DOWNPOUR11's Build Thread

Yeah, need to keep em parallel or no bueno.

Definitely get out here! Your rig can handle it! It would be worth it regardless.

[MENTION=56529]Jon[/MENTION] and I usually hit up this one mall, and journey around towards the food court. They have some sweet curbs. They're almost like RTI ramps, but like, more complicated. :lmao:

ha ha well i do love me a good well put together mall that incorporates 7 in curbs and tasty food courts ;)

I will have to make the trip sometime for sure. it is only like 710 according to the google gods. gonna have to be a two day stay for that one for sure. we will see what next summer bring me lol after i get armored and regeared then i will start planning on getting my way out there
 
So the shock tab dilemma is figured out. Had some bad clearance issues.

It's on all four's.... problem is - I was in class when it got to that point, so no pics of that today.

Anyway, Fawk Awph dropped by again today and clued me in on a couple things I had not thought about - because I have an automatic, running without a VSS sensor will make my truck run like crap, since it can't tell how fast my wheels are turning to find it's shift points with the new lower gears. So I sourced one locally from a 96 Tacoma Non-ABS 5-speed. I'm grabbing it tomorrow morning then taking a trip to the junkyard in Oroville to find the plug so I can wire it up through the kick panel.

Edit: Also just read the the plugs/harnesses for the VSS are found in multiple earlier toyota cars as well, which gives me a better chance finding one tomorrow.

Another thing I completely looked past was the power steering hoses to the IFS box. I need to grab some high pressure line and some JIC-6 90 degree fittings, have the fittings braised and get that hooked up.


Anyway, all coilover hoops are welded in and the front and rear coilover mounts are matching within 1 degree. We trimmed the old rear panhard mount/brace to clear the new panhard. That is also all welded in. All coilovers
are assembled and on the truck.

Hopefully I can solve all the little issues and get it buttoned up so I can drive it!

IMG_20130829_154934_zps903e167c.jpg~original


Final rear coilover placement:

IMG_20130829_155154_zps479c35cb.jpg~original


Obviously not completely assembled:

IMG_20130829_172120_zps45bb87dc.jpg~original
 
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Looking good Rob. Any need for further gusseting on those tabs for the coilovers in the rear? Is there a need to run some cross support for the rear towers? Thinking coilovers mounts need to be a little more stout than just shock mounts.
 
Looking good Rob. Any need for further gusseting on those tabs for the coilovers in the rear? Is there a need to run some cross support for the rear towers? Thinking coilovers mounts need to be a little more stout than just shock mounts.

Yeah we're obviously not done with that - all towers will be gusseted and the shock tabs will also be gusseted as well as the panhard bracket will be gusseted to the rear upper link mount.

Just got back from the junkyard. I snagged a VSS and a plug/harness out of a 92 pickup for $5! Saved me $100.

Just grabbed 4 wheel spacers from a guy on pirate as well.

Off to the shop!
 
Well the VSS I got from the junkyard was the wrong one, but at least I got the plug. Otherwise we finished welding everything in and put the grade 8's in all the necessary places then had some fun with the forklift.

It's sadly not driving this weekend, but we're going to button everything up on Tuesday.

List of things to do:

Wire VSS
Front brakes/bypass ABS
Steering hoses and fittings
Grind part of the frame side panhard bracket that is barely touching the rear coils.
Cut steering shaft and install
U-joint came in today, so now we can finish the steering.

Everything clears except the panhard mount on the frame which is a quick fix.

So in the pics, the frame height is at 23" on 37's and the coilovers are only charged to 50psi and it's pretty soft so we'll bump it up to 75 and see where it's at. It's going to go up another 2". I prob should have bought a longer top spring for the front coils... it is squished! So dampening will help take the load of those coils.

Lot's-o-pics!

