I'm admittedly surprised that no one in the aftermarket is making these... Nice job.

 

Thanks guys, drivers side hoop is finished, steering is finished except lines. Talked to PMP yesterday and arms should ship by today. Cant finish the steering or panhard until the knuckles show up for the axle. So today we are going to finish up the sway bar then move onto the back springs using a double shackle setup.


Sitting on both tires at ride height

 

I just drooled on my keyboard....

 

nice work.

 

LOL
We need some kind of icon or smilie that shows us drooling on our keyboards, thats funny.

 

Very nice looking D-Cab. When I do a SAS on mine, it'll be coilover.

 

Thanks guys, finished sway bar mount today, not going to mount tabs onto the axle just yet. Going to wait for the knuckles to come in and get steering and panhard done then weld up axle tabs for sway bar. No word from parts mike today Try again to work on rear tomorrow.

 

Looks awesome, keep us posted! Those coilovers are

 

On to the back now, removed stock springs and axle, cut off brackets and started removing bushings in chevys, holy crap what a pita Any suggestions, I'm using the torches now. Going to research this weekend which shackle setup I am going with. Felt like taking more pics for the fun of it, really pleased with how the front is looking
One of my buddies wants to do the same thing as mine, we came up with a figure of about 10k total with dual cases, fr arb, ctms & chromos, 3 link, antirock, front range x member, pmp high steer etc, with all associated materials and then some for labor. Made me realize how much I really have in my truck well here are some more pics, enjoy

 

The bushings in mine I was able to just pop out with some pressure and then with a socket and hammer. I'd stay away from the double shackle, I tried it at first and it didn't work very well. If you pin it up I could see it working and that was my original idea but I ended up just going with single and it seems to work just fine

 

I wouldn't go with the All-Pro type Johnny Joint shackles. I have those on the rear of my 4Runner, and they don't flex as well as they should.

The AOR Orbit Eyes seem pretty trick.
Write up on them



One of these days I'll convert to these.....

 

Here's a shackle set-up that gives excellent flex and droop......

 

Home made?
How long do the bushings last?

 

Yes, homemade and they shouldn't have any issues with bushings. There were a few on the Rubicon running this set-up and a few others planning on doing the same, after seeing how well it worked. I figured I snap a few photo's, since it would be very easy to re-create.

 

I still dont understand how you can calculate the compression of the springs and the placement (vertically) of them to the desired ride height, as well as take into consideration the caster degree and pinion angle change depending on the spring rate.

 

Er, I can't explain myself completely.

1)Im asking how do you figure out how much the springs will compress once the weight of the truck is on the springs.

2)How do you figure out how high or low to mount them (giving you change in ride height)

3) Then to take in consideration the pinion angle once the weight as been added? Or do you do that after ?

 

I don't know if you are directing this to Rock Toy, and I hope he chimes in. When I set mine up, I used calculations from other Tacoma's as a starting point. If you get your springs from Poly Performance (make sure they check the springs in the box before shipping them to you), you can return the springs that don't work for you, as long as they are not damaged, and swap them for a different load rating, such as 300lb/in.

I talked to Poly Performance and stated that I wanted to have 4" of up-travel. Based on this, I set the shock into the lower mount, and then positioned the tabs on the top loop to allow 4" of uptravel. You also have to take into consideration the angle of the links, you want them as flat as possible, and you want the Pan Hard bar as flat as possible to eliminate bump steer. Also, you need to take into consideration when you allow for the 4" of up travel, how much of the fenderwell do you want to cut away for the tire size you are going to be running. Currently, I'm pretty high off the ground, and I wish I would have moved my tabs a bit higher on the hoops. This would have brought my front end down just a bit lower, and I would have to trim more of the fender well. Also, there is a set screw at the top of the springs which can allow you to adjust the height if necessary. I need to anyways.


You need to set the pinion angle before you put your shocks in place. The links keep the axle from wrapping, and the pan hard keeps the axle from moving side to side. Setting the pinion angle with adjustable links is best. Also, my Limited did not have a CV on the top end of the drive shaft. After a visit to High Angle, I now have a Tacoma CV, and a long travel slip is not needed because the lengh of the drive line should not change that much. Remember, you links are not changing length, so the driveshaft should not be changing its length. With a CV angle on the top end of the driveshaft, you should place the pinion angle so that its pointing stright towards the transfer case. Also, if you have adjustable Currie Johnny joints on your links, you can adjust your caster just a tab, but this will also affect your pinion angle, so this is not an optimal adjustement, but it can be done.

Anyhow, hopefully Rock Toy can chime in on this as well......

 

As far a setup, SteveO is right on as far as my rig goes. I have one difference. I did a 3" body lift for one reason, frame height. This truck is going to be driven on the road on a regular basis, so the front frame height had to be no higher than 30" to avoid tickets. The state police are hard on lifted trucks around here, and once they pull you and figure out your illegal, you get pulled over every time they see you. With the 3" body lift I was able to use 14" coilovers and not cut the fender, if I didn't have the body lift I would have used 12" coilovers and still probably would have trimmed the inner fender out. As far as spring rate, 300 over 350 is what I'm using, had 250 over 300 on my extra cab.

-1 answer: I based my decision on Poly's advice and research on other 3 linked coilover swaps, I honestly didn't calculate what it would compress under weight, but perfect so far, plus the coilovers are way adjustable, comes in handy considering the weight difference pass to driver
-2 answer: I mounted mine as high as possible on the hoop, all tacked at first knowing that I could easily get more height with the coilovers. While doing this I paid attention to pinion angle and castor, tried to keep castor to about 4 degrees. My pionion angle stayed within reasonable specs, (my lower height helped this). I measured, measured again, then remeasured then welded. Be anal, its worth it.
-3 answer: see 2

My build has been entirely possible due to people like SteveO, Dean, Dick and Jake (Snowchucker is just sick). All three of them have awsome functional trucks, If thats what you want use what they have learned to your advantage and build another linked Taco. Each one has it's own unique features, that makes it yours. Go ahead DOOOO IT!

Update on my truck, working on Chevy's, my low height is creating issues on how to mount the rear shackles....

 

It can be done, it's the heart of mechanical engineering. If you know how much weight is on the front tires and you know the spring rate, you can figure out how much they compress. Once you know how far they compress, you can figure out where your shock should be mounted. Once you do that, you know what your ride height would be and therefore, using a little trigonometry you can figure out your link angles and therefore your pinion angles.

Or, you can just slap it all on there and hope for the best. Then fix it.

 

Concentrating on the rear now while waiting for pmp knuckles to finish the front. Started off by moving the leaf mounts 7.5" forward of the stock location, this proved to be 1" short so had to move it to 8.5". Perfect. Used a johnny joint for mounting the rear shackle, had to play with its position a bit to avoid using a block and getting shack angle right. Made up some ubolt plates out of 6x6 by 3/8 plate. Took out the overload spring, everything seems to be setting right with the bed on.

Get to pick up my LBZ on the 9th! Can't wait.....