Front coil stud length too short?

First off, here's the background info:
I have a 2004 Tacoma Xtra cab, 4x4 (TRD), V6. I installed OME 882's and had the 5mm trim packer installed on the drivers side. Everything was fine and dandy except for the taco lean was still significant. I looked around a decided on going with the Wheeler's 1/4 inch top plate spacer for the drivers side. Their website states that typically longer studs are not required. I even called Wheelers to explain my situation and was told that there shouldn't be a problem.

Well, the first picture below is the passenger side. You can see that the three studs fully extend through the nut (albeit the studs are tapered at the top). The second picture is the drivers side; the studs do not fully extend through the nuts, and with the stud threads tapering off at the top, this means I only have maybe 3 wraps of threads holding onto each nut. I do offroad this truck pretty hard and fairly often, so what do you guys think: Is this a problem? Should I go with longer studs? Will it be alright? Any thoughts/concerns would be greatly appreciated.


Passenger Side:




Driver's Side:

 

Looks to me like it isnt seated up into the pocket all the way.

 

looks to me like you'll have to go with longer studs on the driver's side. passenger side looks fine.

 

Get the extended studs for the drivers side, thats not enough thread bite.

 

Thanks for the responses everyone. I expected that the advice given was probably wrong and that I should have gone with longer studs. Well there goes more time and effort to get it corrected...

 

Does anyone else not see the big gap on the drivers side? Longer studs is just a band aid. My question is why isnt it seated all the way up in the pocket like the passenger side? If it was, then there would be enough thread..

 

Wait this advice is wrong? I'm not sure if you read the first post and the post before me, its not seated properly...

 

^This.

It looks like there is a different top plate on your coil there(passenger side looks black and driver side looks like aluminum) and you are gapped on the bottom side. Check to see if there is interference down there. I ran into this when I installed my Toytec Coilovers and sold my NWOR front lift.

 

As in the studs should have been seated better to begin with? I'll try to tighten them all down more and see if I can get them to pull through more. Is that what you're saying? I'll report back after trying that.

 

I just meant the advice from Wheelers about the studs. I sure hope that I'm able to just tighten them down more rather than having to disassemble the coil to get the studs in deeper.

 

The passenger side and drivers side both have OME Nitrocharger Sport shocks and OME 882's. The only difference between the two is that the drivers side has a 5mm trim packer on the bottom of the coil with an aluminum 1/4 inch top plate spacer (which is what you're seeing).

I think your pictures help me understand what you all are saying about the gap. I'll go out and fool around with it to see if I can get the studs through any more.

 

I wouldn't use the studs as a press. They aren't meant for that and the nuts don't have full thread to work with.

I'd start over. Take the strut out, clean everything up, make sure the spacer sits flat on the top plate of the strut (metal to metal contact) and put it all back together. When put back in, make sure the strut sits flat in the bucket with metal to metal contact between the bottom of the bucket and the top of the spacer.

If all the pieces are sitting flat, there are no gaps and the studs aren't long enough to get full thread contact, you need longer studs.

 

Because wrat installed the 1/4" spacer only on the driver's side to fix Taco Lean.

@wrat: you need longer studs. You can press out / press in the studs with a bench vise and a socket, but the strut needs to be taken apart again (spring compressor, the whole deal).

 

Thanks for clearing that up. That is what I was thinking would be required if it was a stud length issue (which I now understand to be the problem). Thanks again for the responses. I guess I won't be taking the truck up the trails until this is resolved.

 

I see that now! The way the flash lit up the aluminum made the solid spacer look like a concaved spacer that centered in the hole.

Wrat: Sorry for the confusion.

 

Hey no problem.

I just got back from going out and taking a closer look. The stud heads are sitting flush against the plate so longer studs will be necessary. It looks like the general consensus is that leaving it like this is no good so I appreciate the feedback.

 

I skimmed over the part where a spacer was put in there so yes, longer studs make sense now. I thought we were looking at a stock setup. My bad

 

The 1/4" spacer P/N TP14 is a common part that fits on both 1st gen and 2nd gen Tacos. The 2nd gen studs are longer than 1st gen studs, which may be the source of the "do not normally require longer studs" comment in Wheeler's listing.

2nd gen stud compared to the extra-long studs included by Toytec for 1/2" spacers (photo by toku58):

 

Hey folks, it's been a little while but I thought I'd give an update in case this comes up for anyone else in the future.

I guess a part I left out (which happens to have created all of this mess) was that I had Wheelers assemble the OME 882's and Nitrochargers for me. It turns out that the studs they used were not stock. So the studs they used to assemble everything were shorter than the stock stud length. Wheelers called me and we walked through everything (what I have, what the problem is, what the end result is, etc). Wheelers sent me out the factory studs and guess what? Plenty of length even with a 3/8 inch top plate spacer that I swapped in place of the 1/4 inch that was previously there. So all in all, if you use factory studs then you will have enough stud length for a thin top plate spacer. Once again, Wheelers came through on the advice and assistance.