Uhg. Still not finished after 2 days of pure working and wrenching. Me and my buddy worked for 10 hours yesterday and another 8 today. I still got about 3 hours left tomorrow.

There is no way in hell I would do this install w/o air tools, and thank god for my 6 shelf tool chest with every metric and standard deep and regular sockets.

Ran into some minimal problems .... Mostly the fact that this wasn't a new kit....lots of bent parts and bolts.

Ran into one big problem....the frame strut mounts are made for a Tacoma, and not a 4runner, so I need to take them to a machine shop tomorrow and get them re-drilled for a 4runner strut bolt pattern...

Once that is done, all I need to do is put the knuckles and struts back on.

Here are some pictures.

DAY 1:
Stock front suspension mostly off



My buddy wrenching while I take a picture


Anyone need some parts?


DAY 2:
Rear


All cleaned up


Both TM cross bars in:


Getting dark now. Lower control arms back in and steering rack connected

 

looks good....

 

gonna be tall

 

Now I can do double rolls twice as fast!!

Well I honestly just hope Im gonna get 5" with the 2wd coils. Course, UPS has been lagging badly and its been like 10 days and I haven't gotten them yet.

 

Oh and a word of advice to anyone thinking about doing this:

DONT DO IT!

lol.

Do a straight axle. Once I had all my IFS off, I literally just wanted to throw it away. I didn't want to stick back on 20 frigging components again.

 

So you plan to have less clearance than stock? Do you wheel or is this for looks only? Are you at least gonna run 35's?

 

I dont plan to have less clearance than stock... heh.

Right now it looks to be at about stock clearance. Im looking at it and I have about the same amount of clearance as a straight axle.

I like this setup because I see my CVs are nice and straight. They arent all bent and crooked.

I dont do recreational wheeling..., I wheel only when I need to....and thats mainly when I go to Baja . Im originally from San Diego, so I used to go down to Baja at least 2-3 times a month. Now I can only go around 2-4 times a year. So the trips I take now are usually deep down into the desert where there are lots of cool obstancles. Just mainly sand, cobblestone, ruts and river crossings. I dont do rock crawling or any gnarly offroading.... If I did, I wouldnt be driving a 4runner

And I would have to say that this whole project was mostly for educational purposes. I just wanted a project to do, and see if I could do it w/o any professional help.

 

"I dont do rock crawling or any gnarly offroading.... If I did, I wouldnt be driving a 4runner "


LAME

 

:p

I meant like rubicon stuff. Prerunning is aliright, but, c'mon I'd rather have a old toy pickup for rock crawling.

 

dude there is some pretty technical off-roading between prerunning and hard core rock crawling.

I'm just giving you a hard time, but even stock 4runners...with IFS can do pretty well on some tough trails. I think your rig even witha 6 inch bracket lift would do pretty well with lockers and armor.

 

You just hurt my feelings

Anyways, yeah, well, here is the result. I am done for now. I need to figure out the rear. Need to save up for some rear leafs.

Unfortuently my rigged power steering hose blew a HUGE hole and splattered everywheres on one little turn of the wheel. CRAP .. I had a nice little kink in it.

I am pretty happy with the results, except I feel embarrased to drive my truck now cause its like 2000 feet high. I didn't expect it to be this big. Looks like I'll be taking out my body lift.

I just cant wait to feel how it rides. I hear that these kits ride very nice on and off road.

 

WHEW DATS TALLLLL! - whot's the sitch w/ yer rear lift ? how tall there?

what extra parts ya got?

 

wow..ur 285s look tinnnny!

 

With the shorter 2wd springs, don't you anticipate losing quite a bit of Up-Travel? Getting lo-pro bumpstops?

Looks BIG!

 

Well, the rear isin't done yet...thats goin in tomorrow. The story with that is that I am going to add some 2" spacers. :/

After that then Im going to do a rear leaf swap.

I have some parts for sale, check out the classifieds.

As for the 2wd coils...i said screw it and went with the stock 4wd ones. The 2wd ones are still in the mail.

 

Nice

 

that thing is tall. that'd explain what was blocking out the sun here in socal.
no, looks cool man, and if it fits the way you wanna wheel,
i wanna check that out next time i'm in santa cruz visiting my niece.

 

Wow that looks sooooooooooooooo cool!
You planning on taking any pictures of the whole truck as it stands now?

 

hehe... I'll take pictures, but, its pretty funny looking. :

 

the taller the better i say keep the bodylift and put on 35s my truck has 7" of combined lift and it still barely sits higher than a stock 4x4.....