Hello everyone,
I recently purchased a 1978 SR5 Short box truck in near mint shape inside and out. Truck has a ton of custom mods and engine work. It has been lowered using Mighty Max coil spring up from and a 3 inch block in rear with a leaf removed from the spring pack. I bought the truck in southern California last week. Lowered like it is, is fine for Southern California with its super nice roads. Here in Denver Colorado its a different story. I need to put that truck back to stock height before its destroyed on these bad Denver / Colorado roads. Finding stock springs new or used is proving to be impossible. I have search this site and many threads and all talk about lowering. Many google searches end up on useless dead end parts sites. Junk yard searches are coming up empty. eBay searches are coming up empty. Anyone know of any specific company that makes springs for these older trucks or know where I might find a good set that were NOT sagging out due to high miles or harsh use. The following link is a photo collection the previous owner took. Photos are out of order, but they document the truck when it was found in storage still 100% stock. Then the build to the point where it looks now Lowered and super clean.
http://s1140.photobucket.com/user/mmccul3797/slideshow/1978 SR5 Toyota Truck

 

You bought the polished turd!

 

Is that factory air conditioning I see? Very cool (no pun intended).

 

I sure did. Lot nicer then the 1977 polished turd I had back in the 1980s. If it were white, it would be perfect, but can't be picky when these 40 plus year old trucks are scarce. Polished turds on eBay in nice shape, but not with close the amount of work and time put into this one have been selling for more then this one did. I'll agree, these old trucks are kinda crap compared to the new 2016 Tacoma I have. Don't handle or drive anything like the turbo MKIV Supra I have, but its still a lot of fun to have a truck like my first one I bought 30 years ago.

 

Yeah its the optional Toyota / Denso AC system that is pretty rare for these trucks. Being a Arizona truck, I can understand that option being a must. It works well. Most of my trip home to Colorado last week driving though Nevada and Utah was averaging 110 degrees all day and the truck ran perfect cruising along at 70 and 80 mph. Temp gauge never moved any higher then its normal spot with the AC running all day.

 

This is what i meant by polished turd. Think its the same truck

https://toyotaminis.com/forum/threads/1978-toyota-pickup-sr5-polished-t-u-rd.20537/

 

Oh didn't know it was ever on here. The photos in the thread don't work, but it definitely is my truck by the description of the truck and the work done.

 

You bought a very nice truck. A lot of good work went into it

 

I agree, The project started with a very solid original truck in over all good shape still. A few things I need to change or fix besides the lowered suspension. The fuel gauge doesn't work. There is no vacuum hose connected to the brake booster so you really have to put serious effort and foot pressure on the brakes to stop. Visor clip is missing from the drivers visor so it shakes around when driving. The 1985 Celica 22RE W?? tranny that was swapped in has a very low 1st, 2nd and third gear as compared to the original truck W50 the truck had. The ratio of the diff in the Celica was a 3:40 something ratio which explains why the speedo in the truck reads 90 mph when your actually going 72mph. I plan on finding a 3:40 ish 8" diff if I am keeping that tranny in the truck. Tranny is definitely geared for a higher speed diff than the 4:10 the truck currently has. Sure it has serious off the line launching power on up through 3rd gear, but the truck pretty much hits is RPM limits in 5th gear around 80mph. I think putting close to the same ratio diff in the truck that the Celica has that the tranny came from should gear everything back close to what it should be and be able to cruise highway speeds without the engine turning 4,500 RPMs in 5th gear to go the speed limit. The tire size on a 1985 GT Celica is pretty close to the size of tires on the truck now so all should work out much better with a higher speed diff. The engine the way its built has enormous bottom end torque so overcoming the higher diff ratio shouldn't be a problem. Just means I won't be shifting from 1st to 2nd to 3rd in less than a 100 feet. Anyone have a 8" diff around the 3:50 range?