Florida B.S. Thread

I didn't get a good look at how your springs are sitting. If the overload isn't tucked up against the leaf pack, which would be weird unless you've got a lot of weight in the back of the truck, then you can try pulling the bottom leaf and see how it feels. If it's too soft and the leaf pack is sitting on the overload, you could try trimming down the bottom leaf you pulled out. That should reduce the spring rate a little and make the ride a little softer. @allenfab might be able to give you some guidance on that since that's what he did with his 63s to tune them for a lighter truck than a 2nd/3rd Gen.

 

It occurred to me tonight after my second shot of vodka that given the current state of the OGT, I'm in an ideal position to replace my body mount bushings. They are 20 years old after all and with the carpet out, I have free access to the bolts. It also occurred to me that at the same time I might be able to do something about my fan hitting the radiator when I'm in deep water. I could loosen the body mounts and push the cab forward as far as it will go. That might get me just enough to minimize the fan/radiator contact. The problem with this is the passenger side tire has been rubbing on the firewall slightly, so I might be forced to get my hands on a 10 or 12 lb sledge hammer and beat the hell out of my firewall to make some extra clearance for the tire with the cab pushed forward. While I do have it in me to beat the hell out of my truck with a sledge hammer, it hurts my feelings to do it. Who knows though, with new body mount bushings, I might not need to make any clearance.

 

Lee I did mine when I first got the 4Runner and I pulled the body lift off. I used the energy suspension bushings, it made a huge difference in felt vibration from the motor. If you go that route or with any energy suspension brand bushings always get the black ones, they're impregnated with graphite and are self-lubricating.

GH

 

Thanks, Guy. Those were the ones I was looking at at Rockauto. $78 shipped with their discount code (that's more than my new CV axle cost!). Dunno if I want to spend that much money ATM when I'm trying to save up the cash to get ahold of Kyle's 3.4L, but then the carpet is going to be out for a while...maybe for good, so I've got a little time to consider it.

 

Soooooo I'm also noticing a slight axle wrap. I'm planning on removing a leaf already but is there a way to stop it? The random clunk when braking is freaking/annoying me out.

 

There's a thread somewhere on here about the unconventional use of a cheap parts store helper spring to stop axle wrap. You'll have to search for it. Otherwise, the only cure I know of is to put a traction bar on it. I still get a bit of axle wrap with my anti-wrap spring perches, though it isn't as bad as it was just after I put the locker in.

 

Yeah Ive seen the helper spring thread and it is a quite a faint clunk but it's still a clunk lol.

 

You know? Nothing can ever be f^@king simple for me. I took the knuckle apart to remove the busted CV and discovered my brand effin' new LBJs that have exactly 453 miles on them, mostly interstate between here and Lakeland plus one trip to Citrus for a 3 hour trail ride, are effin' shot to hell. I'm lucky I didn't end up with the LCA sitting on the ground.


What the hell @Timbo ? I thought you said you guys upgraded your suspension stuff to OEM quality? The old ones lasted nearly 5 years and they weren't in as bad a shape as the new ones are now when I swapped them out. This seems like a serious step back to me. I know it ain't your fault, so sorry for calling you out, but, damn, this pisses me off. Now I'm going to have to take the other side apart and check that one too.

 

Must be your luck. And how you abuse your truck. We did take a lot of our suspension out and went with a upgraded part but that wasn’t every single part just the ones that were having problems. And swamper wear like shit anyways.

 

In your rage you didn’t even say way part was messed up. Upper or lower ball joint I take it from you swing you’re lucky that your Lca didn’t hit the ground.

Don’t like them return them and buy different parts house. Most of the stuff is just reboxed to store label. Besides moog

 

The way I abuse my truck...yeah. That's why the old ones I got from Autozone were on there for nearly 5 years and they weren't that bad when I took them off, but I didn't want to take any chances with the primary part that holds that corner of the truck off the ground. Also, These new ones endured three hours of trail riding and only one real instance where I had everything flexed to the max. The rest was all interstate driving. These were not abused. I never got the chance.

Again, I apologize for calling you out. I know it's not your fault and you probably don't control the quality of parts the store carries. My rage wasn't directed at you personally.

In point of fact, I ended up buying a set of 555 LBJs from Low Range Offroad. Same parts Toyota Parts would have sold me with a about a 1000% markup, lol. No lifetime warranty, but such is life, I guess.

If I took these LBJs back, would they give me my money back (even if they just gave me store credit, I'd be fine with that since it would probably pay for those body mount bushings I had decided to forgo since I had more important things to spend money on) or just swap them out for new ones? Because, honestly, with how fast these suckers went bad (I'm making an assumption here that the other side is going to be in similar condition, but I haven't taken it apart yet to confirm it), I lack faith that they are safe to run. Which is a complete turn around from when I got them. The first set lasted nearly 5 years and were in better condition when I took them off than the new one I took off today. I was totally confident I'd get more of the same when I exchanged them. Now I'm actually scared to run them.

