The Getaway...Crom's build and adventures

i just live in this build thread while at work. Ur guys camera talk is making me read so much more about them since im looking to stop using the iphone 6 lol and step up to a real camera.

 

From last nights inspection:

• D&P Spindles and steering knuckles look okay.
• D&P Coil bucket towers look okay.
  
• D&P Tie Rods look okay.
• D&P UCA's look okay.
• D&P LCA's look okay, but LCA bushings are looking rotten and maybe torn.
  
• Drivers UCA ball joint boot leaking grease, but otherwise looks okay.
  
• Divers LBJ boot is leaking grease a lot faster than I hoped for, discovered this a few months ago and already cleaned it once.
• Tires rub fame and LCA, both on Drivers Side, and Passenger Side. Frame paint gone and is now polished from tire rub, and this is news to me.
  
• Tires also rub UCA at full turn. (this I knew about)
• CV boots look okay, but passenger side fins looks more bunched up to me, when compared to drivers side. I've got to recheck this to make sure my tires were completely straight, but I believe they were.
• I could not find a reliable way to measure the distance between the tire and the UCA at the UBJ.

Factory suspension diagram is here.

Pics of cams, the white paint were match marks I made from the last alignment I had. For some reason I can't seem to find that alignment sheet. However, I have the alignment sheet from the last alignment I had when I had the JBA HD UCA's. And what's good about that one is that Camber, Caster, SAI, and AI match perfectly on both sides of the truck. That was good information to be because the first set of JBA UCA's bent under compression and I had always worried that something else bent on the truck, but that alignment should have ruled that out.

Anyways here are some pics of the cams.

 

Hey Nick, nice build thread. Too much to go through in one sitting. Hope you find the issue, mine was a bent spindle, could hardly see the difference but it was enough to throw the alignment way off. Gussets are a good idea and can be done without removal.

Hoping to explore DV soon, see what is closed.

 

Every long term Tacoma owner will eventually have to deal with LBJ and LCA bushings... What a pain in the ass. I went back and reviewed the LCA bushing thread. I see where Kev is "testing" the Mevotech poly one with good results. That thread is good and I've been following along in there ever since Boyd first created it.

I may do what Eric @teamhypoxia did and completely refurbish the front end. If you got to get in for one part, might as well refresh them all at the same time. Super smart. But I'm not going to do that until sometime next year. In the mean time I may try and pick up a set of used OEM LCA's to have as spares, and source other parts (bushings, BJ, etc).

To beef up the front end, my plan is:

• cam tab gussets.
• spindle gussets
• Coilbucket gussets
  
• Aftermarket UCA's

I want a welder so I can do it myself, I'm hoping for next year.

Thanks Andy! I'm shooting for a December DV trip. Can't wait to get out there.

 

And in air-up news, the ARB Twin portable system I built kicks serious ass. It airs up my tire from 20 PSI to 40 PSI in exactly 1 minute, 5 seconds.

It's exactly twice as fast as the ARB single! Imagine that! I'm so stoked. It actually takes longer to air down now than air up! WoW!

The case I had in mind didn't fit the ARB, so it wound up in another garage bin I already had and I'm good with that. I'm going to try and hard mount it soon, got parts arriving over the next week or so, but the pressure is off now that the system is operational.

 

It's a bunch of work for sure, but you can spread it out if you source replacement parts.
ie. get a set of spindles and gusset them up, get a set of LCAs and replace bushings and cam bolts so if yours are siezed you can just cut them out and slap the others in, get new tie rods if you need them, etc.

If all you have to do is swap stuff out that's ready to go, you can do it with minimal down time on the truck.

 

Teraflex Air deflators

I timed my tire deflation with these Teraflex Air deflators in the picture below. They come in stacks of (4) along with a keychain keeper. They're cheap, stupid simple, and I like them. You screw them on and walk away for a few minutes and come back later and your air is out.

At 2 minutes deflation time my tire was at 21.5 PSI, started at 40 PSI.

I know temperature, elevation, can affect air, so I'll repeat this test a few more times and report back.

The test above was done after some city driving and ambient temp was about 72*F. Elevation was about 650' above sea level.

