BlazeN8

The ironic and sad part of my shock issue is that I have the solution, I just don't have the funds to purchase right now. I spent them on the holidays, the new website, and parts for my other rigs. Having three Yotas to support is costly!

Speaking of the website, I updated it recently with a revised version of my Idler Arm Brace and new pictures and description of my Shock Hoops. These are both products I developed a while back and have been testing the past couple of years. I am now feeling comfortable with producing for public use.

The Shock Hoops are on several different vehicles right now. Mantruck has the double shock and Rex has a single 2.0 smooth body. CrazyToyota has a 2.0 coil-over conversion on his 4Runner and Zack has the same on his T-100. I have a 2.5 Race Runner coil-over conversion on my Fordota. A while back I had it on my 4 Runner as a coil-over assist, as you read about earler in this build thread. There are a few more rigs out there that are using the shock hoops as well. I appologize to you guys who are reading if it bothers you that I didn't acknowledge your contribution in testing and development.

When I had my 4 Runner on the jack stands a few days ago I shared the information about measuring for the Bilstein shock but I didn't mention I was also measuring for the Shock Hoops for a Combo kit. A stand alone long arm kit uses a 8" travel shock with my shock hoops while a combo kit uses a 10" travel shock.

Here is a reference photo of the shock hoops I will be installing on my 4 Runner in the weeks to come.

Red Wagon

I love how so many companies are dropping support for our rigs while you are stepping in to fill that void!

Make HEADERS for a 3VZE next dude!

Good luck on your business.


Also, I think on your website the sample rides section needs to be adjusted. It seems to cut off the enlarged photo on the right forcing you to click on it getting massive photos.

BlazeN8

Thanks for the feedback. The new website is a big let down so far! I am not able to edit the site and the guy that set it up does not provide customer support anything close to what GoDaddy did. He set the website up in trade for a Blazeland kit. Oversold it, got the kit, and left me hanging!

Back to the build thread, I was going to walk thru the installation of the Shock Hoops but decided its sort of a waste of time as its been done here on YT a few times all ready. But I will submit a couple of photos of it installed on ACs 4Runner.

Red Wagon

Don't be too disappointed with the website. It looks great. Just needs kinks ironed out and that is normal.

Tech Tim

They'll do it with their take apart shocks, you just got to ask the right person.


Not mocking you, I didn't see that other post. It is just a huge problem that we see and just wanted to make sure you were good.




Good luck on the website, hope the guy will get it straightened out.

BlazeN8

I shouldn't be venting my website frustrations here but just wanted to let you all know I am aware it needs work and I am trying.

Tim, I tried calling Bilstein and got ahold of Shane who was able to help. We found a shock that has the stroke and a stem attachment on the upper that should work. For the lower attachment it uses an eye that has a different bushing that could be switched out. The shock valve setting is different but you can special order to something close to what is needed. When you special order tell them you are wanting to match valve setting on shock #24-185745. I believe it is 400/117. The part number for the longer shock is 24-185776. If someone who installs the combo kit and is looking for a bolt in shock hopefully they find this information and I have been helpful. I will be going with the Shock Hoops and a coil over conversion or coil over assist.

BlazeN8

About a week ago I removed the rear driveshaft and have been driving around town in front wheel drive. I got a couple of hundred miles on the new gears now. The CMdiff CVs are working well. I was on the freeway a couple of times and might have exceeded the speed limit for a few miles. Not saying how fast I was going but I did make it into the fast lane and the flow of traffic was moving along. The transition from drive to coast mode causes a quick wobble vibration. I think its happening at the stub axle as its showing play where it plugs into the third member. Its minor and since I am going to be going back to rear wheel drive in a few hundred miles I'm not concerned.

B-yodaful

[QUOTE=BlazeN8;52024737]I shouldn't be venting my website frustrations here but just wanted to let you all know I am aware it needs work and I am trying.

Nate my company builds webs sites, maybe we could help you out. I wouldn't mind doing a little site help for some parts to complete my blaze kit. Let me know.

BlazeN8

That's how my website got in trouble! I did a trade, a kit for a new website. It was set up unofficially within the company that he worked for and when he quit I was left hanging. I didn't have a contract with the company just a verbal agreement with the employee. It got complicated and there is an internal investigation going on. I think its just about resolved. I am allowed back into the system now. I just got done doing some editing. I am going to create another page tomorrow that handles prices, availability, ordering, and payment. Thanks for the offer, but from now on I will be doing everything on a cash basis! I'll be sure to get a contract and receipt the next time. And it makes writing it off as an expense possible when there is documentation.

ToyoTech559

i get alot of vibrations if i leave the front up locked and in 2wd going above 25 mph. it cant be the drive shafts since it did it on old and new ones now. could be the diff drop but it did it before the diff drop. it did it when the truck was complete stock with oem sized tires and rims.

