Removing Single Leaf

[Plumper]

Hey everyone,

My D22 had an extra leaf added to the rear suspension before I bought it, and I'm looking at removing a single leaf from my rear suspension to lower the height and soften the ride. At the moment the rear sits a good 2 inches higher then front which has already been wound up (will be adjusted to suit new rear height), and the ride when unloaded (95% of the time) is frustratingly hard. When the tray is loaded it's generally only a weekends worth of camping gear. As I'm on a budget, I've decided removing a leaf is the best place to start.

I've never removed leaf suspension from any vehicle before, so I've got a few questions I'm hoping some one can help me with. Firstly I'm looking at removing the middle leaf (5 in total per side), as this will soften up the ride and lose some height. Is this the best leaf to remove?

Will I have to remove the entire leaf setup to remove the middle leaf, or would I be able to simply remove the U-bolts and centre retaining pin/bolt, and drop the bottom three leaves out, and refit the bottom two? There are no C-Clamps or anything else besides the centre pin that I can see holding the centre leaf in place.

And lastly, does any one know if I'll need a shorter centre retaining pin/bolt if I remove a leaf?

I'm not at all familiar with the leaves on the Nav, so I'd much rather go in with an idea of what to expect before pulling everything apart and figuring it out that way. I've attached a couple of pics of my leafs, and as you can see the middle leaf isn't held in place by any C-Clamps or other bolts other then the centre pin, which is why I'm hoping I could remove it with out removing the entire leaf pack.

Any advice/help is greatly appreciated. Definitely looking forward to having a more comfortable car to drive around in!

Cheers

 

[sparra04]

If its had an extra leaf added then you should find 2 the same length
Remove one of them
I would defiantly take leaf pack out

 

[scooba_285]

you will probably find that taking a leaf out will make it even stiffer than it is now as the normal leafs will be alot closer to the load springs (unless you want to take them out aswell)

 

[tweak'e]

i'm surprised the ride is hard.
got a pic of the front height?

typically a single extra leaf gives 2" lift and fairly soft. those that carry heavy loads often fit two extra leafs.
i'm wondering if the hardness is coming from the front suspension.

i would not remove leafs. reverting it back to the horrible stock springs will be even worse and you will end up pounding the bump stops.
mayby get the spring guys to fit a thinner extra leaf.

 

[04SilverSTR]

Looks likevit has had a leaf added to the standard springsw would look at getting New springs rather than taking a leaf out!

 

[Plumper]

Cheers for the replys.

If its had an extra leaf added then you should find 2 the same length
Remove one of them
I would defiantly take leaf pack out

No two leafs are the same length, although a while ago when I took it in for some other suspension work the guy working on it said a leaf had been added. Which would explain the extra height in the rear.

As for the height of the front suspension, it's approx 35 inches from the ground to the centre of the wheel arch (37 inches in the rear) and there is about 15mm between the top bump stop on the front suspension. The front suspension is pretty firm as well, although the majority of the harshness definitely comes from the rear, as when there is a decent load in the back the ride is a lot better.

Could removing one of the load assist springs be a better option for softening up the ride? If I don't lose that much height off the back it's no big deal, the main thing I want is to improve the ride a bit.

Once again I appreciate the help.

 

[d22dave]

I don,t know what tyre pressures your running, But for ride comfort i,ve found a drop of 5 psi or a bit more makes a very noticeable difference in comfort level. I know that doesn,t alter the ride height but its a easy way of gaining a softer ride

 

[d22dave]

When measuring vehicle height, It,s common to measure from bottom edge of the rim to the wheel arch,

 

[tweak'e]

sounds like you have 3-4" lift at the rear which might explain why its stiff.
need to replace or rework the extra leaf. can't just remove it.
removing a load spring will not fix anything as they only come into play when your carrying a load.

 

[Plumper]

need to replace or rework the extra leaf. can't just remove it.

Is this purely because the suspension could end up being too soft/sagged??? My thoughts were that if it is an extra leaf that's been added to the factory suspension, removing the leaf and returning the leafs to the factory config shouldn't cause any problems, that is assuming there's been no major sag over the years, which I'm hoping there hasn't been as the extra leaf has been there for a very long time, going off the cars history that I am aware of.

Also height measurements from bottom edge of rim to wheel arch are 29 inches in the front, and 31 inches in the rear.

 

[tweak'e]

nah its cause the factory ones are so crap.
they are well known to sag. so removing the leaf would be a backwould step imho.
before we fitted extra leaf on ours it was really rough ride and many times would hit the stops sending pain up your back!

adding an extra leaf is a common fix and gives a 2" lift.
however yours looks like its been given a heavy extra leaf and got a 3-4" lift. so by changing the leaf to a softer one would drop it down to a 2" lift and match the front. that will give a nice ride.

 

[Plumper]

Cheers for the info tweak, sounds like a softer extra leaf might be the way to go then. Sounds like the factory leafs in standard form are pretty woeful.

 

[tweak'e]

might pay to check if you have stock shackles.