I'm pretty sure I just didn't do my due diligence with proper torque the last time around.. talk about a lucky find. lol .
aemravan's build thread - project TacoRunner
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I'm pretty sure I just didn't do my due diligence with proper torque the last time around.. talk about a lucky find. lol .
And while I was at it I solved another mysterious steering noise… my steering rack was shifting left and right under heavy load.. guess I needed to go a bit more than gorilla tight on the two bolts..
I think the issue was that originally I didn’t use washers on the aluminum offset inserts and I crushed them in.. when you put them into the rack they don’t touch inside so if you crank really hard on the center portion you can have the outer portion of the flat separate from the main cylinder. I found some heavy duty body mount washers that span the entire width that I installed so we’ll see if this holds in place.
I’m doing so, my rack shifted slightly and started binding the steering shaft to the motor mount. 2 hours later I had it shifted into place where it was ok again.
I’m still having a dull “thud” coming from what I believe is the rear left when i go over small bumps that I can’t for the life of me track down… maybe it’s my hiem joint links.. but I can’t test that in the driveway.
I even disconnected the sway bar to see and was still hearing just the same. Maybe it’s the shock.. who knows. I guess it’s possible that I can swap them left to right and see the noise follows but I’m fresh out of ideas.. I have gone over every single bolt and nut and even took the rubber mallet to the entire underside but cannot replicate the sound at all.
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I think the issue was that originally I didn’t use washers on the aluminum offset inserts and I crushed them in.. when you put them into the rack they don’t touch inside so if you crank really hard on the center portion you can have the outer portion of the flat separate from the main cylinder. I found some heavy duty body mount washers that span the entire width that I installed so we’ll see if this holds in place.
I’m doing so, my rack shifted slightly and started binding the steering shaft to the motor mount. 2 hours later I had it shifted into place where it was ok again.
I’m still having a dull “thud” coming from what I believe is the rear left when i go over small bumps that I can’t for the life of me track down… maybe it’s my hiem joint links.. but I can’t test that in the driveway.
I even disconnected the sway bar to see and was still hearing just the same. Maybe it’s the shock.. who knows. I guess it’s possible that I can swap them left to right and see the noise follows but I’m fresh out of ideas.. I have gone over every single bolt and nut and even took the rubber mallet to the entire underside but cannot replicate the sound at all.
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Do you have poly steering rack bushings? If so, you should drill out the crossmember to 1/2" and shove 1/2" bolts through the whole assembly. It got rid of so many clunks in my front end and the steering feels legit tight now. The poly bushing kit I bought already had 1/2" ID sleeves so it was only a matter of drilling the crossmember out a little. For some reason Toyota specs a 12mm bolt that has an 11mm shank and that doesn't play well with the 1/2" ID sleeves. I had 1/16 of play in both mounting locations and no matter how much I tightened those stock bolts, the rack still moved (no surprise there).
I’m running the lc200 steering rack with 1/2 inch hardware and solid mounts
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built up a little more rig confidence this weekend..
Friday evening my brother and I went out to do a quick overnight camping at URE. Didn't ride any crazy trails but did stroll through some easier trails with the recent fixes seemingly resolving the recent issues I've had. The front end didn't make any weird noises after the rebuild from last time.. axles seemed to be happy, and didn't hear any rubbing from the tires to the TK1 sway bar.. after this last outing I decided that rockcrawling is not in the stars for me.. the initial bug I had for it just isn't the same as venturing out to a nice camping spot and chilling out for the weekend.. maybe LT or SAS is not something I'll do after all.. lol.
The following day my wife and I took a 5 hour round trip to the mountains to do some hiking with the falls colors coming in. Other than first having some bad tire shake with 36psi up front and 40 psi in the rear that did not go away after 30 miles until I dropped the pressure to around 30-33psi, everything went good. No new noises or issues. This did frustrate me quite a bit though.. it seems this damn tire balancing issue just won't go away. Even at lower PSI I still feel it coming and going a bit, and feel the balance wheels fighting to keep the shake from translating further up.. I can only imagine the sort of wear this is expediting on all the components, especially my wheel bearings. Also not a VERY comforting thought that I have so much vibration going through the wheel spacers front and rear.. I am highly considering going down to a 10.5" wide tire instead, not only will that give me more clearance to all the things I had rubbing previously, save some rotational weight, increase mpg, and possibly balance out better than these behemoth tires..
