3rd gen rear sag

Hello, Thanks for welcoming me to your group, I have a 99 limited I picked up last fall, looking at the best way to help with the sagging in the rear, suspension is stock except for Gabriel shocks, thinking of going with Old Man Emu rear springs instead of spacers, your thoughts, Thanks

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

Considering your springs are stock, they are long overdo for replacement.

Are you keeping it stock height or do you plan on a lift?

Also, what are your load requirements? If carrying a load consistently, you may want to get yourself coils with better payload.

There are a ton of options out there, just need answers in order to provide the right answer.

 

3rd Gen 4Runners differ greatly from 5th Gen 4Runners as far as product availability.

 

Won't be carrying much load, would like to see 1-1/2" lift, maybe an ice chest, a little camping gear at times, etc.

 

I have a '98 Limited. Recently I had my front struts, ball joints, tie rod ends,steering box, ( which was leaking ), rear shocks and coils all replaced. All stock parts, as that is how I want to keep it. The new struts that the garage put on, seemed to raise the front higher than it was originally. Because of this, it appeared to still be sagging a bit in the rear. So, I added 1-1/2" spacers to the the rear coils. It now sits perfectly level and even appears to have a very slight lift.
It also rides like new! I'm very pleased.

 

If you want a bit more lift over stock, with little weight capacity (stock handling payload), opt for OME906 rear coils.

I used them for about 5,000 miles, carried gear and went off roading with them.

They rode very well, and without extra weight held about 1.5" over stock height.

I only switched to a heavier spring because I added more weight.

 

Here are some pics when I carried no extra weight and had OME906 for a small lift. As you can see, the lift is subtle and they flex very well -







This is when I made the switch from OME906 (left) coils to OME890 (right) coils. They handle much more weight and are a lot longer -



And unless you're really adding a ton more like I did, no need to go any more than what I recommend above -

 

Well, I can certainly relate to the whole "saggy rear end" situation. Oddly, it seems the older I get, the worse the rear end sags. On me, not my trucks Too bad they don't make OME springs for humans!

Have fun!
Pat☺

 

Man can I ever relate to that Pat, went ahead and ordered the OME 906 coils, believe they will serve my needs, get those installed and then on to the front

 

Depending on your physical condition, you can install them rather easily yourself. You may already know this, but just thought I'd throw it out there.
My bad back won't allow me to do most things on my vehicles anymore, so it cost me about $140.00 at my local garage.
If you've never done it, YouTube is your friend.

 

Pretty easy on these vehicles, especially 906 since they're only a bit longer than stock.

I installed all the suspension on my 4Runner with my sciatica.

It was at its worst those days but it helped doing everything while sitting on my ass.

The hard part was finding a long enough screw driver to stick through the bottom eyelet on my front coilovers; needed to turn and clock it to mount on the lower control arm.

 

Here are pictures of when I put it all together.

Stock setup, worn and ugly as hell. First thing's first, you'll want to undo the sway bar end link otherwise you'll limit manipulation of the rear end as needed -



The stupid mounting design of the shock. You'll want to use a 3/8" drive or a swivel head ratcheting wrench or similar as there's minimal clearance.

That didn't work for me unfortunately, and I just man-handled the shock and undid it by turning the shock body itself -



With the shocks out, I let the rear droop a bit more and yanked out the coils -



Easy getting the coils in, just takes a little finessing them in there. Use arm strength, otherwise you can help it by taking a smaller jack on one end and flexing the rear end to give more room on the other. This method worked for then I installed the much longer OME 890 coils -



The old shit, also took out the old bump stops as they're harsh as hell to land on -



Man those bump stops look good don't they? They're also super soft as I've landed on them a ton -



Shocks back in place and all ready to go -



Torque to spec once the vehicle is resting on its own weight.

 

Kudos to you for being able to do it given your sciatica situation.
My problems are a bit worse; ruptured L5 disc and cervical stenosis, ( bone spurs in my neck ).

 

Shit, that's no joke sorry to hear.

I only did it with my sciatica because it was a last minute decision (literally 1 week prior) to upfit my 4Runner and take it to Moab with a bunch of friends rather than taking the Tacoma.

This is roughly a week before leaving to Utah; my Tacoma and my 4Runner -



The 4Runner was completely bone stock, even sitting on street tires.

 

Understand completely!! Sometimes Ya just gotta do whatch gotta do!
As a Marine, your tollerance for pain is probably much higher than mine as well!

 

Back then, we had to deal with pain for shit we didn't wanna do

Now, I deal with pain for shit I want to do

 

As we used to say, ya do whatcha gotta do, and pay the piper later.

Yeah, now I'm payin the piper for what I did long ago, still, AND what I need to do now.
Thank goodness for the credit cards I have. They let me make others pay their pipers for doing for me
Then, I pay it off slower than I would have to if I did it myself. If I even could. My 3rd gen is a lot harder to work on properly, than my 87's, especially my pickup. That thing is bone simple to work on. Even my 87 4Runner isn't half bad, just tall. At least the top part of the engine. The rest, not so bad.

Looking good, though. Those new bump stops look a lot better than the stock ones. Instead of OOOOMPH!, now they go Poooomph, I wager.

Have fun!
Pat☺