In the search of a flexy suspension for little money as possible, I wound up with an excellent solution, the Mazda spring swap. This swap uses rear stock Mazda pickup springs. With this swap, you will be getting longer springs and some additional lift. The stock springs are aproximately 47" long, while the new Mazda's are 52" long.

Here are how the two sets of springs match up. On top are the old spings. Below, you'll see the new Mazda springs, which are about 5" longer than the stockers.

The new springs, in all their splendor, are cleaned up, painted and ready for a hard life.

The first thing you've got to do is find yourself a Mazda pickup. The pickup you're looking for is a 2WD from 1983 through 1989. You can usually pick them up at a junkyard for as little as 25 bucks. The springs will generally render two inches of additional lift over the stockers, and because I needed more than a mere two inches of lift to squeeze the tires beneath the wheel wells and still keep within budget, I'm keeping with 2" lift blocks for the rear and 4" shackles.

The Tools Needed

• Welder
• Wrenches
• Wire wheel
• Paint
• Angle grinder
• Spring hanger
  

The new front spring mount versus the old spring pack and mount.

After the new spring packs were assembled, I went to work on the spring mounts. For this project, you may retain the rear stock mount location. But as for the front, you will either have to relocate it forward or purchase a new one. I chose to purchase new ones from Toyota. The part numbers are 48414-35120 and 48415-35050 and are from the 90s era Toyota 4x4s. Keeping within budget, I shelled out a scant 13 bucks for each of these.

Mounted and ready to rock.

As for mounting them, since I regurlarly run the rocks and am concerned about hanging up on the trail, they were mounted backwards, allowing them to slide over rocks with greater ease. I mounted them approximately five inches forward, eye to eye. After marking the correct spot, I cleaned up the metal and welded them on. The only tricky part was welding next to the gas tank; keeping a fire extinguisher readily available, I laid wet towels over the tank to keep things cool.

Once everything was welded, I bolted the complete package to the truck using poly bushings and reusing the stock U-bolts and spring plates. This may sound obvious to some, but be sure to have the truck on level ground and securely raised on quality jack stands.

Rocking and flexing at a favorite trail down in SoCal.

The Tale of the Trail

Not only is this complete package extremely affordable, but this setup rides and flexes extremely well.

Although I have yet to opt for it, I recommend looking into the limitations of the truck's suspension and related components and installing an appropriate set of bump stops, especially under hard and fast desert use. Because the springs are regularly flexed to negative arch on the trail for the last two years, they have lost about an inch of lift.

Either way, for the budget conscious and for those looking for a good ride, this setup is great spring pack for the buck.