Cincinnati Area Thread (Tri-State, Ohio/Kentucky/Indiana)

Hell yes I member!

Now I'm hungry!

 

Gatlinburg yesterday...

 

Dats nice. Is that a Drifter?

 

Bet I know what happens to it on trails...

 

Well, the weather won’t be ideal but I’m taking Friday off work to try and get my truck closer to back on the road...

Gonna install the new intermediate steering shaft, the new power steering hoses and the new rack (after I carefully center it). If all goes well the power steering system will be back in the truck. If I manage to get that done, I’ll install the new front coil overs and have the truck ready for the new wheels.

Probably won’t get the tires swapped over until next week but with a little luck I might actually be able to drive the truck for an alignment by next week. Fingers crossed...

Also, if anyone knows where I can quickly and easily find torque specs for a lot of the suspension/power steering bolts I’d greatly appreciate it. I’m going to wait and torque a lot of the suspension bolts when the truck is back on its own weight but having the numbers would be helpful.

 

Here ya go!

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-torque-spec-guide.318116/

 

I'm not sure who it is.

 

Also make sure your steering wheel/clock spring is centered. When I did my intermediate shaft my "match marks" rubbed off and I lost track of the center. So I pulled the steering wheel and clock spring. Then centered the rack, then centered the clock spring, and re-attached.

When centering the clock spring I very gently rotated the spring with 1 finger until I felt the smallest amount of tension, then went the other direction and counted the rotations. I believe it's 5.5, but don't recall.

 

Tight! is the tq spec. You likely won't snap the lower shock bolt with torque, at least not with my HF impacts anyway. The top hat studs....idk, go until you have to put in real effort with a wrench and you're good.
I've heard the LCA->spindle bolts aren't really a lot of torque, but I've never had mine back out after in/out a few times over the years. Go until it's tight, sometimes with the impact even.

I do torque my spacer and wheel nuts, though Torqued my clutch stuff and header stuff. Ya know, the important things.

 

The ones forward and behind the lower ball joint? Those are 118lb-ft.....I would call that a lot of torque.

The factory bolt also has thread locker pre applied. So that helps keep them in too.

 

I used the seat belt to keep the steering wheel “centered” during this entire process, for that exact reason. Definitely didn’t want to break a clock spring. It’s been that way since before I disconnected anything.

And I learned while removing the old intermediate shaft that it can only go on the upper shaft one way (there’s an indentation in the shaft for the bolt from the slip yoke to go through). So with the wheel held close to center by the seat belt, once that’s back on, the rack is centered and installed in the vehicle, I should be able to get it all back together with the steering wheel close to center. After that it’s up to my outer tie rod end measurements.

And yes, the first place I’ll drive the truck when I’m done and confident nothing is going to fall apart is to get an alignment.

I didn’t loosen the lower control arm (cam) bolts, just took those two bolts out at the other end of the LCA so I could push it down enough to remove the coil over.

And I’m ditching my wheel spacers with the new wheels so my main concern with torque specs are the lower shock bolts (front and rear since I will have replaced both), the two LCA bolts near the lower ball joint and the steering rack bolts. I assumed the top strut bolts (again, front and rear) would be a “tighten to feel” thing but I want to make sure the bulk of the bolts are good and tight before I attempt to drive this thing again.

I also still need to torque down the U bolts in the rear. I’ve got them “tight” but I have been waiting until the truck is back on its own weight to do torque them to spec. I’m also probably going to trim them because OCD. Will probably also wait and do the final torque on the lower shock bolts with the truck on the ground too.

 

Can anyone tell me what size tires can I fit with no lift on an 2008 Tacoma?

 

Any size will fit.


Mount em up....let her rip. They will "self clearance". Promise.

If that isnt an option, I'd upgrade the ball joints and toss about 12" of spacers on each and mount em.


Otherwise, stick to a 31" tire, or lift it and move to a whopping 32.8" tire.

 

Hmmm. Maybe that's why I zip them in with the impact without a care in the world lol

 

You're alive, n shit?!

 

I heard if you remove stock mudflaps you can fit a 37

 

I was making room for my 28/75/16's on my 2016 and my neighbor caught me taking a sledge hammer to the pinch weld lol. He was puzzled why i was beating on my truck

 

Isn't it completely awkward as fuck trying to use a sledge from the inside out?! Hell, even my 3lb hammer was a chore!
A lift would make this operation a ton easier.




I still need to hammer and, likely, cut A LOT more...fml

 

Well, my truck officially has a fully functional power steering system again. Didn’t quite make it as far as I wanted to today but the power steering rack and all associated parts are back in the truck and I filled and cycled the system with fluid. No leaks!

Just need to install the coil overs and the outer tie rod ends and swap my tires over to the new wheels then the truck will be ready for an alignment.