I have the infamous negative arch in my rear leafs, but my budget is pretty set for the next couple months to be able to afford new leaf springs.... Not to mention terrified that the forward bolt is rusted tight.

Anybody got any quick, easy and cheap ideas to get me till income tax???

 

Junkyard.

 

Just soak those bolts in pb blaster for a couple weeks. And look for leaf springs in the junk yard or on jeeps being parted out. Hell a lot of people will practically give them to you after they install their lift kits. Good luck.

 

In reality, you don't need to remove the main leaf to rebuild your spring pack. Its just easier.
I heard of people using S10 leaves successfully (never tried it myself)
I would make sure I have a full length leaf that goes at least equal of past the main eyes. I've broken the main before and was very thankful I put one long one in. Just took a wide ratchet strap around the axle and to the cross member and drove home with minimal restrictions.

Oh yeah. I also put an overload leaf that only made contact when the pack was completely flattened. It restricted the up travel a little but I had 34" tires so it worked out good cause ride was still very smooth.

 

I work for a Toyota dealer so I ended up cutting some springs from a 01-04 Tacoma that I replaced the frame in. I removed the pack but left the main leaf installed. I installed one leave I cut from the Tacoma pack under the main leaf. I then also like stated by the member above me, installed the load spring on the bottom of the stock leafs. I now have my 4.5 lift height back and I can tow a hefty trailer lol

 

Yeah, you can build a bastard pack for next to nothing. The big flat overload leaf on the bottom of the pack is a good idea too, I've been meaning to add that to my Quadratec springs.

 

I've thought very heavily on the bastard packs, but wasn't sure on how many leaves I would need to get back to stock height or 1/1.5 lift... It's a dd and family camper so I don't need a great deal of lift