Finally after 2 and a half weeks I now have the superlift suspension lift, TJM-17 bumper, and some part replacements done!!!!! This is what I did or replaced while doing this:

- 4" Superlift suspension lift with the 2" block and 2" add leaf for the rear
- 33x12.5 Kumho MTs
- TJM-17 front bumper
- Superlift skid plate
What I replaced while doing this:
-upper and lower ball joints
-inner and outer tie rods with new sleeves
-new rotors (Adam F did this)
-new calipers
-brake pads
-new bearings (inner and outer) (Adam F did this )
-new CV boots (inner and outer)
-complete tuneup
-new LCA bushings (4)
-new LCA cam bolts (4)
-new front driveshaft u-joints

What I broke:
- 6 stiches in my hand
- fractured knuckle
- umpteen factory rusted bolts
- my breaker bar which cause the first two

So now I have pretty much a new suspension up front. I still need to install the Downey headers, Magnaflow 2.25" cat, and the Flowmaster 40 2.25" muffler. The headers I will do but the rest I will do but the rest I will leave to my exhaust guy at Midas. Before I forget

Thanks Adam for doing the bearings and rotor install for me. That was a huge help.

The things I learned:

-I will never and I mean never do this install again by myself. It would have been so much easier with at least one other person there and gone a lot faster. With that said, by doing it myself I learned a crap load about my truck and the way things interact with each other.
-Siezed parts are a bitch to get undone.
-Whatever time frame you estimate doing something like this you have to at least double or quadruple it because you will come across problems and setbacks.
-If you do do something like this by yourself talk about a huge sense of accomplishment when you are done. This feels like the first time I built a deck or remodled a house by myself for the first time. Talk about a really cool feeling.

The truck drives awesome, handles good, and I will find out how it does off road in the next two weeks.

Now the bad news. I went outside to take picture to show you guys, but for some reason my camera decided not to work. Something is wrong with the shutter on my digital camera. So I will have to borrow one from my boss and use that. Until then you will have to wait. Thanks for all the help you guys gave through posts you anwered of mine and for those that you answered for other people that I read to get info on what to do to my truck or how to replace something. Now it is time for some serious beer drinking and to get reaquainted with my beautiful wife. Now she really hates my garage and truck.

 

good job, lots of hard painfull work! not to be nosy, but out of curiousity and me kicking the idea around of doing all that compared to the price of a sas, how much besides the tires, bumper, skid plate and lift did all that run you?

 

AWW man I want to see that bumper

Damn you did all that in 2 weeks? I took my time 6 months and I'm still almost done. hAHA

You hit the nail on the head.............or knuckle

Yeah what did your lift cost even with all of the extras?

 

All that sounds awesome but the part that scares me is you said you're gonna get the rest of your exhaust done at Midas. I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them.

 

Lift = 650 shipped
skidplate = 80
tires = 530 installed
bumper = 430 shipped
tailights = 50 shipped
ball joints x 4 = 80
tie rods x 4 = 60
sleeves x 2 = 30
LCA bushings x 4 = 180
Cam bolts x 4 = 130
Calipers x 2 = 140
rotors x 2 = 110
pads x 4 = 37
bearings x 4 = 60
CV boots for both sides = 90
tuneup = 160
front u-joints = 30
downey headers = 440 shipped
magnaflow cat = 60 shipped
flowmaster 40 muffler = 75 shipped
misc. parts and stuff = 100

Grand total = $3500

I willl be installing the headers but the rest of the exhaust work will be done by my guy for around $200. As to the whole midas thing normally I would have to agree with you but this guy is awesome. He does all the exhaust for most of the show trucks and cars, a lot of the custom work on the race cars around here. He is the best I have ever seen. I have no worries from this guy.

 

wow, I can't wait to see the pictures!!!

 

Yeah you gotta be careful with those breaker and pry bars. I had one slip on me at work and I hit my head on my post lift. I had a concussion from it too. A guy I worked with broke his breaker bar and the snap-on man gave him a replacement as well as a 3/8 drive breaker bar for doing the nearly impossible without using a cheater bar. Can't wait to see the pics of your truck soon!

 

I have to replace my lower control arm cam adjuster bolts/bushings too because they are siezed and Toyota can't get my alignment quite right. Did you just cut the bolts off or did you burn the bushings out with a torch or did you do something else? Man those LCA bolts are expensive!!

 

Glad to hear you got it done. Too bad it wasnt done for this past weekend. We had a good time. Next time we go you should come. Or maybe we can head out to Haspin Acres for a test run. It's much closer.

Glad I could help, I just wish I could have done more.

I guess the rotors/hubs went back on without any problems? What the heck did you tear up your hand on?

 

Yeah, just find a small local shop that has a good pipe bender and does exaust. I send people to a local shop that does performance exaust work.
I had to learn the hard way $300.00 Downey exaust + superlift = cutting up expensive system to fit.

Also do yourself a favor, go to NAPA and get some Stainless Steel band clamps (about $10.00ea) to connect your headers to the exaust (3years and zero leaks). i will never use regular clamps again.

If your starter fails the pass side header will have to be removed to get that bad boy free. Also I recomend you to get a starter sheild to protect the starter from the heat. Advance Auto parts sells Thermo-tech heat wrap (this stuff is the ˟˟˟˟˟ a little on the $$ side but worth every penny). I bought the starter sheild for $24.89 and it comes with SS straps to hold it in place,

 

Sorry about the pictures. I will get them up in the next day or two. Hey Adam, don't sell yourself short man. That was a huge help and for one day I thought that was plenty. Yeah, I wish I would have been able to go to. We will definitly have to do something here soon though. Oh I busted my hand trying to get the flamin tie rod sleeve to budge. I ended up just cutting the blasted thing off.

LCA cam bolts, yeah I cut them off with a sawzall and burnt the bushings out when I had the LCA off of the truck.

That si good to know about the starter Lockngo. I will make sure I replace that before I do the headers. I was actually thinking about moving it to someplace more protected and less susceptible to water and stuff. I am going to have to get researching on this now. No rest for the weary.

 

I want to replace the stock LCA bushings with polyurethane ones but in order to do that you have to reuse the original steel sleeves (or make you own which I had to do to reinstall a new lateral control rod bolt into the panhard drop bracket during my Cruiser Coil install). Were the sleeves rusted to the bolts and therefore useless after you burned out the bushings or was it possible to reuse the sleeves?

 

the sleeves were rusted to the bolts so yeah they were useless. The bushing from toyota comes with everyting pre-assembled. So if you want just the sleeve you are going to have to make your own.

 

OK Thanks, I guess I'll bag the idea of using the polyurethane ones. They were a freebee anyway, I'll just give them back.

 

 

Post pics. You can't just tell us about this sweet ride you have now and now post any pics. That should be considered cruel and unusual punishment.

 

All right. Are you ready for pics now???? Well, I finally have them. The link below is to my Cardomain page and on the first page you can see the progression from when I first bought it to now. The last picture is my wife's runner. By the way today is 1 year since I bought the truck. Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me.....

Enjoy,

Pics

 

How do you like the Kumhos? I haven't got mine mounted yet (wating for the 4th in the mail)

 

I love them. They are great in the mud and off roading. They are good on road. As for rain I have not noticed any problems with them at all. The road noise is not bad at all, even though I could care less about that.

 

It looks great dude! Next time you ask for help i promise to do more than drink beer and watch. I'll at least run for more beer Don't know what you are doing this coming weekend, but this should be fun if you are free:

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f15/ohio-fathers-day-run-59770/

Ian