aemravan's build thread - project TacoRunner

[aemravan]

Well, I figured out why my upper links/bolts keep clunking after loosening up a bit lol.

Went back through my Ruff Stuff order and I see that the high misalignment spacers I bought for the heim joints were all for 9/16" hardware... after looking at the links I realized that the upper links use a smaller bolt lol. Doh!!

So the good new is that the lower links should be OK to use the factory hardware, and now that I think about it, it was always the upper links that started clunking. The upper links will just need 1/2" hardware to go along.. which will mean having to drill out the mounts just a bit to accept the larger bolt.. unfortunately I don't see a 3/4" heim misalignment spacer that drops it down to a smaller diameter than 9/16" ID. Drilling isn't an issue except for possibly on the front mount above the gas tank since the space is a bit limited, but we'll see what I can do..

 

[aemravan]

After realizing I was looking and interpreting the dimensions on the spacers wrong (the 9/16 misalignment spacer dimension meant it was for 9/16 hardware, not a 9/16 opening) I looked up other spacers and lo and behold.. eBay to the rescue ! No drilling required and I’ll get rid of all slip in the upper links. Can’t wait !

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[alextmullis]

I run the Rokmen rear upper links and get a clunk from the rear that started since installing them. The spacer is 3/4”, is stock bolt size 9/16ths?

 

[aemravan]

I run the Rokmen rear upper links and get a clunk from the rear that started since installing them. The spacer is 3/4”, is stock bolt size 9/16ths?

The stock upper bolts are smaller than a US 1/2" hardware.. I can tell you that because I just got my 3/4> 1/2" high misalignment spacers and the factory bolt still has a bit of slop in this, so I will be drilling out my mounts to use the 1/2" grade 8 hardware I just got. If I had to guess the stock bolt is closer to the 7/16" range in diameter.

 

[aemravan]

After some debating.. I decided to bite the bullet on the LC200 rack.. Just placed an order with a local dealer, $420 shipped with tax, not too terrible. Could have gone a remanufactured route for slightly cheaper but decided it wasn't worth it.

Already purchased the offset bushings for the swap so will need to put this on my to-do list as well... the plan is to shim the motor up 1/4" with some plates under the mounts and notch the lower cross member if needed to get it to sit right.. not looking forward to doing the swap, but certainly can't wait to have the extra beef for steering.

 

[4RunnerAquasport]

After some debating.. I decided to bite the bullet on the LC200 rack.. Just placed an order with a local dealer, $420 shipped with tax, not too terrible. Could have gone a remanufactured route for slightly cheaper but decided it wasn't worth it.

Already purchased the offset bushings for the swap so will need to put this on my to-do list as well... the plan is to shim the motor up 1/4" with some plates under the mounts and notch the lower cross member if needed to get it to sit right.. not looking forward to doing the swap, but certainly can't wait to have the extra beef for steering.

If I recall the CVJ reman I bought 3 yrs ago was over $300 shipped. That was factored into my decision making on the 200 rack. I think I paid around the same as yours. Brand new beef for a few more bucks and some fab work? Why not?

Curious to see how the install goes on yours w the diff still in place. That was another factor in doing the 200, I knew I would be pulling the diff to put the 4:56s in.

 

[aemravan]

If I recall the CVJ reman I bought 3 yrs ago was over $300 shipped. That was factored into my decision making on the 200 rack. I think I paid around the same as yours. Brand new beef for a few more bucks and some fab work? Why not?

Curious to see how the install goes on yours w the diff still in place. That was another factor in doing the 200, I knew I would be pulling the diff to put the 4:56s in.

100% agree.

With regards to the diff, i'm not against pulling it for the install.. It's honestly not all that much work, however, I have seen/heard of a few folks doing the swap with it in place and looks do-able, but frustrating so we'll see I guess. My biggest thing with pulling the diff would worrying about not seeing all the clearance issues until I put it back in (could be wrong here).

I'm leaning towards doing this when I do the Total Chaos cam tab weldments, so most of my front end will have to come apart anyway, which means at that point I would just need to yank out the axles and drop just a few bolts lol. It will be a good time to also reinforce the passenger side diff bracket I have laying around and installing that too.

so much work.... and wheeling season is literally here.. lol

 

[4RunnerAquasport]

100% agree.

