Here is another 2wd lift question... I have an 89 Toyota p/u longbed 2wd 4cyl, 5sp. I am going to lift it with a Fabtech A-arm lift kit (kit includes front upper arms, shocks, rear add-a-leafs) and sway-a-way torsion bars. My question is: do I have to get longer brake lines for the front brakes to make up for the added height of the truck?? I am mot doing anything crazy with the truck. I have 15x7" wheels with 215/75 street tires right now. After the lift I have a LSD diff from a MKII supra that I will be added to the rear end along with 4.10 gears. Thanks in advance for your help fellas!

 

wont need them.

 

Nope, you'll be good. I have 2" of lift with Deavers on my rear end, and the brake lines clear. Add-A-Leaf should only get you about 1" lift max

 

I warn against using the fabtech UCAs for lift. The way they achieve lift is by cranking the t-bars until your IFS is almost maxed out in it's down travel. Result: almost no down travel available, I.E. poor suspension performance and a super bad ride.

I have them on my truck, but my t-bars aren't cranked, so I'm really not getting much lift. IMHO, the UCAs look cool, but aren't a good option for lifting.

 

You don't have to crank the t-bars though, and he said his kit comes with S-A-W t-bars which is a quality product.

Fabtech is definitely not top of the line stuff, but uppers should give you a little more clearance and about .5" of down travel depending on your t-bar setup.

It really depends on the shocks your running, that's where your lift comes from, in combination with the torsion bar crank that you choose to go with.

 

the shocks dont provide any lift, it all comes from the torsions.
if you run the fabtech arms and SAW torsion bars and put on a set of low profile bump stops for the upper arms and dont crank the bars to max, then your suspension can travel its full cycle still and you can get a pretty good ride out of it as long as you have a good shock. dont go with procomps es3000 with that setup, i had them and it was the worst ridding vehicle i had ever been in.

 

I almost went with the procomps. I'm glad I didn't. My truck rides rough enough as it is, I still haven't swapped back to the stock t-bars. For now, I left the 'Powerbars' that were installed when I bought the truck. They are quite a bit larger in diameter than the stockers, and I don't have any extra weight in the front.

I'm unfamiliar with the SAW torsions. What's different about them?

 

they're thicker...i think the ones that come with that kit are 25mm compared to what...22.8mm stock? so quite a bit stiffer.

 

Thanks for all the input! The shocks that came in the kit are fabtech shocks and they are longer than stock. Fabtech claims a 3" lift in front and 1.5-2" in the rear. Thats enough lift for now. After I get my truck lifted, I'm going to start working on getting the LSD in.

BTW, here is my truck. Its not much, but she's a runner

 

its a good start
i sometimes miss the old days of when my truck was simple and had semi stock suspension. now there isnt a single toyota piece left.

 

Hey Robert, do you have any pictures of your truck? Maybe you can inspire the rest of us 2WDers by showing what a 2WD truck can look like.

(I started looking on the photo sticky, but there are just way too many pages for my connection.)

 

how it started

how it sits now

and some of the stuff in between

 

dayum rob, that's sick!

Napoleon Dynamite moment... "ever take it off any sweet jumps?"

 

here are some shots of my buddies 2wd in transformation

bj spacers front glass fenders and chop rear fender well 33x12.50 R17


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2" body lift aussie rear locker fresh paint and 35x12.50 R17


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rear tire mount


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oh and forgot we just made a new front bumper


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he better be careful running 35's on 2wd spindles. too much abuse and they can snap off the snout. but the truck looks good!
and thanks bleeder. to answer your question, i have only gotten air a few times in it but here is a video of my front end from the guy who used to own it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VnNV...eature=related

 

haha yea just found that one out the hard way... fabbing in progress also the stock upper control arms were cracking so they have also been plated with 1/4"

 

Both of those trucks look very nice! I love that long travel on the front Robert, but how is it to work on now? (Like doing valve adjustments) Do those reservoirs get out of the way very easily? And that coil pack is unreal. Does it ride ok, or is the back super stiff?

Still, very nice, both trucks. I will get some pictures of my truck once I get it the way I want it. PO had it all jacked up. The front end has been rebuilt (stock except for UCAs), but the body lift still has to be changed out. The idiot PO installed a 4" body lift, and it sucks. I have a straighter frame that I will be swapping out this summer, so I will change the body lift down to 2 inches at that time, among some other things.

Thanks for the inspiration! Now if only I had the money to do the same...

 

looks like to me the cross bar for the reservoirs is removable see the allen bolts?

 

the reservoirs come off with 2 hose clamps and yes the cross bar comes off if the engine needs to be worked on. we used these tube clamps from ballistic fab http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/...mp_p_1467.html