Help me fix what I effed up

So about a year of collecting parts I finally put it all on the truck. OME Spring pack and extended Fox 2.0 shocks in the rear with longer brake lines and a flip kit. Install went well enough. Took me longer than I anticipated but that was just being unfamiliar with the truck I think.

When I started on the front. UCAs from tough country and second hand fox 2.5 with reservoirs I started running into big problems. 1st the spacers that came with the coilovers were too small diameter for the stock bolts. The coilover ball mount is 5/8" so I drilled out the LCA to 5/8" and made some misalignment spacers to account take up the rest. I managed to wedge everything else in there and I mean wedge. At this point I just assumed the weight of the truck would help bring the angle down.

Narrator: It did not.

Took it for a small test drive around the neighborhood just to feel it out and I cant make more that one turn on the wheel and my sway bar links dig into my wheels. Whatever I can sort that out later for now it'll just come out so I did that and took another small drive and now that I can turn my CVs are angry and crunching if I try to turn too sharply.

All that to say I ordered a diff drop kit last night to be here Wednesday and tonight I am going to try to back off the adjustment nuts from the coilovers to take some preload off. Praying that they turn.

What are the odds the small amount of test driving I did to has ruined my CVs and is there anything else I can do to correct this? I suspect that the springs are 650 or 700# as the truck is nearly at full droop sitting on its tire. The thing just looks ridiculous. The diff drop should be here Wednesday and hopefully I can find a punch at a parts store on lunch today. I've got to get to a point I can drive it soon as I don't like riding the motorbike in the rain. Especially in January.

Thanks all. I'll try to get some pics up after work tonight.

 

Well I havent confirmed PNs but these coilovers are way too long. I'm guessing they are for a 6"lift. Now way no how can I make them work... Now to find a replacement quickly.

 

Best of luck! I'm very curious to see pictures of what it all looks like with those installed...

 

How on Gods green earth did I think this was going to pan out...

And now that I've modified my LCA to fit a Bigass bolt going back to stock presents its own problems.

Anybody want to trade some unknown fox shocks for something a little more standard??? I swear they will fit your truck

 

Coolio’s Fantastic Voyage comes to mind

 

Holy hell those cv axle angles...I wouldn't drive it around like that, for sure don't try putting it in 4wd until it's fixed.

 

Ohh I realized real fast I cant drive it around. After the test drive its only been backed in and out of the garage...

I'm so disappointed in myself and embarrassed by just how stupid I was during the whole install.

 

I’ve done worse let me dig up some pics

 

Where did you pick up the front coilovers? Any way you can verify the part numbers on them to see what they were meant for?

Well, modifying the LCAs wasn't the best idea lol but it's nothing that can't be fixed with some new parts.

 

My hope is to find some more fox's that will bolt in to my modified mounts. Not sure what the Icon bore size is but that might be an option as well.

 

I haven't heard of any coilovers for our rigs that requires drilling out the LCA holes to accommodate a larger bolt... Maybe these were for a Tundra or something? IDK

 

weld a washer on both sides on the hole to make it smaller

 

Thats the current plan if I can get my welder to reach. We just moved into this house and there is 1 outlet in the whole garage. Fortunately my welder is dual voltage. Not looking forward to un-facking this situation.

 

Its all good, you and the truck will be fine. Learning

 

Not sure if I can post a video but I got the stock coilovers back on for now but the needle bearing is chooched. I'm getting vibes come in right around 60 mph sometimes in the steering wheel sometimes in the whole cab. Ordered the bushing tonight hopefully a local has the tool I can borrow otherwise I'll have to make one.

 

Looks like you tried to stuff some 7"+ travel long travel shocks in there. The longest you can fit is the

$1,768 880-06-418 Rear Coilover Shock Absorbers Fits Toyota Tacoma

880-06-418 Fox +3 5" travel shocks, and even those are considered +1" travel extendeds requiring new upper arms.

First clue should have been the bottom heim joint eye being larger than stock bolt size.

Live and learn I suppose, fortunately no major damage done.

Were I you I would get some large fender washers as thick as the lower control arm mount plates and put the stock bolt back in and limp until you can get new control arms.

Edit:

Also diff drop ain't going to help and there's mixed opinions about it on here. The general consensus is it doesn't do much of anything. May want to return it.

Also call FOX their customer support is top notch and they might be able to tell you what you have over the phone so when you sell them you can list them appropriately.

 

Currently have the stock coilovers in without a washer just because I have a line on some parts for this weekend that I think will pan out. (doing better PN research this time) There isnt that much slop in the hole that I'm concerned about it for this week. Does anyone know if the lower joint bolt diameter is the same between these hella long boies I've got and what I should have? Obviously the misalignment spacers reduce the diameter to the stock bolt size but I would think the heim itself is the same and I can go back to the 9/16 bolt until I source some new lower control arms (which lets be honest will be never or when I go to longtravel some far off point in the future)

I appreciate all the encouragement on here, this really put me in a shit mood for a few days but alls well that ends well.

 

I have the Fox

$1,768 880-06-418 Rear Coilover Shock Absorbers Fits Toyota Tacoma

880-06-418 they (and their King or other Equivalents) are the biggest/longest/most lift shock you can run with the factory lower arms and they reuse the OEM lower bolt. They also come with a THIC Spacer that does against the lower heim to fill the factory lower arm mount slot.



You are required to have aftermarket upper control arms to fit these, but the lowers are 100% unmodified. Unless you count replacement of the bushings with polyurethane ones.

With my weight up front and the 700# coils the measurement is 21" from the center of the bottom eye to the bottom of the coil bucket. (Measurement shown in red) which is the maximum lift you can safely run on with the front CV axles being stock.




I would *STRONGLY* caution you against running those lower arms with the holes wallowed out, they see a lot of forces and there's decent potentially for the bolt to start knocking up and down in its free play room and tear out of your lower mount. Having your shock jump out of the lower arm is going to lead to a much worse and much more expensive day then you are already having.

A lot of folks run the Moog lower control arms, they're made with the same machines that made the Toyota ones just with not quite as good of metal or QC but they do the job and the lower ball joints are supposedly acceptable as well. You may as well just change them out because you can't get factory ball joints (and the factory lower control arms with ball joints run in the neighborhood of $600) so you would have to go to an aftermarket ball joint like Moog anyway it's not that much more expensive to buy the entire lower control arm with ball joint from Moog than it is to just buy the ball joint and then you won't have to worry about your lower control arm ripping, or your lower ball joints, which face it, the second chance are starting to show their age your lower ball joints are probably due for a replacement soon anyway.

 

A MOOG lower is cheap and decent. Just be sure to buy new cam bolts because most seize and you have cut them out to remove lca

 

Kind of off topic but the people In this thread seem very knowledgeable, I lifted my truck about 2.5 inches on bilstein 6112s, I went off-roading and rubbing is almost non existent/very minimal on 285/70/17 bfg on a + 1 offset(maybe I didn’t hit the loops hard enough? I dunno) my question is will I get more down travel with aftermarket uca? Will this effect rubbing, I just don’t want to chop my truck up(cmc). Unless I have to.
Also are these shocks I have considered Ext length? Are aftermarket uca necessary?