Squeaky Penguin's (Trip Reports) Build Thread

One way to find out! And, yes not a great snow pack in the SJ region this year.

ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/CO/Snow/snow/watershed/daily/basinplotsjadsm15.gif?

 

I'll be running the Alpine Loop this year. I always try to go down (up ) the weekend after the weekend after the 4th. Or two weeks after the fourth if that comes sooner.
Pretty much guarantees little to no snow, greenery and the holiday tourists have thinned out.

 

Awesome pics Pliny. I for sure would want to do Poughkeepsie, so if delaying would be needed to ensure it was open, it would be worth it. However, per the link above, they are well below average down there this year so far, so it might not be an issue.

I'd be up for whenever, the 4th has traditionally been a wheeling holiday for me and this has been on the list!

 

Hmm, could be something starting here as I know Young Brett wanted to go there too....

 

I'll be placing tracking devices on all your vehicles so you can't sneak off and go down there without me....

 

I was just about to say I don't know I want to 'advertise' a trip like this too much. A small group for the Alpine Loop sounds better to me. Maybe we can just keep the secret here in my build....

 

What trip? nobody's planning anything here...just idle conversation.

 

Birdy told me to check here for interesting events

 

I just posted this trip in the men seeking men section of Craigslist.

You're screwed. (no pun intended)

 

Decent way into removing the LCAs. Cutting required. Been doing pretty good at taking pictures, so will review everything in its entirety when I'm done.

But for now, which 5100 is blown? Also note the different extended lengths, and yes, I pulled them apart as much as possible.



Might have something to do with the bent shock shaft




I don't know whether to be swearing Bilstein, or question how the hell I managed to bend a shock shaft. When I push it down by hand, goes like 1" then just stops where the shaft is bent, hard to tell from the picture.

 

Put a straight edge on it for reference next time noob

 

Sweet! Don't know if I have heard seen too many bent shafts. How the hell do you even do that, no real side load on the shock.

 

It's from trying to keep up with 2nd gens on the trail.

 

And 4Runners

 

So demanding. Trust me. It's bent.

But I thought 5100s were the epitome of awesome on TW? No way could such an amazing and superior product go bad!

While I'm not an engineer, this is my line of thought too. With how they're mounted, seems like it would be extremely unlikely for a shaft to bend. Never heard of anyone bending a shaft on a front 5100 before, so who knows.

You sure the shafts on your 5100s aren't bent?

This may be more accurate. Trying to chase the Kings. Although, up until recently, it was my rear suspension holding me back.


Anyways, LCAs out. Only had to cut one cam sleeve. Bottle jack method did not work to remove bushings. Started cutting the outer metal sleeve to get those out before I gave up last night. On top of the bent shaft, also had some questionable bushings and rather scary ball joints. Front end should feel much better after the refresh. Taking the KTM out today, will see if I can finish up tomorrow.

 

Alright, about 15 hours of total wrenching time and the truck is back together, rolling, and only needs an alignment. Most of that was by myself, but I had a hand at a few key steps. Replaced LCA bushings, upper ball joints, lower ball joints, struts, and cam bolts.

Before we get into it, a few quick thoughts on this process. Clearly a very big job, and the amount of work will differ greatly depending on rusty bolts and sleeves. Timmy's write-up gave my confidence, which may have been misplaced, and I tried to ignore James being I can't afford to give up and buy aftermarket arms. Also, don't bother with the Energy Suspension bushings. I find it very unlikely that most people would be able to remove the outer metal sleeve without destroying it. Whtieline bushings fit perfect, even though they only advertise them as fitting 3rd gen 4runners.

So here we go, I also did a bunch of other steps that would not normally be required in LCA bushing swaps:

Marked alignment cams:



Removed the spindle and used the LCA jack method to decompress the coils:



Lower shock bolt was rusted in the sleeve, I was hoping this wouldn't reflect on things to come:



Getting empty:



And, first side the bolts come out perfect, but one of the sleeves looks like this:



Little bit of time with the sawsall, and the arm could come out:



On the drivers side bolts and sleeves pulled out without any trouble:



OK, and now the hardest part of the whole process: removing the outer bushing sleeve from the LCA. Put the bottle jack on them and tightened it as much as I could, hit it with the torch, and hammered it, and it didn't budge. Ending up buring out the middle portion of the bushings, and cutting a slot in them with the sawsall:



Spend at least an hour playing with various hammers, an air hammer, multiple pointed implements, and couldn't get the sleeve to budge. So, back to the bottle jack. Found out a CV axle nut is the perfect size to push out the sleeve.



The did go 'pop' but they didn't shoot out as Timmy described.



Removed:



Used a HF shop press to push in the new bushings. Best setup I could think of to push directly on the metal sleeve, this went really smoothly:





Then chopped off the top of upper ball joint studs, and used my 36mm axle socket to push them out:



LCA reinstalled with the whiteline bushings, getting the washers on either side was a bit of a trick:



Compressed the coils and installed the OME nitrochargers and new bolts with a floor jack again:



One side back togeather:



Also installed new LBJ bolts and marked them with a paint pen:






Anyways, it was a time consuming process, with a few tricky steps, but don't be too discouraged. Didn't detail my process all that well, but should be able to answer most any question pertaining to the process. Happy to have my front end back together and it should be solid for a decent amount of time now.

 

How's it feel on the road now?

 

Told you^ glad u got it all back together

 

Nice work Brett! I'm impressed.

You know what they say....
"Poverty is the mother of persistence"


Actually, I don't know if anyone ever said that, but I just did.

Feel free to quote me.

 

So did you need to replace any of the bolts?