Well yesterday Steve and I spent the day at UWrench and installed my OME coils and shocks. I also installed an e-brake bracket.

And on Steve's rig, we flushed the tranny and hopefully fixed a nagging coolant leak.

I'm loving the OME coils and shocks. I went with HD coils and HD springs front and back. I haven't taken a final measurement yet, but its safe to say gain was in the 2-3 inch range. I'm taking it in for an alignment this morning, then I'll be all set. I'm also going to install a drop diff kit, we just didn't have time to do it yesterday.

Pics will be coming in the next day or so!

 

nooooooooooooooo! dont align it yet. get a front spacer first so you dont have to align it twice. also, let the coils settle (about 500 miles) b4 you align.

 

The alignment can't wait...it' pulling hard left. I don't think I'm going to use a spacer up front either, I think using HD coils in the front helped to get it more level...I think they're about an inch taller than the medium coils. Anyway, the alignment is good for 12,000 miles, so I can have it done multiple times at no extra cost!

 

Awesome, Tom! Can't wait to see the pics.

-"Spring" that camera into action and get us some pics
-I'm sure the change will "shock" us all
-Has it, dare I say , "elevated" or "heightened" your perspective?



I couldn't help it. Gimme a break guys, it's Monday..

Al

 

Tom,

Great re install! How bad is it pulling?

Was it difficult to change out the springs?

Ok, now I'm motivated to come up there now. Also, I'll finish the webpage for the pismo trip by midnite tonite.

Bob

 

HOw long was the install? anything I should look out for? I am planning the install in 2 weeks!!!

 

Al, your puns have "lifted" my monday morning blah mood.


It was pulling alot more than I thought it would, at least at highway speeds. That, combined with the overall increase in stiffness of the ride, probably made it seem worse than it may have been, but I wanted it corrected anyway. And since I can have it re-done if needed within a year, I figured why not.

The rear springs weren't hard to change. The rear shocks were harder, with the PS being the more difficult of the two. Havng two people was a huge bonus.

The fronts were easy to remove. Be sure to hit all the bolts with penetrating oil or something, but especially remember the 3 bolts for the top of the shock!

The garage had ordered a hydraulic spring compressor, which was also a big plus. When it came time to use it, one of the guys from the garage jumped in to lend a hand, and basically did the compressing.

We did also need a bottle jack to compress the upper A- arns, especially when it came to installing the new springs. The new OME's were already longer than the stock springs, and I don't know how we would have gotten them in if we also had a spacer on them.

All in all, it took around 4-4.5 hours. Not bad. I think if I had to do it again, it would go faster.

I'll hopefully have a write-up done in the next week or so.

Bob, if you come up to San Jose to do the install, I'd highly recommend using that garage. At first, I wasn't sure if it would be worth $20/hr to do it, but I'm sure glad I did. Having a lift, air tools, and a good spring compressor (and someone to work it, haha) was really nice.

 

Yeah, having a lift isn't really necessary, but it sure was a heck of a lot safer than using a floor jack and some 4x4s to elevate it! I had a lot of fun installing your lift, like I said before, it's always more fun working on someone else's truck. Make sure all the nuts and bolts we played with are tight, now that it's back on the ground and settling in.

Can you tell if the springs settled? What does sarah think of the lift? Now all you have to get are bigger tires, sliders, bumpers, lockers...

 

Just a quick question, since I'll be doing the same swap in the next couple of weeks- did you get more lift in the back than in the front? I thought the OME set-up in the front only put out about 1.5", versus the 3 in the back- when I looked at the catalogue there was only one set-up for my 98 4-runner, and I didn't think it was HD in the front. Let me know what the part numbers were. I got the HD set-up in the back, but haven't ordered the front yet.

Thanks,

David

 

Hey David,

I used 882 coils with N91S shocks in the front. I got them from XtremeOff-Road here on the boards. Right now there's no noticeable difference in height between front and back. I'll probably measure it tonight.

 

Thanks Tom,

I'm excited about putting my lift in, and look forward to hearing what your results are.

David

 

Well it appears that I've hit my first snag since installing the OME's. I thought I was noticing a slight side to side tilt, and I just confirmed it. The driver's side is sitting about 1/2 an inch lower than the passenger side.

I'm 99% sure we got the rear coils right. They are labeled with a sticker, R/H and L/H and the L/H coil should go on the drivers side. ARB said that the DS coil should be just a bit longer than the PS coil, and that's for compensation for the gas tank. So if anything, the DS should sit a bit higher, at least unti they settle.

I may have to pull the coils and measure them and/or switch them around to see if that takes care of it. If not, I can put a trim packer in to even them out. In any case, I want to get it fixed, because this tilt is also translating itself to the fronts, and that is affecting the alignment.

I'm not the first person to run in to this with OME's, but I sure was hoping to avoid it.....

 

Tom,

Congrats. You going to bring it to the meeting tomorrow night so we can see it?

 

Hey Terry,

Yep I'll be there!

 

hey Tom i noticed that you said that the springs were labeled l/h & r/h are you positive that they wernt lable d/s & p/s. not to question your ability to read, but i noticed a thread on the use to be sor forum for land tanks , about the way that ome lables they springs and that they were opposite for us left (right)drive cars. so when a sring would be labled d/s it would be for our p/s i hope that they have changed thier labeling for us in the US