"Done with my" front suspension rebuild,,,,,,,

Hey all,
I've been over in the 2nd Gen Marketplace a lot lately. I've been collecting the parts to take on my next project. I'll be pulling off the front suspension and replacing it. It will be replaced with all OEM stuff for the most part. My Taco has 99,500 miles on it and I want to refresh anything I can without going into the poor house.

I'm waiting on one more thing to ship and I think I'll be ready. I have two strut mount kits coming in a couple of days. The kits will have the top mounting plate, the rubber isolator, the lower shock bushing and two washers.

I've pretty much decided not to do the tie rod ends at this time. That and the wheel bearing/hub assembly. The latter because of cost, and it can be done later without a lot of dis assembly.

Everything is low mileage or new. I'd like to give myself another comfortable 100,000 miles.

Any thoughts or suggestions????

 

Looks like a nice pile of parts for a stock rebuild. LCA And UCA bolts?

 

I have UCA bolts coming from JPA2002. Thinking I'll reuse the cam set up. What do you think???

 

Would think they'd be alright, are the tabs in decent shape on your truck? If not it may be a good time to gusset them.

 

I'll have to take a look. Never thought about it.

 

I'm just about ready. I'm just waiting on the front shocks. I ordered new strut mount kits so I can replace the strut bearings. I have everything to assemble the strut towers before I begin so I won't have to fuss with it once I get the truck apart.

Does anyone know of any surprises I may run into during the tear down and reassembly?? I thought I read somewhere, I may have to take the rack and pinion loose to get the UCA bolts out.

Are there any specialized tools needed?? I have a "pickle fork" for tie rod ends and ball joints. I have a good assortment of general tools. Metric and SAE.

Any input?

 

And they just pulled up. And they are perfect. Thanks Beavis.

 

Be careful with those spring compressors. When I did mine the long bolts were bowing out and I still had more to go to fit the spring on. Scared the hell out of me. Next time ill take it somewhere and have it done with the right equipment.

 

Respect

 

Roger that. The kit came with bolts and plates to use to go from the spring to the bolt to help prevent that. Thanks for the warning. I'm going to go slow and use hand tools.

 

Hi Folks,
Well, It's done. Took me about 8 hours including the alignment and the two trips to the hardware store. Over all went very well. Only a couple of banged knuckles. No real blood.

Why you ask did I have to go to the hardware store, why for resip saw blades to cut the head off the UCA bolts. For the life of me I can't figure out why they would install the bolts in that direction.


It took me a half a dozen blades to cut through the two bolts. I installed the new bolts from the other direction. From the rear of the
a arm. If anyone has any cleaver solutions for this, I wish I'd have known. Thank God I bought bolts before the job.

Last night I assembled the strut towers so I'd have them done for today. Much easier than led to think. Took about a half hour for both. I had the springs, bought the shocks and the strut install kit so I had it all before hand.


And here is what I'm left with. Eventually I'll put them up for sale. Although I damaged all four ball joint boots using a "pickle fork" to knock them loose.


I'm quite pleased with the out come. Some day I'll replace the tie rod ends and steering knuckles and the such. But for now I have the worst of it done, the full tear down. And the new rotors and pads are nice to have too.

Thanks to all for the input and thanks to those who sold me parts and shipped so quickly.

 

Good work man. With the front end converted body wise you must be felling like its a new truck.

 

Are the Ball Joints for the LCA's in tact?
Or are those the ones you damaged?

 

The ball joints on the take offs got tore up. The ones on the truck are like new.

It feels pretty good. Get a lot of compliments on it. Strangers will come up to me in parking lots.

 

I should say the boots are tore up. But the parts have 99,700 miles on them.

 

Where did you get the new Ball Joints + Boots for the stock LCA's?
I called Toyota and they only sell the whole LCA(which I do not want to buy).

 

I bought everything to do it on here from members. PeeRunner and Beavis supplied the shocks, UCA bolts from JPA2002, UCA's from SgtTRD, LCA's from fenderboy62, sway bar and links from Mel, rotors and pads from R1concepts on E-bay and the strut mounting kit from autopartsexp on E-bay.

I'd never go to Toyota for major parts. And If I did want OEM, I'd got to someplace like this. All the parts I picked up on here were very low miles. The UCA's had 900 miles and the LCA's had under 5,000 miles. The rotors and pads and the strut install kit are new aftermarket.

The parts I took off have 99,700 miles and I tore the boots on the ball joints while taking them apart.

 

The reason the uca bolts go in from the front is so they can't fall out if they come loose. There's a thread on it and people have had it happen putting them in from back to front. It might be unlikely but better safe than sorry.

 

That makes sense, but how do you get them out and back in that way?????

By the way, love the view in your sig.