aemravan's build thread - project TacoRunner

[aemravan]

Well folks… it’s official …

You can disregard my initial review of the drivability.


Holy hell does proper toe in make a difference ! No more weird tracking, no more weird camming over at near full lock, no more hard steering to get started.

Looks like all of the issues were related to toe. The rest of the alignment ended up just about spot on with the cam delete, and with toe corrected I am a happy camper.

There is a LITTLE bit of a feeling I can’t quite describe yet at speed going over uneven bumps, but just ever so slightly and could very well be caused by new lower arms without worn bushings translating more road feedback. I’ll drive it a bit more and report back.

This is obviously all on-road, and I expect to get some bump steer off-road if I get into a situation where I unload the suspension a bunch but we’ll see !

As of getting home just now, I’m super stoked and say send it on lc200 rack swaps !


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[rdruss]

It's always a relief when you do a difficult project and everything works out like you hoped! Congrats!

 

[aemravan]

So while at the shop.. my brothers coworker pointed out that I had a pretty noticeable drivers side lean.. upon further investigation… sure enough.. the drivers side is leaning 1” lower than the passenger… so I have a spacer for the rear drivers side coil on the way from Amazon to see if I can get this thing looking right


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[AuSeeker]

So while at the shop.. my brothers coworker pointed out that I had a pretty noticeable drivers side lean.. upon further investigation… sure enough.. the drivers side is leaning 1” lower than the passenger… so I have a spacer for the rear drivers side coil on the way from Amazon to see if I can get this thing looking right


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That's the first thing I noticed in your photo of the rear.

 

[4RunnerAquasport]

So while at the shop.. my brothers coworker pointed out that I had a pretty noticeable drivers side lean.. upon further investigation… sure enough.. the drivers side is leaning 1” lower than the passenger… so I have a spacer for the rear drivers side coil on the way from Amazon to see if I can get this thing looking right


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I noticed mine years ago, even with the MT drivers side spring that's supposed to correct it. I just put my tools and hi lift on the passenger side to help with that. I also try not to look at it or take pictures head on.

You've done some great work the past few months.
Barely finished the fender flares and you jumped right back in the deep end lol.

OTEs and the double shear look killer. After your experience I may just pony up for the JD kit. My fab skills aren't even close to your level. The cool thing is if you go to a LT, all you need is to make the appropriate length extensions.

Glad she's driving proper now after your alignment.

 

[aemravan]

I noticed mine years ago, even with the MT drivers side spring that's supposed to correct it. I just put my tools and hi lift on the passenger side to help with that. I also try not to look at it or take pictures head on.

You've done some great work the past few months.
Barely finished the fender flares and you jumped right back in the deep end lol.

OTEs and the double shear look killer. After your experience I may just pony up for the JD kit. My fab skills aren't even close to your level. The cool thing is if you go to a LT, all you need is to make the appropriate length extensions.

Glad she's driving proper now after your alignment.

Thanks man ! Yea.. realistically if you don’t have any of the heims yet, their kit is pretty worthwhile considering you don’t have to spend the hours cutting the material and shaping it.. it’ll certainly look a lot cleaner. Not to mention the metal itself isn’t cheap if you don’t already have it laying around.

And not if, but when I go LT Yea all I’ll need to do is make the same tube just 2-2.75 inches longer. For that I’m definitely going to try and get it into a drill press to drill the holes.. hand drilling ended up with slightly larger opening than needed and one side has a wobble as you turn to adjust because the hole was off center lol. Work, but next time around I know where to be careful. Only thing I would need to get would be 2 additional weld in bungs and I’d be off to the races !

That’s an early next year project though ..


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[y=mx+b]

So while at the shop.. my brothers coworker pointed out that I had a pretty noticeable drivers side lean.. upon further investigation… sure enough.. the drivers side is leaning 1” lower than the passenger… so I have a spacer for the rear drivers side coil on the way from Amazon to see if I can get this thing looking right


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I have a nasty driver side lean. mine might be more than 1" lol. I just leave it because I'm cheap lmao

 

[aemravan]

I have a nasty driver side lean. mine might be more than 1" lol. I just leave it because I'm cheap lmao

My $40 Amazon spacer shows up tomorrow so I’ll let you know how it goes.. those LT dobinsons springs were already fairly hard to get in so we’ll see how that works out lol


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[aemravan]

The verdict is in , $40 Amazon spacer corrected the lean. Was an absolute pain in the ass to put in with the already tall springs, but after 30 mins of struggling I have an identical measurement from ground to flare of around 43” with a full tank of gas and me not in the car. Pretty satisfied, we’ll see how it holds up.

This came with two spacers.. if anyone is interested I’ll ship it your way , just cover the postage..

Pa I realize it looks leaning from the rear, it was just the lot I was in.

