5 lug 95.5-04 Lowering info for newbs

nice thanks for the response. I ended up going with a 3/3 drop from chassis tech hope the ride is what im looking for. I couldnt find any steel blocks either so hoping for the best from this setup

 

Sounds good, definitely get some pics and your thoughts up here once you have the kit installed please!

 

Finally did it up thanks to my brothers! its not slammed but its sitting right. At least to still be able to throw heavy stuff on it haha 3/3. Only problem is im getting really bad diff flex due to the pins on the blocks. Anybody have a remedy for this. Grinder sounds about right though.

 

I prefer that look to being "fully slammed." It just looks "right."

 

Appreciate the kind words. Yeah i still want a comfortable truck. Was thinking about throwing it on some all terrain tires but not quite sure haha

 

Looks real good!

How do you like the ride compared to stock?

Did you have the axle wrap before you installed the drop, or do you think this is caused by the blocks?

 

@Hayrider

I was originally thinking of cutting the coils as I think the op mentioned this method years ago, but I actually found the stock coils have one squared end and one pigtail end and these are not suitable for cutting.

My appt to de-arch my rear leafs for my drop is on 10-21, and I am hopeful this method keeps the axle wrap to a minimum..

 

@isaac665 and all those that run their truck low.. Dont forget to remove the bump stops and/or replace them with low profile bumps when you get a chance so you dont bottom out on large bumps!

My front end dropped only a measured 2" (custom built Deaver coils for 2.65" drop below stock) and I ended up with less than a finger width of suspension travel, see below:


Just grab a deep socket and remove the bump through the hole in the lower control arm to get your travel back. I ordered up some universal ultra low profile bumps hoping they will work on the front, and will share once I get them installed.

For reference you can see my truck is not "slammed" either.. I had to jack up the side of the truck just so I could pull the bump stop out too since you can see there is no room to move at ride height.


I havent done the rear drop yet, but already removed those bumps too.

 

Belltech works on 4 cylinders too, you just dont get quite as much drop since there is less weight up front (.1-.2" less). That kit you posted includes shocks which are not necessary if your shocks are good. They do sell the kit without shocks to save some cash there. Piece the parts together and your drop is under $250 total.

Parts #
Belltech 2" drop coils - PN 4260 $178
Belltech 3" drop blocks - PN 6202 $50

Good luck gettin' lower!

 

Others may have cut their coils perhaps, but I decided to order custom drop springs instead which you can add to your list of options! This way you can fine tune your drop and spring rate to your own desire. I ordered a 2.65" drop, but measured only a 2" so keep in mind these old trucks seem to have some "sag" drop already if you order custom coils.

I found my stock reg cab 2.4 5 speed came with 295# front springs from the factory. Deaver recommended a 25% rate increase for sportier handling while keeping a nice "street-able" ride so I am running 368# on the front and this seems perfect to me! Handles faster than I have been willing to go in the curves but rides as good as it did before my drop comfort-wise.

DJM arms do nothing except add to the cost of a ball joint flip, I was able to align my front end to specs without custom control arms. The ball joint flip gives you roughly a 3" drop from what I have read, this is also the front drop you get in the DJM kit.

Since it sounds like you dont want too much drop or too stiff a spring, the Belltech coils would be way cheaper and easier to install and may be a good choice for you. They also have a softer coil than these muscle car springs you are looking to put on your mini truck. Just another thought.. let us know what you do please!

 

Didnt really measure they way you are suggesting, but I like your thinking!

I went mostly from reading forums and didnt see issues with stock shocks and plenty of drop so I kept stock length shocks. Maybe rough math estimates may help us feel better here?!

I had roughly only 7mm of travel with the bumps on so they had to go, without the stops now I have about 2" travel from arm to frame.

Stock front shocks have almost 4.7" of travel, so after my 2" drop I assume my shock has at least 2.7" stroke left at ride height .

With the 2" space between bumps now, I figure I have maybe the .75"+ of stroke left in the shock before it bottoms out.

BTW - I had QA1 coilovers on another car and they will spring a big old leak on you if you ever bottom out.

Again, I do plan to re-add some low profile bump stops just waiting for them to come from the Amazon..

