My buddies and I were thinking about a way to mount some coil overs on the stock a arms. Has anyone done this or know of any one who has? Or getting a wrecked tacoma and putting the suspension under an older yota? Is it worth the time?

 

I'm going to jump out on a lemp here and say no, it wouldn't be worth is... you be better off getting a Tacoma

BUT, I'm pretty sure I've seen coil-over kits on 2nd and 3rd gen IFS trucks, but, they were LT kits; I'm not sure if there's room with the stock A-control arms because of the CV shafts, but I could be wrong

 

The way the stock control arm is designed, it wouldn't be worth the effort to put coils in there. Just from clearance issues alone, you would probably have to use coils that were about as thick as a pencil. I suppose you could beef up the shock mounts and mount a coilover in the OE shock's place, but you'd need some mad fabbing skills and engineering know-how to make that work so that you won't be breaking the upper shock mount every time you go over a decent size pothole. Unless this is gonna be a prerunner type truck, keep the strong reliable and well designed torsion bar setup, and save up for a SAS.

 

Junk removed.

 

There isn't a lot of room in there for coil-overs.
even the LT kits from TC and Downey all but make you lose 4wd to go with coil-overs.

 

here's a pic of mine with 4" bracket lift and you can see just how close the shocks are to the frame


and even considering my lift, you can see that there's not much clearance between the lower shock tube and the bump-stop mount.

 

Well now that I can actually read this.

Don't coil overs take the place of the rest of the suspension? Or does the coil only act as a helper with the existing springs and coil? I think I've seen CO's on prerunner type desert trucks but can't tell if there are still t-bars in them or not.

 

Total Chaos offers kits which support using c/o shocks in place of torsion bars but it requires removal of 4wd to do it.
(because the shock is too wide to allow the front CV shafts to be used)

 

lol, thank you

things were getting a little out of hand, I have to admit...

sorry about starting crap guys

 

It's your fault that the mods have to work so hard around here........

 

I just give them a reason to use their Mod title effectively


it's like a cops and law-breakers theory... if there were no law-breakers around, there would be no law enforcement employed!

the way I see it, I'm helping the forum

 

This might sound stupid, but what about a coilover setup that links from the UPPER control arm to a hoop? Obviously there would be some cutting of the inner fender involved and some brackets would need to be welded, but that's expected. The stock 4WD setup uses the upper control arms linked to the torsions so I don't see why not?

I had a GMC Sierra and the hot setup for that truck was a dual shock linked from the upper control arm to a hoop instead of the lower control arm.

 

you're meaning the hoops through the fender?
suppose it would work, but would the UCA be able to withstand the force?

 

does it not already withstand the force of the t-bar?

 

but it's designed to transfer the torque through the arm to the t-bar, not have a shock bolted to it in the middle.
get my point?
but if the shock mounted to the ball joint studs, it would work.

 

The Gen 3 Total Chaos kit for 89-95 is the kit that completely eliminates the 4WD, you can retain it with the Gen 2 and the other.

 

meh, I kinda get what you're saying... but I never was good at geometry

 

I would imagine as long as you mounted it as close to the balljoint (or right on it) as possible it would be ok. This way you could keep 4WD and eliminate the torsions and the stock shock(or keep the stock shock?). I'm thinking it would take a fiberglass fender or no fender at all to clear the hoop/coilover.

 

I can see this setup with modified Rancho UCA's maybe...

guess what I have laying on my floor?

 

The Total Chaos Gen II caddy system eliminates the torsion bars in favor of coilovers.



AxleIke has been working on it, and it appears that clearance in the upper arm is the only real issue (obviously, you will have to put in a shock hoop for the top, but that's pretty straightforward). You could try using FJ Cruiser or Tacoma uppers, but not sure if the pivots are in the right place to just bolt in ... if so, it would be quite easy.