Dr. Zhivago

No, I'm not talking about new dance clubs...

I installed these today:



Jayson (loosehead) made them. They look great and work just as well. He has a pair for sale I believe.

I'll take some pics later of the install.

Thanks dude!
G

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

...bushings?

Those look awful familiar. I am using my stock ones for now drilled out, but they still don't come off easily, so I've ordered some larger bushings with a 1/2" diameter hole already in them, the one's Lars mentions on his site. Those boogers are hard to find, but the rest of the fabbing was easy...

SloPoke

How much does he want for a set?

Dr. Zhivago

Waskilly, These are based on Lars' design, with a few modifications. The bushings listed on Lars' site have a 7/16" hole, you will need to enlarge them. The local parts store that I frequent stocks them in red and black for $6.79/pair.

Hoodlum, you will need to contact loosehead for a price. He's in the member's list, or he may post in here later.

Peace.
G

loosehead

YW, Dr Z, glad you like 'em.

Hey Waskilly, what's the for? These are actually a hybrid based on both the Nuke's and Lars' discos. I had made me a set of Lars discos almost a year ago, and they worked fine, other than I wheeled with them connected once and bent the carriage bolts. I have been trying for a really long time to fine 1/2" fine-threaded rod, and finally did. The rod is threaded and lock-tite'ed to the rod-end with a jam-nut. The rest is all grade-8 hardware, even the flat washers. It was also a chore to find fine-thread wingnuts. They really are pretty easy to make this way, with no welding required. I used the bushings that Lars references, and just reamed two of them out with a 1/2" drill bit.

Hoodlum, the extra set may be sold already. I can let you know if the deal doesn't go through. I really need to look under a Taco to make sure these will work, though, not 100% sure...

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

Just that they looked just like the ones I put on last night! I got to get the bushings though as I'm using the stock ones and they don't want to come off too easily, so it kinda defeats the purpose I guess.

NVRSASTK

I will buy the set he has for 60.00$ if he will take that? Let me know?

loosehead

Oh, o.k. Just ream out two of your stock ones. Leave the bottom ones tight to help hold the washers on (when they are off of the Runner), and use a drill bit or knife or whatever you have to "waller out" the hole a little more. Then they'll be a lot easier to install and remove.

NVR - As I said before, I'll know in a few days if this other guy really wants 'em. If not, I'll offer them up for sale.

Albuquerque Jim

I like the tweeks, good work again.

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

I got some pics up of mine on my website. They are working well, but I got some new bushings today that I think will work better and be easier to remove quickly.

CLICKY

Dr. Zhivago

One thing I wanted to mention, since Jayson recommended it, was that I moved the stock front endlinks to the rear sway bar. They're about 1"+ longer and beefier to boot. It helps put the rear swaybar nearer to the stock position, plus as I mentioned, you get beefier endlinks.

I haven't seen anyone else mention this, but it doesn't mean that no one did. I may have just missed it. Anyway, it's a great idea and if you still have your original front endlinks, you really should install them on the rear.

Peace.
G

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

G,

I'm not exactly sure what you mean. What do you mean when you say "endlink"? and what all does this include? It sounds like it makes sense, but I really haven't paid a great deal of attention to the rear sway bar. I took it loose for replacing the rear OEM stuff, but other than that, I don't really have a picture in my head with dimensions. Any enlightenment you could offer would be great? Got ?

Dr. Zhivago

Waskilly, the disco's are endlinks. You are replacing your stock endlinks with quickly removeable ones when putting on disconnects. With that said, here's some pics:

Modified Rear Endlink



Driver's Disco



Passenger's Disco



If you look at your rear endlinks, you'll probably notice that they are shorter than the ones I have pictured and that the swaybar angles upward pretty sharply.

Hope this helps.
G

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

I just wanted make sure I fully understood the point you were making, so thanks for the clarification. It makes sense that with adding a suspension lift your swaybar would need to be adjusted accordingly to correspond to the lift.

In those pics, is that your rig? Do you/they have a diff drop as those CV angles look a little sharp as the boot fins are rubbing...

Thanks again!

Dr. Zhivago

Yes, that is my rig and yes I do have a diff drop. About 1 1/8" of a diff drop. The post '99 trucks are about 1" lower from the factory. I have 2.5" lift on the front and my alignment is to spec, so the CV angles are going to be a little scarrier. Was your truck aligned after your lift? If not, your camber and caster are way off, which reduces the CV angles.

