JRZEE2000TR4LTD
Senior Member
I've been waiting to do this for over 3 months because of the nation wide backorder on many of the Bilstein shocks. I was only waiting for the front ones. (part # 24-188265 Tundra shocks). I went through 3 different vendors, all telling me the same thing, "You won't find the shocks" or "If we don't have them nobody does" Well I found them at DownSouth Motorsports on Ebay. Several other sellers have them too. I would suggest calling them first to see if they have them in hand. Made that mistake with 4wheelparts and they said I should sell the rear shocks I got 3 months ago and get another brand as Bilstein wasn't going full production until September. I just ask for a refund and called DSM and they had them shipped within a half hour after I bought them. That's what I'm talkin' about!
I installed everything Saturday and I am very, very happy. Still need to get an alignment, but I tweaked the eccentric proportionally to eliminate the positive camber I got from the lift and this thing drives really nice. I took it down a deeply rutted dirt road at different speeds and the runner just glided over the ruts with ease. I also really like the way it looks and It looks like I'll have plenty of room for some larger tires.
Took some before and after photos:
Before
After
I was at about 33.1/2" ground to flare and 20" hub to flare in the front both sides and about 34 1/8" RR, 34 1/2" LR ground to flare, 20" RR, 20 1/4"LR hub to flare before the lift.
After the lift, I was at 36 3/4" ground to flare and 22 1/2" hub to flare in the front both sides and 37 1/2" RR, 37 1/4 LR ground to flare, 23 1/4" RR, 23" LR hub to flare.
Comes out to about a 2.5" lift in the front and 3" lift in the rear. Pretty much what I was hoping for. Did a lot of research on this forum which helped tremendously.
I put the front coils on the 2nd perch of 5 on the tundra shock. Each perch raises the lift .65" and I didn't want and spacers or anything so 2nd perch was really the only choice.
Used a spring compressor from Advance Auto with no problems. I used an impact even though I read that you shouldn't. It just made it so much easier. Sprayed some silicone on the threads which helped a lot.
I replaced my top hats and coil isolators so I wouldn't have to take apart the old ones. Good thing I did because some of my top hat bolts were rusted and I couldn't get a socket to bite on them and had to cut them off which was the most difficult part of the job. Used a combo of a sawzall and an air chisel.
Used the bottle jack in the wheel well with a piece of pallet wood on the end so it wouldn't slip off as easy. (It did one time which prompted the wood) You really have to push that arm down a bit to get that lower shock bolt in but it will go in with some persuasion. If you get it close enough to put something like an extension or something to hold the LCA down then take the bottle jack out and use a thicker piece of wood in a better position on the UCA across the UBJ stud as a catch point for the wood. Seem to give me that last 1/8" to get the lower shock bolt in.
For the rear, it was pretty straight forward. I just cut the old shocks of with a sawzall. Just didn't feel like messing with those top bolts considering I have some rust. Funny thing is after I cut them of, they didn't look that rusted and probably would have come off with some rust penetrant.
Used a spring compressor to shrink the springs. Put the hex side of the spring compressor bolt down so I could get it off once it was in place.
Putting the top nut on the shocks was a bit of a pain but once I figured out how to turn everything and get a 3/8 drive ratchet with a hex bit in the shock stud, combined with a box wrench on the nut, Went well from there.
I also put a dif drop in because of what I read about peoples experiences and I noticed the ribs on my boots were rubbing, which thery're not now after the dif drop install.
Thanks to everyone who wrote up their experiences doing lifts. This was the first one I've done, and I really enjoyed it. Also thanks to Nihkon for the 890 springs. He said to make sure I posted pics of the lift. Now, I just gotta get some rims and tires. I LOVE those TRD rims like Brian SD 42 was selling. As far as tires I'm open to suggestion just don't want anything to aggressive as this is my DD. Man, I've really got the mod bug with this thing much to the wife's dismay. :decision:
I installed everything Saturday and I am very, very happy. Still need to get an alignment, but I tweaked the eccentric proportionally to eliminate the positive camber I got from the lift and this thing drives really nice. I took it down a deeply rutted dirt road at different speeds and the runner just glided over the ruts with ease. I also really like the way it looks and It looks like I'll have plenty of room for some larger tires.
Took some before and after photos:
Before
After
I was at about 33.1/2" ground to flare and 20" hub to flare in the front both sides and about 34 1/8" RR, 34 1/2" LR ground to flare, 20" RR, 20 1/4"LR hub to flare before the lift.
After the lift, I was at 36 3/4" ground to flare and 22 1/2" hub to flare in the front both sides and 37 1/2" RR, 37 1/4 LR ground to flare, 23 1/4" RR, 23" LR hub to flare.
Comes out to about a 2.5" lift in the front and 3" lift in the rear. Pretty much what I was hoping for. Did a lot of research on this forum which helped tremendously.
I put the front coils on the 2nd perch of 5 on the tundra shock. Each perch raises the lift .65" and I didn't want and spacers or anything so 2nd perch was really the only choice.
Used a spring compressor from Advance Auto with no problems. I used an impact even though I read that you shouldn't. It just made it so much easier. Sprayed some silicone on the threads which helped a lot.
I replaced my top hats and coil isolators so I wouldn't have to take apart the old ones. Good thing I did because some of my top hat bolts were rusted and I couldn't get a socket to bite on them and had to cut them off which was the most difficult part of the job. Used a combo of a sawzall and an air chisel.
Used the bottle jack in the wheel well with a piece of pallet wood on the end so it wouldn't slip off as easy. (It did one time which prompted the wood) You really have to push that arm down a bit to get that lower shock bolt in but it will go in with some persuasion. If you get it close enough to put something like an extension or something to hold the LCA down then take the bottle jack out and use a thicker piece of wood in a better position on the UCA across the UBJ stud as a catch point for the wood. Seem to give me that last 1/8" to get the lower shock bolt in.
For the rear, it was pretty straight forward. I just cut the old shocks of with a sawzall. Just didn't feel like messing with those top bolts considering I have some rust. Funny thing is after I cut them of, they didn't look that rusted and probably would have come off with some rust penetrant.
Used a spring compressor to shrink the springs. Put the hex side of the spring compressor bolt down so I could get it off once it was in place.
Putting the top nut on the shocks was a bit of a pain but once I figured out how to turn everything and get a 3/8 drive ratchet with a hex bit in the shock stud, combined with a box wrench on the nut, Went well from there.
I also put a dif drop in because of what I read about peoples experiences and I noticed the ribs on my boots were rubbing, which thery're not now after the dif drop install.
Thanks to everyone who wrote up their experiences doing lifts. This was the first one I've done, and I really enjoyed it. Also thanks to Nihkon for the 890 springs. He said to make sure I posted pics of the lift. Now, I just gotta get some rims and tires. I LOVE those TRD rims like Brian SD 42 was selling. As far as tires I'm open to suggestion just don't want anything to aggressive as this is my DD. Man, I've really got the mod bug with this thing much to the wife's dismay. :decision:
