Anyone have or install SAW CO's on a new frame Tacoma

Supposedly the SAW 2.0's for the 95.5 - 04 Tacoma are the same as the 96 - 02 4R's. I'm doing a restore on my 4R and took off the piece of $h!t SAW's so they are laying in my garage.

My 01 Taco has a new frame and I found out Toyota changed some things with the frame. For starters I bought some Westin bolt on step rails and they do not fit because Toyota changed some dimensions on the frame.

I was going to put a cheap spacer lift on my Taco but I decided against it once I started the install. I saw the terrible ball joint angle and could tell it would be trouble in no time. So I grabbed my SAW's from the 4R and tried to install them. They will not line up with the lower control arm. In the 4R the bolt holes are in a different position so the SAW fits in nicely with some wiggle room (meaning you can turn the shock slightly side to side). On the Taco I cannot get it to fit without the need to beat on it. Something will break at some point.

So that leads to my question. Has anyone installed SAW coilovers on a Taco with a new frame? I don't see how this will possibly work.

 

I'm sorta comparing apples to oranges here, but you get the idea.

I have the SAW off of the 4R from the drivers side. So to compare I'm taking a pic of the 4R pass side. Both pics were taken straight on.

Notice the Taco the bolt hole is almost dead center and the valve is dead center with it:



Now here is the 4R (and the drivers side looked the same when bolted up). See how the front bolt is shifted towards the front of the truck which means the SAW CO fits a bit differently:



This slight shift in the bolt holes at the shock tower cause the SAW to mount differently and not fit.

Anyone seen this?

 

If what I've seen in bike shocks holds true, the shock shaft rotates freely in the shock body. If you have access to a spring compressor, you should be able to rotate the bottom shock fitting to align with the LCA clevis.

 

try rotating the whole unit to see if they line up. my dirt logics are on backwards with the valve pointing in since that is how they fit. no biggie

 

Thanks all. Those SAW's, even tho they have only a few thousand miles on them, are beat to hell from northeast snow and salt. They are just not made to stand up to those kind of conditions. They are very hard to work with adjusting wise and I did try to turn them all three ways. They would line up at all without some adjustment.

I went ahead and ordered the toytec bilstein coilovers along with the LR upper control arm. They should be here in a week so I'll go that route. I'll probably junk the SAW's and get a new set for the 4R.