Dobinsons front springs install question

[georgebj60]

I’ve searched all over, but can’t find the info I need. I’m in the middle of installing Dobinsons springs on the front of my truck. The pin on the springs is smaller than the hole in the the u-bolt plate. Pin is 14mm, plate is 17mm. All the info I can find with this issue relates to the rear springs and the rubber isolator. Do I need to get a bushing for this issue on the front?

I haven’t tackled the rear yet but should I assume I’ll need some bushings there too?

 

[jclark]

When I installed mine there was a bushing that went in the plate. I’d contact the shop that sold it to you. Otherwise, you can probably pick that up from Valley Hybrids/Terrain Tamer (@orangefj45) or Cruiser Outfitters (@cruiseroutfit ) I’ve purchased suspension parts from both. Great customer support before, during and after the sale.

 

[georgebj60]

Thanks. Thats the info I assumed but good to know for sure. I’ve reached out to the vendor to see if they can supply the bushings, both front and rear.
I for sure would have purchased my whole kit from @cruiseroutfit (I’ve purchased from them in the past), but the exchange rate and uncertainty around tariffs make that too risky.

 

[jclark]

The exchange rate is what it is, but there are no Canadian tariffs currently on individually imported auto parts. There’s a 25% tariff on certain US goods and fully assembled vehicle vehicles. That does not apply to parts.

Don’t take my word for it though, check with CBSA.

Hope that helps, and good luck.

 

[georgebj60]

So just to circle back on this, Dobinsons USA says I need to buy the rubber isolators. See attached email from Dobinsons (the measurements they reference are mine saying the hole in the u-bolt plate is 17mm, and the spring pin is 14mm).

Though from what I can tell most people delete the isolator and just install a bushing.

 

[BurntToast]

Did the bushing on mine, no rubber

 

[toy_tek]

[edit] deleted... sorry I missed this was referencing the front

 

[georgebj60]

Yep that's my plan. Does anyone have the bushing part numbers handy? I'm searching but haven't found it yet. When I do I'll post it up here.

Ah. I found it. OME-CBS01. But at $30 plus, I'll be making one out of some stock bushing material. Thanks for all the replies.

 

[toy_tek]

on the rear wrap of your front springs, are they centered? I had issues with mine being off center, and eventually needed to swap the left spring to the right side and vice versa. Not sure if they're all like that or I got some that were made at quittin time. Info here. Hope yours are correct.

 

[georgebj60]

Ok, so my original post was completely daft. I confused the orientation of the parts when I tried to figure out what was wrong when I was assembling the parts under the truck. The pin on the leaf spring does not go through the u-bolt plate at all, The plate is under the spring. The pin goes into the spring perch on the axle housing. What screwed me up is that, upon closer inspection tonight, the hole in the axle housing on the left side has been carved out into a bit of an oval. There is a good 4-5mm of front to back movement of the spring pin in the perch. Not so much side-to-side. The passenger side seems to be good.

So, I don't know how this happened. The axle is out of the donor HJ60 I used to 2H swap into my FJ60. I only drove that truck a few times before tearing it down. I guess something was loose and the axle was moving around a bit. I never felt anything driving it, but who knows.

Anyway, my plan now is get the axle back out from under the truck, flip it over and try to open up the hole to a perfect circle again, and find or fabricate a bushing to get the spring tight and centred again. Unless someone has a better idea?

Anyway, apologies for the waste of everyone's time. Live and learn!

 

[CruiserTrash]

@georgebj60 I'm always adamant that people DON'T use the isolators and corresponding metal channels when installing aftermarket springs. The isolators and channels were sized exactly for the thickness of the stock spring pack, no more no less. All the aftermarket packs are thicker and you end up putting all the u-bolt torque into the rubber. It'll never get to the proper torque and could come dangerously loose while driving. Bad bad bad. That may be different for the "stock height" leaf springs Cruiser Outfitters is selling now, but I'm not sure. But definitely not with OME, Ironman, Dobby, etc, "lift kit" spring packs.

You nailed it with OME part number CBS-01. Dobby doesn't make a part number for that - I used the OME spacer and it fits perfectly. Or just cut apart the spacer from the original metal channel. A little angle grinder action is all you need to make your own spacers from the channels.

 

[georgebj60]

@georgebj60 I'm always adamant that people DON'T use the isolators and corresponding metal channels when installing aftermarket springs. The isolators and channels were sized exactly for the thickness of the stock spring pack, no more no less. All the aftermarket packs are thicker and you end up putting all the u-bolt torque into the rubber. It'll never get to the proper torque and could come dangerously loose while driving. Bad bad bad. That may be different for the "stock height" leaf springs Cruiser Outfitters is selling now, but I'm not sure. But definitely not with OME, Ironman, Dobby, etc, "lift kit" spring packs.

You nailed it with OME part number CBS-01. Dobby doesn't make a part number for that - I used the OME spacer and it fits perfectly. Or just cut apart the spacer from the original metal channel. A little angle grinder action is all you need to make your own spacers from the channels.

Thanks for this. Though my problem turned out to be another issue, it's a bit unnerving that the official direction from Dobinsons USA is to use the rubber isolator and channels with their springs. I certainly read about a few member that ended up bending their u-bolt plates because of this.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

@georgebj60 I'm always adamant that people DON'T use the isolators and corresponding metal channels when installing aftermarket springs. The isolators and channels were sized exactly for the thickness of the stock spring pack, no more no less. All the aftermarket packs are thicker and you end up putting all the u-bolt torque into the rubber. It'll never get to the proper torque and could come dangerously loose while driving. Bad bad bad. That may be different for the "stock height" leaf springs Cruiser Outfitters is selling now, but I'm not sure. But definitely not with OME, Ironman, Dobby, etc, "lift kit" spring packs.