 

Thanks gordi! So glad. I never imagined what my build thread would turn into. In short it's been fun and enjoy the sharing. For many years I never bothered reading build threads, I tended to just stay in 2nd gen or other tech sections. Then I had a number of requests for one, so I decided I'd make one but wasn't quite sure how to go about it. So I started reading what others had done in their threads and I have been amazed. There is so much to learn and great people to learn from. Also I noted the tone of peoples posts in build threads is generally much more cordial and civil. lol People wanting to learn, vs. arguing which product/method is better. Anyways, it's been fun.

^Thanks Eric! I'm grateful for your post. I'll do it just like you tell and showed me in yer thread.

 

I just discovered that Total Chaos Fabrication has some weld-on alignment tab gussets. They appear to be much heavier duty than stock. According to their web site, they are made from 1/4" steel - heavier than stock.

I have not read about anyone using them, but look like they might be worth a try.

 

Highly recommend the new tabs. Super beefy and my cams haven't moved a bit in two wheeling trips.

 

Yes. They're first on my beef up the front end mods. If Chris @ckeene9 says they're solid, then they'll work for the other 99.9% of Tacoma owners. That other .1% are just the straight axle builds.

I'll have to check your build and read up on them. But I'm guessing it's not too hard. Air chisel old ones off, clean, burn new ones on? I read somewhere that someone welded them up with the LCA still mounted, but maybe had the cams out, like one at a time. I think if one protected the bushing with aluminum foil it would probably be okay... Dunno just speculating, I has no experience with coalescing steel, just a soldering gun.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with Boyd @XXXX (now banned) and @brutalguyracing two years ago in the LCA bushing thread.

I was asking for clarification on the bolts/cams before pulling them and greasing them. Because everybody should know that Toyota does not grease them and they will inevitably seize causing owners to not be able to align their trucks, and spend a helluva lot of money paying a shop to cut the bolt and burn / press the bushings out.

Anyways... BGR just unbolts and pulls the cams out, greases them and puts them back in. He does no other prep work like jacking the truck or disconnecting the shock. It sounds nuts to me because they are load bearing, but he swore by it. Here is the link to the dialog.

Nothing against BGR, but I ended up doing it the way Boyd recommended.

Jack truck, pull tire, disconnect shock, mark cams, and service each bolt / cam one at a time. Then reinstall.

I did that to all four bolts / cams because I knew one day I'd want to pull it apart and not have to deal with the nightmare of cutting / burning / pressing them out.

I posted lots of pics here.

 

I don't recommend welding them up with the LCAs still on the truck, way too much heat IMO.

The recommended way to remove them is to drill the two spot welds (takes a bit of time) then chisel it off. I did that for about 1/2 of them then found an easier and faster method. I bent the tabs away from the truck far enough to carefully slip a cutoff wheel in between to zip the spot welds. Some flap disc prep and then it was ready for the new ones to be installed.

 

so far so good with the Mevotechs. I am going to stick the GoPro back under there this weekend to see if their is any movement.

 

Thanks for describing the process.

Awesome. I hope all is well. Thanks.

 

I'm a little surprised to see you are getting so much tire rub on the frame and such. 255s at around 33", right? Any thoughts on how you will address?

 

Yes. I was surprised by that too. I might temporarily modify the steering stop. Unclear if it's happening under compression, or just ride height.

Need time to diagnose and test.

Ever since this last alignment, I got one full degree more caster on the pass side, so tire now rubs plastic wheel well liner at full lock. Not a big deal... That's easy to fix.

 

I moved to an FJ wheel which has a little less (more? I always forget) back spacing; pushing the wheel about .5" out. No frame or UCA rubbing with 33s. Well, a little on the driver side air dam, but that doesn't really count.

 

I do the BGR method twice a year. before and after the winter. I will be tackling that this month.

so far so good

 

pretty sure he was still using the moogs because he says we are doing something wrong having them fail
lol

 

Do you pull the bolts and cams while truck is on its own weight, or jacked up?

BGR has been MIA since August, last I checked. I MISS HIS RANDOM SIGNATURE ALL CAPS WRITING STYLE. LOL

Nice. I'm going to rock the TRD off road wheels 4 ever, unless I get some free ones or heavily discounted during a tire change.