How-To: Toytec Lift Install
Read all of these install instructions prior to installing Toytec’s suspension lift. I cannot be held responsible for any damages or personal harm resulting from installing this kit…Hopefully this small article will help you as well as others feel more confident about tackling this lift install... This is only intended as a guide for others, so please treat it as such. I'll be adding more “How-To” article later on in the near future as I make modifications to my truck. My intensions are to create articles that guide one through the entire project turning every nut and bolt, etc... Enjoy this article!
Parts/Tools that you will need:
- Coil Spring Compressor
- Floor Jack
- Large Jack Stands (if you don’t have access to a vehicle lift)
- Ratchets and/or Air Guns
- 22mm Socket
- 21mm Socket
- 19mm Socket
- 17mm Socket
- 14mm Socket
- 12mm Socket
- 19mm Open/Closed End Wrench
- 17mm Open/Closed End Wrench
- 14mm Open/Closed End Wrench
- 12mm Open/Closed End Wrench
- Vise Grips, C Clamps and/or Channel Locks
- Long Pry Bar
- Sawsal and/or hack saw
- Beat Stick aka Hammer or choice
Now we’re ready to begin our lift project…
For starters which should be common sense, though I’ll emphasize on the topic a bit. Park on a level surface, center your steering wheel and if you have to use a jack to lift the truck remember your ebrake and stop blocks for the tires. In this particular install, we used a vehicle hoist to make things easier for us as well as quicker. I’ll explain this install starting with the front suspension and move to the rear suspension so if you’ll be following along using a floor jack, this will make things easier for you as well. Ok, here we go…
STEP #1:
Remove the wheels from the truck. There are (6) 21mm lug nuts holding each wheel on… Remember Lefty Loosy, Righty Tighty.
STEP #2: THE FRONT
Remove the bottom 19mm bolt and nut holding the lower part of the shock/strut to the lower control arm.
STEP #3:
Remove the upper (3) 14mm nuts from shock tower holding the upper part of the shock.
STEP #4:
Remove the (2) 17mm bolts that are located on the bottom of the lower control arm that thread into the bottom of the hub.
STEP #5:
Remove the front skid plate so you’ll have better access to everything as well as the front sway bar. (the original instructions mentioned nothing about the front sway bar, however I found that it was easier to remove the struck/spring assembly after removing the sway bar.) Remove the skid plate using a 12mm socket. There are (4) total bolts that hold this piece together… (2) front bolts located near the front bumper, and (2) lower bolts down near the cross member.
STEP #6:
Remove the Front Sway Bar by removing the (2) 17mm bolts that attached near the shock, and the (4) 14mm bolts that are used for the brackets.
STEP #7:
Using the long pry bar to make things a little easier, remove the entire shock/spring assembly from the truck. (this is where 4 hands are better than 2, so con your best friend(s) into helping you with the project to make things easier)
STEP #8:
NOTE: where the top plate of the shock sits injunction with the shock. You might want to mark this BEFORE you start removing the strut bolts. This will make things easier when you start putting the shock assembly back on the truck. You want to make sure everything lines up the first time to save from using your favorite curse words... haha
Using your spring compressor, compress the spring quite a bit so you can remove the top shock plate and still have room for the additional lift spacer we’re going to use here shortly.
STEP #9:
Remove the top 17mm nut on the shock that holds the shock and spring together. Note the order of the washers and bushings on the shock shaft, both above and below the top plate as you remove it from the actual shock itself.
STEP #10:
This particular kit came with longer plate studs to use if you opted to use the additional upper plate spacer for a larger lift… Of course we wanted to do that so we added the longer studs. To do this, grab your beat stick of choice aka hammer.. (I opted for a small 5lb sledge hammer). Set the top plate on a flat hard surface and pound the OEM studs downward until they are eventually removed… To install the new longer plate studs from the kit, you’ll just reverse this process and pound them in. Try to get them in as far as you can without bending the hell out of the shock plate. If you can’t get the new studs flush with the shock plate don’t worry about it just yet. Once you bolt everything down later on, they’ll tighten up the rest of the way.
