Tie Rod Issues with lift?

[sportsterchop200]

Posting for another member that PM'd me. His question is about the front tie rod not being able to be tightend up due to lifting the front. He is advising Tundra 5100's on 2nd notch with 5th gen 4runner coils up front. Any advice is appreciated.
His response:
"Finally got my 2 inch lift on, just the same as how you did your lift, except i used the second notch and put a 10mm packer in the rear for 2.4 inches in the rear and 2 inches in the front and brought it into shop for an alignment. The tech said after, that the tie rod wasn't long enough to get the toe in spec and for the toe to be in spec the tie rod would not be safely tightened/ screwed in enough! I can't find anywhere on the forums that anyone else had this kind of problem. Any advice? Thanks."

 

[J.cole13]

Posting for another member that PM'd me. His question is about the front tie rod not being able to be tightend up due to lifting the front. He is advising Tundra 5100's on 2nd notch with 5th gen 4runner coils up front. Any advice is appreciated.
His response:
"Finally got my 2 inch lift on, just the same as how you did your lift, except i used the second notch and put a 10mm packer in the rear for 2.4 inches in the rear and 2 inches in the front and brought it into shop for an alignment. The tech said after, that the tie rod wasn't long enough to get the toe in spec and for the toe to be in spec the tie rod would not be safely tightened/ screwed in enough! I can't find anywhere on the forums that anyone else had this kind of problem. Any advice? Thanks."

A big thanks to sportsterchop for posting this for me! The problem is on the outer tie rod. The tech doing my alignment was able to get caster and camber in spec just fine but was barely able to get the toe in spec because the tie rods aren't long enough. the tech said both sides are going to be weak but the passenger side will be the weakest.. and to avoid wheeling my rig with the tie rods how they are. Looking at it for myself, it looks like the threads have only been extended out maybe 5 threads from their normal stock position in the passenger side, and maybe 3 turns from their normal position on the driver side. I'm not sure how long the threads are in total but that didn't seem like such a huge deal to me. I am also curious why no one has ever mentioned not having long enough tie rods for a lift when most people put 3 inch lifts on and this is only a 2 inch. Anyways. I can't find anything online about longer tie rods and this build was supposed go be a budget build so not looking to spend more money. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[ToyTec Lifts]

Park your 4Runner on flat / level ground and measure the distance between the center of your wheel hub and bottom lip of fender. If it's over 23" you have too much lift.

 

[MStudt]

A big thanks to sportsterchop for posting this for me! The problem is on the outer tie rod. The tech doing my alignment was able to get caster and camber in spec just fine but was barely able to get the toe in spec because the tie rods aren't long enough. the tech said both sides are going to be weak but the passenger side will be the weakest.. and to avoid wheeling my rig with the tie rods how they are. Looking at it for myself, it looks like the threads have only been extended out maybe 5 threads from their normal stock position in the passenger side, and maybe 3 turns from their normal position on the driver side. I'm not sure how long the threads are in total but that didn't seem like such a huge deal to me. I am also curious why no one has ever mentioned not having long enough tie rods for a lift when most people put 3 inch lifts on and this is only a 2 inch. Anyways. I can't find anything online about longer tie rods and this build was supposed go be a budget build so not looking to spend more money. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

What your tech is saying isn't adding up. You should have over an inch of material threaded into your inner TRE on both sides. If I were you I'd pull the TRE's off to have a look for yourself.

Loosen the nuts on your TRE's where they lock down to your inner TRE's. Then remove the nuts on the spindle side, and knock the TRE out of the spindle. Then rotate the TRE's out, and count the number a rotations it takes to remove the TRE. Re-install the same as you removed. Then you'll know for sure.

 

[J.cole13]

Park your 4Runner on flat / level ground and measure the distance between the center of your wheel hub and bottom lip of fender. If it's over 23" you have too much lift.

I'm sitting at 21.5 inches from the center of the hub to the bottom of the fender

 

[J.cole13]

Ok, I've never done anything with tie rods so I'm a little hesitant. I counted today and I have 13 exposed threads on the passenger side and 11 exposed threads on the drivers side.. do these sound like ok numbers?

 

[Bad Luck]

Ok, I've never done anything with tie rods so I'm a little hesitant. I counted today and I have 13 exposed threads on the passenger side and 11 exposed threads on the drivers side.. do these sound like ok numbers?

Exposed threads isn't a good guide to go off of. Previous owner could have replaced the steering rack with non-oem or remanufactured; therefore the inner tie rods could have different amount of threads compared to factory rack. like previously stated the best way to tell will be to loosen the jam nut, unbolt the outer tie rod end, and the remove the tie rod end whle counting how many rotations it takes to unscrew from each side.

 

[phattyduck]

I'm sitting at 21.5 inches from the center of the hub to the bottom of the fender

That's 1.5" of lift from what most consider stock (heights changed through the years a bit). You should have zero problems aligning the truck to perfect factory specs with all stock components.

-Charlie

 

[MStudt]

I'm sitting at 21.5 inches from the center of the hub to the bottom of the fender

Don't worry about how much lift you have. That has very little if anything to do with your current issue.

Ok, I've never done anything with tie rods so I'm a little hesitant. I counted today and I have 13 exposed threads on the passenger side and 11 exposed threads on the drivers side.. do these sound like ok numbers?

Those sound about right for exposed threads, but you still need see what's internal. Don't trust what you don't know, and this is a pretty simple thing to check. The hardest part will be removing the TRE from the spindle with damaging the boot. You can rent a puller from Autozone if you need to.

Mike

 

[J.cole13]

That's 1.5" of lift from what most consider stock (heights changed through the years a bit). You should have zero problems aligning the truck to perfect factory specs with all stock components.

-Charlie

Yeah, I was at 19.5 in front before the lift.

 

[J.cole13]

Don't worry about how much lift you have. That has very little if anything to do with your current issue.



Those sound about right for exposed threads, but you still need see what's internal. Don't trust what you don't know, and this is a pretty simple thing to check. The hardest part will be removing the TRE from the spindle with damaging the boot. You can rent a puller from Autozone if you need to.

Mike

Ok thanks! I will have to pull it apart this weekend and see what I can find. Thanks to everyone for all the replies!