Also, on the trail ride I couldn't help but notice how loud the rear was.. presumably from the 5 links all having heim joints... this got me thinking... now that I'm not necessarily shooting for the starts with rear articulation and having the rear link length dialed in... would it be worth it swapping over to a bushing-style rod end in favor of the heim joints? They take so much maintenance to keep quite that it's getting aggravating on a predominantly street-drive rig.. Doing a quick search it looks like there are plenty of bushing style rod end options in both LH and RH threads.. I don't expect the squeaking to go away by going to a poly bushing... but at least they are easily greaseable and should reduce some of the stiffness in the ride? The challenge I guess is finding one that for sure fits the RH/LH threads I have (I THINK they are 3/4-16 from RUFF stuff) and are close to the width that I need them to be... though I guess shimming it out with some heavy duty washers couldn't hurt anything either..
Anddddd I also decided that I'm going to try and sell the current wheel/tire setup in favor of the Kenda Klever 10.5" tire on a smaller 8" wide ProComp wheel setup.. not as visually appealing but I decided that I don't need the extra tire width and need to simplify my rig and make it more street-friendly since that is where I spend just about 95% of the time.. the amount of road noise I'm getting and what I have to go through to balance them just isn't worth it.. hoping I can get out of the setup for around $1600.. maybe thats low, maybe it high... 9k miles on the setup that I spent $2500 on before all the balancing and mounting.. only unappealing thing is I have trail rash on all my wheels from the rock crawling lol. We'll see what happens.. (FS: 17x9" AR201 Wheels w/ 315/70/17 (35's) Wildpeak 35's x 5 (Charlotte, NC))
Friday evening my brother and I went out to do a quick overnight camping at URE. Didn't ride any crazy trails but did stroll through some easier trails with the recent fixes seemingly resolving the recent issues I've had. The front end didn't make any weird noises after the rebuild from last time.. axles seemed to be happy, and didn't hear any rubbing from the tires to the TK1 sway bar.. after this last outing I decided that rockcrawling is not in the stars for me.. the initial bug I had for it just isn't the same as venturing out to a nice camping spot and chilling out for the weekend.. maybe LT or SAS is not something I'll do after all.. lol.
The following day my wife and I took a 5 hour round trip to the mountains to do some hiking with the falls colors coming in. Other than first having some bad tire shake with 36psi up front and 40 psi in the rear that did not go away after 30 miles until I dropped the pressure to around 30-33psi, everything went good. No new noises or issues. This did frustrate me quite a bit though.. it seems this damn tire balancing issue just won't go away. Even at lower PSI I still feel it coming and going a bit, and feel the balance wheels fighting to keep the shake from translating further up.. I can only imagine the sort of wear this is expediting on all the components, especially my wheel bearings. Also not a VERY comforting thought that I have so much vibration going through the wheel spacers front and rear.. I am highly considering going down to a 10.5" wide tire instead, not only will that give me more clearance to all the things I had rubbing previously, save some rotational weight, increase mpg, and possibly balance out better than these behemoth tires..
Also, on the trail ride I couldn't help but notice how loud the rear was.. presumably from the 5 links all having heim joints... this got me thinking... now that I'm not necessarily shooting for the starts with rear articulation and having the rear link length dialed in... would it be worth it swapping over to a bushing-style rod end in favor of the heim joints? They take so much maintenance to keep quite that it's getting aggravating on a predominantly street-drive rig.. Doing a quick search it looks like there are plenty of bushing style rod end options in both LH and RH threads.. I don't expect the squeaking to go away by going to a poly bushing... but at least they are easily greaseable and should reduce some of the stiffness in the ride? The challenge I guess is finding one that for sure fits the RH/LH threads I have (I THINK they are 3/4-16 from RUFF stuff) and are close to the width that I need them to be... though I guess shimming it out with some heavy duty washers couldn't hurt anything either..
Anddddd I also decided that I'm going to try and sell the current wheel/tire setup in favor of the Kenda Klever 10.5" tire on a smaller 8" wide ProComp wheel setup.. not as visually appealing but I decided that I don't need the extra tire width and need to simplify my rig and make it more street-friendly since that is where I spend just about 95% of the time.. the amount of road noise I'm getting and what I have to go through to balance them just isn't worth it.. hoping I can get out of the setup for around $1600.. maybe thats low, maybe it high... 9k miles on the setup that I spent $2500 on before all the balancing and mounting.. only unappealing thing is I have trail rash on all my wheels from the rock crawling lol. We'll see what happens.. (FS: 17x9" AR201 Wheels w/ 315/70/17 (35's) Wildpeak 35's x 5 (Charlotte, NC))
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Can’t stop spending money for more than a few weeks it seems.. damn it lol.
