LUVTruck.com

Has anyone swapped the rear springs of a late model (78-80) into an earlier truck? I read on the factory brochure that sometime thereabouts the rear springs were softened and the truck given a lower stance for better ride quality. I'd consider doing that if it was bolt in, mine rides really hard and the back end is way up in the air.

Did it in reverse, swapped '77 5-leaf into my '78 (4-leaf "soft ride").

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'78 Chevy LUV,1.9,4sp,headers,31's,SAS Dana 30,Dana 20,SOA rear w/Aussie Locker, rough body, bought new 12/4/78.
'87 Trooper,2.3,5sp,headers,31's,ball joint flip & spacer,Aussie Locker rear,Superwinch hubs,brush guard w/5.5K winch,more to come.

Alright, so it seems it will work. Cool. Did you need load capacity so you put in heavier springs?

The front was a lot stiffer than the back. Then I started playing with it, added a leaf to the front to keep it from bottoming so easily, wound up adding three more leaves to the rear to better balance the suspension and add capacity. It's loaded cab high with firewood right now, still not on the snubbers.

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'78 Chevy LUV,1.9,4sp,headers,31's,SAS Dana 30,Dana 20,SOA rear w/Aussie Locker, rough body, bought new 12/4/78.
'87 Trooper,2.3,5sp,headers,31's,ball joint flip & spacer,Aussie Locker rear,Superwinch hubs,brush guard w/5.5K winch,more to come.

Neat. I'm just starting to get in to the suspension adjustment game. I think by cranking the torsion bars I can adjust the front ride quality, which is fine for now. Some guys use that to set height, but I think unless they re-index that they are changing spring rate un-necessarily as well. I just don't need all that spring out back, and according to factory literature the soft ride springs still have a 1000 pound rated capacity, because they still have an overload leaf which doesn't contribute to spring rate unless, well, you are overloaded. So now the trick will be to see if they are the same measurements as '72, which is different than everything else.

My theory is that for '72 the Japanese engineers designed it to be an honest-to-god work truck, with 4.56 gears, heavy springs, over-engineered frame, and as we know the LUV is damn durable. I wouldn't think twice about having one for a work truck. But I think they wisened up to us Americans in later years (Or GM had more input, or something) and options like soft ride springs and higher rear axle ratios (for higher top speeds and less revs on the open road) were introduced.

You can think about removing a spring or two. A spring shop can make you a set that give you a softer ride. We have re-indexed the front-end on VW Type3's when lowering them to keep the suspension working correctly. They use side to side to side torsion bar type suspension built into the beam... Only the Type3 has that.

I have done that on my 69 Dodge Dart Swinger 340, when I had it. I later went to 6 cylinder torsion bars.... You don't have that option unless some Isuzu Pup uses a less stiff torsion bar and it will fit. I am not sure if a spring shop could do anything with them, as they are tempered, but the might be able to... Too stiff of bars are easier to break.

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75 Luv, 350 V8, TH350, Camaro rearend. New 1975 Luv Step side. Stock for now.
Grandmaster of the "Shade Tree" way.. I can't see the yard for all the cars. Come on down and we will sit on the porch and watch the grass grow.

Thanks. I measured it, the back is only 1.5" higher, which isn't much. I'm going to start by lubricating the leafs (spraying them down with Breakfree CLP) and then maybe greasing them with chassis grease. If they are binding that will fix that. Then I will probably just leave them alone for a while until I really feel like trying to remove a leaf. Since the ride height isn't that bad (it really doesn't look as raked as I though I remember it did) removing a leaf to change spring rate should be fine. The prob is the dismantler that has a bunch of these LUV springs, softride type and regular, is only open M-F up north of Lancaster, I can't get there during the week if I wanted to buy new ones and change them out (and they'd probably need bushings anyhow).

IIRC there were Teflon inserts that could be put between each leaf springs. You had to tale the springs apart and maybe use a longer center spring blots.... I remember seeing springs with teflon/plastic buttons built into the srpings.

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75 Luv, 350 V8, TH350, Camaro rearend. New 1975 Luv Step side. Stock for now.
Grandmaster of the "Shade Tree" way.. I can't see the yard for all the cars. Come on down and we will sit on the porch and watch the grass grow.