Found the harness and VSS out of a 92 pickup, but it's the wrong VSS

IMG_20130830_092039_zps45f7b5ca.jpg~original


The rear on it's own weight:

IMG_20130830_122935_zps12105d92.jpg~original


IMG_20130830_132606_zpsb05a1a4d.jpg~original


IMG_20130830_123333_zpsfdf140c4.jpg~original


IMG_20130830_123509_zps4c2aadcf.jpg~original


IMG_20130830_134609_zpsc1a680ea.jpg~original


IMG_20130830_152818_zps5e22ab64.jpg~original


IMG_20130830_152905_zpsbe239db9.jpg~original


IMG_20130830_155410_zps5c73ae58.jpg~original


IMG_20130830_155426_zpsde9081e2.jpg~original


IMG_20130830_155508_zps2b0f77ef.jpg~original


IMG_20130830_155614_zpse15010b5.jpg~original


IMG_20130830_155711_zpsbf0158d4.jpg~original


IMG_20130830_155533_zps5bf73d12.jpg~original


IMG_20130830_155749_zps46fc4e1e.jpg~original


IMG_20130830_155641_zps3146e739.jpg~original


IMG_20130830_155056_zps0d356eb8.jpg~original
 
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I must say that is looking sexy my friend. You have officially given me hope for outboarding my COs wen I get to that point. Do you have any tire contact at all with the rear???
 
I must say that is looking sexy my friend. You have officially given me hope for outboarding my COs wen I get to that point. Do you have any tire contact at all with the rear???

Nope no tire contact at all. Plenty of clearance with the right backspacing. My spacers will be here next week then I'll put the 35's back on.

FYI my front axle is 65 wms and the rear is 64 wms. I was mistaken earlier.
 
Nope no tire contact at all. Plenty of clearance with the right backspacing. My spacers will be here next week then I'll put the 35's back on.

FYI my front axle is 65 wms and the rear is 64 wms. I was mistaken earlier.

Ok sweet and the axle I am going to be using is gonna be about 66 wms but with 2.5 COs. just trying to avoid frenching my frame as I will sometimes be running a dual shock setup you my friend give me hope ;) what is the back spacing your using btw. I know you said it but I can't remember.

It looks like yor not fully drooped Out on the rear either. Slyly probably have more travel on the rear to go
 
Ok sweet and the axle I am going to be using is gonna be about 66 wms but with 2.5 COs. just trying to avoid frenching my frame as I will sometimes be running a dual shock setup you my friend give me hope ;) what is the back spacing your using btw. I know you said it but I can't remember.

It looks like yor not fully drooped Out on the rear either. Slyly probably have more travel on the rear to go

Yeah you should be good with the 2.5's back there. The wheels in the pics I'm guessing are 3.5" bs? Or maybe 2.5" bs? Honestly not sure. I can measure it next week. You can get the tire pretty close to the coil and it won't hit during any flex.

Yup, there is still a lot more travel to be had in the rear. In the pics it was at it's limit because it hit the panhard mount, so we'll fix that tuesday and flex it out again.

Awesome, I will be interested in hearing more about the VSS fix


Yup! I will be using UrbanAssaults write up he did for us:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/134317-urban-assaults-99-4runner-build-8.html#post1457214

The harness you're looking for will be out of a 2nd gen pickup or 1st gen tacoma. Just look for the little harness in the pic I posted. Old style plug, 3 port w/ 3 wires.
 
Yeah you should be good with the 2.5's back there. The wheels in the pics I'm guessing are 3.5" bs? Or maybe 2.5" bs? Honestly not sure. I can measure it next week. You can get the tire pretty close to the coil and it won't hit during any flex.

Yup, there is still a lot more travel to be had in the rear. In the pics it was at it's limit because it hit the panhard mount, so we'll fix that tuesday and flex it out again.

Ok sweet. The wheel I am gonna be running will be probably 4" BS or 3.75 BS.

