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.
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.
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.
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
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
Reply With Quote