Installing long travel on third gen 4runner front and rear.

Place holder for post

First and foremost this is all about fitting 35" tires in long travel configuration. 33" tires should be alot easier and give you more room to play with in the rear.

The kit:
www.mcmfablv.com sells this complete kit for $2600. includes everything needed to bolt it on right down to the res mounts. Everything is powder coated for those that care. Hot tip for dummies like me. See the lower spring perch on the coilovers? I thought those were way to big and would ruin travel. Turns out they are hollow and the body of the shock can go way into them.
http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps042d3b3d.jpg
Front
Finding CV's is a pain in the butt. As in 4runners, the Tundra OEM CV is the one you are looking for. It has true CV joints on both ends and that allows it to have more travel before binding(tacomas and 4runners have a tripod inner joint). Car parts stores will sometimes carry them in there re-manufactured brands. The tell tail thing to look for is the steped down of the inner CV before the boot. Aftermarket CV's will not have this step down. Your best bet is junk yards for 1st gen tundras or sequias.
http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/w...psc5f782f6.jpg

modifying the CV Like Trails less traveled and total chaos will be needed if the suspension is designed to droop past the normal range of motion of the stock CV. Not all kits are made this way so you have to test your kit/shock combonation by hand for binding. All entry level kits end up at ~13 inches, but some incorporate more up travel to achieve it without a modded CV. I believe the limiting factor to ~13 inches is the stock LBJ. Turns out this mod to the CV's is very easy providing you have the right tool to release the clip inside the goo. The mistake I made at first was grinding off too much. You wouldnt think that would be bad, but it turns out the balls of the CV can escape and eject on your first test run lol. Just grind off the lip where the stock boot clamps and no more then that. literately just underneath the stock boot clamp itself.

Adding grease fittings to the arms can be done following this tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQfx...a_playerplayer

Limit straps on the front are used when the shock is capable of more down travel then the suspension can hande. When the truck becomes airborne the suspension will slam down to a binding point (ushually UCA uniball) and the forces will transfer to the spindle arm(sometimes bending it). If the suspension can cycle with no binding then a limit strap is not required, but is still desirable to lessen the strain on the expensive shock. Shocks used in long travel will have internal bump stops at the end of their travel(FOA's dont) so that there is no metal on metal bang. Limit straps will obviously do the job better and off load that stress.

Reinforcing the spindles is important to protect the spindle arm from forces it was not meant to see. When the truck bottoms out some of the force is transfered to the spindle arm in a side to side fashion. The spindle is pretty weak in that direction and will bend. We can all bottom our suspension but the bending of the spindles is usually limited to long travel where the stresses and leverage are much higher. Typically people just buy the gussets from total chaos. They are cheap.
http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/w...psnufkj1o6.jpg

Re-position the stock bumps by drilling where they used to hit the frame and taping the hole to M10 1.25 pitch. Have some washers handy since your new arms might need some spacers on the bump stops like total chaos

smooth out where the poly bushing will slide in the lower control arm frame brackets. The old stock bushings have narling that scars this area up. Sand it down smooth to be nice to the bushings

reinforced stock cam guides can be done like this, but for the love of god do a nicer job then me
http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/w...pshkamp1ij.jpg

Grind off your steering stops since there is no where for it to meet up with on your new LCA. in the mean time it runs the risk of being stuck on the LCA if your suspension droops out in a turn. Your new steering stops are your rims on your LCA or the limits of your rack. Lovely huh? Fab something if you want but that how 3rd gen(1st gen tacoma) LT rolls.

-clearance stock fenders and other items
-reservoir mount

Rear
Stock geometry limitations (depends heavily on your link joints) looks to be somewhere in the ~13 inch travel range max for me. With smaller joints you could get better numbers before you stopped due to upper arm angle. There is a give and take here where the panhard bar swings the axle to the passenger side and binds the upper links in there mounts. Its a interference issue where my joints are not flexed out, but actually come in contact with the mount. below are picture showing the max balanced down travel for both sides. The passenger side can droop probably 10 more inches but every inch binds the driver side further and limits the driver side droop even more. There is room here for modifications to the mount, but ~13" is respectable for the application and you need to still have room for the shock to fit between tire and frame on the driver side.

Driver side. There is only ~3 inched between frame and tire here. There can be a additional 1" gained in up-travel with mods to the wheel well

http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps4571c135.jpg
passenger side. There is plenty of room between the tire and frame ~7". There can be a additional 1" gained in up-travel with mods to the wheel well
http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps87c1f4df.jpg

This is what the angle of the upper mounts becomes at this droop. They are ~45 degrees. The more angle they have then the more force of a landing will initially be transferred to the mounts rather then the shock. 45 deg may already be too much for heavy abuse.
http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps3cf620fb.jpg
http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps44ad05d3.jpg
-max uptravel
I found with my 35" tires the uptravel was less limited then I thought in the rear. The tires will slightly press into the stock fenders when sitting on stock bump stops. I used the stock bump stops to simulate my large bump stops completely crushed. The end result was just drilling out the hole that mounts the stock bump and mounting the larger one there right on the stock mount. Super easy. Its no hydro bump, but I think it will serve the purpose. The unknown is if I need a landing plate for the bump. In flex testing several times the large bump stops deformed badly and deflected off the round axle tube. I think in a flat landing they wont be able to squirm off the axle tube...not sure
-lenghtned brake line source
-shock mounting
Upper shock mounts version 2.0. These are working quite well, but require me to run 1.25" spacers to keep the tire off the shock. They push the shock upper mount out far enough that frame contact is no longer an issue. Not by much mind you...I think its less then a quarter inch of extra room. The spacers also require fender mods to run them. more info on that here: http://www.ultimateyota.com/showthre...-for-clearence

http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps007a7f63.jpg

Below is version 1.0/1.1 it was a complete failure and not only broke but also allowed the shock to hit the frame under extreme flex. I figure I'll keep it up for knowledge sake.