I thought it didn't look fully extended. Glad to hear that they are fitting up nicely. Didn't we decide on a 200/300 setup for the front or was it a 250/350. I can't remember but at least swapping them out will be simple enough if needed. How much preload do you have then set for?? So much sexiness going on over there right now.
 
Ok sweet. The wheel I am gonna be running will be probably 4" BS or 3.75 BS.

I thought it didn't look fully extended. Glad to hear that they are fitting up nicely. Didn't we decide on a 200/300 setup for the front or was it a 250/350. I can't remember but at least swapping them out will be simple enough if needed. How much preload do you have then set for?? So much sexiness going on over there right now.

I ended up going with a happy medium from your calculations - 200/300 up front. I talked to Callen and he said his 250/350 was way too stiff. So I think the spring rate is satisfactory, but I need to adjust the dampening etc. The spring rate isn't the issue, it's either the dampening/valving and/or the length of the upper coils up front. For the preload, I had to send it down 4.5" to even be able to preload the coil without it unloading at full droop. So there's my problem. Hopefully adding more nitrogen will solve the issue, but my gut is telling me it's in both valving and spring length lol. Even though I did follow the general rule of whatever length coilover you run, the top spring should be 2" under and the bottom should be 2" over - resulting in a 10" upper and 14" lower....

The rear preload is good and just as calculated at ~3"
 
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Ok sweet. The wheel I am gonna be running will be probably 4" BS or 3.75 BS.

I thought it didn't look fully extended. Glad to hear that they are fitting up nicely. Didn't we decide on a 200/300 setup for the front or was it a 250/350. I can't remember but at least swapping them out will be simple enough if needed. How much preload do you have then set for?? So much sexiness going on over there right now.

Damn, I just saw the thread in general discussions.... we just lost a days worth of posts on the whole forum. I knew I had responded to your question! I had the notification and thought... "wtf? Marty! Get in! We need to go back!"
 
I ended up going with a happy medium from your calculations - 200/300 up front. I talked to Callen and he said his 250/350 was way too stiff. So I think the spring rate is satisfactory, but I need to adjust the dampening etc. The spring rate isn't the issue, it's either the dampening/valving and/or the length of the upper coils up front. For the preload, I had to send it down 4.5" to even be able to preload the coil without it unloading at full droop. So there's my problem. Hopefully adding more nitrogen will solve the issue, but my gut is telling me it's in both valving and spring length lol. Even though I did follow the general rule of whatever length coilover you run, the top spring should be 2" under and the bottom should be 2" over - resulting in a 10" upper and 14" lower....

The rear preload is good and just as calculated at ~3"

Yeah I am guess it would be too stiff. And I know what you mean about that rule of thumb. Normally it is what your doing but sometimes that isn't always the case. A 12" would provably bring it right up to where you need it and you could get the around 3" of preload that your wanting. Damned coilovers.

And at least we were close with the estates weight of the truck ;)

(Oh yeah I didn't post anything the other day. I was out fishing :) )

8yzene4u.jpg
 
Yeah I am guess it would be too stiff. And I know what you mean about that rule of thumb. Normally it is what your doing but sometimes that isn't always the case. A 12" would provably bring it right up to where you need it and you could get the around 3" of preload that your wanting. Damned coilovers.

And at least we were close with the estates weight of the truck ;)

(Oh yeah I didn't post anything the other day. I was out fishing :) )

8yzene4u.jpg

Nice catch! I'll drive on these for a couple days and order some 12 inchers. At least dual rate coilovers are extremely simple to swap springs compared to ifs coilovers :D They go together in like 5 minutes. But yeah, if I'm going to want to bring the truck up 2" I'll need to swap springs.
 
Here I take off on a 5 day trip up in Alturas, and figured Rob would be done with his SAS.

WRONG, yeah we know, doing a complete mod over, there will always be complications and never go together the way we think, boy does that sound familiar.

But, still waiting the final out come. Rob, she looks great so far and will be worth the time and money invested in the long run. You will be able to enjoy all the fruits and labor cause of it.
 

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