This weekend:
Got the old bushings burned and pressed out of the LCA's, one step closer to putting in my Poly bushings and Moog ball joints then swapping all the parts over to my truck.
Did some measuring for some delrin body mounts laying on my creeper, then my week-old phone slid out of my pocket, hit the concrete 2" away, and got a nice crack in it's screen. Guess I won't be needing the case that's coming in the mail for it.
What spurred the solid body mounts is all the rubbing I'm getting on my rear bumper from my body and the hatch. From what I've read solid body mounts reduce body roll, so I'm hoping they will do more good than harm. I'll up the body lift 1/8" to 1.625" maybe to reduce some of the rubbing but it won't help with the rubbing on the hatch from the side plates. Also I've been getting some popping noises since I first did my body lift coming from the body mounts. I re torqued all the body mount bolts which helped a little so far but I don't think it has solved it permanently.
If the solid mounts don't solve the rubbing 100% then I will look into stiffening the frame more. A partial internal roll cage would be pretty cool, I could fabricate it myself, and it would stiffen things up a ton, but I will need to delete my sunroof and find a headliner from a non-sunroof 4Runner to get extra room above the front seats.
Something like this:
The rear fuel tank plan is coming together, it should be pretty easy to fit a 21 gallon tank in the back without cutting anything. 25-28 gallons potentially, if I trim some of the floor supports under the cargo area. Using a module
such as this should allow me to match any fuel sender to my factory fuel gauge which will keep things nice and OEM feeling. Just need to draw up the tank in Solidworks and find a shop to send it to to get fabricated, with the design constraints being:
- Plenty of room behind the rear axle to move it back a few inches when I do my 4-link setup.
- Also enough room for a larger axle housing, ECGS D60 maybe.
- Uses the stock filler location on the body.
- Needs room to route a filler tube, vent for the filler tube, and evap vent.
- Need to mount the charcoal canister and valve out of the way to where the factory fuel tank sits.
- Needs to adapt to the factory supply and return fuel lines somehow.
- Easy mounting solution.
- Might need to reroute exhaust.
None of this stuff is that expensive, just a lot of time... But it should be worth it for a ton of belly clearance, an awesome rear suspension setup, stiffer frame, and potentially extra fuel capacity.
Also, I'm saving up for a Lexus IS300 at this point to use as a daily driver so I can hack my truck apart for more than just the weekend. I foresee a lot of hacking.