STEP #11:
Once the longer studs are in tacked, put on your lift spacer(s). Slide the stock rubber isolator over the small side of the thick spacer. The thicker spacer goes on the bottom side of the shock plate with the smaller side of the spacer facing downward. Making sure you align the 3 machined grooves in the upper spacer with the top plate studs, the thinner spacer goes above the shock plate.
STEP #12:
Re-assemble the washers and bushings in the correct order and bolt the shock plate back to the shock/spring assembly. Once the upper shock bolt is tight, you can remove your spring compressor and that will finish up the spacer install to the front suspension.
STEP #13:
Re-install your two front shock/spring assemblies to the truck. Slide the top of the shock/spring assembly back into place in the tower. Loosely thread the top plate shock tower nuts back on the tope plate studs. Install the lower shock bolt and tighten the nut/bolt. To do all of this, you’ll want to back track through these steps from step #12 down to step #2… Leave out step #5 concerning the skid plate at this point.
DO NOT PUT THE SKID PLATE BACK ON YET. We’ll need the skid plate off while we install the frontal differential drop spacers in step #14.
STEP #14:
Remove the stock front (2) 22mm differential bolts.
STEP #15:
Install the 1” spacers between the two front differential supports and front cross member. Fasten the bolts by using the (2) 8” long grade 8 bolts supplied in the kit to 50-70ft-lbs.
STEP #16:
Now you can put your front skid plate back on using the (2) 12mm bolts up top and (2) bolts down below near the cross member. For those of you that do use the front diff. drop spacers, you’ll notice that the lower part of the skid plate doesn’t fit flush with the cross member and you’ll have to add about a ¼” spacer of some sort between the cross member and the skid plate. For my particular truck, I used a thick plastic urethane washer so I wouldn’t have any rattle issues at a later date, however a few steel washers would work just fine as well. There are (2) longer bolts that are supplied for the lower skid plate in the kit so use those rather than the factory ones.
STEP #17:
Tighten and retighten all the nuts and bolts that you’ve tampered with so far to be extra safe. Once this is done, you are now completely done with the front end of the suspension lift and you can move to the back where we’ll concentrate on the Add-A-Leaf part of the lift.
STEP #18: THE REAR
Remove the (2) 12mm bolts that hold the ebrake cable to the truck. There’s (2) single bolts on each side of the truck.
STEP #19:
Place a jack under the rear pumpkin of the truck’s rear end to support the rear end BEFORE you remove the U Bolts from each side of the truck.
STEP #20:
Remove the 17mm bolt/nut from lower part of the rear shock.
STEP #21:
Remove the U bolts.. There are (4) 19mm nuts underneath on each side of the truck.
REMEMBER TO HAVE SUPPORT UNDER YOUR REAR END BEFORE YOU DO THIS SO THE REAR END DOESN’T FALL ON THE FLOOR.
STEP #22:
Slowly lower the rear end down keeping an eye on all the brake lines, etc… you’ll need to lower the rear end down roughly 3-5” or so to allow room to install the add-a-leaf.
STEP #23:
Use a pair of channel locks/vise grips/C Clamps, etc.. to hold the leaf pack together. Remove the rubber bump stop from the top of the leaf springs as well as the factory leaf bolt. You’ll need to use a pair of vise grips to hold the lower portion of the leaf bolt from free spinning while you remove the 14mm nut up top.
STEP #24:
Install the add-a-leaf that’s supplied in the lift kit. Note that the longer portion of the leaf spring needs to point towards the rear of the truck. Once you have the add-a-leaf in place, use the longer leaf bolt supplied in the kit to attach the leaf pack together.
STEP #25:
Slowly raise the rear end back up. Re-install the bump stop, U Bolts, ebrake brackets. Note: you’ll have to cut the access threads off the bolt that runs through the middle of the leaf springs. I personally left roughly a 1/8” just to be on the safe side incase the leaf nut were to back off a little…
STEP #26:
Recheck and tighten all the bolts that you’ve tampered with just to be on the safe side.
STEP #27:
Mount your wheels and tires to the truck.
STEP #28:
...say it with me, “and you are done!”
STEP #29: FINAL STEP
There’s nothing really to align in the rear so you’ll just need to get a front end alignment… The front end alignment
must be done after or shortly after this lift is installed.
Hope you enjoyed the article!! Comments, additions, etc.. are always welcome
DIY: How To: Toytec Lift Install
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