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[aemravan]

It's like my rig knows I cant sit idle without a project lol. Came across 2 strange issues yesterday that I'll need to sort out..

1. The speedometer just stopped working. I saw this issue previously when it first got really hot out, but 5 minutes into the drive it came back on and didn't have issues. I figured this was something related to the digital speed converter I have installed to correct the speed.. thought maybe it's getting hot and dropping out. This issue came back yesterday, and was intermittent, and certainly not caused by heat. It's kind of annoying. Still could be the digital speed converter I'm using but I haven't started digging into this yet.

2. Gas tank level indicator started acting irradicably as well. I was a little below 1/4 tank and noticed all of the sudden my gas light came on... then went off as it shot back up to 1/4 tank, then dropped again, and just kept doing it randomly. After parking the car for an hour it seemed to have resolved itself, and after filling up last night to full I haven't seen the issue but is something I definitely will need to keep an eye on. Especially without a functioning speedo lol. Hard to tell how much gas you have without a fuel level indicator or knowing how many miles you've gone .:roll:

 

[aemravan]

Also, I feel like this wanening sticker that came with the coil spacer is highly appropriate to put on the rig now [emoji38]

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[4RunnerAquasport]

It's like my rig knows I cant sit idle without a project lol. Came across 2 strange issues yesterday that I'll need to sort out..

1. The speedometer just stopped working. I saw this issue previously when it first got really hot out, but 5 minutes into the drive it came back on and didn't have issues. I figured this was something related to the digital speed converter I have installed to correct the speed.. thought maybe it's getting hot and dropping out. This issue came back yesterday, and was intermittent, and certainly not caused by heat. It's kind of annoying. Still could be the digital speed converter I'm using but I haven't started digging into this yet.

2. Gas tank level indicator started acting irradicably as well. I was a little below 1/4 tank and noticed all of the sudden my gas light came on... then went off as it shot back up to 1/4 tank, then dropped again, and just kept doing it randomly. After parking the car for an hour it seemed to have resolved itself, and after filling up last night to full I haven't seen the issue but is something I definitely will need to keep an eye on. Especially without a functioning speedo lol. Hard to tell how much gas you have without a fuel level indicator or knowing how many miles you've gone .:roll:

Just spit balling here:
After messing with the sending unit for the FJ tank I discovered these units are very much position sensitive. You might have just had some gas sloshing around and the level indicator dropped enough for the light to come on and just didn't reset right away.

 

[aemravan]

Just spit balling here:
After messing with the sending unit for the FJ tank I discovered these units are very much position sensitive. You might have just had some gas sloshing around and the level indicator dropped enough for the light to come on and just didn't reset right away.

Yea that’s kind of what I was thinking.. not a huge deal as long as I have either speedo or indicator level working lol.

The Speedo is not working still this morning so I’ll have to do some digging later.. too damn hot and muggy.. but you’re in FL so I guess I can’t complain too much haha


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[y=mx+b]

It's like my rig knows I cant sit idle without a project lol. Came across 2 strange issues yesterday that I'll need to sort out..

1. The speedometer just stopped working. I saw this issue previously when it first got really hot out, but 5 minutes into the drive it came back on and didn't have issues. I figured this was something related to the digital speed converter I have installed to correct the speed.. thought maybe it's getting hot and dropping out. This issue came back yesterday, and was intermittent, and certainly not caused by heat. It's kind of annoying. Still could be the digital speed converter I'm using but I haven't started digging into this yet.

2. Gas tank level indicator started acting irradicably as well. I was a little below 1/4 tank and noticed all of the sudden my gas light came on... then went off as it shot back up to 1/4 tank, then dropped again, and just kept doing it randomly. After parking the car for an hour it seemed to have resolved itself, and after filling up last night to full I haven't seen the issue but is something I definitely will need to keep an eye on. Especially without a functioning speedo lol. Hard to tell how much gas you have without a fuel level indicator or knowing how many miles you've gone .:roll:

Not a dead giveaway, more like a weak hint, but sometimes alternator issues can present themselves as cluster issues. When my alternator was on it's last leg, speedo would cut in and out, and the other gauges were wacked.

 

[aemravan]

Not a dead giveaway, more like a weak hint, but sometimes alternator issues can present themselves as cluster issues. When my alternator was on it's last leg, speedo would cut in and out, and the other gauges were wacked.

man I certainly hope not! haha but that's good insight for sure. I'll do some troubleshooting on the speedo this weekend and monitor the fuel gauge.. we'll see!

 

[aemravan]

Found the culprit to the Speedo not working … checked voltage and it’s coming to the speedohealer, no lights on it. Took it off and through in a quick jumper and what do you know ? My speedo is alive.. kinda bummed it didn’t even last a year for not being too cheap..

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[aemravan]

Them :”so how much do you trust your own build?”
Me:

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[aemravan]

I did a thing today… got tired of not seeing very well out of my rear view mirror because of the tire and ladder setup. My brother has been running this stinger off-road mirror on his jeep and I thought it was a pretty sweet setup.

