I have always had the principal, too try out what I have and make small changes to what I need. Keep up the good work drew02a.

 

Thanks man

That's a good principe to wheel/ wrench by

Wheel your parts till they break, or you can't go where you want anymore. Then replace with something better

Your rig is coming right along

 

ya its moving along. Now I just need to find the time and good weather too setup the rear suspension.

 

Drew, if the lighter valving works great. I just wanted to pass along the information I obtained from Bilstein. I agree with your summation, lighter valving makes sense for low speed crawling. I do most of my wheeling in the desert arena and sometimes overlook the crawler wants and needs. Keep the feedback comming!

 

great pics and lots of info. it looks like this kit is a good budget kit. i had the tc caddy kit on a previous rig it was a bit over kill for desert running unless your jumping it .but it worked far better than a bracket lift. how much cash you got in the front end with the lt kit, shocks, cvs, shocks, idler arm, pitman arm, upper and lower balljoints. looking to do this kit on my 4runner also i found that on the tc kit running 33"x10.5 up front and 33"x12.5 in the rear made the front rail corners real point and shoot driving while still geting the wide tire traction in the rear while straight lining and superb rear tire drift,and front tire line tracking thru corners think drift car but in the dirt

 

in total, I have spent $1632 for the front suspension. That is including the axles, shocks, etc.

 

Today I had a chance to get some more work done. I finished up the Two sides of the Jig, which will allow me to place the new Spring-hangers in the proper 11 inches forward of the stock hangers. Sorry no pictures as of yet. I will take the pictures of the jig when I am all prepared to weld the new hangers on. I just had too give an update, its been a while.

 

i thought u already did the 63s

 

I wish, but between the holiday's b-days and work, I have not been able to make any progress. I have all of the week after Christmas off. I will be doing it then.

After I get the springs all buttoned up I will figure out what I want to do for shocks.

 

right on, I have some time off this holiday too. hopefully start tearing into my 85 extra cab and begin fixing the engine.

I've spent the last week working on the truggies motor. should be back on the road tonight once I replace the e fan controller. I'm pretty burnt out on turning a wrench right now!

 

Alright I have some updates for you all. As this is the first day of my winter vacation, I got right on it. I started squaring up and making sure the spring-hangers were going to sit true.

To start off, I found a way too install the Jig without having to jack the truck up, or removing the stock spring. I used the Toyota bottle jack between the frame and the Leaf-spring. Here is a pic. of the position of the Jack.


Once the stock bolt is removed from the Spring-hanger, the Spring-eye wants to move up. I used a pair of Screwdrivers to pry the spring back into position, as too be able to reinsert the bolt with the Jig attached. The smaller of the Screwdrivers went through the Eye its self, to guide and align the Spring. The larger of the Screw drivers was used too hold that position as I reinserted the bolt. You can see this in the next two pictures.



Attaching the other end of the Jig was pretty simple, just ran the bolt through the Jig, into the Spring hanger and then to the second half of the Jig. I ended up not using the second half of the Jig. Using both ends prevented me from being able to square up the Spring-hanger to the frame. I ended up clamping the far end of the Spring-hanger to the frame. Then using a deadblow, I tapped the Hanger into position in relation to the reference marks I put on the Frame and Hanger. Here is a pic. of the Hanger clamped to the Frame.


After taking some measurement from the Horse-collar cross-member for reference. I unbolted the hanger and did the same thing on the other Frame rail. I took some measurements from the Horse-collar cross-member once again. I was in luck, the measurements I took for reference, indicated that my Hanger positions were square and true. I then out-lined the Hanger on the Frame, too know where I need to take the flap-wheel to the paint. I should have the new Spring-Hangers tacked to the Frame tomorrow.

 

awesome. What was the length of your jig?

 

11" from center hole to center hole.

 

11" is what I remember as well. I think the extra weight of the 4 Runner should be better suited then my pickup for the chevy springs. FYI- I built some 10" shackles and mounted the pivot above the frame and am getting a bit more flex (about 14") The shackles are also netting a bit less lift. But even so I am still higher in the rear and having to add about 300lbs of ballast to get the stiff spring to flex properly. I am excited to see how this turns out as I am debating what to do on my 4 Runner. Good work Dark!

 

Thanks man, l got some more work done today. I will post about it later, as I am on my phone at the moment. We will see how stiff the chevys turn out. I do carry a lot of weight in my truck.

 

Alright, new update for the day. I finished today with getting both Spring-hangers tacked to the frame. The first pic. show my reference marks for aligning the Hangers and also the outline in marker, to know where I need too clean the surface with the Flap-wheel.


The next two pics. shows the the bare metal waiting for welding.



The next few Pics. are of the tack welds. The first set of tacks worked out ok, but when I pulled the clamp off the frame, one tack weld snapped in two. So I did a few more tacks too hold the hanger in place. I also turned up the wire speed a notch, which helped.






I have kept the Jig bolted in place to help support the tacks for the next few days of driving. I will not finish welding the Hangers permanently until I mockup the chevy springs and tack the Shackle-hangers. Here is a pic. of how the truck will be over the weekend.

 

Lookin Good

 

I agree, Looking good :}

 

Thanks Guys, I can't wait to get this rearend all buttoned up. Then I can get some more wheeling in again.

 

I have a feeling those 63s are gonna lift that rear pretty high :o