What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

Wheelersoffroad.com

 

assembled or not?

Wondering if the unassembled comes with new top hats and what not.

 

Got mine assembled but you can do unassembled too.

 

Right, I guess I need to talk to Wheelers to see what the unassembled comes with exactly

 

Change the spark plugs today on my 03 Tacoma went with NGK double platinum

 

no they won't come with new top hats. Just the strut and new top hat bushings. Not top hats. Order those separate.

 

Might as well get them assembled at that point

 

All the big welds done. And now I can slide my truck sideways in the garage

 

What have I done to my first gen Tacoma today?

Backstory:
A few years ago I installed “Wheelers off Road” 8 leaf pack springs, along with new Fox 2.0 resi shocks. I also installed King coil overs, and Camburg UCA’s up front.
The leaf spring advertised a 1.5” lift and butter smooth ride. Unfortunately it lifted much higher. 4”+ as a result I cranked my coilovers up to 2.5 out of 3” of adjustability. Needless to say the ride was not butter smooth.
I started a thread here asking for advice on what to do about it on TW that provided several good suggestions that helped a little. Also, “Wheelers Off-road” said they would settle over time.

Today:
After a little research I decided to remove a leaf from the pack in order to lowers the rear end. Then adjust the coil overs to lower the front. It was recommended that I remove the 3rd leaf from the top, so now I have a plan.

I am by NO means a mechanic! I’ll do things like change a starter, or spark plugs. But I’ve never done anything this in depth. How hard can it be? Right?



As It sat this morning ^^

After jacking the truck up on stands with stacks of solid concrete blocks as backup support, I removed my shocks and rear leaf springs.
Note the rug to protect my bony ass from my rocky driveway..

I disassembled both sides at the same time, if I had to do it again I would complete one side at a time.

When I disassembled both sides at the same time I didn’t realize I needed to support the driveshaft. So this happened.
Oops!!!
I was worried that the driveshaft separating like that would damage it. But according to TW it’s not a problem if it doesn’t completely come apart. What a relief!!!!!!!

Now for leaf 3 removal.
Using 5” C clamps I loosened them up, slid the leaf out, got them lined up nicely, then tightened them back up. No complications.


So far so good!

Next was reassembly.
I put the driver side together 1st.
Got the leaf springs in, mounted U bolts and mounting hardware. When I tried to remount the shock, i couldn’t get it pushed all the way onto the mounting post. I now know that could’ve been avoided by mounting both leaf springs at the same time, then everything would be lined up correctly.
I removed the left shock, then reassembled the other side.

I discovered that using tie down straps the move the axle where it needed to go in order to line up the center leaf pin with the axle I super useful.

Then I cleaned my dirty shocks..
Then reinstalled them.

I had some trouble getting the shocks back on because the rubber bushings wanted to bind up and stop halfway on.

My wife had a jar of bacon grease handy. So a slight amount of that on the inside of the bushings as lubricant.
Then the bushing slid over the post better than the perfect prom date!

The benefit is that now my shocks smell like breakfast!

Then I Fugged up!
Until then, Things were going TOO well I think.

I used a torque wrench to mount the shocks in place. The mounting bolts required 74lb of torque According to the spec sheet I have.
When tightened the lower shock bolt something went wrong.. I’m not sure if the wrench malfunctioned and didn’t Click or what, but I ended up breaking the bolt head off! DAMNIT!!


After suffering a 10 second bout of Tourette’s syndrome, and taking a break.
I was able to use a tap and hammer to slowly back the stud out of the hole. I was concerned I would have to drill it considering how hard I was pulling when it broke. But I came right out. Lucky me!



So now because of that, I don’t have a bolt to mount my shock back in place until I can find a replacement.

Any suggestions?
Is this a bolt I’m likely to find at Oreillys?
I can get one from the Stealership, but I need it ASAP. This is my DD.

anyway..

that’s all for now. I’ll post more pics when I get it on the ground.

 

you can find something close enough at the hardware store to get you going. plan on spending a couple bucks for the proper replacement. Maybe someone on here who is far from stock has a spare lying around

 

Auto part store might, but Ace usually has a decent amount of metric bolts. I would run that till I got a proper replacement.

 

My driver shock mount bolt has been a ACE hardware replacement for years. Also I’m pretty sure that lower shock mount torque spec is closer to 55 ft lbs. I always replace with 10.9 (metric grade 8) but the original was 8.8 (metric grade 5) either will be just fine

 

lmao bacon grease as bushing lube. That's a new one

 

Damn your shocks look like they need rebuilt, not just cleaned. Your seals must be shot if they are leaking that badly. I'd assume you've never done any maintenance to the Kings either? Surely the lower unibals are shot and they probably need an oil and seal refresh too.

You can also take the opportunity to revalve them to be softer if you want that. That'll change the ride comfort more than lowering the lift will. Although I'm in full support of lowering the lift a bit.

 

Got keyless entry on my truck today for the price of a key fob!!

Best mod for the $$ out there!

I did a write up on it here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-keyless-entry-for-the-price-of-a-key-fob.711398/

 

Is that right, Rebuilt you say? The components only have around 40,000 miles on them, so no I haven’t done anything to them. Only the right one had grease buildup on it. The other one was just dirty.
lower uniballs? The uniball on my Camburgs? I just replaced my lower ball joints with 555’s.
Im not sure what you mean by “ lower uniball”
No maintenance to the Kings, correct..
What maintenance do they need??
I was planning on lowering them about an inch or so.

 

Kings just like any performance coilover will need rebuilding after so many miles, depending on how hard you use them.

The spherical bearings in their lower mounts tend to go first, easy to replace though. I think that's what he was referring to. The original bearings on my Kings lasted about 20k miles before I had to replace them, was getting a clunk when stopping/accelerating from stop.

 

Yes you can rebuild those shocks. New oil and now seals. You can also change out the valve stack so that they dampen differently. Given your level of abilities I'd probably recommend sending them in to be rebuilt especially if you want to ask the valving to be changed. Those Foxes tend to be on the stiff side.

The kings have lower spherical bearings at the eyelets. That is the part that the lower mounting bolt goes through. They wear out over time and need replaced. It is easy to do and the part is pretty cheap. Im sure you could do that part yourself. If you don't do it you risk blowing out the bearing and then ruining the aluminium eyelet on the bottom of the shock.

But with 40k miles on them, Id suggest getting them an oil refresh and new seals as well. You can also ask for the valving to be changed on these as well.


Im assuming you don't do a lot of offroading so 40k is a reasonable maintenance interval for them. Up to 50k. But I would start looking into if I were you at this point. Plus again, revalving the shocks will have a much bigger impact on the rid of the truck than just lowering the lift.

 

For instance this is a blown out bearing on my kings and it ruined the eyelet

 

Before removing leaf #3


After removing leaf #3
And driving it about 10 miles.


not a huge difference, probably 1.5” or so lower. I was hoping it would lower another inch or so, but it is much smoother!
it is almost perfect level now, front to back.
I’m going to weigh down the back with a couple hundred pounds or bricks when I head into town to get my wife later. I’m curious to see if it settles anymore, and how it feels with a load.