My 00' Highlander build

For those fall fisherman that come here...

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White knuckle drive down to the san juan for this..

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Everything worked great. Temps never went above 182 and 165. I do have a clunk in the front that I cant locaqte. thinking maybe my napa otre even thought hey don't feel bad and aligned fine. thinking mayb e those or the lower control arm bushings I've not replaced.

Tomorrow fixing the skidplate and making room for 295.
 
Been a few months but I'm back with some updates and moving forward with preparations for spring and summer..I lost my camera end of October or so and only have a handful of pics. I was very busy this time of year and some things came up that took the majority of my time.

Last I left off I had replaced the SPC control arm bushings. That didn't fix my clunk. So I was still looking for the at that point. More maintenance items in October included, some sway bar bushings, Toytec sway bar relocate another marginal alignment.

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Feeling winter quickly approaching went up for some more of this
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Hiking to the little blue dot:biggrin2::
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Which quickly turned to this and that was it for 2013 alpine for me

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Next the SKO's came in
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My buddy welded them on a few days later. I painted them with same rattle can paint recommended by Stubb's. The welding was god but placement at the pinch weld didn't get enough thought and it rubbed a little as I didn't make preparations and clearance it. THINk about this if you need to ever install them.
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I ordered this from forum member ADH88? It didn't fit my rig as it was pretty used. I can vouch for the fact he needed and SAS swap. It has recently been properly bent back to shape, but not installed(no pics).

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I had about 15 door dings on the truck. A new friend of mine specializes in paint less dent repair. He fixed all of them perfectly with some small pry bars. Worked that metal like it was butter from both sides, quite impressive. Took under 2 hours for $75. I gladly gave him $100.
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What kind of sway bar bushings are these? It looks like they came complete with the metal bracket as well??
 
Lunch up behind DMR

I get a link to post so I'll try this. We headed up to have picnic in the the aspens today. Here's some pics that I took along the way. I've got some videos but they are linking like before..


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Time for lunch break

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then it short nap
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some more of this

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Then I used my craigslist powertank to quickly air back up.

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Back down the hill we went to go fishing on the Animas. I caught a few dink rainbows on big black streamers and had one nice fish follow. Headed out now before the BEAVERS come out..
 
Back to the Duratracs or are you switching out wheels and tires from time to time? Just noticing the different rubber in the new pics and was curious.

Looking great man! Your rig is getting crazy quickly!
 
Beautiful rig, scenery, and fish!!!

Thank you very much, I'm anxious to get a real camera as my pictures suck so bad.

Back to the Duratracs or are you switching out wheels and tires from time to time? Just noticing the different rubber in the new pics and was curious.

Looking great man! Your rig is getting crazy quickly!

I switched back last week or so. The hankooks only have 200 miles on them. I don't have a reason to drive with them u less I'm crawling rocks. They are noticeably heavier and less fun to drive with. With the 285 the truck drive like a quick little car and feels so much better on the streets. Where I live is at the base of the mountains and I need that power to climb. I suppose if I lived in the flatlands I would be fine with 4.88 and 34's or 35's. If I could do it over I would have 5.29 with the 34's here.

Really though I'd been fine if I hadn't stripped my front end, keeping the 4.30's and adding a crawl box for about the same money as front and rear diffs.

I'm think of selling the kooks and taking the money I have to throw at one of those 1st gens for sale so I ca forget about it.
 
Nice rig, Nice place and beautiful fish..
I ll let you have my lunch money if i can hang around with you..

Like!
 
Dude solid fish. Thanks for posting the photos.

Thanks,my here are some bruisers around. This spring a local had an articulated streamer broke in half. It was tied with 25lb mono. That net bag is 20" long and that beautiful bow was about 5+lbs. I don't keep any fish and it's hard to get a photo of them when they get to a certain size. I also don't like laying them in the sticks so I'll shoot them like you've seen.
Had a beast follow again yesterday, I'm guessing 24"+ easy. I know where he is hanging and I'm going back tonight.

Nice rig, Nice place and beautiful fish..
I ll let you have my lunch money if i can hang around with you..

Like!

Thank you, you just buy us lunch and I'll guide for the day.
 
In my endless search to find the source of a rattle or clunk I came across this.

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The centering washers from each side on the LC 80 shocks has deteriorated and become sloppy in the frame mount. There is a noticeable sound at each shock post to frame mount that I believe is one of my sounds. The washer I was using on top of the bushing was too small and u can see the result. The washer is also quiet wallowed out how as well. I ordered some replacements and put it back together for now.
 
Didn't really want to work so I took care of a few odds and ends yesterday. First finding the shock clunk in previous post, then remounting the skid plate that got reworked so it would fit w/o washers or spacers.

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Then went to look for mister brown

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But only caught a handful of these guys.
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Notice the murky water. That is from the runoff yes RUNOFF in October. Those snowstorms that capped the peaks last week have been melting quick and our river is quite large for this time of year.
 
New UBJ's for the SPC's

After realizing my ubj's were bad I immediately ordered replacements. I had the privilege of speaking with one of the designer/engineers prior to doing the job. No pics of new parts just got started right away. The top nut was not breaking free so I had to call a friend. We immediately snapped the breaker bar and ran for another and a propane torch.

This time we heated it up with some propane

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then we switched to MAP

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then put my floor jack handle over the breaker bar and both gave it hell. It turned this time

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Then popped it out the spindle.

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Lined up new plates the same

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I had marked the location of the ball joint with a sharpie to help locate on install. Camber looked way off when we let it down. I pulled it back and forth and it settled out fine. I measured toe which is good but it may go in tomorrow for alignment.

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The new ball joints don't seat as far as the others. I assumed they would go all the way to the boot but they easily torqued out before that. I was on the phone with the engineer and he stated there was no issue. At the appropriate torque the cotter pin hole
was perfectly visible.
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And installed new rear shocks that came with the bushings I ordered. At least that's what I told her.:nono:

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Looks like you had quite the adventure with the UBJs! What made you realize they were bad?

It's been a long time [MENTION=96377]AZ_Trails[/MENTION] but the answer is I was searching down a clunk. I like to tap things with the rubber mallet, I found it works quite well. First tracked down the loose part. I then jacked up the truck under the lca to keep the suspension loaded and pulled on the UBJ and looseness is revealed. I cant get the lin up but the video is titled...

Identifying a bad SPC balloit on youtube

 
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Catch up time..

I'm going to drop a bunch of photos here to update my thread as I haven't done so in so long.

OCT 11, Kennebec Pass

Went up outside of town to a local area. The guy with me has a pretty BA 13 Tacoma build started.

Airing down
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After 8 miles of mild 4x4 we get here. You can see the top wher the road is up towards the left.
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At the top
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Goofy me looking down over Durango
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OCT 18 Moab

Headed to Moab and met up with [MENTION=114923]tellurunner[/MENTION] We kept it mild and just ran Fins n Things that day. I was still feeling out my diffs and having minor issues. Being that we both live so close we only were there a couple days.

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Although a bad pic, it was a killer sunset.
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OCT 20 Ouray and Poughkeepsie Gulch

I got back from Moab and was having more drivetrain vibration issues. Searching for an answer and after talking with [MENTION=88391]NateMob[/MENTION] I chose to remove my front diff drop. The next day I drove up to Ouray to meet Nathan and [MENTION=85218]Toyotacolin[/MENTION]

We got denied as we found out the gate was shut and headed back and went up Imogene a ways and had lunch.

That was fun we'll definitely have to hook up this summer when you come through.

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