Here's some pic's of the stock frame mounts with some gussets I added. Even though I added some gussets I don't believe I really needed to. The frame mounts on my 2nd gen are pretty beefy just as stock, but it didn't hurt to add them anyway.

 

Thanks man! It definitely looks promising. I've got to finish some other drivetrain and fender flare stuff before I embark on my rear suspension, but it will happen sometime. I'm planning to go with bent lower links, and something similar to what you've done for the upper links. Or, I was originally thinking about just making new upper links 1" longer, and with JJ joints at each end to eliminate the binding. We'll see though. I think you might be the first person to do this on our rigs, at least that I've seen. Great job!

Chris

 

ORS already did a similar 3-link design years ago, Chris he has a 2nd gen, a bit different from the 3rd gens.

 

Yeah, I was figuring it might be a tad different on ours.

Chris

 

Do you happen to have the exact specs of your 3-link?

Chris

 

Okay' I fallen a little behind on my 4Runner but I'm back on it again, I got lucky on some SAW coil over shocks from a local salvage yard (thanks Joe) for $50 dollars got 2 12" 2.5s that needed some attention. 1 had a torched off shaft and half the coil spring parts missing. But for the price I can't complaine. I took all the shocks apart and rebuilt them with all new parts even though when I open them up the oil and internals looked brand new, but you never know what they have been through.





Some of the pitfalls getting used shocks

 

Coilovers, nice! For the rear right?

 

Yeah, there for the rear. I'm installing them today so I can head to the desert tomorrow with some buds to test it. Then when I'm done I can finally get started on the front long travel set up.

 

How are you mounting them?

 

Here's what I did. After looking close to the options I had I decided to put the shocks in the stock location with a new taller upper shock mount. The 1-1/2" body lift helped to get them up high enough so I wouldn't lose any up travel. I thought about all the different way's the coil over shocks might be mounted but all required me to go through the floor or remove the stock fuel tank, and at this time those are not options for the 4Runner. My travel has not changed yet, but this set up I did is designed for 1" to 1-1/2" more up travel and 2" more drop out travel. With this I don't have to worry about the stock coil spring falling out of there buckets (good reason for running limiting straps if you run longer stroke shocks).
We went out to Johnson Valley to test it out over the weekend and I was impressed with the handling and the ride.
Sometime this week I will extend the limiting straps and bring the travel to 14-15" .It's important when adding more drop out travel to watch the dif and u-joint angles and when your done, spin the drive shaft by hand (in neutral of course) with the rear suspension dropped completely out. If there's any bind limit the drop out travel until it's gone. Another thing I like about this set up is adjustable rear suspension and hundreds of diffrent rated springs so you can really dial it in to your liking.

 

Looks good. What's the total wheel travel with those 12" shocks? When we installed 2.5x12" RaceRunner shocks on the rear of our 1st gen 4Runner, we mounted them at a 45-degree angle at full compression and were only able to pull about 13" of usable wheel travel.

 

It's the same right now at 13" of usable travel. To get anymore up travel I will have to do some fender mods and remove the stock bump stops and spring buckets.

 

Thanks, but I was wondering how you're going to get that much more travel out of a 12" stroke shock. More angle?

 

We're both talking about VERTICAL wheel travel, right?

 

So those are 12" race runners? any upper mount pics? What springs are you running in them now?

 

Different truck, same problem.

 

length/kinda of shocks? steve weld all that up? Also you got measurements for the links?

 

Yep there 12"s, I run a 600 & a 350. I can get a little more then 14" of travel. as the shocks travel up they get more angle so it's easy to get more travel then your shock has. This is ok for my ride but if I was doing a hard core set up I would want the shocks as close to 1:1 . I remove the coils and it's real easy to cycle the suspension and check the real travel.

 

[QUOTE=Flygtenstein]Different truck, same problem.

Yeah, 4Runners aren't really user friendly when it comes to more up travel. I don't want to cut up my fenders just to gain another 1" or so or run smaller tires and I don't care much for that 4Runner fiberglass Ive seen guy's running at the races.

 

I was looking at this pic and it looks like the shock has less travel on it then the rearend to the bump stop has. I'm imagining the bump stop removed and metal to metal, but it still nice work. Anymore pics.