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99 Tacoma Leaf Spring Replacement, Salvaging the Stuck Shackle

2013-05-27
all right so today we're working on a 99 Tacoma this one we're replacing the back leaf springs kind of see on the leaf spring right here how it bends up and endures a truck instead of you know given the truck the support it needs normally this wouldn't be a huge issue but it has started to break his back shocks so you come around at this side you can see that this leaf spring is doing the exact same thing but it is also snapping it shocks off so the truck is completely not even attached to the truck anymore so we got the tire off it is a 21 millimeter bolt for these to get the lug nuts off of the tire and then I put the tire underneath the axle right there just so if anything does happen with the truck you know the axle won't drop or 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 just put the cinder block under there for fun I'm just cause you know if the car ever does fall they 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 our 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 is probably never you know had this bolt taken off and so sometimes they fuse together I'm so I'm gonna try right now is I have the jack underneath the end of this wrench and sometimes just jack up the jack and see if I can get it to just bend 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 the bolt is still inside the spring and I used to drill with a cut-off blade is about one charge per side 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 it's pain rough sucks if the nut ever gets stuck inside of this your little ratchet head I'm the easiest way to get it out let's just stick it right back on the boat where it came from they do now Panera unscrews just like that those are the rear shackle right here and on the rear shackle there's a 1 19 millimeter bolt on this end it's actually coming off pretty easy probably cuz there's a lock nut lock washer on this side so once you 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 just slide out but this one just like the front of the leaf spring is seized inside so no matter how I turn this thing mom 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 you know in a couple different internet forums and really the only way to get this apart is just either cutting it with the plasma torch or if you're a poor college student I'm grab a drill and a and a cutting tool 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 just taking a drill to it and just really now the same sized hole that would have been if this bolt wasn't retarded there we go got the bolt in there I mean I'll put a washer on the other side and that is how you resurrect your old stuck shackles now that's in I'll be able to put them back in with the leaf spring and get everything undone I'll stall my unclip this brake line from the brake 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 pump it on top of the newest release 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 it means to take apart your rig as a side note make sure to put this in your toolbox that the lid is not upside down on a hot day okay so I got the dew bolt washer and then I got a locking washer and then 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 line 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 axle when I load that back on I'll so as you raise the axle up into place the little hole will also shift this direction as well all right so stars putting everything on when I first started I left the nut out here just so I could position everything while I was still loose and then I came here and attached the u-bolts again I'm tightened them all evenly around the edge you know doing a turn here turn here turn here turn there until they're all tight I'm reattach the shock I'll touch I'll link another video right here video shows how to remove and install the rear shocks on a toyota tacoma let's go ahead and click that if you want to watch it and you can see I put this stopper back into place and pinch that down with you so now that everything is tight and work 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 you know if you 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 things 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 sagging and compared to brand-new sog shocks and leaf springs to get to the driver's side back with spring you need to take down the back tire on the spare and so you take the part of the hardware that you get from the where you drop the tire down you stick it through that little hole in the top of the license plate right above the bumper and stick it in and you 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 and you might if you have any questions be sure to leave them in the comments don't forget to like this video if it helped you and don't forget subscribe thanks
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