Tampa Bay Area Tacomas BS Thread

@LOUMO meet @Scooter WCT

 

Installed new shorter front bump stops. Looks like about 3/4 difference.

 

Which should translate to quite a bit more at the spindle.

 

Yea Lee I'm learning as i go lol! So I understand this correctly I should have 3/4" more travel under compression, and the 6112's gave me 1.5" off lift, does this mean I'll have 3/4" greater droop? Go easy on me the 70's were good! Haha

 

It depends on the travel of the shocks, I suppose. Hopefully you're not going to top your shocks out with the shorter bump stops. I'm no expert on 2nds gens--usually I find out I'm wrong, haha--but IIRC the bump stops are inboard of the lower shock mount. That means with 3/4" shorter bump stops, your shock will need to have a bit more than 3/4" more up-travel. You should be able to look up the part number of the shock and get the specs on it's collapsed length and it's extended length. You would need to remove the coilover and jack the LCA up until it was sitting on the bump stops and measure between the upper shock mount and the lower shock mount. I don't know off-hand what this measurement should be, but it it's less than the measurement of your shock's collapsed length, then you should probably put the taller bump stops back in to protect your shocks from topping out on full compression of the suspension. If the measurement is more than the shock's collapsed length, then you should be fine.

Generally, extended travel shocks will have a longer collapsed length than a stock travel shock, so you'd actually want to put taller bump stops in if anything. This is one of the reasons I dropped my bump stop pads on the rear of the OGT when we reengineered the rear shock mounts, so I could fit longer travel shocks.

Oh, and since the bump stops are inboard near the pivot point of your LCAs, 3/4" there will translate to quite a bit more at the wheel which is a lot further outboard. Think of it like a lever with the pivot on one end...if you move the other end x amount of distance, the middle point of the lever will describe a shorter arc than the end of the lever did.

Hope that helps. If not, hopefully someone more awake than myself can explain it better.

 

Thanks, I'll check the shock specs. My ambition here is to add the the accessories that came with the factory Baja package due to the fact that the 6112's and 5160's were designed off that suspension. The front springs are lighter on 6112s though. 610* compared to the Baja 700*. The Baja package is 1.5 of front lift and that's were I'm at with mine. I'll check it all out. Thanks for the help Lee! Have a good day!

 

I get it, really, and you could be perfectly fine, but for as much cash as you're dropping on this suspension, it'd suck to destroy those shocks...especially with the way the 2nd Gen coilovers are designed with that long skinny extension on the bottom end that seems to be prone to bending if the shock or the coil spring hit their limits before the bump stops do (this usually happens with the cheap spacer lifts though). I'd want to be sure. Plus I'm not really sure what all might have been different on the Baja package that would account for the shorter bump stops. Did it have different LCAs, maybe? If it sat up 1.5" higher than a normal Prerunner, I'm not sure it would make sense that it had a shorter shock in there to accommodate the shorter bump stops. I don't know, really.

At any rate, you have a great day too.

 

Thanks , understood. I'll dig into it more. This has been a fun project and I'm learning as I go and want to get the most out the suspension. One day I will join you'all at the off~road outings!

 

Someone say "off road" ?

 

Made a thread for the Fall Camp & Ride. There's a poll on which campground we will use so go vote if you have a preference.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fall-camp-ride-citrus-redrock.440269/

 

Installed The 5160's and brake line spacer.

 

@GuyHuey @Scooter WCT

 

Que?

I still lurk some, even though I haven't been posting much.

 

he saw you at Grille 51 yesterday and wondered you TW name, sent me a pic of your rig

 

Ah ha, there for some dinner yesterday.

 

Hey guys new member been a lurker for a bit, I'm looking into the 2wd to 4wd conversion and seen many who have done it. First before any hate, I got my 2012 v6 Tacoma Prerunner in a business type deal for extremely cheap. Also I don't need to go spending buying a 4x4, I got this for a fraction of the cost and I don't mind paying for the parts, ik aware of cost.

I would like to know if anyone locally can do the swap for me, I'll help I'm not the best I can but I'm not very mechanically inclined. I'm sure someone here is and is FAR more knowledgeable on these Tacoma swaps then I am. I will pay, we can work out a deal, please just be serious and know what your doing. If I wanted a backyard mechanic I would go craigslist lol Anyhow I would really appreciate it, and thanks!

 

@Taco No Baka @xweslingx @Timbo89 or @The End @allenfab

 

@nammer

 

You will have to source the parts for the conversion then the only custom piece that has to be fabbed should be the crossmember. Off the top of my head you will need, front diff, front cv axles, front driveshaft, 4wd spindles, transfer case, 4wd transmission and driveshaft. I believe you will also need a 4wd harness for the ecu/tcu, not sure if anyone has spliced into the 2wd one. If you have the means financially, have at it, I won't deter you. Wyatt over at rst has done one and there is a forum member who has also done one. I would guess you'd be around ~3k for parts.

 

Welcome to TW.

Please don't take this as hating, but the only way this would make any sense is if you wanted to go with a solid front axle, which would likely be more costly than going with the factory-type IFS, but would be far more off-road worthy. Here's why...

In order to do this, you would need to by a transmission and transfer case (preferably out of an FJ which has an actual manual t-case shifter so you don't have to deal with figuring out the wiring for the electronically shifted 4WD Tacoma t-case). Then you would need to buy the front diff/axle. If you want the IFS, then you'd need to get the 4WD spindles and CV axles to go with it and then you'd have to figure out how to make the ADD actuator work. All of this can be done and probably has been...and there's probably instructions somewhere on this site to do so. However, if you plan to go the IFS route, I know you said you were aware of the cost, but by the time you've bought all the parts and pay someone to put it all in and make it work, you will have spent more money than you would have if you just sold or traded the Prerunner in on a 4WD of a similar year, IMHO.

Now, if you wanted to go with a straight axle, you'd still need to get the transmission and t-case, but everything else would pretty much be the same as if you were doing a solid axle swap on a 4WD truck...I'm pretty sure anyway. Depending on what axle you wanted to go with (i.e.: a junkyard D60 or D44 or one of the high-dollar custom axles like the Dynatrac or Diamond axles) and what sort of suspension you want (i.e.: 3-link w/coilovers or leaf springs) it could get very costly and that's not counting paying someone like @allenfab (who does amazing work, BTW) to do the welding work and installation.

Those are my thoughts on it anyway. That said, in site of Frank's confidence in my abilities, I'm not sanguine about hacking up someone else's truck (as would be needed for the manual t-case shifter) or the electronic headaches that would need to be addressed to get things to work in the IFS scenario and I'm certainly not equipped or qualified to do the welding involved with the solid axle option.

Good luck with it though.