilt or slip and completely crush you to death or seriously injure you under the vehicle.
Since I didn't have all the equipment I needed to do the install, I enlisted the aid of a local shop near me in Harbor City — Eric's Automotive. Eric had all the needed lifts and jack stands to safely install an AAL.
This install was done with the leafs in place on the truck. Some AAL kits may require you to remove the leafs from the vehicle to install the AAL. The steps and photos show one side only, just repeat to do the other.
Installation:
Block both front tires to the front and rear of each tire — when the rear end is lifted all the way off the ground, the emergency brake and gears will no longer stop the truck from rolling either forwards or backwards.
Loosen the rear tire lug nuts, but do not remove.
Jack up the vehicle from the rear frame until the rear tires just lift off the ground. Place jack stands just in front of the rear leaf spring mounting point on the frame — about a foot in front of where your gas tank door is, and lower the vehicle onto the jack stands. The rear tires should still be clear of the ground while on the stands.
Remove the jack. Remove the rear lug nuts, and remove the rear tires.
Pick a side to do first.
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- A large floor jack was placed under the side of the axle you are working on near the U-bolt mounts (not the pumpkin itself), and lifted up until it just supported the weight of the axle. The four U-bolts where then unbolted from below, and the lower plate and shock moved aside. The parking brake cable was also unclipped.
- After removing the bolts and top bump stop, the center bolt on the leaf springs was unbolted carefully. Then the floor jack was lowered slowly, allowing the axle to drop down from the springs, and the springs to expand, and the bolt to be removed from the bottom. (Note: The other way to do this is before unbolting the center pin, lower the axle first — then use a large good quality C-clamp to hold the springs together while the center bolt is undone. Then slowly release the C-clamp.) Either way, the springs can have a lot of energy in them — so be very careful!
- With the spring pack apart and the axle lowered, the new AAL was installed between the 3-leaf pack and the big heavy over load spring. Thanks to Procomp for providing long bolts, it was easy to line up all the leafs. Make sure you don't reinstall the overload upside down — on my 99 Taco they have the curve downward, the reverse of the 3-leaf pack and the AAL (see the following picture). Once you have the new center bolt in place through all leafs, tighten the bolt down all the way. It will take some muscle to get the last few bits, unless you use a C-clamp to pre-pack the leafs. Some kits I hear do not come with a long bolt, and will be a lot harder to line up the leafs and tighten them down. You will have to use the C-clamps to first compress the leafs, then install the shorter bolt and tighten. Best suggestion I have heard is to use a metal rod through the center holes to keep the leafs aligned while you tighten the C-clamps. Then place the bolt through and tighten. Just be careful with the C-clamps — with the AAL installed there is a lot more energy stored up as you tighten them down.
- Once you have the AAL in place, and the new center bolt tightened down, you will need to cut the excess center bolt length off if your kit came with a long bolt. If you do not cut the excess off, the bolt will puncture right into your frame when you bottom out the suspension!
- The axle is jacked back up into location — make sure the leaf springs are centered correctly back on the axle — the bottom of the leaf spring center bolt should fit into a notch on the top of the axle. Sometimes the axle will have shifted, so you may have to push on it to get it to re-aligned. The bump stop, U-bolts, and the bottom shock mount/plate are reattached. Carefully tighten the U-bolts in a cross pattern until tight. Re-attach the parking brake line. Repeat steps 1 to 5 for the other side. When you are done, reinstall your wheels and lug nuts, carefully jack the vehicle back up and remove the jack stands, and lower the vehicle down. Recheck and tighten all U-bolts and lug nuts.
- Back home I installed 2" longer Rancho 9000 shocks, inverted to protect the valve adjusters and tubes from damage. On the Tacoma, the right and left rear shocks are slightly different lengths. Go to Cornbred's Rear Lift FAQs page http://member.aol.com/cornbredsspacers/RearliftFAQ.html for information on shock lengths and some Rancho part numbers — he has done a lot of research on the proper lengths of Rancho shocks for the Tacoma and various lifts. I highly recommend you get longer shocks - I ran my last truck without the longer shocks, and ended up ripping off a shock mount due to the shock not being able to extend as long as the suspension now can. In the photo you can see what Rancho 9000s look like compared to the original TRD Blisteins.
- The brake proportional valve lever needs to be moved after a rear lift. This valve controls how much braking power goes to the rear or the front of the vehicle, depending on how much weight is in the rear of the truck. The lower your bed sits (i.e., from weight in the bed) from original, the more power is applied to the rear brakes. Since the rear is now higher thanks to the lift, the system thinks there is even less weight in the rear, and will apply most of the braking power to the front brakes. This can eventually overheat and warp your front brakes and rotors — not good. The fix is to make a bracket that will move the valve lever up by the same amount of inches as the new rear lift. See photo for an example. You should also check the rear brake line hose on the driver's side (99 Tacoma) to ensure it has enough length. If not you will need a longer brake line. I recommend a longer stainless steel braided line. One cheap trick is to just carefully bend the upper bracket down, but I would not recommend this.
- On some larger rear lifts, (such as AAL and blocks, 4" and more) you want to drop the carrier bearing on Tacoma Xtracabs. Since the rear frame now sits higher than the axle from stock, the drive shaft angle has increased. On the Tacoma Xtracab, the drive shaft is a two-piece drive shaft. In order to correct this, a spacer was created using a simple ¾" nut and a cut washer, which was then installed on the mounts where the two drive shafts come together. Be sure and install the spacer on both mounts. This distributed the angle increase across both drive shafts, reducing wear on the rear shaft U-joints, and quieting the drive line noise. The ¾" nut and washer works well, as it can be installed without replacing the factory bolts — they have enough length.
- Before the lift, I only had about 2 inches before the suspension bottomed out on the bump stops.
- After the lift, the bump stops now have 4 inches of room before bottoming out.
- Before the lift, the clearance of my rear tow hitch with 31" tires was 14½ inches from the ground.
- After the lift, I now had almost 17¼ inches of clearance with 31" tires.
Overall, the lift gave me about 2¼ inches of lift. My truck has a rear shell, carpet kit, and lots of gear in the rear all the time — total of a couple of hundred pounds — so the lift would be a bit higher without the weight. Also AALs settle a little bit after a couple of weeks or months — I expect to end up with just a tad bit under 2" by then. Some AAL brands settle more than others. The ride is a bit stiffer with the Procomp AAL, but that's to my liking, and I can adjust the ride somewhat with the Rancho 9000s.
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