After a few bumps in the road, I finally got my Tundra/Land Cruiser lift on and my alignment done!





Now my 265/75r16s look a little puny... What I learned:

- When something is not working right, take a step back and evaluate what I am doing. Noticing that my shock bottom mount was on upside down would have saved me a bunch of irritation.
- PB Blast the crap out of everything that has to come off in the days before getting started.
- Get some TALL jack stands or some 2x10/2x12s to put under my jack stands before starting.
- Toyota Land stock rear shocks come with the mount bushings, but NO bushing washers.

Other than those hiccups, the install was pretty easy.

I have one question though - on my way to the alignment shop, I noticed a metal on metal clanking sound coming from the rear end when hitting bumps. I have checked the upper and lower rear shock mounts, the trac bar bolts, and the sway bar. They are all secure and those are the only bolts I touched. What could be causing this noise? I am using some large grade 8 washers for upper shock bushing washers temporarily, could that be the cause? They are a near perfect fit for the shock mount bolt and the bushing.

Thanks.

Sorry, no answer to your question but wow that looks good! I think I'm gonna go with the same front set up instead of the toytec coilovers now. did you buy the front suspension set up brand new?

Yeah. I searched around a little bit for some used from coils, but they are difficult to come by. It is hard to locate them through junk yards without going to them because most of the folks don't necessarily know the difference between the coils. No fault to them, but I spent a lot of time explaining that not all Tundra coils are created equal.

I got a decent deal on the shocks too. I think I paid around $94 a piece shipped. Something like that, under $100 a piece for sure.

Off topic buts what kind I bumper is that??

Yeah they are getting rarer and rarer. I have a junkyard contact that searches national yards for me, and has been unable to come up with anything for the past few weeks. There are NONE in my area that I can come up with, but if some pop up, he knows to send them my way. Any set that I get my hands on will go up for sale here immediately.

It is a one-off job. I had a local Toyota enthusiast weld it up a few years ago. It is all 1/2" plate, so it is heavy as he!!, but talk about beef. I can get you some other pictures if you would like.

Just a thought - to those of you that have used Land Cruiser rear shocks, did you use the included Land Cruiser lower mount bushings or re-use your 4runner lower bushings?? I just noticed in Sonoran Steel's manual, they reuse the 4runner bushings. Wonder if this would be the cause of my noise - excess shock movement from over-sized bushings.

I bought LC shocks from Advance Auto Parts, they came with all new hardware and I just bolted them on. I didn't notice any difference with the lower mounting bushings between my 4runner shocks and the LC shocks.

Mine certainly looked different. The inside diameter on the LC ones was larger. I will get a picture of them up.

Any other thoughts on the source of this clunking/clanging sound?? I am puzzled.

Does it happen when you hit bumps? Or turn sharp? My upper shock nut backed off on my right front shock. At first I just noticed a slight clunk when hitting potholes or speed bumps. I pin-pointed it by having someone bounce up and down on the front bumper while I poked around with a flashlight and looked for loose stuff.

Have someone stand on the rear bumper and jump up and down while you dig around underneath the back of your rig.

Sure post a few more up! I like how low profile it is

Shadow, you must a have 4runner sixth sense. It was the right rear upper shock nut. Just like yours, it backed off a little. Just enough to make funny noises. I got it good this time though!

Thanks for the help guys! Riding great now.