Not the cheapest at $399 bucks.. but quality is damn good, mirror bolted right up, wiring tool no time, just had to custom fab a bracket to hold it into the tire carrier opening. All in all 2 hours of work and now I have a full time digital rear view that also has a front facing camera and records full time. Pretty sweet setup.

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[aemravan]

So it’s been a few days with the rig on the road with the LC200 rack and just wanted to throw out some more feedback for those that may care.. Still nothing crazy to report, I’ve gotten a lot more used to the different feel. I’m fully convinced that yes, the geometry is changed from stock, no question about that. Between the bumpsteer being different and the quite possibly changed Ackermann there is definitely a bit of an odd feeling, but nothing that I have seen as a deal breaker for me.
I am hoping to get this thing off road soon to see how it holds up, but overall I am still pleased with the swap.

One thing I will mention is that maybe this isn’t the end-all cheap solution for a rack for those guys that are running 35”+ tires..I could have probably saved in a few places, but the total project ran me 1100 and I don’t think it could be done cheaper than maybe 700. If you are on a LT kit that allows for use of the factory outer tierods you would obviously save close to 300 bucks in mounting hardware and heims. Point is that the modified tundra rack does sound to be a much better geometrical fit compared to stock, and could possibly be sourced quite cheap used and rebuilt with new seals and all since it all has to come apart anyway to get machined. You’re probably looking at a difference of maybe 1000-1500 bucks depending on what the machining labor currently runs and maybe isn’t all that much in the grand scheme of things.

One other thing I would recommend to anyone who is looking to do the swap is to play with the front/rear placement of the rack. I opted to go fully forward , which is not ideal, but does give the maximum clearance. I will need to take this offroad to see what my coil clearance is at full lock and bump to see if there was any room to move the rack back. If you could scoot it back some I think it would definitely help.

Another thing I would say is that it could very well be worth doing a bit more work on the subframe to recess the rack as low as possible. I think this would make it hard to do with the motor still in the car.. but if I ever have the motor out I fully see myself cutting off the top portion of the subframe, reinforcing it internally, and sitting the rack down .5-1” lower than it is now. This would significantly aid in bump steer, and also would make the steering shaft and oil pan clearance much better. I think you could get away without needing new mounts and shims to clear the rack if you spent some time messing with the upper portion of the subframe. Just a thought… I’ll keep reporting out on any issues I find, but so far I have no regrets.

 

[thegame7]

So it’s been a few days with the rig on the road with the LC200 rack and just wanted to throw out some more feedback for those that may care.. Still nothing crazy to report, I’ve gotten a lot more used to the different feel. I’m fully convinced that yes, the geometry is changed from stock, no question about that. Between the bumpsteer being different and the quite possibly changed Ackermann there is definitely a bit of an odd feeling, but nothing that I have seen as a deal breaker for me.
I am hoping to get this thing off road soon to see how it holds up, but overall I am still pleased with the swap.

One thing I will mention is that maybe this isn’t the end-all cheap solution for a rack for those guys that are running 35”+ tires..I could have probably saved in a few places, but the total project ran me 1100 and I don’t think it could be done cheaper than maybe 700. If you are on a LT kit that allows for use of the factory outer tierods you would obviously save close to 300 bucks in mounting hardware and heims. Point is that the modified tundra rack does sound to be a much better geometrical fit compared to stock, and could possibly be sourced quite cheap used and rebuilt with new seals and all since it all has to come apart anyway to get machined. You’re probably looking at a difference of maybe 1000-1500 bucks depending on what the machining labor currently runs and maybe isn’t all that much in the grand scheme of things.

One other thing I would recommend to anyone who is looking to do the swap is to play with the front/rear placement of the rack. I opted to go fully forward , which is not ideal, but does give the maximum clearance. I will need to take this offroad to see what my coil clearance is at full lock and bump to see if there was any room to move the rack back. If you could scoot it back some I think it would definitely help.

Another thing I would say is that it could very well be worth doing a bit more work on the subframe to recess the rack as low as possible. I think this would make it hard to do with the motor still in the car.. but if I ever have the motor out I fully see myself cutting off the top portion of the subframe, reinforcing it internally, and sitting the rack down .5-1” lower than it is now. This would significantly aid in bump steer, and also would make the steering shaft and oil pan clearance much better. I think you could get away without needing new mounts and shims to clear the rack if you spent some time messing with the upper portion of the subframe. Just a thought… I’ll keep reporting out on any issues I find, but so far I have no regrets.

Were you destroying stock steering racks? Or did you just feel the need for more beef? I know the weak link on stock racks is the tie rod ends. Makes me wonder if making custom tie rod ends would be more worthwhile than upgrading the whole rack.