Quote:

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Lots of learning happened here. Mounting the shocks low gave all the desirable effects for clearance. I wanted to mount them high to keep the shock bottoms out of the rocks, but that could not work without pocketing the frame or spacing out the tires more.
This is one of the problem areas. When the whole axle droops out it swings to the passenger side. This is the clearence I have...its tight but about a 1/4 of room
http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/w...psjbngrga9.jpg

here's kinda a crummy picture of what I made. I ended up with plate mounts out of 1/4" plate that are much lower then I wanted. The lower mount is branched out from the stock mount and has only a 1/4" of clearance on the drum brake back plate. The 18" limit strap connects a few inches above and inboard of where the stock shock mounted.
http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps1992e276.jpg

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-reservoir mount
Not much to say here but there is not surprisingly very little room for the 2.5" res I have. I had to cut down the mounts and weld them as close to the frame as possible.

-Shaft guards for the rear are completely necessary. I used fox 2.0 shaft guards after getting several nicks in the shafts. The location is right in line with rocks coming off the front tires so you have to do something.

running into issues with the bump stops and multiuse (crawling and go fast). If the bumps are long enough to keep the tire out of the sheet metal during max flex then they are limiting uptravel during a full suspension compression. This is a big tire problem really since a 33 tucks into the wheel well without much hassle during flex. unexpectedly the stock lower mount may be more then low enough to accommodate the shock

I'm currently testing with the 3.75 BS rims and a 1.25" spacer. I'm finding tons of room between the frame and the tire with this so I may try removing the spacer and see how it plays out. The MTR looks to be narrower then expected. The broad flat profile made me think it would be wider and require the spacers for sure. If the shocks fit with without the spacer I'd be very happy and probably have more options for extra travel.

Finishing this post up. The development of the rear is covered in another post, but its low in the wheel well and tight to the drum brake to give the best clearance. I checked everything twice, but will be hoping out of the truck often to check things for the first few outings. I still have to check the rear brake line but I think the modest travel I ended up with ~12" makes the extended line I already have ok to use.

I will have to revisit the write up for the rear. Long story short my shocks ended up being spaced out from the frame pretty far and wheel spacers were used. I believe they could have now been mounted slightly higher in the wheel well, although hitting the frame during flex is nothing to play with. I do however think alot of the outbord setup on the internet would hit the frame under flex. Since most of those guys do not play on the rocks they may never know they have a serious issue.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by troyboy162

I will have to revisit the write up for the rear. Long story short my shocks ended up being spaced out from the frame pretty far and wheel spacers were used. I believe they could have now been mounted slightly higher in the wheel well, although hitting the frame during flex is nothing to play with. I do however think alot of the outbord setup on the internet would hit the frame under flex. Since most of those guys do not play on the rocks they may never know they have a serious issue.

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I had mine ramped and they didnt hit the frame, running 2.5" outboard. But based on your numbers you're probably mounted an inch higher.

Great setup, bookmarking it if I ever LT the front.

The rear has been a real crap show for me. Between contacting the frame on version 1.0 and version 1.1 breaking in half, I can not recommend anything I have written for the rear haha. Version 2.0 is working but needs fender mods now for more stuffing since some testing a couple weeks ago showed me they will indeed stuff hard and contact metal. I ran a V-notch and my rear tires pushed the sheet metal all over the place. I'll have to go check yours out.

Checked yours out and we are quite a bit different. I mounted lower and higher to fit the 12" shock. I'm trying my best to get max travel with the stock length 5 link. The side benefit is I hope to retain lots of articulation. These two items are proving to be a huge hassle with 35" tires though. I'd much rather have less travel and be done months ago at this point.

beefing up the front end is probably overkill for me since I intend to take it easy compared to most, but I got a great deal on this shock tower brace from dirt designs ( I got it third party used). That's exactly how most of my pain in the ass story's start lol. Turns out a tacoma has slightly different clocking on the three holes that mount the coilover to the shock tower. That means this part is not compatible with a 4runner unless you re-bend and weld the upper tube. Then there is the fact that it wont fit without modding the stock 96 intake to remove the baffles. I never wanted to remove the baffles nor did I want to buy a stupid $130 plastic intake pipe, but frustration and a gift certificate won and now there it is... :-/

The benefit of this design is extra strength to help keep the shock towers from bending inward under abuse. Not only does long travel shenanigans lead to stress, but its also angled more to amplify that stress compared to stock shock location.

Its got fancy side pieces that fit on the shock tower. I pop rivited in some support to the wheel well since its still the home of my over-sized battery. If it starts bending now I will be pretty sad.
http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps7roynjit.jpg

And there she is all in place looking deceptively like a afternoon job. It sits up off the plug wire loom enough so that it shouldnt contact during engine flex. It is however a no-go with a supercharger.
http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps2e5uqpwg.jpg

Looks good to me.
Got to love Tacoma parts lol, the whole front end of the 4Runner now is Tacoma lol.