BlazeN8

The vibration is not all that bad and mostly noticeable at high speed. I am actually surprised it isn't worse with the geometry of the front driveshaft and how long those CV axle shafts are. Being in 4WD with the rear driveshaft removed and driving on the freeway, front wheel drive style at high speed, has got to be a good indicator of how well its going to work at lower speeds in the dirt! I'm going to test it at KOH in a few weeks, you should meet up with us. Tim Lund, Albert, and a couple of others are wheeling on Saturday after the race. It will be a LT IFS only group...... well not really but it would be cool to get as many of us there as possible. There is a sign up invitation on the Trail Rides announcement section of the forum board.

Zpd426

Oh man, Looks great! Looking at this makes me want to do a CMdiff even more. But I dont want to spend money on axles again haha.

Are you going to the Leduc swap meet? I bet you showed up with a couple kits you could make some sales.

Im almost thinking of leaving Dumont super early and heading over there to try and find a cheap bracket lift...

BlazeN8

I've been wanting to go for years but always missed it. It would be cool to get a 10x15 booth and sell a few kits and some of my old parts. I'll have to see?

BlazeN8

Went to TDS the past weekend. Spent part of Saturday driving around in the testing grounds. Drove through a few sections. Got hung up in one of the rock courses and a jeeper pulled me off the rock I was high centered. He seemed so happy to extricate a Yota and even called his strap a "Toyota Strap" It was crowded in the testing grounds but spectating was more fun than then waiting for a turn. Also it was getting old having all the IFS haters heckling. Its all relative, I'm not driving a dedicated rock crawler so chill. Anyway, I got the advantage in speed and comfort. I even got my revenge to the jeepers as I blazed past them as they backed down blow sand or on the hill climbs they failed on. See attached videos!

ToyoTech559

Got to love all the ifs haters. It's what motivates me be keep rocking my ifs. At least I have a body on frame compared to some jeeps. I got to spend my weekends driving around stuck jeeps so I don't know what the problem was haha

Zpd426

Looks like your front end is flexing nice. Did you ever figure out what was limiting your travel besides your shock? And did you get a final number on how much travel you ended up with?

Im now hunting for the rest of that lift kit and some 10" coilovers... Cant wait to play with it and figure out some hydrobumps and high angle cvs etc and see what happens.

BlazeN8

Yeah, I figured out a few things that were limiting my travel. My 4 Runner is a 1986 but because I had a surplus of 1989+ control arms I had put the later model control arms on the 86 rig.



On the LCA the BJ drop is slightly different as you can see in the photo. LCA on top is the later Gen.

The 1986-1988 control arms, bushings, and lower BJs are different from the 1989+ control arms. The lower BJ on the left is the later Gen. Well the problem was, I didn't remember to swap out the lower ball joint to go with the later model LCAs so I was using the wrong application.



When I switched the early lower BJ to the later Gen (to match the control ams) I was able to get almost one more inch of up travel and one more inch of down travel.

I have not tested the opposite scenerio but it may be advantageous to use the later Gen lower BJ on the early Gen LCA to get more travel? I don't remember this being the case when I was prototyping the design but its a possibility. I'll look into it and report my findings later.

On the UCAs, the differences are harder to spot. The early Gen has flush bushings and the later Gen has a void (see photo) You can only see this if you remove the cross shaft nut and washer, but if you insert a flat blade screw driver betweeen the rear washer and the bushing you can feel for the void without disassembly. The upper BJ doesn't change between years.

BlazeN8

Oh, as for the final travel numbers (metal to metal) I am at 12.500" of travel with the correct BJs. With the incorrect BJs it was at 10.625"

The other factor that is limiting flex is the torsion bar spring rate, pre-load, and range of rotation the T-bar allows. When I used a stock 22mm torsion bar with no pre-load (just finger tightening the adjustment nut) I was able to push the up travel all the way up to where metal to metal contact happened but the vehicle began to come off the jack stands. With the 25mm T-bars the vehicle lifted off the jack stands before metal to metal and even lifted with the nut sitting loose with play.

With the preload required to attain ride height with the 22mm T-bars its hard to get flex. With the 25mm T-bars, requiring less pre-load to bet ride height, its still hard to get flex because of the extra spring rate.

What this means is articulating through the rocks is its difficult to get full flex. But on the other hand if your hammering through the whoops you can get full flex and its more progressive the further the T-bar is rotated.

Converting to a coil over conversion seems to be the solution to allow more flex but even then the inherent nature of IFS is the front end likes to spring back on the compressed side and shift the force to body roll to the opposite side.

I am still trying to figure out the dynamics of crawling with IFS. I do know this, my 4 Runner will keep pace with my similarly equipped Live Axle 1985. On the other hand, watching the more extreme live axle rigs with the major improvements- bigger tires, double transfer cases, sliders, fully locked diffs, recessed drivetrain, etc. they seam to have the advantage. Is that a fair comparison to my low buck solution, probably not! And outside the crawler arena I think I have the advantage!

Numbchux

Awesome! Looks like you're getting some respectable travel there.


Excellent tech info regarding the newer control arm/BJ combo, and tbars. Do let us know what you find, and I'll start looking for some '89-95 arms for cores

ToyoTech559

Interesting. So do you know which LT kit I have? Since I reused my old 88 lower bj. Wonder if I need to change out my lower bj to match the arm