With regards to the diff, i'm not against pulling it for the install.. It's honestly not all that much work, however, I have seen/heard of a few folks doing the swap with it in place and looks do-able, but frustrating so we'll see I guess. My biggest thing with pulling the diff would worrying about not seeing all the clearance issues until I put it back in (could be wrong here).

I'm leaning towards doing this when I do the Total Chaos cam tab weldments, so most of my front end will have to come apart anyway, which means at that point I would just need to yank out the axles and drop just a few bolts lol. It will be a good time to also reinforce the passenger side diff bracket I have laying around and installing that too.

so much work.... and wheeling season is literally here.. lol

Yea if I didn't have to pull the diff for the gear change, I would have made it
work somehow.

 

[aemravan]

sooo this just hit me after reading an LC200 related post on instagram.... does is the LC200 rack too long for non long travel front end....? Everybody I am following doing this swap is at least +2" long travel is appears.. Oh oh... lol.

 

[Inv4drZm]

sooo this just hit me after reading an LC200 related post on instagram.... does is the LC200 rack too long for non long travel front end....? Everybody I am following doing this swap is at least +2" long travel is appears.. Oh oh... lol.

The only potential problem I see with that is bumpsteer. On the other hand extending the angle +2" isn't much to lessen the angle between the tie rods and control arms and the rack is apparently very close to a 4R rack.

Here are the lengths someone posted on TW:

LC200:
Stroke: 6.22"
Length between ITREs: 29 7/8

Tundra:
Stroke: 7.81
Turns lock to lock: 3.69
Length?

4th gen 4Runner:
Stroke: 6.25"
Length: 28.5"
Turns: 3.06

2nd Gen Tacoma:
Stroke: 6.7"
Turns: 3.63
Length?

FJ:
Stroke: 5.67"
Turns: 2.81
Length?

 

[aemravan]

The only potential problem I see with that is bumpsteer. On the other hand extending the angle +2" isn't much to lessen the angle between the tie rods and control arms and the rack is apparently very close to a 4R rack.

Here are the lengths someone posted on TW:

LC200:
Stroke: 6.22"
Length between ITREs: 29 7/8

Tundra:
Stroke: 7.81
Turns lock to lock: 3.69
Length?

4th gen 4Runner:
Stroke: 6.25"
Length: 28.5"
Turns: 3.06

2nd Gen Tacoma:
Stroke: 6.7"
Turns: 3.63
Length?

FJ:
Stroke: 5.67"
Turns: 2.81
Length?

I've heard the bump-steer issue raised a couple of times.. I guess I'm not thinking about this hard enough.. what about the LC200 rack changes the geometry from the OEM rack to increase bump steer?

With regards to the lengths, I can tell just from pulling a rough measurement (granted the original rack is on the car and I'm only measuring ROUGHLY by laying out the tape on the ground under the spindles) it appears that I have approximately 55" between the outer tie rods, give or take.. the rough measurement I'm pulling from the LC200 rack with the tie rods fully adjusted in seem to come up at approximately 57".. now with the rack mounted and the tie rods drooped down this would probably decrease some, but looking pretty unlikely that it can be directly swapped without being completely toe-d out.

It looks like I can safely cut down each side about an inch or so (1/2 inch on the outer tie rod and 1/2" on the inner tie rod threads) , clean up the threads, and call it good, but haven't looked too hard into this yet. Not a big deal either way.. I'm either going LT in the future, or will make this work, but just wanted to throw that out there.

 

[aemravan]

Talk about a BEEF rack… good lord. You guys all mentioned a beefy replacement but holy hell…. Pictures don’t translate the amount of beef this has in person. I’m certain I’ll blow out my front diff before anything happens to this once it’s on haha

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[Inv4drZm]

I've heard the bump-steer issue raised a couple of times.. I guess I'm not thinking about this hard enough.. what about the LC200 rack changes the geometry from the OEM rack to increase bump steer?