However, on my truck the CV's don't vibrate and it is parked on a bit of an incline at the present, so that will affect how the CV's look. If I roast a boot, then I'll get MechaTech boots to replace them.

Peace.
G

PS you should edit your last post and unquote my message to save on some bandwidth for the dial up folks. Just a suggestion.

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

Now I feel like an :pat: since you might as well be speaking chinese to me talking about camber and caster as I'm not sure what those are. I still have not gotten an alignment since the lift, but I've been watching to make sure the tires were not wearing unevenly, or for any vibrations etc., but I have plans to get an alignment soon when it's time to change the oil next.

I have to reclamp my CVs soon as well, so do you think I should do that before or after an alignment or does it matter one way or the other? Did the dealer give you grief about having a lift when you went for an alignment? The last one I had they fed me some bull about not being able to do it to factory specs because of the bigger tires, lift etc. What is that all about?

Dr. Zhivago

Well, there are three basic alignment angles that affect handling and tire wear. They are Camber, Caster and Toe (In or Out).

Here is the text from an online article about these three things. (Saves me having to type it out. )

"Toe

Toe, simply put, is direction the wheels are pointing. Zero toe would be perfectly parallel wheels pointing straight forward. Toe-out means the front of the tires are farther apart than the rear of the tires. Toe-in means the front of the tires are closer together than the rear of the tires. Toe has different effects on tire wear in the front and in the rear. When the front wheels are toed out, the inside edge of the tire scuff and wear out early. When the front wheels are toed in, the outside edge will scuff and wear out early. However, on rear tires toe usually causes a diagonal cupping wear pattern whether the tires have too much toe in or too much toe out. The diagonal cups are caused by the tires hopping and skipping along the road. It's hard to explain why, but I'll give it a try. Draw an overview of a car with 4 wheels on a piece of paper, make the front wheels parallel, but toe the rear wheels in substantially (say 45 deg. in just to make the demo easier) Now draw lines parallel with the rear tires following their path of travel if they were to roll. You will notice that the lines you have drawn intersect. Since the tires are attached to the car they can not intersect. Instead they roll a bit, then skid outward, roll a bit, then skid outward again. This goes on and on until the tires have diagonal cups worn into the treads where they have been skidding outward. By the way, if you are reading this, and get it, and can write a clearer version, and feel like doing a good deed, and have some spare time, my e-mail address is paul@artsautomotive.com

Camber

Camber is the lean of the wheel. If the top of the wheel tilted away from the car, that is called positive camber. If the top of the wheel is tilted in towards the car, that is called negative camber. Camber can cause a pull to one side or the other depending on the direction of the lean. The car will pull in the direction of the wheel with the most positive camber. However, if both sides have the same amount of negative or positive camber, they will cancel each other out and the car will not pull. Camber can cause premature tire wear, but is not as hard on tires as toe is.

Caster

Caster is the hardest to explain of the three commonly used alignment angles. I like to use the motorcycle analogy. Lots of positive caster is like the forks on a chopper; the wheel is far in front of the support for the wheel. No car that I know of uses negative camber, so I'll describe less positive camber as like the forks on a regular street bike, the wheel is only slightly in front of the support for the wheel. Caster will not affect tire wear, but it can cause a slight drift if it's not equal on both sides. Caster is an angle that only applies to the front (steering) wheels of a car. The more positive caster is, the more stable the car feels, especially at higher speed. More positive caster also improves steering wheel return. To help understand what steering wheel return is, try this experiment: next time you turn a corner, let go of the steering wheel when you are done turning. You will notice that the steering wheel spins back to the centered position. Without positive caster, the steering wheel would stay turned until you manually turned it back to the center position. The only downside to lots of positive caster is it make the car hard/slow to steer. The reason positive caster adds stability, steering wheel return and increased steering effort is the weight of the car is trying to straighten the wheels. You may notice on some luxury cars with lot of positive caster (and powerful power steering) that the front of the car will rise when the wheel is turned to the side, and sinks as the wheel comes back to center."

You really should get an alignment done. I don't take my truck to the dealer if I can help it. I do have a good friend who is a Toyota Master Mechanic so if I do need some work done, then I'm covered. I get my alignments done at a good local shop that works on a lot of lifted vehicles, including Toyotas. The amount by which we lift our trucks isn't enough to prevent them being aligned to specs. As I mentioned, when you get the alignment done, your CV boots will have more of angle to them because of the correction in Caster and Camber. Camber is the one that will affect the CV angle the most, but Caster also plays a role.

Hope this helps.
G

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

Thanks G!