After doing some searching I “think” I found the rod end bushings that will work with my current setup… I think I have the right combination of RH and LH threads with the appropriate 1/2” hardware holes for the upper links and the 14mm(9/16”) hardware for the lowers and panhard bar.
The width of the bushing for the lower links and on a hard bar is not ideal and will be about 3/8” not wide enough, but I’ll just shim them out with the proper amount of large washers on each side to compensate.
These have zerk grease fitting so we’ll see how that works out.. $300 isn’t the cheapest route to go… but my links work well other than having heims in them… I don’t think the heim joints are bad one bit, I feel like metal on metal just translates too much rode noise in an already still and loud , heavy ride… we’ll see hot this goes…. I’m anticipating quite a reduction in down travel but I’m willing to sacrifice.
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After doing some searching I “think” I found the rod end bushings that will work with my current setup… I think I have the right combination of RH and LH threads with the appropriate 1/2” hardware holes for the upper links and the 14mm(9/16”) hardware for the lowers and panhard bar.
The width of the bushing for the lower links and on a hard bar is not ideal and will be about 3/8” not wide enough, but I’ll just shim them out with the proper amount of large washers on each side to compensate.
These have zerk grease fitting so we’ll see how that works out.. $300 isn’t the cheapest route to go… but my links work well other than having heims in them… I don’t think the heim joints are bad one bit, I feel like metal on metal just translates too much rode noise in an already still and loud , heavy ride… we’ll see hot this goes…. I’m anticipating quite a reduction in down travel but I’m willing to sacrifice.
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well damn... the bushings are already being shipped out today with the ETA for this Thursday.. a lot sooner than I had thought. I'll probably give the passenger side upper link a quick try to confirm my idea will work and save the remaining work for later. Shouldn't take TOO long to do, but it's always fun trying to get to the driver side upper link front bolt.. I'm also very highly considering getting a quick tack-weld onto the jam nuts to really lock them out and keep from spinning/adjusting out later..
Inv4drZm
Senior Member
Thats what I did. Might be a pic in my build thread somewhere but I can't find it.
just took delivery of the bushing-style rod ends this morning. Hoping to test fit the passenger upper link during lunch just to confirm that the thread is the same and it will work.
The width for the upper control arms that are using the 1/2" bolt hardware I drilled in looks to be perfect for the mount surface inside and should not need any shimming, just a nice and tight torque to make sure everything is snug and happy.
The panhard bar with the m14 factory hardware also seems that it should just about work with the width of the 9/16" bushing sleeve and should not need any shimming for thickness, but we'll see how that looks like when I get it off.
The lower links have 2 things that I'm looking to overcome. The only available width of bushings that fit the 9/16 (14mm) hardware was not quite wide enough. I'm looking at having to shim probably 1/4" total to the mounting brackets. I just put in an order with McMaster to get some 1 1/2" wide washers that will fit 9/16" hardware in hopes to only needing to use one on each side of the bushing to get it nice and snug.
While I was at it.. I decided it would probably be wise to switch to Actual 9/16" hardware instead of using the factory M14 bolts on the lower links to ensure that the hardware matched the designed opening. Not cheap, it was another $75 for McMaster to get the washers and grade 8 hardware to rework the lowers. It should all be here tomorrow so we'll see how the swap-over process goes. I'm really hoping I made the right decision and this isn't a $400 waste of time exercise lol.
The width for the upper control arms that are using the 1/2" bolt hardware I drilled in looks to be perfect for the mount surface inside and should not need any shimming, just a nice and tight torque to make sure everything is snug and happy.
The panhard bar with the m14 factory hardware also seems that it should just about work with the width of the 9/16" bushing sleeve and should not need any shimming for thickness, but we'll see how that looks like when I get it off.
The lower links have 2 things that I'm looking to overcome. The only available width of bushings that fit the 9/16 (14mm) hardware was not quite wide enough. I'm looking at having to shim probably 1/4" total to the mounting brackets. I just put in an order with McMaster to get some 1 1/2" wide washers that will fit 9/16" hardware in hopes to only needing to use one on each side of the bushing to get it nice and snug.
While I was at it.. I decided it would probably be wise to switch to Actual 9/16" hardware instead of using the factory M14 bolts on the lower links to ensure that the hardware matched the designed opening. Not cheap, it was another $75 for McMaster to get the washers and grade 8 hardware to rework the lowers. It should all be here tomorrow so we'll see how the swap-over process goes. I'm really hoping I made the right decision and this isn't a $400 waste of time exercise lol.
Out with the old in with the new. Less maintenance and better ride comfort is a worthy sacrifice of a little articulation..
