Wisconsin Tacomas and bad financial advice

Actually, no sway bars would be the best.

But, yeah, a front delete is better than a rear delete.

I thought Tacos didn't have a rear sway bar? I seem to recall being spat on and heckled for not knowing this a few years ago.

 

Gonna get in there after work. A $12.99 fix would be ideal!

 

I was out of town this past weekend. Before we left, ALF had a 1/2 second delay before the starter engaged, but he started every time. I just had to hold the key a 'lil longer. Its' been sitting for 4 days and now all I get is a click. I perused You Tube and discovered that the 4Runner starters do not like to get wet. That was a common theme in the few vids I found. There is no fix. I need a starter. Good luck with your starters, guys!!

 

Aye it be true

Bingo

False. Check out Tinkerer's Adventure on YT.

4th gen do, 1-3 only have a front.

Speaking of front.... Frontiers have both.

 

My buddy had an old Chevy Short box that needed starter fluid sprayed in the carb every time he started it.

Could be worse....

 

No need with leaf springs, plenty of stiffness built in.

occasionally people install them but i think its unnecessary unless you’re running a SUPER lightweight leaf pack and are trying to build a racecar.

For my little rear link project that bounces around in my noodle, I have an unlockable sway bar for extra bendy flex time

 

Not going to watch a YouTube video to prove that I'm wrong. Unless you can explain how having no rear sway bar will limit articulation more than having a rear sway bar.

Bear in mind that I understand that a front sway bar delete provides better results than a rear delete (on non-KDSS 4Runners).

 

But was the overall flex (front and rear combined) better or worse than with both removed?

 

I'm genuinely curious.

I know Tinkerer is very thorough. His video on KDSS is one of the few that are worth watching.

 

The contacts I'm thinking of are internal.
A rebuilt starter is just new contacts and a plunger. (If they still rebuild them)

 

Okay, so this is why: when you have a stiff rear suspension and a flexy front suspension, the rear "forces" the front to load more of the suspension travel.

imagine if you have coil springs on all 4 corners. you have 10 lb springs up front and 20 lb springs in the rear, solid axles front and rear so its easier to imagine.
you load the front left side of the axle -- it goes up a hill.
since the front springs are 'weaker', they absorb more of the twist, potentially maxing out before shifting the load to the rear OPPOSITE spring.

Does that make sense?

It's obviously far more complicated in vehicles that have such pesky things as engines and IFS and frame flex and material properties that make physics problems more annoying than, "imagine a spherical cow on a frictionless surface"

So imagine you've got yourself a truck with coil springs up front and leaf springs in the rear. You load the front left side as before.
Your front springs are carrying the weight of the front of the truck -- engine, winch, dual batteries, solar controller, compressor overlanding gear, and now they're also compressing because of the change in terrain.

At the same time, the rear opposite spring is being loaded because the vehicle's frame/axles/etc act as a differential. when you have a massive differences in spring rates, the rear isn't going to load as 'easily' as the front -- which is usually the case for heavy overlanding troks.

There's also some fun regarding how linked suspension systems vs leaf suspension systems have built in resistance to movement


anyway, at the end of the day, the benefit of a sway bar is to help load the other side of the axle when you have 1-sided axle movement[turning hard or something] . There's also a benefit/issue with a swaybar loading the other end of the vehicle [front-back] with suspension loading.

For me, I'd like a disconnectable sway bar so I can lock it on for regular driving -- street, high-speed offroad, any time when you want balanced front/rear suspension loading. Then you can unlock it and have plenty of axle flex, but with the downside of less balanced front/rear suspension loading.

 

I've gone down this rabbit hole personally and it varies based on tons of factors, like the ones mentioned above. Overall weight and weight distribution, solid axle rear only or front/rear, IFS or IRS front/rear, coils or leaf springs front/rear...the list goes on.

Broadly speaking, if the vehicle has two sway bars from the factory, it seems like a happy medium is a stiffer rear sway bar and no front sway bar for the best compromise between offroad articulation and on road comfort/safety. A disconnecting front sway bar is also good, if you don't want to permanently remove it.

 

that's not really accurate though -- my subaru has a thicker [read: stiffer] front sway bar than rear. obviously it's prioritizing wheel-to-ground surface grip rather than suspension travel, but there's a LOT of nuance that goes into it.


In your example I'd say yes, unless you're rocking leafs out back [like most trucks], which rarely come with swaybars on the caboose end.

 

Agreed there's a lot of nuance, no one size fits all solution.

I was personally referring to my 80 series, but it's all about the type of vehicle and intended use.

 

You guys are making my head hurt. I just want to know why my shocks are failing again…

 

what are they doing?