With regards to the lengths, I can tell just from pulling a rough measurement (granted the original rack is on the car and I'm only measuring ROUGHLY by laying out the tape on the ground under the spindles) it appears that I have approximately 55" between the outer tie rods, give or take.. the rough measurement I'm pulling from the LC200 rack with the tie rods fully adjusted in seem to come up at approximately 57".. now with the rack mounted and the tie rods drooped down this would probably decrease some, but looking pretty unlikely that it can be directly swapped without being completely toe-d out.

It looks like I can safely cut down each side about an inch or so (1/2 inch on the outer tie rod and 1/2" on the inner tie rod threads) , clean up the threads, and call it good, but haven't looked too hard into this yet. Not a big deal either way.. I'm either going LT in the future, or will make this work, but just wanted to throw that out there.

If the width of the rack's inner tie rod 'ball' is wider than the LCA frame pivots, as the suspension cyles the tie rod will follow a shorter arc than the control arms which will pull or push the tire side to side making it 'steer'. AKA it changes the toe angle.

And if the angle of the tie rods are different than the control arms, like if the rack gets mounted forward or back, high or low, this can change the 'length' of the tie rods and the arc it swings as the suspension cycles.

 

[Inv4drZm]

Been looking at RC200t's but not enough room in the garage. :cry2: Would love to 'fix' the exhaust to hear the turbo.

 

[aemravan]

If the width of the rack's inner tie rod 'ball' is wider than the LCA frame pivots, as the suspension cyles the tie rod will follow a shorter arc than the control arms which will pull or push the tire side to side making it 'steer'.

And if the angle of the tie rods are different than the control arms, like if the rack gets mounted forward or back, high or low, this can change the 'length' of the tie rods and the arc it swings as the suspension cycles.

Definitely disregarded the suspension cycling geometry changes. .. duh... makes perfect sense. Thanks for the response on that! Not that it would ever steer me away from this swap (Yes, pun intended lol). I already killed the "drivability" aspect of my rig with everything else I have going on lol.

with that said... what you mentioned has me questioning something... in the case that the inner tie rod ball sitting wider than the LCA frame pivot.. what does that mean that if you were to cycle both wheels either up or down at the same time that you would introducing a great about of stress into the rack since it wouldn't be able to pull or push itself like it could with a single wheel arcing up/down?


**EDIT** Disregard my question above... i just hit a rabbit hole of YouTube video on bump steer and it makes much more sense now.. bump steer occurring is caused by the arc length difference between the UCA/LCA/rack&pinion differences, it doesn't have to physically move the steering rack in/out, the inner tierod point can remain in the same exact location without the steering wheel moving while the tire still exhibits some degree of turning caused by the suspension cycling. Either that.. or my brain is shot after this week of work and I just need to let it go.. lol.

 

[aemravan]

Been looking at RC200t's but not enough room in the garage. :cry2: Would love to 'fix' the exhaust to hear the turbo.

Mine has a “fixed” straight pipe 3inch down pipe to a 4inch titanium exhaust with a baby turbo, it makes all the right noises

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[Inv4drZm]

Mine has a “fixed” straight pipe 3inch down pipe to a 4inch titanium exhaust with a baby turbo, it makes all the right noises

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Yeah I think you've figured out bumpsteer now.

I would love a straight 6 turbo JDM some day.

 

[aemravan]

Getting the first bushing out of the LC200 rack was no joke.. but they are out now and just in time for the offset bushings to arrive ! Now just gotta figure out if it has any chance of fitting the stock width without being +2in long travel in the front ..

Also started putting together my TK1 racing sway bar to mock it up on the frame along with the bump stops I have to relocate. Planning on diving into this during this week hopefully

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[awhitney1]

Why do you have to relocate the bump stops?

Getting the first bushing out of the LC200 rack was no joke.. but they are out now and just in time for the offset bushings to arrive ! Now just gotta figure out if it has any chance of fitting the stock width without being +2in long travel in the front ..

Also started putting together my TK1 racing sway bar to mock it up on the frame along with the bump stops I have to relocate. Planning on diving into this during this week hopefully

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[aemravan]

Why do you have to relocate the bump stops?

I have the axle pushed back with my adjustable links pretty far back I guess to clear the 35s against the rear doors at full bump and last time I cycled my suspension the factory stop completely missed my axle


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