Suspension setup for FJ70

[terrano]

I am looking for ideas for setting up the suspension in my FJ70, from what i can see it is stock, running 35s with minimal guard rub at full flex while turning. So does the job for now.
I have a body lift to install which should eliminate any guard rub.
I dont want to go super high to try and avoid the truck having any ideas of rolling over, BUT i want more flex and to soften the ride a bit, a bit hard with leaves maybe??
Im in two minds weather i go spring over and maybe take a leave or two out to soften it, but would this make the old girl too high? OR extended shackles and again take a leave or two out? So not as high as a spring over but still gain some flex ect.

If some one has some experience with these old girls in setting the suspension up that works, would be great

Also swaybars, take them off or better to keep them? It will be still used on the road.

[mudlva]

Dont do a spring over job. It just stuffs the whole set up up.
Look at ome spring and shocks. The aussy stuff not the mexican stuff.
Sway bars. Well off road they they will hold you back by lifting the wheel rather than allowing flex.
Whether you need them on road is personal. Remove one side link bar per end and try it out for a week or two.
Make your decision from there
Leaf spring are infinantly adjustable once you start mixing differant sizes and thicknesses together.
Be awere that soft spring will not hold the diffs from rolling and tramp rods will be required.
For a rod to work well it should pivot from the same plane as the pivot on the spring mounts and in x and z planes and the bracket on the diff as tall as practical
The bolt that is used to hold the packs together can be replaced with a cap bolt and lock nut.
You will need to have a adaptor made that the head fits into to bring the ood out to suit the axle location hole. This works well and allows you to replace the bolt when increasing or reducing leafs.
Cut the threads down to minimum. You need to have no threads in the packs it should be all bolt should woth the thread just starting to protrude out. Use h/t washers to allow the bolts to pull up tight.
They need to be as loose bolts will just shear apart. Then you will have fun as the wheel travels for and arft till the drive shaft spits out or snaps the pinion off...
Good luck as leafs are fun to play with in differant combosc Dont be shy as once you have nice new bolts it easy to swap sets around

[diogenese]

I've done a SOA conversion on my fj40 and it's not worth the effort, especially if you want to use it on the road.

[terrano]

Dont do a spring over job. It just stuffs the whole set up up.
Look at ome spring and shocks. The aussy stuff not the mexican stuff.
Sway bars. Well off road they they will hold you back by lifting the wheel rather than allowing flex.
Whether you need them on road is personal. Remove one side link bar per end and try it out for a week or two.
Make your decision from there
Leaf spring are infinantly adjustable once you start mixing differant sizes and thicknesses together.
Be awere that soft spring will not hold the diffs from rolling and tramp rods will be required.
For a rod to work well it should pivot from the same plane as the pivot on the spring mounts and in x and z planes and the bracket on the diff as tall as practical
The bolt that is used to hold the packs together can be replaced with a cap bolt and lock nut.
You will need to have a adaptor made that the head fits into to bring the ood out to suit the axle location hole. This works well and allows you to replace the bolt when increasing or reducing leafs.
Cut the threads down to minimum. You need to have no threads in the packs it should be all bolt should woth the thread just starting to protrude out. Use h/t washers to allow the bolts to pull up tight.
They need to be as loose bolts will just shear apart. Then you will have fun as the wheel travels for and arft till the drive shaft spits out or snaps the pinion off...
Good luck as leafs are fun to play with in differant combosc Dont be shy as once you have nice new bolts it easy to swap sets around

Cheers mate some good advice there, a bit to take in haha