97 4Runner Crawler

2nd Gen Tacoma uca bolt works for those.

I’d do the coilover bucket reinforcement too - the one that a @Reh5108 made (makes?) or eimkeith if you’re gusseting and can do it all at the same time.

 

I may weld in the coilover mount bracket that came with the JD kit. Looks like that would do about the same thing. Are the 2nd gen UCA bolts a bit longer? Wish I hadn’t gotten rid of mine now lol

 

2nd gen bolts are a bit longer.

I never reinforced my uca mounts because I just don’t care enough, don’t feel like it there is enough force to break anything there idk. Also that is where I get the oil filter and I don’t want to give up the access

For sure get a coil bucket reinforcement though to be safe. If you have limit straps and bumps in the right place you shouldn’t need them but these have a lot of issues. I think @Reh5108 never went into production with his which stinks so the top plates Eimkieth makes are the best option.

this is how I bought it, look back and I think I have pics of the repair / reinforcement.

 

Good thinking on the oil filter. I don’t think uppers see a tremendous amount of force so these might stay in the box.

 

Yep, another option.

 

If anyone is interested shoot me a pm and I'll send you a pdf to print out to confirm fitment. I was running into issues with fitment on some buckets so couldn't do a universal run.

Edit: just saw this is a 4r. I don't have the bolt pattern rotation for these and I think the bucket is different from the taco. I briefly eyed one up once and it wasn't close enough to make work. If someone want to work with me and print out numerous templates to find what works we can do that.

 

junk

 

Gotta see that from the front. lol

 

Just sheared it off. In the middle of a Toyota vs Jeep competition so I felt bad for everyone I held up. But if those mf want to put me in the extreme class with V8s and 43 stickies I’m atleast going to try to give them a run for their money.

I wasn’t going slow but it is pretty dumb it broke here. Maybe 15” ledge and It just stuffed and sheared off. Only thing that maybe makes sense to me is I caught a root but there really isn’t anything to catch that hard. Wonder if I would have been better with the front locked to pop up over it.

 

Well the ball joint held at least, I guess? lol I’ve been freaking out over how many ball joint failures I see in the Facebook 4Runner groups. Not all of them are bolts either, but when they are that doesn’t make me feel any more confident in the uniball conversions…

 

I think joint failures are just extreme negligence. Bolts I thought I had eliminated using the oem black with washer bolts, torquing to 40ft lbs (spec is 38?), and replacing after 3-4 tightening cycles…

these were new along with new LBJs in late april and have only been torqued once that I can recall since nothing in there has broken since then. Only thing I may consider a cause is I used to use antisieze on the bolts (stopped over a year ago) so maybe It was like wet vs dry torque because of some left in the spindle? Or maybe 38ft lbs vs 40 is too much

@livel0veryde upsized his bolts with the new spindles and uses nuts on top, maybe that would help some.

 

Sounds like you did everything by the book. Didn’t know you could upsize the bolts. Is it an aftermarket spindle that allows that I’m guessing?

 

He built boxed spindles that accept tundra unit bearings when he swapped the front diff

 

The only way to eliminate the bolt failures is to weld the spindle to the LBJ.

 

That thought ran through my mind. Was trying to figure out a way to make that not such a pain to replace a LBJ. Like what if instead of welding them directly to each other, maybe weld an additional piece to the spindle and the bead that’s on the LBJ side could be easily cut off, cleaned up and a new bead run on a new LBJ assembly. Maybe that’s ridiculous.

 

At that point I think I’d SAS lol kinda wish I had done it with this, but more of a “how it should have been from factory” with a Toyota axle. But for family friendly outings and occasional offroad parks IFS LT will do fine. I’m over the bouncer and super intense shit for now that requires a trailer.

 

Kind of interesting

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...s-wanted-about-lower-ball-joint-bolts.772506/

 

I read that last night lol first saw that on another forum though, but I think it was copied and pasted. Definitely went with black bolts after reading that. But I operate on caveman tolerances, so me no like seeing things like 37 ft•lb or else…

 

Tried saving the spindle but not worth the trouble. The ears that bolt to the lbj are twisted up in different directions and one bolt is seized in there good. I’m glad I just got a spare to swap and drive it home.

@theesotericone when you burned them in did you just undo the lbj to lca when you needed to do something inside there?

nothing broken in the rcv but it has some pretty funky pitting / wear for ~16 months and less than 5k miles on these joints I think I’ll just run them till they break if they start clicking this time around.

steering rack also has some slop, seems like it gave it more play on the roller / slide bolt when it took the hit so I need to tighten that up so it stops clunking.



Some videos of when it broke. Still kinda bummed it broke there but looks like the tire just barely snagged a root and ripped the wheel left then the leverage sheared it off when it hit the steering stop. Better than just breaking when i hit that little ledge because i know i have done worse than that before.

https://youtu.be/qnQkWjyLnGc

https://youtube.com/shorts/o6mNJ6IQM1w?feature=share

and a little jump since this is all I have been doing since i broke it and haven’t put back in the CV axle. Feels pretty smooth but the back still bucks some. Think it is a combo of a short ramp and not enough uptravel.
https://youtu.be/knqDprI49ME

 

So nice to see someone not babying their rig. Beat on it and drive it home. You make me miss my bouncer though