You nailed it with OME part number CBS-01. Dobby doesn't make a part number for that - I used the OME spacer and it fits perfectly. Or just cut apart the spacer from the original metal channel. A little angle grinder action is all you need to make your own spacers from the channels.

Couple notes. Our stock height Japanese leaf springs are true to original dimensions, so they ship with a set of the OEM Toyota rubber isolators (Toyota calls 'Rear Spring Pad').

Now, OME did make parts to use their leaf springs (the pre-Emu Dakar stuff, OME113A, OME1131B type stuff) with the rubber isolator. They used spacers that took up that gap between the spring pad retainer and the u-bolt plate. They worked, but they had a bunch of different fit kit part numbers to accommodate the different rear spring pack heights and potential and AAL's. I still have some of the old kits kicking around somewhere, they haven't sold them for a few decades now. When they moved to the CS Emu Dakar springs, they went to exclusively using the CBS01 which I've detailed greatly here on Mud over the years. Here is a 20 year old post with the CBS01 dimension for anyone making their own.

Now, along the lines OME just craaaaaanked the prices up on the CBS01, like from $4/each in 2013 to a whopping $33.95/each at current. So, we made our own and made them better. We opted for Stainless Steel and machined rather than just parted tube with a seam down the middle that caused some issues with the OME ones. Turns out making them out of a better material, here in the US (made in Draper, Utah) and in relatively low quanties when it comes to manufacturing runs... they are still more than I'd like but at $16/each, they are a much better deal than the OME imo.

Center Bolt Spacer - Stainless Steel - Fits 6x Applications (CROUTSSCBS)

Center Bolt Spacer - Stainless Steel - Fits 6x/7x Applications (CROUTSSCBS)

cruiserteq.com

(Site shows 18 in stock but I suspect we have more like 500 )

Beyond that, rubber isolators and thus center bolt spacers were never a thing on the front, rear only. If anyone is dealing with an incongruent front leaf spring pins to axle housing, something else is up.

 

[CruiserTrash]

Couple notes. Our stock height Japanese leaf springs are true to original dimensions, so they ship with a set of the OEM Toyota rubber isolators (Toyota calls 'Rear Spring Pad').

Now, OME did make parts to use their leaf springs (the pre-Emu Dakar stuff, OME113A, OME1131B type stuff) with the rubber isolator. They used spacers that took up that gap between the spring pad retainer and the u-bolt plate. They worked, but they had a bunch of different fit kit part numbers to accommodate the different rear spring pack heights and potential and AAL's. I still have some of the old kits kicking around somewhere, they haven't sold them for a few decades now. When they moved to the CS Emu Dakar springs, they went to exclusively using the CBS01 which I've detailed greatly here on Mud over the years. Here is a 20 year old post with the CBS01 dimension for anyone making their own.

Now, along the lines OME just craaaaaanked the prices up on the CBS01, like from $4/each in 2013 to a whopping $33.95/each at current. So, we made our own and made them better. We opted for Stainless Steel and machined rather than just parted tube with a seam down the middle that caused some issues with the OME ones. Turns out making them out of a better material, here in the US (made in Draper, Utah) and in relatively low quanties when it comes to manufacturing runs... they are still more than I'd like but at $16/each, they are a much better deal than the OME imo.

Center Bolt Spacer - Stainless Steel - Fits 6x Applications (CROUTSSCBS)

Center Bolt Spacer - Stainless Steel - Fits 6x/7x Applications (CROUTSSCBS)

cruiserteq.com

(Site shows 18 in stock but I suspect we have more like 500 )

Beyond that, rubber isolators and thus center bolt spacers were never a thing on the front, rear only. If anyone is dealing with an incongruent front leaf spring pins to axle housing, something else is up.

Didn't know you guys were making your own spacers, that's awesome. I also didn't know OME was making fit kits to use the isolators with the old Dakar stuff. I've removed a couple old Dakar kits (cartoon Emu logo era) and haven't seen the isolators. I bet even with the fit kits, a lot of people just ditched them. Thanks for the tech here, I'm filing it all away in my memory banks!

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Didn't know you guys were making your own spacers, that's awesome. I also didn't know OME was making fit kits to use the isolators with the old Dakar stuff. I've removed a couple old Dakar kits (cartoon Emu logo era) and haven't seen the isolators. I bet even with the fit kits, a lot of people just ditched them. Thanks for the tech here, I'm filing it all away in my memory banks!

We started doing our own spacers maybe 4-5 years ago, perhaps longer? When OME crossed the $20/spacer threshold we figured that wasn't workable AND we needed a solution for all our Dobinsons springs sales. We do bulk orders of them for other shops too if you need a stash of them.

The OME spacers were FK0411, FK0418, FK047, FK0422, FK0429. There are still some floating around in inventories. They look like this:

And they fit in between here:

 

[CruiserTrash]

We started doing our own spacers maybe 4-5 years ago, perhaps longer? When OME crossed the $20/spacer threshold we figured that wasn't workable AND we needed a solution for all our Dobinsons springs sales. We do bulk orders of them for other shops too if you need a stash of them.

The OME spacers were FK0411, FK0418, FK047, FK0422, FK0429. There are still some floating around in inventories. They look like this:

View attachment 3928007

And they fit in between here:

View attachment 3928009

100% makes sense on how those spacer bars work. The u-bolts need to make torque just as the metal channel and lower spring plates touch. With the thicker spring packs, those spacer bars accomplish that. Interesting that OME ditched those and just said “good luck”! Honestly though probably thousands and thousands of people run without the isolator assembly and it’s fine.