Last weekend, the truck leaked all the AHC fluid after developing a leak in a fitting near the rear passenger side. After doing some research on saving the AHC or not, I decided to go with a conventional LC setup and get rid of the AHC. Primary reasoning to go this route was to avoid having another such failure while on the 12K mile road trip planned for next year(more on that later). I bought the LC springs and TBs from FBM. Shocks were ordered from McGeorge along with all the required hardware. I went with Toyota OEM shocks for the LC. Thankful to both the sellers for sending the parts quickly.
Met with a friend at his garage this morning to work on this. I was expecting to see some carnage from rusted parts, but was hopeful to save the AHC components as much as I could. Within the first few minutes, we both were conclusive that the rear AHC componenents were not worth saving - Shocks, AHC lines, nuts & bolts were rusted pretty bad. After that it was an easy decision on what tools were needed, starting with a Sawzall and graduating to a plasma cutter.
The plasma cutter made things go bye bye quickly
The rear end of the torsion bars were stuck(more like rust welded) into the adjusters and were not coming out after going at them with a hammer and and air hammer. So, we cut the ends off the TBs, cut a hold on the end caps and them hammered the ends out of the adjusters. LX TBs were replaced with LC TBs.
After 6 hours, the LX is back on its feet with a renewed suspension setup. Currently sitting at almost the same height as before. But, there is still some more adjustment remaining to lift the LX some more. Current measurements from the center of the axle to the bottom of the fender is 19" on the front and 20.5" in the rear. I do have about 150-200lbs of stuff in the trunk area with the drawer system filled.