Pulled out the cs144 alternator to replace the voltage regulator with a set point of 14.8v for my agm battery and to swap to a 1.9 inch pulley as it wouldn't charge with the stock pulley (rotor speed was to low) at engine idle. So with a crank pulley diameter of 6.247 inches and a 1.9 inch pulley it spins at 2460 rpm at idle and 18040 rpm at red line. Perfect! Tossed it back into the car and checked the work. Fantastic! Cold charging is 14.8v and hot charging is 14.6v, bingo!

Next moved onto the wench (winch). Got all the wires I made last week installed and tightened down. Sweet. I ended up taking the apex 12k control box apart and took the solenoid and installed it in the passenger wing of the coastal off road bumper. It's tight, but fits and works perfectly. Wired up the cable and wireless control stuff. Accidentally switched the wires so when you hit out it pulled in lol. Quick fix and it works fantastically. With that, all my electrical for now are complete! For now lol. Got to re thread the wench line as I ditched all metal on the line.

Next up is redoing the rear disc conversion. Ditching the Ford calipers for some lc80 rear calipers and wilwood mc4's for the parking brake, seriously need a good parking brake. And at the same time tossing in a lc80 master and booster too.

Then the rear swing out, hope to get these done in the next few months as I want to take a nice 3-5 week vacation offroad trip across country.

To busy working to get pics, sorry.

Body Mount Bushings


Bought Toyota bushings from Amayama last January. Cost was about $300. Finally made the time to swap them.


No body lift, just bushings so I didn't have to worry about the bumper or rag joint. And my '96 doesn't have the center mount by the b-pillar. 14 bushings total. The old ones didn't look too terrible but they were sure hard.


I could feel the difference as I left the driveway. Shitty roads and manhole covers feel noticeably softer. Feeling only whelmed after all of my suspension work, this might be the missing piece!

was thinking of replacing those during my '99 resto. Decided to forgo that as they looked ok, but now i may...is Amiyama the place to go? Anyway, have to open another phase of this resto up.....found this during needle scaling of the rear frame. I knew there was some "chooch" lurking behind that tank. My handy dandy POR15 rust sealant wont fix that!

I DID NOT expect this. Now instead of finishing frame prep for powertrain reinstall, i have to pull this baby back out to the shop where the 220v TIG machine lives. Son is a excellent welder fabricator thankfully. We will get it right. It will be a YEAR since i picked up the reman 5VZ until it fires up! DANG IT!

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I'm tempted to replace mine now. Anything to improve the ride quality is a plus.

Installed some Bilstein 4600’s with moogs on the front and also new inner and outer tie rods saturday.
The front is definitely higher than the rear now even with the new shocks in the back so I have some 906’s on the way to even it out. Looking forward to finishing up this suspension work.

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Not to be pedantic, but shocks (not a coilover like the front) have nothing to do with ride height. Springs hold the vehicle up, shocks control the mothion of the springs. Bushings also play a role in control, especially in the rear, but those are the basics. 906's should lift up the rear to a good height and deal with a load far better than the stock springs ever did.

The Moog front springs are taller than the OEM '99 talls - what he is experiencing is normal... especially if the rear springs are still stock.

-Charlie