Paul Smith wrote:can anyone tell me the best way to lift a toyota 4runner.
at the moment I have independent front, torsion bars wound up a little.
rear has heavy duty leaf springs as it used to be a work car.
it is an 85 model.
With your current 2" body lift you should be able to run 33's quite easily. You can run 33"s on the front with little/no lift and some firewall massaging and guard cutting as there is very little uptravel of the suspension.
If you wanted to increase both your up and down travel then fitting the ball joint spacer kit from either ebay or off ww.toyotasurf.asn.au then this will give you an extra 1" lift, that you can combine with the 2" lift available by adjusting the torsion bars. With this combination you would be able to run 35"s readily.
Failing that, there are off the shelf, more sophisticated kits for suspension lift on IFS hilux/4runner that comprise of complete new upper and lower arms, new front cross members etc etc, however they cost 1 - 2 gorillas, but they are readily engineerable.
www.snakeracing.com.au do on, and several websites in the US such as marlin crawler, skyjacker and chaos4x4.
The rear end is quite easy, but springs and shocks to match, just remember to adjust the brake proportioning valve actuator to suit the lift, and quite possible brakelines depending on the amount of lift and flex you achieve.
There is plenty of info available on this site using the search tool, on
www.toyotasurf.asn.au, also on the 4wdmonthly forum under the toyota section. Failing that look up
http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/
NOTE: ball joint spacer kits, whilst engineer able are not readily approved for use on road, and could quite possible void your insurance should you choose to run them. Plenty of people however do run them and take the risk. There have also been several installations engineered, but depending on your state this may not be possible.