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1985 Toyota Sunland Express Complete Suspension Overhaul (with 6 lug in rear and 5 lug in front)


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Hi there,

I just purchased a 1985 Toyota Sunland Express, unfortunately the suspension has been extremely neglected, so I am looking to do a complete overhaul of it. I tried following through the "1985 Escaper full suspension and steering overhaul tips, tricks, and questions " and "Toyota part numbers for Brakes, Axles, Suspension, etc". From this, I was able to gather that Bilstein 24-184830 shocks are good for the front, and Bilstein 24-002585 are good for the rear. Is https://www.sfxperformance.com/parts/ENE818102R.htm the correct bushing kit for this truck? My guesstimation is that I can leave the leaf springs as they are(they look good enough, and are keeping the RV afloat), but should I supplement them with airbags? Reading through the forum postings, I can see that the recommendation is to go with a manual kit such as AIR LIFT 57113, will this noticeably improve the driving characteristics? I come from the sailing world, and she currently handles like a ship in some pretty gnarly waves, has a huge tendency to be blown all across the road, and sways aggressively above 58mph(indicated speed). Also, downhill, the front-end "floats", and steering inputs are amplified. On the topic of steering, I did notice that there is evidence of an oil leak coming from the steering rack box(?). Unsure what to call it, the steering column goes into it, and I did want to investigate it. Also of note, I remember reading someone having a hard time replacing the control arm bushings, are there any negatives to replacing them with these Dorman 522-651? Any advice on fixing or minimizing these issues would also be appreciated.

 

Looking forward to posting pictures on here as soon as I get some work done. I put in a large order to bring all the electronics up to date, the only "suspension" component I purchased in the last run was tires, I hope I did well with Nexen Roadian ct8's, I was looking for a more wintery mix tire, but I think I'll just buy two pairs of chains/wire if anyone has any advice on which to get. Was thinking of https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0091RCM5Y/.

 

Edited by dragoman1993
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  • dragoman1993 changed the title to 1985 Toyota Sunland Express Complete Suspension Overhaul (with 6 lug in rear and 5 lug in front)

I can't address many of your questions, but I have a 1976 Chinook.  Think it is probably smaller than yours.  Anyway, I put custom springs on both front and back.  Both to raise it a bit, but mostly to help with the instability.  It came with little 14" tires.  Couldn't do anything about the front ones, but put bit 15" on the rear...and boy...did that help with the stability issue.

 

I think the thing you are describing that the steering column goes into may be the steering box?  

 

Good luck.  Hope this helps a little.

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Congrats on the new purchase. Lot of info available on these questions you posed, all over the forum. I tend to lean towards the approach of doing one or other of the "big" jobs at a time, do some testing, and see where each improvement gets you. It can get overwhelming if you try to do too much simultaneously! More fun to get out there and camp between isolated projects, too, although safety is important. :) 

 

New shocks are easy and usually a no-brainer. Yes, the Bilsteins are probably the gold-standard, although many of us go with the KYB Gas-A-Just product, with good results.

 

Loose, iffy front steering can be a lot of things including worn control arm bushings, ball joints, and tie rod ends, to name some common suspects; I would do all of them if yours are original. I used the Dorman upper CAs (bushings already installed!) as well as the Mevotech lower CAs and they've been fine over the last couple years; documented some of that work on this thread.

 

I have the Air-Lift 57113 setup on my rig and like it, and it definitely can help add some firmness to a floaty rear-end. Still, your existing rear leafs are getting WAY up there in age, so might want to just go the spring-replacement route instead. Old Man Emu has some good options (e.g. CS010R); search the site for more specific info.

 

Yeah, the leaking box is called a steering gear and probably needs a seal replaced, if not a full rebuild (how many miles on your rig?). Lots of areas have a local shop that can handle the steering gear work, since it can involve some special tools and knowledge. I like to do things myself usually, but it was much faster to just pull the box, drop it off, and pick it up a few days later.

 

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Thanks Gypsy, have you run into any steering(tracking, floating) issues from lifting her? Unfortunately I wish I didn't pull the trigger on the 14s that I purchased for the back if you are saying the 15s helped so much.

