Darx

I thought about that after posting since I remembered some 4-Runner peeps talking about that.

Now, how do I go about adding the extra inch of front suspension lift I can now do due to the diff drop? Do I need to take the shocks off and raise them somehow or can this be done while they're installed? I wasn't able to simply turn the bottom collar up on the threads. It was beyond my brute strength so I imagine there's somethign to it that I'm not using. I've heard people talkinga bout spring clamps or something to compress the spring...

Thanks a million!

RobT2k

What are they currently set to (how much lift)?
The diff drop helps, but it's not magic, you still can't go all the way to 3" without your CVs suffering.
To adjust them, you need to jack up the front end, take off the tire, and crank the hell out of them. Once the coils are set for any amount of lift it gets harder as they go up. It will take both hands and alot of effort. The lame part is putting the tire back on, letting the front end down, measuring and then jacking it back up, cranking them etc......

Darx

Right now the driver's side coil is at 2". I took this measurement from the bottom of the threading on the shock to the bottom of the collar you turn up. The passenger's side coil is at 1.5" measuring the same method. I assume Toyota did this to compensate for driver weight? BruceTS said it was just heavier on that side so I'm not sure if he meant driver weight or something with the truck that's heavier on that side.

I was thinking of going down to the dealership and getting a ground to fender measurement on a stock truck just like mine, TRD 4x Xtracab. Then measuring mine that way since I've read other people here measuring that way to see where I stand in comparison.

I'm assuming that with the passenger side collar being set to 1.5" from bottom of the thread to the bottom of the collar plus the collar being around .5" to the bottom of the spring that's 2" but in the end I have no idea how much actual lift I have compared to a stock rig.

Darx

I'm finally getting around to lifting the body tomorrow! I'm getting some help from a friend's dad who took some interest in the project who is a mechanic among other things.

I came up with a small pre-lift checklist and want to see if there's anything I should add so speak up! I'm going out to get a new battery for the truck today, Optima Redtop if I can find one, since the ground wire is going to be disconnected I might as well throw a new battery in.

Here's the list:

1. Hit all body mount bolts with WD-40 the night before and morning of lift to get the mounts loosened up.
2. Install Optima Redtop!
3. Leave battery ground wire disconnected due to possible shorting or cable tension from lifting body for mounts.
4. Loosen all body mount bolts. Do not remove nuts from bolts on the side not being lifted!
5. Loosen rack and pinion steering rag joint connection for installation of steering extension.

Anything else? Once I get started I don't want any "I should have done this or that to make it easier."

Darx

The body lift is done! Overall the process went smooth enough but there were some minor complications.

The middle mount on the passenger side bed was a problem. The nut that is tacked on inside the subframe came off during the installation of the new bolt after the 1" spacer was in place. There's no way to get at it unless you want to skillsaw open the subframe around it and get it straightened out. The bolt is going to have to be cut off then the subframe opened , then see if the nut is in any good shape which I doubt, then tack a new one in and weld that piece back up. So right now that mount is going to stay in place but it's loose and there's about 2" of bolt just hanging there with a washer rattling around on it.

The other trouble spot was more minor and was the front driver's side mount on the cab. THe stupid AC thing was in the wayof getting the longer bolts on there so we had to play around with the AC unit to get it out of the way whcih is kind of hard since it's got metal tubes running off of it, I"m pretty sure it was AC anyway.

The best part was that we didn't have to lift the bed off the truck by hi-lift or floor jack. One guy was under the truck putting things in place and I was just lifting the bed along with someone else as needed.

I took pictures of some of the install and made a little wrte-up, mostly for the cab portion of the process.

Have a gander here: http://darx.gamespy.com/truck/bodylift/

Thanks to all those who made suggestions for the process.