Lift Installed!

Just finished installing my lift! Bilsteins all around. Front set at 1.75'' and 2'' Wheelers AAL. Started at 10am. Took about 1.5 hrs to finish installing the first AAL. Messed up the threads on and bent the first centering pin. So had to cut it off and try again with the 2nd one. When I finished that up, decided it was time for a lunch break and also went to about 4 auto parts stores before I found a new centering pin that would work.

After about a 2 hr lunch break and journey to find a centering pin, I finished up installing the 2nd AAL in about another hour and decided to call it quits. Overall, I felt installing the AALs was harder than installing the shocks front or rear. My biggest difficulties were removing the shocks (couldnt find a good place to hold down on to prevent the shock from spinning once the nut was at the very tip) and getting the centering pin head to line up with the hole on the rear end (needed a lot of persuasion).

I liked how the lift looked so much on the rear, I decided to tackle the front after about another hr break. I contemplated renting a spring compressor for this, but after looking at the available ones at the auto parts stores (they only had the Mcpherson strut compressor ones), I decided that the floor jack method was the better option, and after finishing up, I'm convinced that it's just as safe and just as easy if not easier than removing the entire assembly and using a spring compressor. I made sure to mark the bolts on the LCA as well, which seemed to be one of the best little tricks because I took a quick test drive around the block and it seemed to drive perfectly. I'm still gonna take it in for an alignment on Monday, but it seems to be pretty good right now!

I wanted to take pics, but got to be too dark! Will take some in the morning! I also forgot to do an identical stance before pic as well as measure the heights before the install...I wish I had done both! Oh well...

Last thing to say...I think of myself as a person with a lot of common sense and a reasonable amount of patience, but I admit that I don't have the best wrenching skills by any means, nor do I have a huge amount of tools. And before this, the extent of my experience tooling around with cars is changing oil, a flat tire, wiper blades, and washing it. That being said, I installed everything myself with nothing more than hand tools (no air tools) and I felt that this was a perfectly reasonable install for a person like me. I feel so accomplished now! Hahaa...but exhausted.

 

good job, no go 4 wheel it!

 

Where's the pics?

 

^This

 

you need bigger tires

 

Yah...need to save up. I'll just have to wait til I wear these out. Unless someone wants to buy them They're Cooper discoverer ATR

 

Good effort man! She looks great....and you definitely have room for bigger tires

 

x2. But it looks good!

 

Definitely want some new tires, but can't quite justify new ones since my current tires only have around 5k miles on them. Maybe a set of used ones?

 

maybe look for a trade + cash. or look for someone selling their taco and going back to stock

 

i forgot to measure before i installed them to get a comparison...but it looks significantly higher..haha

 

To me the back looks a little too high but I know it's supposed to be a little high so when you haul stuff it doesn't sag. Can the billy's go any higher in the front? Either way nice job, this is my next project for the truck.

 

the front is set to 1.75. It can go up to 2.5, but I didn't wanna go that high. Plus, I think I'm one of the few that likes the forward rake of the Tacomas. Personally, I think level or front end higher looks weird on the Tacomas.