Old Man Emu setups on 1st gens

Ya, you will most likely need to go with bigger bump stops. You don't want your shocks to be the limiting factor when compressed. Sounds like you need to do some measuring. I have dakars, paired with 10" travel kings, with 4.5~5" bumps. Yours will be different, but I think it would be wise to get it back on that ramp to get an idea of where you want to be at.

 

Why am I in this thread? Damn you Old Brett and your sub-par suspension.

Anyways Mike, as mentioned you'll never match shock travel to leaf travel using stock mounts. Might have the opposite problem with 10" shocks, and I'd rather be bottom out a shock than topping out.

Save your time and money and put it towards doing it right if that's your plan. Consider your cheap shocks disposable, they'll last you through this season.

 

This is true. I have read that you are supposed to put + on drivers, and the other on passenger. However, that was not right. I did my rear suspension twice due to my wrong assumption.

A for driver side. B for passenger side.

 

You are running 10" shocks though, no? I got the 9" variety to not need to extend the super bumps. I do have 3/8" spacers I can add as well for fine tuning though. My theory was that with the axle moved backwards the rear shock might bottom out at a slightly different height than the front would with same length shocks, hence the need to fine tune the bumps.

I already measured in the garage and the bumps will hit way before the shock bottoms out, but just don't know for sure how much it will compress. That i will need a ramp for still/

Yeah that's basically where I am at based on our discussions and why I went with 9" to begin with and not go the 10" route. Sucks not having the droop but i rather have the better balance of up and down travel. The way I see it as long as I am not hucking the truck and using the shocks as limit straps in that kind of situation, the shocks should hold up to the slow stuff I do.

 

That's only for trucks that don't have a side specific pack. Then you put the over spec (+) on whichever side you typically have your lean on.

 

Honestly, the first thing I would do would be ditch the lift shackles.

The leafs will perform better, your shackle angles will be better, and the shocks will be closer to matching the travel.

 

12".

 

Yeah I wanted to see how the leaves settled out before I went that route. I have a set of brand new stock shackles and bushings from when my frame got done so it's always been my backup plan.

 

For anyone using the OME greasable shackles, what type of grease do you use?

 

Molybdenum based grease

 

Got the full OME install done by myself over a long, hot 3 day weekend along with the Tundra brake upgrade with stainless lines front & back. It wasn't easy, a few bolts were seized (F#@#% brake line & leaf eye bolts!), but I couldn't have done it without tips from this forum. Wouldn't have thought to use ratchet straps to get the axles in position, upside down bottle jack against the control arm to get struts in place, and many other techniques.

One piece of advice that I'd like to pass along: Don't hesitate to break out the angle grinder on the leaf spring eye bolts. I wrestled with one for at least an hour using a breaker bar, impact wrench, obscene phrases, and buckets of sweat, to no avail. I had never used an angle grinder before, but it took me all of 5 minutes to hack the bolt in 2 places

 

Post install questions:

My CV angles look pretty steep, do you guys think a diff drop (ordered) will be enough to give me some time or do I need to accelerate my bumper/winch shopping too?

After the install I took it to the dealer for the LBJ recall & alignment, but it looks like they only adjusted toe. Is it possible that even with the lift & bigger tires that the alignment was mostly ok, even with stock UCA's?

Thanks in advance!

 

Whoa man, that color is freaking sick!

 

Those alignent specs are piss-poor. They ought to be ashamed of themselve for taking it off the rack with those numbers. Negative caster? Really? I'll bet it has bumpsteer on the highway.

You want 0* camber, 0* toe and 2.5* + of caster. But without aftermarket UCAs you will be lucky to see 1.5* of caster.

* = degrees

Love the color of your truck btw.

 

What Tundra brakes did you use in your upgrade? It will be good to know since a lot of people wonder whether or not they will work with the stock 16" alloys. Good work man!

 

Grinder all the way. The front leaf bolts were seized on mine also.

Impact helped on other areas significantly.

Ratchet straps a must.

I didn't do the upside down jack. I forget how I got that to work out...?

Feels good to do it on your own. Good work.

 

I am getting a few little rust spots on my leafs. Any recommendations for rattle can coverage?

 

Thanks fellas, looks like everyone likes the Rescue Green!

Brakes: I sourced 13WL calipers from a junkyard 2007 Sequoia, and rebuilt them with the Carlson repair kits, Centric pins, & Russell speed bleeders. Rotors are StopTech PowerSlots. Pads are Akebono. Everything fit nicely in the stock 16's with a little trimming & bending of the dust shields.

For the alignment, I guess they didn't want to bother fixing what the lift threw out of whack, I guess the toe is the only thing affected by replacing the lbj's? I mean, they didn't get any money out of me, and they also replaced the spare tire lift assembly, so I guess I should be happy with what I got, but I'm still gonna call them and ask about the specs. Not sure about bumpsteer, I didn't want to drive it too much or too fast before I install the diff drop. I'm worried about the CV boots.

 

Time for manual hub swap!


Oh like said really liking the color never seen it before on any truck

 

I'm looking at a 2.5" OME lift for my 02 doublecab. Thinking 883s since i plan on plate front/rear bumpers and weight for overlanding. correct choice?