The upper link is done and everything fits like a glove.
I also did the panhard bar and found out that the factory bolt is noticeably undersized for the 9/16” insert and could very well be the cause of some added noise I’ve been tracking down .. I should have enough hardware coming to throw in actual 9/16” bolts into the panhard bar tomorrow as well.
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The upper link is done and everything fits like a glove.
I also did the panhard bar and found out that the factory bolt is noticeably undersized for the 9/16” insert and could very well be the cause of some added noise I’ve been tracking down .. I should have enough hardware coming to throw in actual 9/16” bolts into the panhard bar tomorrow as well.
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spent some time this weekend and got the remainder of the links swapped out along with installing the 9/16" hardware in the panhard bar and lower links in place of the factory 14mm hardware. Definitely noticeable slop between 14mm hardware and 9/16" bushings and heim joints... equivalent size? Yes.. ideal? No.
I must say.. having bushings in place of heims definitely improved the ride, in particular at low speeds over some uneven road surfaces around town.
Funny thing though... I still hear a bit of the noise I was hearing before
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It's definitely coming from the passenger rear.. though now I'm not sure if it could even be something roof-rack related with my giant tent on there.. if not, it has to be either a noisy shock or possibly something with the parking brake assembly. It's not a super concerning sound... but it's been driving me crazy and I don't know how much more time I want to spend chasing it down.
The wheel balance issue is still a thing and seems to come and go. Driving me nuts. I am almost certain that I could just have a good tire shop vector out (spin the tire on the rim a bit to offset the high points) the set before doing the actual balancing it should be ok.. my whole attempt at running counteract balance beads ended up being a $200 failed attempt. Maybe the work for some.. but DEFINITELY did not work for me. Mind you this is also with the centramatic wheel balancers running so there should be enough weight sloshing around to take out just about any imbalance my setup should have with so little miles on them.
Not surprising.. but I haven't had a single hit on my for-sale threads anywhere... I'm down to asking for $1400 for all 5 wheels and tires! That's half of what I paid , which sounds very painful but I'm pretty dead set on going to a 10.5" wide tire and I don't think it would look right on a 9" wide wheel..
I must say.. having bushings in place of heims definitely improved the ride, in particular at low speeds over some uneven road surfaces around town.
Funny thing though... I still hear a bit of the noise I was hearing before
ound:It's definitely coming from the passenger rear.. though now I'm not sure if it could even be something roof-rack related with my giant tent on there.. if not, it has to be either a noisy shock or possibly something with the parking brake assembly. It's not a super concerning sound... but it's been driving me crazy and I don't know how much more time I want to spend chasing it down.
The wheel balance issue is still a thing and seems to come and go. Driving me nuts. I am almost certain that I could just have a good tire shop vector out (spin the tire on the rim a bit to offset the high points) the set before doing the actual balancing it should be ok.. my whole attempt at running counteract balance beads ended up being a $200 failed attempt. Maybe the work for some.. but DEFINITELY did not work for me. Mind you this is also with the centramatic wheel balancers running so there should be enough weight sloshing around to take out just about any imbalance my setup should have with so little miles on them.
Not surprising.. but I haven't had a single hit on my for-sale threads anywhere... I'm down to asking for $1400 for all 5 wheels and tires! That's half of what I paid , which sounds very painful but I'm pretty dead set on going to a 10.5" wide tire and I don't think it would look right on a 9" wide wheel..
4RunnerAquasport
Senior Member
I've had my shock misalignment spacers on both trucks make some racket before. The Heims on the links do as well, but the lower shock mounts were making most of the noise on washboard and small pavement ruts.
My Dobinsons IMS rear long travel shocks do not have a misalignment spacer. The fronts do for the Icon's, but it's relatively quite there now that my LCA is tight.
After reading your message and going out to check the shock mount I started messing around with the rear just little but trying to roll the wheel front to back with my weight. What I found was that with the parking brake engaged I was getting some strange noises from the same back right corner.. with the parking brake off it didn't seem to do it. I think it is quite possible that in my attempt to NOT overheat and warp the new rear drums I didn't tighten the parking brake adjuster all the way. I know it doesnt hold as good going backwards, but I could get it to slip with my body weight rolling the wheel back. Pulled everything apart and put a few clicks of adjustment in and I can't seem to reproduce the noise by hand with the brake engaged. I think it is still a bit loose.. it doesn't take much throttle at all to get the rig to move on the flat ground. A quick test drive made me feel like possibly the noise is kind of better.. maybe gone? But I doubt I'm that lucky lol.