Thanks Ctgriffi, I do have an appt with a shop on Monday to see how much it would cost them to do all the bushings, and thanks for the input on the rear leafs, I may change them out then. The steering isn't loose really, if I'm stopped, the movement of the steering wheel is as close to 1:1 with the movement of the wheels as one would expect. The issue is how sensitive it is, if I allow the rig to do its own thing rather than give continuous fast small input(while holding the steering wheel very tightly), it tends to want to wander over the road. 

 

Thanks Linda, will keep that in mind! (will likely change the link to the correct item), @linda s, are all the parts on this truck the same as the 1985 toyota pickup subgenre on rockauto? My concern was that the pickup wasn't intended to carry the same weight as the RV, and there was no Cab over Chassis option.

Edited by dragoman1993
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Depends on if your rig was built before August 1985 or after. Do your rear dually wheels have 3 hand holes or 6? Even if yours is a rear axle upgrade it was still classified by Toyota as a heavy chassis and some of the parts are different than regular trucks. 

Linda S

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should have something like this under the hood.  notice c+c.. cab and chassis

20221127_094328.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

OK, so quite a few parts have come in, purchased the ARB CS010R springs for the rear, TORCH 8.5" Square Extended U Bolts Extra Long 2.5" wide 9/16" Ubolt w Hardware,  Old Man Emu OMESB108 Bushing, and NEW BILSTEIN FRONT & REAR SHOCKS FOR 84-95 TOYOTA 2WD PICKUP, STOCK HEIGHT, INCLUDING BASE DLX SR5, 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995, 46MM SHOCK ABSORBERS. Unfortunately, it looks like the bushings aren't compatible with the springs, they won't fit even if I were to push out the outer shell from the leaf springs. Could someone point me in the right direction on that? I was able to find https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=389880&cc=1277300&pt=7488&jsn=2723, which looks like it will fit without pushing the outershell from the leaf springs, but I was hoping to stick in polyurathane bushings rather than rubber.

 

Also does anyone have any advice on gaining 1-2" clearance in the rear? Will that increase sway too much, how much can I expect to lift without major downsides?

Edited by dragoman1993
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  • 5 weeks later...

OK, so I've put everything in, breakdown of what I had to do:

The Ubolts were the wrong size, but luckily the ones that were on the RV didn't have to get cut off, so I reused them. The bushings were indeed the wrong ones AGAIN, I had actually purchased the wrong ones the first time, then had to return them and buy https://www.yotamasters.com/shop/suspension/maintenance-replacement/old-man-emu-leaf-spring-bushing-kits-2/, can't remember which one I bought, but that was also wrong, as I had to turn down with my lathe the larger OD of the bushings to fit the frame connection point. I also had to increase the ID of the supplied metal sleeve, as the ID wasn't large enough to fit over the bolt. I also had to trim the bushings to length, as when put on either side of where they belonged, they ended up not fitting where they were supposed to. The front and rear shocks went on without a hassle. Overall, pretty much all of my complaints of poor driving have been remedied by replacing front and rear shocks along with the rear springs. The bushings everywhere were shot, I am unsure if I actually needed to replace the rear springs, as the side by side comparison didn't reveal anything, and the truck is sitting roughly at the same height. The front and rear shock bushings looked basically brand new, I'm unsure if they had gas in them at one time, as when pushed in, they stay in position. They did resist movement however.

I do still want to gain some clearance in the rear, any ideas on how to go about that? My departure angle is pretty abysmal at the moment. 
Attached some photos in case someone can spot anything out of place. Last picture is how she currently sits on level ground

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20230121_093248.jpg

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I forgot to take pics after putting in the new springs, Old Man Emu OMESB43 were the bushings I bought that needed to be turned down and cut to length. Here's a photo of the spring right before it went in.

spring.jpg

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Those bushings don't come up for me. Looks like these would have been the correct bushings

Old Man Emu by ARB, Spring Bushing Kit, OMESB6 - Desert Rat

Guess it doesn't matter now that you found a way. 

Like I said most of us have air suspension bags in the rear and we can easily adjust the height in the back

57113 Airlift Super Duty Air Spring Kit Toyota Motorhome - Shockwarehouse.com

Longer shackles might have been an option but you just got the damn things in and I don't know if a suitable size is available. 

Most look pretty extreme

In the front your limited to torsion bar adjustments

Linda S

Lots of cheaper options online for those air bags

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The OMESB6 is indeed the way. I wish you’d seen my post on this from a year ago. OME does a poor job of explaining what goes with what. If you have the product catalog you can sift through it. Glad you found a solution.

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