Betterbuckleup's 2000 taco build & BS

I bought a set of those as well, I was excited to see a set that had been designed on a 95 through '97 truck since our little brackets in the back are different for things

 

@ehart I believe solo motorsports just came out with their own frame plates.

https://solomotorsports.com/shop/pa...ta-armor/tacoma-rear-frame-box-kit-1995-2004/

 

They're the KP Offroad ones... just sold by Solo haha

 

Yeah Tanner (TKOffroad) that has a partnership with KPOffroad makes them and also works at solo M-F or Thursday.

 

I got those as well but Solo and KPO say they'll only fit an extended cab. They should fit from my testing on my double cab, but they'll require a little extra work to fit

 

Wish those were around when I did mine. The TG fitment is typical trash

 

Did you have any problems with your parking brake cable being to tight over the taller leaf pack?

 

It was a bit tighter than stock, but not to the point where it was an issue. Didn't notice any brake dragging or anything. In my experience, the parking brake doesn't really fully engage until the very end of the stroke of the lever anyways.
I have seen some folks make small brackets to raise the attachment point on the drums though.

You could also bend the cable bracketry on the axle housing up a bit to help add a little more room between them.

 

Im thinking of mimicking your front suspension setup, are you happy with the solo TC combo? Also thinking of going for the uniball conversion from TC, Thanks!

 

Yea it's been rock solid. Issue is just getting the rear to keep up with the front, which unfortunately won't happen unless I go spring-under or links.
Make sure you don't cross up the alignment cams to keep the bushings happy.
I've been fine with LBJ's and hard wheeling and don't see any need to switch to that conversion. Doesn't seem worth it for the $$ to me.

 

Really good to know. Do you run yours in the neutral position, down?

 

No I think I have the passenger side all the way out, or almost on both cams. And then the right is somewhat neutral. Don't remember exactly, but whatever it is to try and keep the camber and caster similar on each side.

 

fify Very interesting. Almost the same as my wife’s 4runner. It might be some incorrect laser or the jig at solo. I’ve been working on the alignment over the past couple months (also setting ride height 2-3 times). Changed uppers and spindles. This is another data point for it potentially being the solo lowers causing the passenger side to be way out on the front and rear to get matching (or almost matching) numbers.

 

In my case, I don't think it's a parts problem. After a front end accident, my truck always had to have the passenger side cams crossed up to keep a higher marching caster with the stock lowers.
I wasn't doing my own alignments before, but I'm pretty sure they previously didn't need to be at such extremes to get cohesive numbers side-to-side.

 

This is good to know, I think ill set them both at neutral before heading to an alignment? Not messed around too much with my own alignment so with the KP Cams I will be curious to see how it is. How are you liking the 35's?

 

Do you have heimed uca’s? Are you talking about the 8 way lock out tabs? Will your shop adjust those?

I’ve spent a good month of partial Saturdays and Sundays working on my wife’s alignment. Using shops with free alignment checks helped get confirmation that what I’m seeing are the actual numbers.

Using an angle finder I got camber close to zero’d out, but my numbers aren’t matching the two shops I’ve brought it to and their numbers don’t match either. I think either one or both of them didn’t know how to run their machine.

Here’s what I have

The weird thing is the most recent shop had the camber at positive and these pictures show a negative camber (just a smidge - half a degree or less).



Don’t mind the toe - I made it close to zero after this report and it’s uneven because the steering wheel was off center when I installed the rack and I’ll just remove the rag joint to re-center the wheel.

The strangest thing is that I got this report first



Where the driver’s side was dead on at 0* camber and the passenger side was out of spec with negative camber. I didn’t want to make my cams any more mismatched than they already were so I added 3/4 of a turn of preload on the passenger side which would lift the ride height and therefore trade some of the negative camber for caster. I pushed the toe out a little but I didn’t touch the lca cams - and they were marked with only street driving between the first report and the second report. Who knows what is right- either of the shops or me, but if need be I know a shop that has experience with off road parts.

 

Hunter machines just got an update pushed out, The one that I end up using at my buddy shop changed its process for sweeping the measurements which is really annoying. So it's entirely possible they were using their machine wrong

 

practice makes perfect with doing your own alignment. The free lifetime firestone alignment has been nice for part of that. the 35's are great. not that big of a jump from the 295-70's I had before though. I barely had to do any clearancing when I switched from the ~34's to the 35's. I do sometimes miss thej extra width from my previous wheel and tire setup. Felt more stable on road on some turns just from being overall a little bit wider.

I wouldn't use the brake shield as a refernce point like that with your angle finder. I know mine are all bent out of whack. I use one of the SPC alignment fixtures on my wheels for the camber and castor measurements

 

Angle finder's on the rotor - none of my vehicles have dust shields

Yeah both of the places aren't high calibre shops, I'll see if the nice shop will allow me to pay a few dollars for just an alignment check near my job.

 

curious if you experianced stiff steering after installing the uniball UCA's