Lei

Add - A - Leaf for a Sagging Rear End

Do you have a sagging rear end? Are you embarassed when people see it in public? Well you're not alone my friends. There are many of us out there with this problem but there is a solution and that solution is simple. It need not be expensive because we are not talking about thousands of dollars in major operations. For around three hundred and thirty dollars I got mine fixed. Thats right.

I found this place out in Abbotsford a while ago but didn't do anything about it until the other day. All the offices in the big city literally charge an arm and a leg for this simple procedure but out in the small towns and countryside, you don't have be afraid of the price tag.

I drove out there late in the day and the staff had agreed to stick around to wait for one last job. No overtime. Amazing... Everyone was waiting as I pulled up. They told me to park my truck inside and right away they started to work. Normally, customers wait in the customers waiting room but since I came late, they let me hang where the staff take their breaks. There I saw an unusual piece of work. A three winged old airplane made completely out of beer cans.

Propeller, wings and all, it was a work of art. Hey, this buds for you...

Plus, it wouldn't be a shop without the Makita girl. Another work of art. I suppose I could have sat around and stared at the poster for the next couple of hours. This would then be the end of this blog article but I suppose I should go on.

So I decided to watch the staff work on my truck. To add an extra leaf to the leaf springs on the rear axle, they had to remove and disassemble the old one.

With the original ubolts and nuts being corroded, they used a welding torch to cut off the old hardware. This made for an interesting little light show.

Notice in the picture above that the original leaf spring set consists of two long thin pieces combined with one shorter, flat and thicker spring bar. The procedure will add another long thin piece to the whole assembly.

Everything is made right there in the shop. Shelves are stocked with preformed leafs to build sets for any vehicle required.

The height from the ground to the top of the outer edge of the wheel well is recorded for reference. I have asked that the new spring set up give me the same height as the front with a maximum of an extra inch if it is set higher in any way. The old leaf springs had deformed from age and being overloaded losing over an inch of clearance.

The driver side was relatively easy. Here the leaf spring has already been modified and partially installed back in. The old leafs were rearched in a machine and a new leaf was added for extra payload capacity and stiffness. Note the red shock absorber in the picture which was the replacement for the old Monroe sensitrak shocks.

Meanwhile on the other side, they struggled to get the original leaf springs off. Even after the welding torch was used to cut off some of the old nuts and ubolts, the front pivot was nearly impossible to free.

As a result, they had to remove the old bushing and put in a new one. A large press is used here to force the new bushing into the curled up end of the leaf spring.

My truck wasn't the only one being worked on. Another larger truck was in for a 6" lift job. The owners needed extra clearance to install larger tires.

On the workbench, the young labourer fixes the leaf spring from the passenger rear end side. He takes apart the set, re-arcs each leaf in the arcing press behind him and adds a new leaf in between the old ones. The new one is custom built on the spot. Our friendly shop journeyman is in the process of cutting off the excess threading with an angle grinder. The bolt is used to fasten all the leafs together and keep the four leafs centered. Notice the the new leaf which is sandwiched between the two thin leafs. Can you see it?

It's all manual. While one person holds the newly modified set, another person uses a large hammer to bash the clips back so that they hold the stacked set of leafs together.

If I had ordered a completely brand new set of custom leaf springs for a larger vehicle, they might have looked like this. All finished and painted to look nice. Well not quite. I would only have four pieces compared to what looks like twelve leafs sandwiched together here.

In the end, opting for the 'add a leaf' procedure increased my payload capacity by about 500 pounds, the rear suspension became much stiffer, the whole rear end sat higher by almost two inches, and the overall handling was greatly improved. A bonus for faster cornering and better high speed stability.

Note that earlier this year in an earlier blog entry, I explained how the rear shocks were replaced. The two combined procedures now completes the restoration of the rear end suspension.

Be sure to come back for the next installment of Auto Digest when we look at air filters.

Lunchtime Maintenance #1

A small fire has been lit beneath management for some specific dates regarding the financing and I had another two hour lunch today. I dropped off some forms at the WCB office and stopped at the Penzoil lube station for an engine flush and oil change. This particular station was not too bad. They performed a double engine flush to get rid of all the gunk inside twice. I also agreed to use heavier oil, 15W40 because my engine was burning more oil. At 282k, its getting up there and all that I ask is that it makes it to 300k before I decide to throw in the towel and buy a new vehicle or swap out the engine. The place was run by middle eastern people. Maybe even a family as a moslem woman dressed in black processed the transaction for me. These folks were much more helpful than the kids running the McQuick Lube on Kingsway. Those guys just tried to sell every possible service package to you. Mind you the Penzoil folks did as well but didn't push it as much and gave some useful suggestions. You just have to know what is necessary and what isn't unfortunately.

If I had brought it to a Toyota dealership, I would not have been told anything about the oil change other than yeah, they changed the oil and filter and lubed the vehicle. All for the same price, if not higher. I think I saw a winter maintenance promo from some dealership and not necessarily Toyota where the package was not much different than a plain old oil change plus a quick check of a few other basic items like fluid levels, tire pressure and windshield wipers. And I believe that this package costed an extra twenty dollars. Not much value there.