tired / sore / new suspension is on though

The obligatory pic will come later. Been at it all day and part of another ... need to share and "decompress" my day.

I didn't want to use my coil spring compressor but did anyway. My large drill helped but I still had to turn the damn thing by hand when it said "enough." Overall, that part was much easier than on my Hondas, but those jobs were twice as many coilovers and the rear strut/coil could be a bitch to get back in on those (4th-5th gen Accords).

Fronts are used-but-very-low-miles OME 880s with new Nitrochargers. I bought new top hats because it saved me from having to undo my oem struts and because who knows what shape they were in? More than once I've seen pix of Tacoma top hats that had a damaged/rounded-out center hole. I don't know why [some] Tacomas do this?

As for the rear, I'd only ever done one other leaf spring job, on a '74 Camaro I owned about 100 years ago. All I remember about it is using a large screwdriver to get the front spring eye lined up. And that it sat so crazy high until the leafs settled it looked like a beotch ready to get f_cked face down, ass-up.

My old rear leafs didn't look horrible, and I didn't want a big lift, so I went with Wheeler/Icon Progressive Add-a-Lift, again with Nitrochargers. Decided to not retain the factory overload spring.

More than once I nearly ripped out all the leafs to assemble the group. What a pain in the ass this was installing them while on the truck. Yes I clamped the leafs together, which helped part of the time. But getting that super-long guide pin through all the leafs, with axle dropped low enough was a hot mess. On the driver's side I sat on the drum brake to line up the guide pin and then realized the brake line was being yanked. On the passenger side the original leafs and insulator pad got out of alignment. And the pin would drop down into the axle hole, not allowing it to wiggle ... used the thin metal plate from atop the overload spring as a temporary blocker so's the pin wouldn't drop down. I was inventing all sorts of shit on the fly here.

Best part about all that was quickly cutting off the excess from the pin/bolt with angle grinder, itself a purchase when a rear Honda strut would NOT come loose a few years ago...

At one point I had a ratchet strap pulling the axle forward to meet the pin ... but it wasn't enough ...

I hate my floor jack. It's old and rusty and with no weight on it works fine. With weight on in the pole won't hardly turn to lower it. Hate is a strong word but the first time I ever used it on the truck it failed me, with the truck up in the air and I removed the pole to lower it with a flat blade screwdriver, which of course meant the mount point for the pole was facing up and I had to crawl 4 ft under the truck with a flat blade screwdriver to lower the jack. Never again.

It's for that reason I jacked up one side at a time for the rear. That worked OK until I had to align the axle and pin and realized the axle won't move very much when there's a tire on the ground on the other side. So jack moved, repositioned, tire off, yada yada.

At one point later I lowered the axle and the right drum brake went to within a few inches of ground. My daughter saw it drop from across the street and ran over!

One of these days I'll have proper tools. I also want jack sands tall enough to use without 6x6 wood blocks between frame and jack stands.

I'm in GA and this is a FL truck = no rust or corrosion on any bolt or nut. Yay. Made removing old junk easier. So there's that.

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orig. suspension measured hub center to fender lip, both sides:

Front height = 20, 20
Rear height = 21, 21

I took it on a shakedown run for about 30 mins around town and on the highway and the numbers are:

Front height = 23 oh my but we do now have visible positive camber
Rear height = 23

(I haven't measured both sides. That's driver's side.)

I neglected to put a level on a door sill or whatever. (Are the fender wells the same height? This is a 1st Gen.)

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Rides firmer, stiffer and somewhat bouncier on-road actually. Truck-like, not bowl of jelly-like. Far more controlled. Coming into my driveway from the curb used to make the front end dance and jiggle. GONE. The rear is still lively but this was also the first time that I could drive faster than 65 without feeling as if the front and rear would swap ends on the highway. Before, 75mph was a white-knuckle experience. Tonight it felt the same as any lower speed.

An alignment will wait until next week. Won't hurt my bald tires much until then.

 

a quick-and-dirty pic today

later, while sitting in my garage (floor is level) and placing a level on the bed rail and then on the front door at the bottom of the window the truck is currently level

 

Back again with an alignment, more than a month later.

I had taken it to a shop last month for this; they instead wanted to replace both LCAs, steering rack, all tie rods. Oh, and the valve covers are leaking and did you know the carrier bearing has some play in it?

They said the bushings in the LCAs were ripped and that the rack was leaking. I think it was motor oil dripping down from the valve covers, but whatever. They took me under the truck and pried on the LCAs with a crowbar, yes they moved a little but ... a crowbar?

I left, clutching my wallet.

I just this week got a chance to inspect it myself. I felt some play in one inner tie rod and so, replaced it. The outers felt OK but each had a small rip in the boot, so replaced them both since I had no way of knowing how long dirt had been accumulating in there. As a bonus, these new Moog outer tie rods have a great fitting the others did not. The one inner tie rod I didn't replace must have been replaced previously; it had a zip tie on the boot instead of the factory clamp. Nice and tight.

With the three new parts on but not yet aligned, the alignment was already better, and felt like it. I suppose that raising it up with new springs knocked out the toe as well as the caster/camber changes, and that my newly-messed up toe (from replacing the tie rods ...) ironically made it better yet.

The alignment took maybe 30 mins ... because they didn't touch caster or camber?! I have the printout, it's all within spec, although just eyeballing you can tell there's still positive camber. Apparently, because the OEM springs had sank, I had negative camber ...

I have 6 mos on the alignment and will go back and buy new tires within that time. And I'll get a new alignment since they didn't straighten the steering wheel. Might even replace the other inner tie rod just to be sure. Might ask for 1/2 degree or so more neg camber, too. But for now, I have a truck I can drive!

 

cool beans, looks great