The Process

I encountered trouble in the first 5 minutes when I couldn't get the tie rod ends pressed out. I rented a ball joint press from AutoZone, but none of those fit on the tie rod ends. After a couple failed attempts, I bought a press from O'Reilly's that worked perfectly. This is the one that worked:



A couple big problems came with the Energy Suspension LCA bushings. First off, one of my cams was nearly impossible to get out. After about an hour of hammering I was finally able to get it out. The problem though was I bent the cam so much from the hammering it was no longer good, so I went to my local Toyota dealer to buy a new one. When I pressed out the bushing from the LCAs, one of the washers lips bent pretty badly. When I put the Energy Suspension Bushing on, the washer would not press back on to the sleeve because the lip was bent so bad. I first tried welding it on but it would not hold when I tried installing the LCAs back onto the frame of the vehicle. The right way to do it was to get a good bushing washer. A new bushing from Toyota cost ~$60 (sucks!!) but I was able to get the washer off the bushing and onto the Energy Suspension bushings without a problem. Honestly I had so much headache with the LCA bushings if I were to do it again I would've just left mine alone. I'm going to guess 40% of my time on this suspension job spent was on the LCA bushings alone. Unless you really need them changed, I suggest you leave them alone.

Lift Intstalled





After the lift was installed, my driver's side front fender was ~5/8" lower than my passenger side. There was quite a bit of rake so I raised the coil to make it all level. I then took it to Firestone to get an alignment.

I love the ride, it feels slightly better than factory on-road and smooth off-road, especially on the higher-frequency-washboard-type roads. It's a little stiff, but I noticed when I packed it full of camping equipment and people it rides much better than when it's just me. I know the ride quality will get better once I start adding some weight to it.

There is still a little rake, if I knew I wasn't going to add weight to it in the future I probably would have gone with the OME 2906 springs instead of the 2890s.