I ordered the 1" body lift and the 1" differential drop today. The instructions seem logical enough and easy to see in my head.

The body lift I'm getting to help with larger tire sizes when I'm ready to get new tires and wheels. The diff drop I'm getting to lower the CV angle so I can then puch my front suspension up to 3" of lift. I'll then have to get a 1"...something or other for the rear to level it out. Any flaws in this logic?

However the experience and tools aren't there. The easier of the two seems to be the differential drop which I might be able to accomplish on my own at a friends house who has the jack to lower the differential. Are there any tips, tricks or advice you can impart to me on this?

As for the body lift I am considering having someone do this for me at a shop. Any advice on this that can be imparted? The writeups and threads I've seen haven't been in super detail for someone of my lack of experience doing these kinds fo things.

Thanks for anything.

 

YOU CAN DO IT!!! It really is easy and that is the reason there isnt a whole lot of detail. Once you get started, you'll understand. I would recommend a setcond pair of hands just to help ya get started and get the hang of it...but it can be easily done by yourself. 2 people tend to have more confidence working together for some reason. DONT GET SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT FOR YOU! Im sure others will chime in with more detail on how to do the lift if you want, but better to just take a good look at your truck and ask questions as you go...I bet you really wont have that many.

 

What's the reasoning for lifting the rear 1in? Is the rear 2 inches higher than the front now and your 3in lift in the front will raise the front 1 inch higher than the rear?

 

The front is at 2" which evens it out with the stock rear suspension. When I do the diff drop I will be able to lift the front another inch which will put it higher than the rear. I would rather the truck be level than have the prerunner look to it.

So I'll need something on the rear to lift it 1" like a AAL or shackles or something. Haven't researched it much yet. This make more sense?

 

i think the Pro Comp AAL is $40 and is for 3in of lift.

 

Not sure I need 3" though. I just need something to add 1" so the front and back will be even. 3" would have me sitting like a hot rod

 

Ok good, nevermind.

 

Uhhhh....... strip out the old small lift kit or whatever you have down there and get a four inch pro comp. Why play the balancing act game lifting the rear then compensating a lift in the front then again over and over? Do a 4 incher then you have whatever it is you have to sell off and afford other mods. What a confusing thread. Or ignore me and pretend I never attempted to understand. LOL Good friggin luck. :pat:

 

http://www.drawhorn.org/2_roger_brown_body_lift.htm

This might help some.

Also check out RBs installation instructions on his website.

www.4crawler.com

Do it yourself! It is very straightforward.

Good luck!

 

The "old small lift kit" he's running are brand new Downey/Bilstein coilovers(which was an easier install job than the 1" body lift, but he didn't want to do it )So he's probably not going to replace them or do the body lift install.
The 4" procomp lift uses drop down brackets and is overpriced.
No balancing act, or need to do it over and over. He's on the right track. The AAL is ok but ride quality isn't the greatest, my friend just took his out because of it. Most likely going to Deavers$$$.

More lift isn't always the answer,Blue you should know that(7" of lift,35's,open diffs,almost rolled in mud from losing traction )It's called a locker, look into it.

 

I'm not quite sure what I did here to confuse anyone.

Let me try again from the beginning.

From the factory Tacomas have a front-end sag. To get rid of the sag you get a front-end suspension lift. I chose to purchase a Donwey/Bilsteins 3.5" coilover lift for my front-end

2001 Tacomas have ADD front ends. You cannot go over 2" of lift without causing CV problems due to the angle. I set my lift to 2" which is enough to elimate the front-end sag.

Now I want more lift all around so I can get a larger tire size under me. I currently have the stock TRD wheels and tires.

To accomplish more than 2" of front-end lift I have two options I can take without SAS:

1) Install a diffrential drop kit ($25)
2) Convert my ADD to manual hubs and CV replacements. ($1,000)

I chose to do the differential drop. Ideally I would like to do both modifications. What the differential drop allows me to do is raise my front-end another inch thus keeping the CV angles at the 2" area which is safe.

Now I will have the front-end raised to 3" and the rear stock. As I said before with 2" of front-end lift I was dead even from front to rear. With 3" I'm going to be hihger on the front than the rear. I was thinking about adding a 1" shackle for the leaf springs to even that out. That's all.

Now I'll have 3" of lift front to rear but that's not enough, in most cases, from what I've read here and elsewhere for 33" tires!

That's where the 1" body lift comes in. That will give me the clearance I need to get 33s underneath me and I'll be good to go.
At that point I'll have 3" of suspension lift, ground clearance, but 4" overall for wheel clearance with the body lift.

Any better explanation of my logic?

Rob: Yeh so I'm a but the most mechanical stuff I've ever done is replace and air filter. LOL! I will learn and asked for help with the body lift but haven't heard anything from anyone so we'll see! I do plan to tackle the diff drop though so be proud of me!

I'm sure it's easy once you realize how it all fits together but as of this moment I have visions of the bed falling off on my way to work or something! When I get the kits in this week I'll have a look and see what I think I should accomplish on my own versus what someone who's got some skills needs to help me do.

Being thrown in the fire on my daily driver is not IMO a good idea.

 

It wasnt a clear cut straight up trail I was climbing. Its had an offcenter angle that helped me lose traction. I am running WC TXR's and when caked in mud as any tire they tend to lose traction. So how is a locker going to help a tire when caked in mud? Sorry to have stepped on your toes. I will stay out of this umm thread. Blue

 

I removed my skid plates and now I understand how this works. However, I was unable to loosen the bolts on the differential mounts with my measley muscles and a simple socket wrench.

What should I be using for the appropriate tool? A torque wrench? Something definately with a longer handle for sure. No torque spec is listed in the instructions for putting it all back together so I'm assuming it's "as tight as you can get it"?

Thanks!

 

WD-40 or some kind of loosener, and give it about 15 minutes to work. Use a 1/2" ratchet with the 19mm socket and pull on it using the tire as a base for your feet. I had to growl to get mine to come off. Once you break it loose, use your hand to hold the nut on top and loosen the bolt the rest of the way. You will have to use a wrench up top to hold the nut to put in the new bolts. I just did mine today, so I understand the might involved in getting those bolts undone.

Good luck!

 

try using a piece of pipe to extend the handle on your ratchet

 

I grunted and growled and like you I used the tire to push against for leverage. I did not put anything on it to try and loosen the bolts though. I was going to spray some WD-40 on them but I don't have the straw and didn't want it going all over the underside of the engine.

I'll make another mighty effort tomorrow.

 

Oh yeah one more question!

Will the bottle jack be enough to hold up the front differential when the bolts are loosened and taken off. The instructions say to use a floor jack but I don't have one.

Thanks again!

 

no jack needed, it don't weight much and won't drop much.

 

With the help of a longer wrench I got the diff mount bolts out and the new parts installed. I used a torque wrench set to 125-130lbs for the two new grade8 bolts.

I noticed that my passenger side coil is 1/2" lower than the driver side. I tried to turn it up with the spanner wrench but I had no luck, those measley muscles again. Is there something I should be doing to make this process easier? I didn't install these coils so I have no idea what's necessary to turn up the coil so it matches the other one.

From there I'll need to turn them both up another inch to get them to three inches. Any help on this part of the process would be cool.

Thanks!

 

The left side is heavier than the right, so to level your vehicle the drivers side will be cranked up a bit higher than the passenger side.