Replaced CV’s and LBJ, now the LCA is drooping about 2” and won’t line up with spindle

Took advice of people on these forums (THANK YOU)

replaced CV and LBJ today. Going with after market CV while I reboot the OEM and save for later.

I’ve seen other posts mentioning the LCA droop but there wasn’t clear direction to correct.



if I jack the LCA back up the entire truck goes with it

I’ve removed sway bar linkage (required to get CV out) so I know that’s not preventing the LCA from moving.

Any ideas?

 

Loosen the cam bolts and raise it? Sounds like binding to me.

 

Pry the upper control arm down, it will be a bit springy and take a fair bit of force. This will take the spindle with it to mate up with the LBJ. It may still take a bit of finagling to get things lined up. Most folks pull the shock to do this job.
Your shock/coil spring is holding the lower arm at full droop, the upper arm is sitting somewhere around ride height due to the upper control arm bushings (rubber torsional flex type bushing).

 

I did try this already, it feels like I’m pulling way too hard on the upper to get it to fit. I’m thinking renting a coil compressor will help diagnose the issue and maybe fix it too. Feels like coil isn’t compressing as it should?

 

^Do you have a spacer lift by any chance?

 

Yep! Prev owner installed 1” spacer assuming to level with the rear which is bagged and has a bit of lift.

 

Wait... Are you trying to to this with the coilover in place? Take that sucker out!

Good lord what was it like when you took off those lower four bolts?

 

Yep, that will definitely exaggerate the problem. Like I and others mentioned, remove the shock.

 

Nothing happened, it came apart pretty easy. removed the 4 bolts to swing spindle away and get CV out. After I replaced LBJ the gap became a problem.

Good to know that’s likely the cause, I’ll see what I can do from here.

 

To be fair, I didn't need to undo my coilovers at all on either vehicle.

 

I reviewed several guides like adventuretaco’s to make sure I wasn’t missing anything, nowhere else was this mentioned so idk either

https://adventuretaco.com/guide/ste...s-lbj-on-a-1st-gen-tacoma-or-3rd-gen-4runner/

 

Not sure why it was even brought up.

I've undone the LBJs more times than I care to admit on the 4Runner and it too was lifted; was no different than the Tacoma I had that was also lifted.

 

Yeah that contributes to the problem. Jack the LCA up until the truck begins lifting up. Use the bottle jack between the UCA and fenderwell to push the UCA down. If that isn't enough, snake a couple of bar-style spring compressors in there to compress the spring.



In a shop, you can ratchet strap the truck to the lift arms, then jack up on the LCA.

 

Yep!

I won't knock someone for undoing it.

I just never did

 

This worked except used ratchet strap to compress the coil a tiny bit, enough to use bottle jack on UCA like you said and was finally able to install all 4 bolts then removed 1 at a time to apply the loctite.

thank you all for the input and helping me finish this before midnight

 

Anyone else who runs into this - I found the easier fix is to jack the truck up high enough to add a second jack/stand underneath LCA as close to LBJ as possible while still allowing space to finger tighten or ratchet the 4 bolts.

Then, when you lower the truck back you’ll see the coil start to compress against that second stand. Slowly lower until the coil stops compressing, then raise jack 1/4-1/2” to add back some support to the frame.

Keep your jack + any additional supports on the frame, and keep the additional jack/stand under UCA while you finger tighten the 4 bolts. You can remove it once the 4 bolts are added, then apply your loctite and torque 1 bolt at a time as needed.

While doing driver side LBJ today I realized the issue I had last week was due to trying to jack LCA up about half way between LBJ and frame. Needs to be closer to wheel / LBJ to have any affect on compressing the coilover.

 

You really made a mountain more work for yourself. Even if it's not in someone's write up, when you are disassembling the front suspension components, it's almost compulsory to remove the coilovers. Fighting against spring potential when working to line up things is just silly and dangerous.

If you had just removed the coilovers you would have been able to line up the knuckle and LBJ without issue, and then just used a pry bar to get the CO back in. That pry bar is only required with spacer lifts. Most CO's just slide in without a fight.

 

You’re absolutely wrong.

I’ve done so many spring swaps on multiple types of Toyotas, with no ratchet straps and fawking Chinese spring compressors or pry bars.

The real advice here is to tell OP to get rid of the spring spacer, and find someone to help him that knows what he’s doing.