Anyone ever swap a set of Coil-over LCA's onto a 2nd gen 4Runner or equivalent truck? I was looking at the set I have and doing a few measurements.

Here's what I have found. It looks like the distance from the lower ball joint to the pivot point is 1-2" further. The problem I see is that the lower ball joint on the coil-over LCA is set back a little further than the t-bar LCA Because the ball joint is off-center to the rear on the coil-over LCA whereas the ball joint is off-center to the front on the t-bar LCA. I didn't spend a lot of time with this, but from the general measurements that I took if I ran these on the opposite sides than what they were made for, then the caster would increase. This is not always benificial since running larger tires creates more caster.

Any thoughts?

JC

 

Lots of work for minimal gain. You would still have the same bumpstops and thusly the same travel.

Not to mention in the t-bar trucks, the upper takes the load. In the coilover, the lower does. You would be completly re-engineering the arms, the spindle and what loads they saw.

My truck rides decent with 25mm t-bars, BJ spacers and no real loading of the bars.

Novel? Yes. Worth it? IMHO, heck no, but good luck.

 

Maybe I'm missing some of your point, but the intention would be to leave the t-bar UCA's in place since they DO take the load. The t-bar LCA's are locating (and minor load bearing - shocks) and therefore replacing them with coil-over LCA's should be minimal. The only advantage I see is the increased track width and increased droop (the increased droop is in combination with BJS). Track width may be a problem when using BJS since they pull the upper BJ in a little when sitting static (compared to stock) and even more when at full droop. The other issue I foresee is that the CV's may attempt to come apart since the track width has increased.

I'm not sure this would work, I guess I was just thinking out loud. Thanks for the feedback.

JC

 

I assumed you meant the arms so you could end up with a coilover instead of a torsion bar.

Just the arm? Not sure I get the benefit. People have discussed swapping to T-100 stock upper and lower arms for a cheap, factory long arm, long travel IFS, but I am not sure anyone has done that.

 

I have always wondered if the T100 arms are longer then the 4Runners and trucks. I can get a set quite easily so i may have to try this out.
Thanks

 

You'll want to get the T100 CV's also. Oh yeah, grab the two tie rods too and you should be set.

 

The CV's are longer, so the A-Arms "probably" are too.

 

True, I never thought of it that way. I will check on a price next time im at the yard.
Thanks