When Installing Front Bilstein 5100 Ride Height Adjustable

I am about to suck it up and go ahead and buy some new shocks. When I install these and put them up to 2.5 do i need to do anything else or can i just throw them on and ride out?

 

You'll need an alignment after you've installed. And you'll need to re-torque everything and make sure it's all good and tight.

You might need UCAs to get alignment in spec.

 

Wow we just said this at the same time.


You might need new UCA's depends on the Truck. Some do and some don't. What are you doing in the back because that will put you quite nose high. And your ride is going to be quite stiff. And an alignment, I would some research before you do it

 

Still learning, but why would his ride be stiff? I thought the 5100's were supposed to be smooth.

 

Because the 5100s preload the coil springs which compresses the coil, which makes it firmer. 2.5" is the highest setting on the 5100 preload snap ring, so it's the stiffest ride setting.

 

So new coils would fix this?

What about the 5100's set to 1.75? Although I'm assuming any setting other than 0" will produce a more stiff ride on stock coils....

But I read people that run the 5100's on stock coils and say the ride is 'great'.

 

Okay, so 5100 at 0, OME 884's for the front. Then 5100's at 0 and a 1.5" AAL for the rear? Could I expect a relatively smooth ride with something like this? For reference I'm pretty happy with the ride at stock.

Sorry for hijacking the thread.

 

Can I ask how much you paid for parts, roughly? I'm having trouble finding where to buy OME 884's.

A ~2" lift with better performance is about what I'm looking for. As long as it soaks up potholes nicely - since my area is plagued with them.

Thanks.

 

are you guys saying if I have 5100's with 885 coils. I should the ring at 0 to get 2.5" front lift?

 

Somewhere around there, actual numbers vary from truck to truck.

 

Perfect. Thanks again.

 

Did you do any research on how big of a tire you can run with that setup? I'm looking more towards tall and skinny, and hoping for a 235/80R17 or 245/75R17.... something along those lines. Think they'd be okay with no rub?


How do you like those Duratrac's in snow?

 

Just a heads up, I just did this same lift last month with the 5100's to get 2.5 in the front and an AAL in the back. Alignment said "in spec" but my bumpsteer and the need for driver correction on the steering wheel over any imperfection in the highway is pretty intolerable so I'm going to be ordering UCA's over the next few weeks to give me a few degrees adjustment.

Also, I noticed a constant shutter upon takeoff from a deadstop. Turns out the rear lifts are known to cause axlewrap so that shutter is "normal".

Then, I had a vibration that was almost a faint rumble strip roar around 40-45mph in the front driver's side. Through research on this forum I found out that Tacomas have a flaw in design in the front differential at the output bearing. Toyota used a needle bearing and when you lift the front end it puts the CV shaft at an angle that causes side-loading of that bearing. The bearing already has too much slop/slack in it so with that angle, the bearing roars, eventually fails and roasts your front diff and chews into your CV shaft. ECGS (east coast gear supply) developed a fix that I will be doing shortly. They created a bushing that is coated and replaces that needle bearing on the drivers side. They have several informative videos on youtube and there is a 200 page forum on TW about the discovery of this failing needle bearing and ECGS's development of the fix.

I know this was long, but I just hate to see others blindsided like I was when people tell them "yea 5100's and an AAL is all you need".

 

Ah you lucked out with staying in alignment spec. As far as the needle bearing, there are stock trucks that have had the problem so it's not all dependant on the lift, the lift just turns the volume up.
Before I knew of the needle bearing issue I was sure it was wheel bearing, but odd that it started as soon as I lifted it. I put it in 4x4 that same day and the vibration/grinding was gone so I'm 99% sure that is the problem.

 

I am running 5100s with 887 coils and getting 3 inchs of lift.

 

How long have you been running with that? Any issues like those described above?

 

I can't find this needle bearing fix on the ECGS site. Is it available yet or am I that "special"?

 

Search ecgs tacoma bushing on YouTube. They have a video for it. I think they call it the "clamshell bushing".

 

Ahhh ok. Yeah I did see that then. Thanks.