Were you letting the shocks go? Are they spoken for, yet?
Since I decided to send my tranny up to IPT I'm going to stick with my leaf spring suspension for now......that is going to deplete my link suspension fund for sure !!!!
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2001 TRD 4x4 with a lift kit & a bone stock 2008 TRD 4x4
So, I tried the Hi-Lift jack bead break method and couldn't make it work and didn't want to use the "run-over" method because I wanted to have a little more control over the process since there were Stauns inside. My last ditch effort was to buy this little $34 bead breaker tool from my local Northern Tool store, which I definitely had my doubts about. Well.....once you learn how to use this little jewel it is tha shiat ! I broke all five of my wheels down last night in about 2 hrs. I only had to use it at one point on the tire per side and then just stood on the tire to pop the bead the rest of the way around. Figured I would share this little bit info because the bead breaker is small enough to easily be stored in a tool bag and is fairly inexpensive.......
and finally got my rattle can art finished up.......
Got my new axles home on Friday and started mounting them up to see if I could make them work out with my leaf springs for the time being, front looks like it would work if I can find a slightly shorter pitman arm. The rear axle is a different story though since my rear springs are still located in the factory location with a 48" spread and the springs are against the calipers. I was really wanting to stick with the leafs for a little while and the link it once I saved up the cash, so I ordered the BTF caliper mounts so I can clock the calipers to the back side of the axle and still keep them fairly high, so that should take care of everything. Thought about inboarding my springs in the back since they have the factory 48" spread, but that would be a lot of work for a temporary fix......
I'm still waiting on the Atlas and my transmission is still riding around in the back of my other Tundra, so until I get all that junk thrown back in I really can't do a whole lot anyways. My new U-bolts should be here tomorrow so I can start grinding/drilling on the front housing to get the driver's side inboard U-bolt installed. Still have to pull my Howe TC steering pump off and send it to PSC so they can come up with a better solution there and hopefully my new wheels will be hitting my door step in another week or two......lots of little **** to keep me busy ! I've been doing a lot or rewiring, painting, etc to clean up stuff that I've been adding to this mess for the past 7 yrs and also finally got around to ripping out all the factory rear brake lines and running one new one back there.
Spent a little time the other day to relocate my Sirius antenna from the roof of the cab to recessed into the windshield cowl......yeah I'm bored!
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2001 TRD 4x4 with a lift kit & a bone stock 2008 TRD 4x4
Got a little further along with the steering over the weekend. Set up some test linkage to see what I could get out of the 6-3/4" Wagoneer pitman arm, ends up that with the drag link mounted out to 7-7/8" from the king pin center line on the passenger side steering arm I'm getting within 1/8" of full stroke on the box in each direction before hitting the stops and 34 degrees of steering each direction (after cutting the stops down about 1/4"). The axle shaft ears have been somewhat clearanced with a grinder and they are close enough that I had to use R&P set-up paint to make sure they weren't actually touching at full lock. I'm not sure what kind of turning angle I should be shooting for, but I think I'm pretty close to the limit at 34 degrees without taking a grinder to the shafts some more? I have read that 36 degrees is the max for a D60 without doing some pretty serious machining on the shafts, if that's the case then I will most likely call it good. I'm curious of what other people are getting so I'm going to search around a little.
Turns out that 4" x 6" x 1/8" rectangular tubing fits over a Tundra frame perfectly, so I cut the bottom out of a section of tubing, welded in the two upper sleeves, sleeved one new hole through the frame rail, and was able to reuse one of the previous sleeved holes from the Toyota box. It's damn sure not pretty, but will hold up and do it's job.
.....And there's nothing like a clean, safe work environment!!!!
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2001 TRD 4x4 with a lift kit & a bone stock 2008 TRD 4x4
LOL but this way you don't have to leave the truck. everything you need is right there somewhere. just where is the question.
Truck is coming along great!
Not tech....but it's part of the process, so work with me .
So I'm toying with ideas to give my rig a fresh look, but so far I'm not really sold on any of them. My orginal plan was to paint the rock rings on my TrailReady's black and leave the polished auminum wheel portion alone, but then got to thinking about painting the wheel black and not painting the aluminum rock ring - would be lower maintainance as far as rock rash is concerned.
Another option I've considered is painting the hood within the body lines and the roof some color, painting the rock rings to match, and painting the wheels black.
Any opinions????
Was originally thinking about painting the rings, like this - but black. Or reversing the colors and painting the inside black:
Here's what the rings look like natural:
Or possibly something a little different.......
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2001 TRD 4x4 with a lift kit & a bone stock 2008 TRD 4x4
As soon as you paint the roof anything but white you'll notice a difference in the cab temperature. If you ditch the carpet like you were talking, it's even worse.
Personally I think it'd look good but then I'm biased...people think my truck has a mohawk.
I might bogart your idea on the hood someday, when I go glass. You can actually buy a hood blackout for Land Rovers, it's a stick-on decal colored flat black so you don't get as much reflection from the sun off the hood. Following the body lines would look at lot better than the "cop car hood" deal where the entire thing looks like it's been primered.
Had an unrelated question...what's the length of your main leaves in the rear? And how much vertical travel are you getting, with the reversed shackle?
As soon as you paint the roof anything but white you'll notice a difference in the cab temperature. If you ditch the carpet like you were talking, it's even worse.
Personally I think it'd look good but then I'm biased...people think my truck has a mohawk.
I might bogart your idea on the hood someday, when I go glass. You can actually buy a hood blackout for Land Rovers, it's a stick-on decal colored flat black so you don't get as much reflection from the sun off the hood. Following the body lines would look at lot better than the "cop car hood" deal where the entire thing looks like it's been primered.
Had an unrelated question...what's the length of your main leaves in the rear? And how much vertical travel are you getting, with the reversed shackle?
I will measure the arc length of them for ya tonight. Haven't really measured the vertical travel, but I definitely do not bottom or top out my 16" Fox shocks in the rear. I think I have an inch or so of the shock shaft showing when the tire is fully stuffed and I have about 2" or so of extension left when drooped out fully - if I had to guess I would say somewhere in the neighborhood of 12" possibly .
Wait...that's articulation, are you asking about flat out down/up travel, limited by the shocks (I don't run bump stops in the rear)?
So.....if you had to chose between rattle canning either the wheel itself, or the rock ring black - which one would you choose? Here is a picture of a rim similar to mine that has the locking rim painted - nice thing is you would never have to worry about touching up all the rock rash if I left the locking ring natural and painted the rim.....and........I like my rig like I like my women - easy and low maintenance!
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2001 TRD 4x4 with a lift kit & a bone stock 2008 TRD 4x4
Ehh, I am not feeling the hood and roof painted like that. I vote that you leave it all white. I don't know about what combination to paint the wheels and rock rings. I would probably paint the both black.
Yep, vertical travel...but articulated one each full up and down they'll be in about the same place. Trying to get a reality check on flipping the shackle like you have. The stock shackle allows for a good 3-4" of vertical travel beyond what the spring naturally allows.
...I keep thinking that's one of the Devil's Rejects in your avatar.
Re: Tundra Evolution
!!!!
! I broke all five of my wheels down last night in about 2 hrs. I only had to use it at one point on the tire per side and then just stood on the tire to pop the bead the rest of the way around. Figured I would share this little bit info because the bead breaker is small enough to easily be stored in a tool bag and is fairly inexpensive.......
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