It should settle a bit after a few weeks. Also the winch like you said. And you can lower them a bit as needed.
Brian, there's some hope. I drove it around the circular driveway a few times, a speed bump in front of our house, and the passenger side is now around 23" and the driver side a little more than 22 1/2". The ground under our basketball hoop is pretty flat and level, but not ideal...
With some more settling and the winch, I think they might not need to be adjusted...
I don't think there is a clearance issue with the bolt going the 'wrong' direction - it is a tool access issue - you should be torquing the nut side of a bolt/nut combo, and facing front is where you have the best access.
Most of the time when I have a choice on suspension, I place the nut on the 'back' side, to avoid road debris from damaging threads. The lower shock bolt is one of those exceptions though.
Oh, and a jack under the ball joint, a big screwdriver (for aligning the lower shock eye) and a mallet are your friends for installing those bolts. Or just some muscle. :lol:
24" center of hub to fender is 4" of lift. Check your measurement at full droop to see how much droop you have at ride height. 23" and less is probably where you want to be... (stock is considered 20") Get the alignment close by eyeball, drive it a bit and let it settle to see how much you need to adjust.
-Charlie
Funny, I was thinking the exact same about access being better with the nut forward, but that it would get more debris and impacts. With an extension, I could torque it from the rear though. Ratchet extensions do not negatively impact torque readings, as you likely know. Regardless, I have them turned with nuts forward... I used a centering drift for the lower shock mount.
I indeed got 20" for the stock ride height. My notes before I started.
As I commented above, I'm already around 22 1/2 - 23". These springs are rated at 650 lbs... i was hoping for 2" max though. I suppose if it's closer to 3" I should consider the diff drop. I'll read-up more on that later as it has been a while...
When I installed total chaos UCAs on my Tacoma I bent the crap out of both my c clamps haha.. At the time I didn’t know about the special c clamp for ball joints. For future reference if you put those metal pucks in the freezer before install they go in a heluva lot easier. Progress looks great man, when do we get to see a pic with the new rims/tires?!?
Good to hear from you! It has been a while. Hope you are well. As I recall you were soon to be a parent, so that might explain the absence...
I used C-clamps before, but on smaller items. It was definitely bending. Sort of scary with all that stored energy.
You might have missed it, but the new tires are on the wheels.
Good reminder on the freezer! Makes for contraction. And, heating the female end that receives it expands the opening...
With today being a work day, I didn't have much time to wrench, but I was able to set the adjustments on the LCAs. I took some time familiarizing myself with their movement. I found this on the forum.
Per the "instructions" noted earlier, the fronts should be turned inward to the max, and the rears outward to the max. The bolt head is a 22mm and the adjustment nut 19mm...
I put a small piece of tape to help me better see the movement.
Yes, they are rusty, but work very well. Tim put plenty of anti seize on the threads, so I won't be replacing them. I will remove the rust at some point though...
For the front adjusters, I found that I got the max when the hole was in the furthest outward location, here on the driver side, at 3 o'clock.
Passenger side.
I noticed the same with the rears, which made feel good that I got them maxed-out. No photos of the rear adjusters...
The torque specs on these is 96 ft-lbs. For the fronts, no problem as the bolt heads are right there, easily accessible with a torque wrench and socket (22mm). For the rears, the steering rack prevents access. Looks like with an extension and boot removal one could get in there. I decided a different method...
I slowly torqued the fronts to spec, after first using this wrench. The torque wrench was a check of sorts.
With that wrench, I found that I could muster about 105 ft-lbs on the upswing using gloves. If i took the gloves off and I delivered about 100 ft-lbs (pain tolerance). On the down swing, I needed gloves to get 100 ft-lbs (I'm not that heavy). So, I used that knowledge to do the rears! Driver side rear bolt no gloves (upswing), passenger side gloves (downswing). Gut-busting. The joys of wrenching. I feel confident on the torque applied.
I will next attempt camber with the top nut on the SPC UCAs. I suppose I could put on the new wheels/tires, but if the alignment is poor, I'd rather not chew them up. We shall see...
