A week earlier, we had sprayed down all the suspension connections with PB Blaster to make removal easier (WD-40 or JB-80 will also work). This is an especially good idea if you live where rust is a problem-or if your truck lived in the rust belt or near the ocean. Another spray of Blaster was applied before we started removing anything from the Cruiser.
Once installed and after a few weeks of daily driving, the springs had broken in and we went to Hungry Valley SRVA (aka Gorman) to get some off-road observations. Our friend Jon Santana brought along his '88 Range Rover and we traversed the practice area to try the Land Cruiser on various terrains including a rock trail, a water pit, dirt trenches, and some high-speed whoops. The OME suspension kit made for big improvements in the ride quality and predictability in off-camber maneuvers. Tire rubbing was eliminated except in extreme flex situations, but the truck owner has already ordered slimmer wheels that will tuck the tires into the fenderwells. He is also considering a front shackle extension to provide more lift over the front tires.
Go to www.4wheeloffroad.com for videos and more photos of this Old Man Emu suspension lift installation.
Once it was clear we were not diving into an empty swimming pool, we found a flat area on the asphalt (conveniently in the middle of Fred's driveway), where we'd have room to work on the front suspension and safely place our jackstands. We positioned the jackstands as close to the spring hangers as possible so they could be raised once the truck was lifted into the air. With the emergency brake applied, the floor jack was placed under the driver-side spring and the FJ was lifted. The jack was then used under the differential on the other side to raise the truck enough to place the other jackstand at the same setting to make the truck sit level. The floor jack was then positioned under the diff to keep some weight off the springs and help keep the truck steady.
Box wrenches made it easy to remove the once mighty nitrogen shocks that were probably installed around the time Back to the Future II was in movie theaters. We placed the mounting bolts in bags with "front shock bolts" labels to help keep the curse words to a minimum. A busted steering stabilizer shock was tossed in the trash pile. Next, we used the impact gun to remove the U-bolts from the bottoms of the leaf springs. The U-bolt mounts were kept in a safe place along with the stock rubber bushings found between the mount and the leaf pack. These will be needed when the new suspension is installed.