Just did iron man coil over install, here's some tips on howto and my opinion on them

just some details... i decided to go with the iron man setup because they are stiffer, i was a little unsure at first that they maybe to stiff when i made the order, but i am VERY happy with them,i like better than the 5100's for sure. i still have the 5100's in the back and when cornering heavy at decent speed the 5100's give a little too much for my taste. these assemblies are tight, but responsive, absorb shock like pot holes very well and still have good travel. but i must say that before i was using the stock coils so as you all know when using 5100's or spacers this puts the stock coils under a bind, so the new coils also has alot to do with the better performance. the stock coils had marks all over them from bottoming out, i have played with these for a few days with no signs of that yet, but its only been a few days so take it for what its worth. also for the sake of being thorough, i did not measure before i started, but my truck is a 2005 prerunner trd sport, the assemblies were sold as being a 3" lift, after in stall the measurement from center of wheel to the fender flare is about 23" to 23.5" after installed. so not sure exactly how much lift was gained, i am estimating about 2.75"

not to step on anyone's toes but i found some of the how to's lacking some details, and found that too many people complain about having to spend all day prying on the arms to get the struts in and out, here is the easy way...


to start, crawl under and remove the bolts on the tie rods and the one on the uca, then remove the 3 bolts on top of the spring cup, do not, i repeat do not ever ever ever remove the center bolt, the one that is on top of the strut!!!! the spring will let loose in your face!!! then remove the nut on the bolt at the bottom of the strut, then remove the bolts on the sway bar ends and then the bolts on the brackets that hold the sway bar to the frame. next loosin the lug nuts on your front 2 wheels. next, get a jack, if you using the one that came with the truck, the spare tire one, then you will need something to put under it that is about 6 to 8 inches thick. get in front of the truck, looking at the "t" in the grille, now go strait down and crawl under, you will see a round metal pad with a hole in it that is part of the frame, put your jack under it and lift until you see the tires are a good 6 inches of the ground. now, get some really good jack stands or what i use is 2" x 12" planks and bricks, and place them under the frame cross member that is located between the front tires, make your blocks or jack stand tight, and across the whole support, hence why i use bricks and 2" x 12" boards, it supports the whole cross member very sturdy. now finish taking off your lug nuts and your wheels. now you can release the jack and the truck is supported by the blocks you have on the crossmember and should be very sturdy, if it rocks back n forth or seems not totally stable, jack it up again and reposition your blocks. now pick a side, lets say the left side (driver side). place another small jack under the suspension arm, place it towards the end (the side where the wheel goes) this is to simply control the height of the arm. start jacking up this jack until you see the tension is released from the bolt at the bottom of the strut. tap it out with a hammer and a screw driver. if you have to force it or hit it really hard then you need to adjust your jack, raise or lower it until its easy to remove. once the bolt is removed, then concentrate on the tie rod end, raise and lower your jack until you can easily tap out the tie rod. now that your truck is up in the air and your sway bar and tie rods are loose, get a bungie cord and bungie both the sway bar and the tie rods towards the front to get them out of your way. lower the jack under the arm and move it out the way. now get another small jack, place it between the arm and the frame of the truck, be extremely careful not to bind any brake lines or sensor cables in the jack!! now start jacking up this jack slowly, the arm will slowly start going down, it does not take much at all maybe a few turns on the jack (if you using the spare tire jack) and the bottom of the strut will be loose, hit the bottom of the strut with a hammer, should not even have to hit too hard and the whole spring assembly will fall out (so be careful). now get your assembled coil overs, if your using 5100's already have them installed in your coil and ready to install. position the top of the coil assembly into the top cup and have the studs going through enough to put the 3 bolts on loosely, i said loosely! now, use the jack you have placed between the frame and the arm to force the arm down and then slide the bottom of the strut into place. use the jack to raise or lower so that you can line up the eye at the bottom of the strut with the mount hole so that you can easily put the bolt into place. tighten the bottom bolt, then tighten the top 3 bolts. remove your jack from between the frame and the arm. now move the other side, do the same. then reconnect the crown bolts on the uca, then reconnect the bolts on the ends of the sway bar, then reconnect the bolts on the tie rod ends, then reconnect the bolts that connect the sway bar mounts to the frame. mount your wheels and tighten lugs nuts. put your main jack into place on the first mount pad we used, the one in the center and jack up the truck enough to get your blocks out from under the truck. lower the truck and remove the jack. now tighten your lug nuts and go over every single bolt we removed to double check. in all the pictures i post, you usually see that i colored parts that i am dealing with using chalk. its just a personal thing,but its quick, easy, wipes off easy and you always know what parts/bolts you have worked with so you never forget one when doing your last run through. now your done. if you can change a tire, if you get your tools ready and everything in place the actual time spent on the install should not be more than 2-3 hours with tools an average off-roader has on hand. one tip, as shown in one of the pictures, the tie rod end tend to spin making removing and replacing the bolt a little tricky, the way i solve this and not damage the boot is to use a c-clamp and put it sorta diagonal across from top to bottom, all this does is put enough slight tension on it to stop the spinning. hope this helps, sorry if it is a little to the point but i had a long day and kinda tired but as always feel free to ask any questions.

side note,i colored and pointed out all the parts you will need to deal with while doing this

sorry for any spelling errors etc, been a long few days

hope this helps some folks

cheers,
disco

 

TL;DR.

 

??? not sure what that means ???

cheers.
disco

 

pics?

 

open the pdf file...
the jpg limit is really small so figured pdf bebetter but i can shrink and post as jpg if thats better?

cheers,
disco

 

Nice! wirte up!

 

TL;DR

Means "Too Long, Didn't Read". It can be used as either a statement (it was too long) or as a question (can you please provide a brief summary for those who don't want the read the whole thing?)

 

What he said.^

I see your intention was great, but a huge wall of text is pretty hard to follow and makes me not even want to try reading.
Some paragraph breaks might help next time.
Just constructive criticism.

 

Appreciate the writeup with pics. That's a pretty bold color combo of the COs. Orange coils with white shocks. What kind of rear lift? Any pics post lift of truck?

 

This was too long? wow. Stay in school kids.

 

ah, i gotcha, i'll take some time and make it more neat, sorry about that


cheers,
disco

 

Lol. Try and read it on a smartphone!

Good write up. Just needs shortened and such as the other poster mentioned.
Certainly appreciate the time it took to write though.

 

howdy everybody, i started making a clean pdf howto, so its coming, but in the original post i forgot to list the last step i guess because it is habit to always go back and check your work.

i just wanted to make sure to make it clear that after you do any suspension work after a few days of driving and settling to go back over everything and make sure everything is tight. i did that today and realized i forgot to put that in the howto.

cheers,
disco

 

May I ask why you didn't use the dust boot?