4runner Custom Lower Links !
- Thread starter J-money$$$
- Start date
proudrunner
New member
Great job guys! Love how they came out.
J-money$$$
New member
i wanted to, but his gas tank skid is toasted. The drive shaft smashes it with any flex in the rear end.
We actually planned on running john bull backwards the day after making them, but he drove to my house and said that the bumps on the road were making the driveshaft hit the skid.
And thanks proudrunner i love em too
brian2sun
Elite Member
Update: So after a little more trial testing with the new arms, I want to correct what I said earlier about these arms making noise. On road you will virtually never hear any noise from them whatsoever, however while getting ready for my front locker install this week, I took everything off my truck that could be stolen somewhat easily like my Hi-lift, D-rings, tools, etc.. and I also removed my BudBuilt skids to save time and $$ on the install labor. In doing this I removed basically anything and everything that can rattle, clunk, ding, or bang.
With everything off, I did some quick wheelin just around my house to see if the arms make any noise now that it cannot be confused with anything else and I noticed that if you flex the suspension hard and fast, the outer ring of the heim joint (the end that is screwed into the tubed arm) will hit the inside of mount on the frame. Once it's shifted against the mount, it will stay that way until the suspension flexes the other way. When it's "leaning" against the mount I was able to make it rattle when I went over washboards in the road.
Solution: A few strips of padded tape stuck on the inside of the mounts silences it completely. There is no damage taking place since the force of the heim hitting the mount seems to be caused 100% by momentum, not weight. When you flex slowly but fully, the arms don't hit the mounts.
With everything off, I did some quick wheelin just around my house to see if the arms make any noise now that it cannot be confused with anything else and I noticed that if you flex the suspension hard and fast, the outer ring of the heim joint (the end that is screwed into the tubed arm) will hit the inside of mount on the frame. Once it's shifted against the mount, it will stay that way until the suspension flexes the other way. When it's "leaning" against the mount I was able to make it rattle when I went over washboards in the road.
Solution: A few strips of padded tape stuck on the inside of the mounts silences it completely. There is no damage taking place since the force of the heim hitting the mount seems to be caused 100% by momentum, not weight. When you flex slowly but fully, the arms don't hit the mounts.
theizzardking
New member
good stuff, you guys rock, subscribed:uzi:
J-money$$$
New member
UPDATE:
HERE IS THE NEW REAR FLEX
Brian and I will be making uppers this week, and hopefully a panhard with hiems in a few weeks.
Its coming along great. we added way more rear end flex with some new shocks and links that will not limit articulation.
In this picture i had my rear spring fall out, and that with the cone. But Brian and i have discovered with a set of 10 mm spacers (2) per side you can eliminate this problem.
HERE IS THE NEW REAR FLEX
Brian and I will be making uppers this week, and hopefully a panhard with hiems in a few weeks.
Its coming along great. we added way more rear end flex with some new shocks and links that will not limit articulation.
In this picture i had my rear spring fall out, and that with the cone. But Brian and i have discovered with a set of 10 mm spacers (2) per side you can eliminate this problem.
LINY4Runner
New member
what kind of springs are you using out back? I've flexed my truck out to the point where it's only got 2 wheels on the ground and my 9-wraps were still very tight...I'm not too sure how they'd be with the new links and shocks...got my Land Cruiser Trekmasters in yesterday so I'll let you know
J-money$$$
New member
im running 891's from OME. I have entertained the idea of running Land cruiser springs in the back. I know they are long enough.
and LINY4runner just as a little warning, if you go flex your truck out with the new shocks you WILL stuff a tire so far that it will bend your stock bumper. Bevcareful if you care about that stuff. in that pic of my 4runner i have trimmed the rear bumper significantly
and LINY4runner just as a little warning, if you go flex your truck out with the new shocks you WILL stuff a tire so far that it will bend your stock bumper. Bevcareful if you care about that stuff. in that pic of my 4runner i have trimmed the rear bumper significantly
LINY4Runner
New member
I've removed the bumper corners months ago...I stuffed them with the LC coils and 0-2" lift skyjacker shocks lol!
brian2sun
Elite Member
Our lower links add a lot of flex, I wonder if you would have still bent your bumper if you had stock lower arms but with the Tokicos. I think the arms add the big nasty extra flex because lots of people run extended shocks and don't push the driveline 1"+ into their gas tank skid like me. It's gotta be the arms.
On a side note, you were thinking of running LC coils until you get a rear bumper because of the big rake with the 891s + 20mm packers, but you'll have even more rake with LCs so I think you're better off just running the 20mm spacers and save the $. 7 wraps would probably be about equal to 891s +20mm.
Gerdo
New member
What are you guys doing for panhard bars? Do you use an extended bar or a drop mount? The extended bar is going to push the axle into the tank more than a drop. The other advantage of the drop is that the whole bar is close to level at ride height. This also keeps the arc centered when compressing and drooping which keeps the axle more centered. An extended bar will re-center a lifted axle but the arc is still toward the drivers side.
J-money$$$
New member
At the moment I have a stock bar that i cut and extended, We are planning on making a set of adjustable trackbars. At that point I guess i will decide to drop it or extend it. Thats the beauty of HEIMS your work can be adjusted.
I bet Brian will just run an extended one, and im not sure what ill do
J-money$$$
New member
Thats why Im not to into LC springs anyways. Im going to just probably run the spacers. And there is not way you can get that flex with stock links. They wont let it droop enough, and the rubber will just bind up. Wait until its all on heims...
brian2sun
Elite Member
That totally makes sense. I was going to just do an adjustable heim jointed pan hard and set it longer than stock, but thanks to your comment I will go ahead and get a ph drop bracket from Toytec and run the stock bar for now. In the coming weeks/months I still plan to do a heim jointed ph bar, but I'll just set it at stock length since I'll have the drop bracket. That and your gas skid with increased clearance should solve my driveshaft rubbing issue completely.
I'm just gonna go ahead and order the drop tomorrow and put that on before I put your skid on so I don't run the risk of damaging my driveshaft on the new beefed up skid. Thanks for saving me the frustration Gerdo. :hatsoff:
brian2sun
Elite Member
As weird as it sounds, we checked out my brake line in those flexy conditions and I had inches of slack to spare. I don't know if my '97 came with a longer stock brake line than other years or what, but I've never needed to mess with mine. I'll still have to jack up both rear tires off the ground and see what it looks like at full droop with the new links and shocks though.
twitchee2
Member
Interesting. I know my stockers are basically stretched the max. I have the dual lines going out back for the trac system. one is just ok, one is pushing it. I would definately need new lines. I definately like what you guys did with these.
LINY4Runner
New member
I've noticed that it's only at full droop that the brake lines are stretched. If you're flexing with one side hanging and one side tucked, there's still a good 2" of slack.