 

Do you have a link to those bump stops for the front? Im still new to this mini truck thing and learning from my buddys but they all roll in b2200’s im the only taco guy lol. But anyways. So far so good and the chassis tech needed to be modded on the blocks due to the pin being too big. That solved my issue.

i also went in for an alignment today and my truck pulled to the right and shorly before arriving home i heard something fly out....... bye bye shim

 

im running kyb monomax not too sure whats the length on those but thats what a lot of people run on em. And so far they feel good. but thats less than a day of driving. Will update later

 

it was actually these. Didnt really look into them but i can tell you that theyre not the same color as the ones in the picture lol. But im running that all around. And in rear the pins had to be cut down



the blocks are actually pretty thick i was worried they would crack after a certain term of use but after I checked them out they dont seem to be that fragile. But i still ended up ordering 4 inch steel blocks from the same company

 

Oh man sorry to hear you were yet another victim of lackluster service on the alignment.. definitely take it back there to have them make it right, then never take it back there again!

I may not be the guy to ask about the bump stops since I am trying to figure it out myself. Ordered up

$15 Energy Suspension 9.9132G Ultra Low Bump Stop

Energy 9.9132G Ultra Low Bump Stops hoping they will work.

Got them today and they seem to be the right size at roughly 2 inches wide which is very close to the stock bumps, and they are nice and low to give that clearance back:


However I am still wondering how I am going to tighten these up! The factory bumps have a nubby hanging down next to the thread which goes into another hole on the control arm and keeps the bump stop from spinning around while you tighten the nut.


I may try to hop out there tomorrow and figure this out if time allows, if anyone has done this please chime in!

I'll let you know how it goes..

 

Definitely wont go back. Some people. But anyways keep me updated i want to know how you get them to work and also how they function

 

That pin keeps the stock bump stop from rotating, which of course lets you tighten it easily also as it holds the thread in place too. I will "trust you" (for now) and hope I can press on the urethane hard enough with my bare hand to crank the locknut on I suppose, although to be honest with you I could not even do this with it outside of the truck!?!!

Thanks for worrying about my brand new Bilsteins which luckily do have a lifetime warranty. As I mentioned I am still figuring this out though and indeed may need to adjust still.

I went with the ultra low profile bump stop thinking I could maybe add washer to shim it up thicker vs getting something too thick that I could not reduce or "fine tune" with shimming.

The post you mentioned is using stock bumps with his drop, but its nothing like my truck and setup. What bumps did you end up with on your ride, stock or?!! How much gap did you have between your bumps before and after your drop? I dont want to bottom out my shocks of course but I dont want to hit the bump stops on every pothole either keep in mind!

More math to illustrate the process I am doing to see if you approve vs tearing my truck back apart.. why not?!

At stock height the gap between the stock bump and the frame was roughly 20mm on my truck. This should be the approximate gap I am thinking to maintain since I am running the stock (length) shocks still. After the 2" drop I had roughly only 10mm gap at the bump. I removed the stock bump (40mm) so this gave me about 50mm gap. If I am shooting for the stock gap of 20mm, I will need a 30mm bump stop to match stock clearance in my mind at least.

My Energy ultra low bump is only 10mm as said, but sadly today I found out my thought to add 20mm of washers is not going to work because the threaded rod on the bump stop is nowhere near long enough to do this.

All said I just slapped these

$15 Energy Suspension 9.9116G 1" Tall Button Head Bump Stop

Energy 1" bump stops in the cart since 1" equals roughly 25mm. I figure I should be able to add a washer or 3 and get right into the magic 30mm bump and the coveted factory emulated 20mm of gap!

Thanks for getting me looking at this again. I hope you and I both can sleep well tonight, please let me know if I am missing something!

 

woowww lau lau

 

Here’s my set up. I lowered it a few months ago. Only issue I have is that it has the “taco lean”. My driver side is lower than the passenger side. I didn’t see any markings on the coils to differentiate left/right unless I overlooked it lol!

5/5 drop
DJM UCA
DJM BJFK
Belltech 2” drop coils
5” block from SDyota
Belltech shocks all around
All new BJ’s
17x9 Enkei RPF1’s on 235/45/17




Adventure Rig and Daily

 

how did you fix this? i have the same kit on my 99