So I asked some questions here on this board, and decided to do this mod myself. 92k miles on the stock suspension, and they were worn out. I bought the shocks from
Wheelers Offroad. They were Bilstein C475HO Front Shock Set which were $175. With UPS shipping, the grand total was $197. That is cheapest you will find anywhere else (trust me, I looked). I followed the directions in the PDF that I attached to this post (also included is a pdf of the parts exploded view and their torque settings). Here are a few things that I learned and some that I observed which could help out anyone thinking of doing this. This was my first suspension, and boy was it easy! Only took 3 hours with nothing but hand tools.
PRINT OUT THE BELOW PDF'S!
1) If you follow the below directions, you will
NOT have to remove or loosen ANY suspension pieces except for removing the sway bar, which is a total of 4 bolts and 2 nuts.
2) Do youself a favor and get an impact wrench for those bolts that just dont want to break free after 6 years and 92K miles. I rec'd the electric one that I bought from Harbor Freight. It saved my @ss! I actually found a coupon for it for 50% off! Here is a link:
Model #45252
Also get this set of impact sockets (Central Pneumatic Metric). Here is a link:
Model #94221
3) When you go to take out the old strut/spring combo, push down on the A-arms to get out bottom of the strut to come out of its mounting point.
4) To get the strut assembly out without removing or loosening anything else, pull up on the A-arms slightly and thread the strut assembly out between the steering arm and the lower A-arm (just turn the strut with the steering arm inbetween the coils of the strut. Trust me....you will see what I mean!)
5) The 5100 struts where already set on the 3rd highest setting, which is suppose to give a 1 5/8" lift. It raised the front of my truck EXACTLY that after install with the OEM springs, and the rear is now only a 1/2" higher than the front. FRIGGIN SWEET!
6) Make sure to mark the upper spring seat, rubber washer, and the top part of the spring to insure that the same part of the spring is facing out when you transfer all of those pieces over to the new strut. I put an ARROW in silver Sharpie to denote the outside of the assembly, and 2 lines to line eveything else up. When you put it all together with the new strut, make sure the bottom of the strut that mounts to the lower A-arm is at a 90 degree angle, as it can be a real pain to turn it to get it back into its mounting point.
7) I used a coil spring compressor which I also bought from Harbor Freight for $9.87! I put Moly grease on the threads to help it along, and it worked great. The threaded rods started to bend while tightening, but they held up great. Totally worth it. I rec'd using the safety hooks, however I did not. Here is a link:
Pittsburg Model #3980
8) I placed the top of the new assembly into the top mounting bracket, and loosely placed whatever nuts I could onto there respective bolts. Since the new 5100 strut and spring assembly is about 1/2"-3/4" longer, I had a hard time trying to figure out how to get the bottom of the strut into its mounting location. I eventually figured out that you can use a long crowbar and wedge it between any coil of the spring you can get ahold of and the topside of the upper A-arm. When you pull down, you can really torque the hell out of it and the strut should slide right in. You may want someone else to help you out, and make sure
TO KEEP YOUR FINGERS CLEAR OF ANY LOCATION WHERE THEY COULD GET PINCHED IF THE CROWBAR SLIPS!!! I was able to get the whole thing in and the lower bolt in without too much hassle.
9) Torque everything and reinstall the swaybar
10) Take it to an alignment shop ASAP! I had NEVER had an alignment down, so my numbers were way off. NTB (National Tire and Battery) did mine. Funny thing, they wanted $129 for 1 alingment, or $209 for 5 years worth (1 every 6 months)! I chose the later
Good luck. This was super easy, and was able to buy all the parts, plus the tools, and get an alignment down for about 50% of what this would cost at the dealership, and the parts that were used were FAR superior to OEM crap.
Please access the below link for the PDF's. They were too large to upload to this site.
Toyota - Folder Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage
