Drop Bracket Anonymous

so i just get 3x3 rubing welded in and its good to go?

 

anyone else ditch the DB and repair/replace the crossmember?

 

...Well, hell...

 

Duct tape that shit together and get that shit back in there!

 

...

 

Major surgery

 

Hoping to join the club here at "Drop Brackets Anonymous"

Hello, my name is Red and I USED to have a Drop Brackets lifted Tacoma...

 

New frame section, borrowed from a 4Runner dying slowly in a junk yard. Don't judge my welding too harshly now...

 

I'm just here for support

 

Bump. I'm in the process of removing my RCD, and going back to stock .... or maybe a 2.5 kit.

So far, I've started to accumulate all the factory suspension parts, I just need to locate a crossmember.

 

Most have just welded square tubing back in there. It's stronger then the factory cross member anyways.

 

Gathering parts now. Here's a few pics from a couple months back, that made me realize I need to go to stock ... ish stuff.

Those that have gone back to stock, are there any misc. parts that you found you needed afterwards? Factory diff mount?

Also, if anyone went to Bilsteins and coils, or coilovers, did you use a diff drop or install new uca's or anything?

 

I had to source some things that seemed somewhat hard to find at least in my area. Mines a second gen so a couple things might not apply to your first gen truck. But hopefully this list gives you some ideas.

- Stock diff mounts, and bolts for both the frame side and the diff side, if you plan to run a diff-drop that would work for the frame end.
- My stock knuckles were replaced in the lift, had to find a set of those. Also welded gussets on before install.
- Stock knuckle bolts for the LBJ bracket ( not applicable for 1st gens ).
- Alignment cams were seized into the LCA for me, pounding and cutting ensued, I was able to save the control arms but I had to buy new cams for both sides
- I replaced UCAs with aftermarket ones at the same time on my truck, but depending on how the DB lift spaces the knuckle down there could be some change here ( Kinda looks like a big spacer in your pics, so if you can separate the UBJ without ruining it then great, but it might not be a bad plan to replace while you're in there already)
- Frame chunk for me, many others use rec tubing here
- I completely re-did the rear, new springs, shocks, u bolt flip, bumps, etc.
- 2nd gens use a carrier bearing drop, not sure about 1st gens, but there could be some kind of spacer in the driveshaft neighborhood to think about
- And there were a ton of relocation tabs for brake lines and wiring. I removed them on my truck. That required some re-bending of hard brake lines, I may replace those lines just for peace of mind.

 

@Red October is the MVP.

Thanks for the list man!

 

I need advice. When changing the lower ball joint in my 1st gen, two of the four bolts that connect the LBJ to the steering knuckle messed up. Basically it gets tight and then loosens up like it is crossed or not seated properly. When I pull the bolt out I find that the cast iron is being shreded into and left in the threads of the bolts.

Is there any way to remedy this? Can I re-thread the knuckle or am I pretty much screwed?

 

You could try to run a tap through the knuckle and see if it will clean up the threads enough, although I wouldn't take any chances if you're losing thread engagement or the tap is real loose. Next step would be drill the holes out and tap them to the next bigger size. You can go up to 7/16-14 or 7/16-20 if you want to try to get it as close as possible, or M12 after that.

I don't know if I would fuck around with a helicoil, although that is potentially an option so you don't have to drill the holes out in the LBJ to match your newly upsized knuckle threads.

I have no idea how I ended up in this thread.

 

Just thankful you did haha. I'm going to spend some time researching. I wish I had the funds- I'd use this as an excuse to do a linked SAS set up.

I'm not too familiar with tapping and such. May tear the knuckle off and check in with some fabrication shops around here

 

Yeah, fixing a lower ball joint connection probably isn't a good first-time job. Just don't get bent over by a machine shop, it should be $20 to drill those out and tap them. Ask them to go no bigger than necessary to get full thread depth. I would be tempted to go with a fine thread for more clamping load, just need to be very careful when installing/removing the bolts.

 

I originally installed the Fabtech lift and also had to do a new LBJ on the passenger side so I'm fairly familiar with it. Threading the bolts in for the LBJ wasn't near as much of a bitch as this one was this time. I even threaded it in by hand.

This morning I tried using different bolts (Same thread) and one threaded in and torques to the necessary 37 ft-lbs. The other one still tightens and pops loose

 

Yeah, maybe just drill the one bolt out then, and leave the good ones alone.
I think torque spec on those is 59 ft-lb with loctite. 37 sounds low for an m10.