I knocked around everywhere, including the roof rack, and there is definitely some noise coming from the hardshell RTT as well.. I think I'm just paranoid ever since my wheel came off... maybe there isn't anything crazy out of the ordinary going on and it's just the nature of the current setup I have.
Man … this is a god damn rollercoaster. I’m seriously close to calling it quits and either selling the damn rig or taking half way back a couple of build steps.
Between the never ending tire shake, which I’m working on getting a set of new Kenda Klever tires.. and now some damn popping noise coming out of the right rear under heavy acceleration I’m just losing motivation on working on the thing. I want to feel confident in the build to not have to stress on longer drives.. and I’m just far from it.
I spent an hour in a dark parking lot backing up, driving in circles , crawling under the rig with a light and I just can’t figure it out.. i can reproduce it just about every time when I really lay into the throttle and the body rolls over toward the back right there an audible pop of some mechanical sound that I can also feel. I have no damn clue what it could be , nothing obvious is making contact that I can see.
The only thing that maybe comes to mind … is it possible that the TK1 sway bar is jumping splines under shock load ? I’ve seen instances of similar bars stripping.. I need to disconnect the links again and tie them off and see if I can reproduce the pop I guess.. if it does still happen I’m lost .. I would expect the same pop under a swerving condition and I don’t think I’m hearing it.. I don’t know.
The screwed up Ackerman with the lc200 rack doesn’t help .. really regret going with the swap to be completely honest… I’m half way there with the decision to pull the damn rack and drop in a factory rack. Definitely should have done some thinking instead to jumping in head first.
I guess step one is to disconnect the bar and see if I get any closer to tracking down the noise .. if it’s gone, cool, if not, I don’t know what’s next. Then I’ll see what I need to do about the rest of it. Sell it or pull everything and just do a full out solid axle swap and be done lol.
Anybody interested in an almost new LC200 rack with some double-shear/gusseted spindles ?? Lol
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Between the never ending tire shake, which I’m working on getting a set of new Kenda Klever tires.. and now some damn popping noise coming out of the right rear under heavy acceleration I’m just losing motivation on working on the thing. I want to feel confident in the build to not have to stress on longer drives.. and I’m just far from it.
I spent an hour in a dark parking lot backing up, driving in circles , crawling under the rig with a light and I just can’t figure it out.. i can reproduce it just about every time when I really lay into the throttle and the body rolls over toward the back right there an audible pop of some mechanical sound that I can also feel. I have no damn clue what it could be , nothing obvious is making contact that I can see.
The only thing that maybe comes to mind … is it possible that the TK1 sway bar is jumping splines under shock load ? I’ve seen instances of similar bars stripping.. I need to disconnect the links again and tie them off and see if I can reproduce the pop I guess.. if it does still happen I’m lost .. I would expect the same pop under a swerving condition and I don’t think I’m hearing it.. I don’t know.
The screwed up Ackerman with the lc200 rack doesn’t help .. really regret going with the swap to be completely honest… I’m half way there with the decision to pull the damn rack and drop in a factory rack. Definitely should have done some thinking instead to jumping in head first.
I guess step one is to disconnect the bar and see if I get any closer to tracking down the noise .. if it’s gone, cool, if not, I don’t know what’s next. Then I’ll see what I need to do about the rest of it. Sell it or pull everything and just do a full out solid axle swap and be done lol.
Anybody interested in an almost new LC200 rack with some double-shear/gusseted spindles ?? Lol
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4RunnerAquasport
Senior Member
Sorry to hear this. The noises we hear on these rigs is always an annoyance.
As far as the LC rack, you could swap to one of Travis's Tundra racks. You've already done most of the mods to accommodate it.
As far as the LC rack, you could swap to one of Travis's Tundra racks. You've already done most of the mods to accommodate it.
Inv4drZm
Senior Member
My dad drove my truck the other day, he texted; 'is it suppose to have a check engine light?'
'Yes its from the o2 sensor spacers not setup correctly.'
He texted again a little later; 'there is squeaking coming from underneath, do you know about that?'
'Yeah thats from the rear control arms, all heims.'
Lol
Its when the squeaks stop or CEL goes out is when I get worried...
'Yes its from the o2 sensor spacers not setup correctly.'
He texted again a little later; 'there is squeaking coming from underneath, do you know about that?'
'Yeah thats from the rear control arms, all heims.'
Lol
Its when the squeaks stop or CEL goes out is when I get worried...
I currently have the Tundra rack from Travis, have not installed it yet, but will in the spring time along with heimed solid piece tie rods from RC Fabrication. Hope it goes well!