Again, I did come unglued for a while there, which is probably not a good time to post comments, but I needed to vent. Sorry about that.

 

What exactly happened to them lee? And sorry I miss read that for your tires. Most people take the time to spell everything out instead of Abbreviations. They will give you money back on them if not make a big stink and they will buckle. You said it before about doing more then others to try something. A lot of us don’t break like you do either. Your truck has more issues with suspension then the rest of the Florida community put together.

I didn’t make them I just get paid to run the store and make sales happen. Take care of issues like this and refund money if your not happy with the purchase.

 

I think I have more issues with my suspension than anyone else put together because I'm on a fixed income and I can't afford to go buy genuine Toyota replacement parts (I probably wouldn't break CVs nearly as often if I could afford to buy Genuine Toyota replacements) or fancy uniball UCAs, or any of that high dollar stuff, plus, when I got the truck, I was pretty ignorant of the issues these trucks have and the vast disparity in quality and durability between the parts store parts and OEM Toyota parts. I've never had these kinds of issues with any other vehicle I've had, with the possible exception of my YJ, and that can also be traced back to me not having a lot of money to spend on fancy high dollar lifts and such.

As far as the LBJs, they are floppy and loose, scarily so. I don't know what caused it because I've really only driven it on the interstate or the high way. As far as my swampers go, they are only 33x13.50s (actual tread width on them is only like 9 or 10") on 8" wheels with 3.5" back spacing. That's not even as bad as someone running 33x12.50 ATs on wheels with 4.25" BS and a 1.5-2" wheel spacer. I only run the tires at 26PSI (though I lowered that to 22 to see if I can get more even wear) and I have a nice soft coilover setup, so there's really no reason for them to be so worn after only 453 miles. It's not like they are taking heavy impacts or anything. And clearly with the old ones lasting through almost 5 years of trail rides and abuse, there's something not right with the new ones. But maybe it was just a bad one. I'll know when I check the other side, I guess.

I do know after I put them on, I made one trip to Todd's in Lakeland before I had it aligned and they had a huge amount of trouble trying to align it, so I suspect something might have been hinky even then.

Anyhow, thanks for the reassurance on the refund stuff, and again, I'm sorry I called you out while I was unglued. I was just expecting a simple CV swap and then I'd be moving on to my radiator issues, but finding the brand knew LBJ in scarily bad shape caused me to freak the heck out. I had a really crappy week last week and I guess I'm not quite over the stress the situation caused me, although the little Citrus run did wonders for my outlook, but apparently my grip is still a little fragile.

 

We're here for you fam

 

Ball joints are only really tight once you buy them. If the you have movement in the cup then that’s no good. But just because you can move the ball joint by hand freely don’t mean it’s bad.

Only fancy part I have is 63s and really that’s not super fancy. I have duralast ball joints tie rods and lower arms with ball joints in my truck. Bigger tires more weight and have gone air born on more then one occasion. I need to do my inner tie rods because they are shot. Them are oem still and I have 72k on my truck. My rack and pinion has dead spots in it when turning and not moving. But 80% of my front end is duralast suspension.


I understand the frustration but insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results

 

You guys and your fancy suspensions, I drive a stock truck

 

If you pick up the end of the balljoint and let go, it literally falls back down on it's own and there is some movement in the cup. You can also turn the stud by hand. I believe there's a torque spec on how many ft/lbs it should take to rotate the stud, but I forget what it is right now although I'm pretty sure it's a little more than you can apply just by hand.

Anyway, you do have those max trac spindles and you're about to have a D60 under it. That's pretty fancy to me.

I'm not sure about the insanity part. I was very pleased with the last set of Autozone Duralast LBJs I had. I even said at the time, I had no reservations what so ever about putting another set on. However, this new set was of a different manufacturer than the other set and since you had told me you guys had recalled a lot of suspension parts and went with better suppliers, I thought if anything they would hold up better. I had issues with the UBJs, replacing them once a year or so, so this last time I got a set of 555 UBJs. And again, that's why I decided to try the NAPA CV axles once I checked with you to make sure they were just the same manufacturer repackaged. I accept with my front end set up, I'm going to break CVs. I don't expect any different, although I'd like to find ones that held up long enough for me to really get some quality wheeling time in before the truck was crippled. I'm cautiously hopeful that the NAPA CVs are going to fill that expectation.

However, you'll be glad to know that if I ever save up the money to finally regear to 4.88s, I think I'm going to put a truetrac LSD unit in the front diff and then go to 35s if I can talk Todd into tubbing my firewall for me. I'll lose capability, but hopefully I'll make most of it up by being on 35s while putting less strain on my CV axles because no locker.

As for your inner tie-rod ends, you can go with Duralast if you feel so inclined, but, while I'm not sure if they are the same ones as on the 1st Gens, Low Range Offroad has 555 inner tie rod ends for about $30 a pop. Again, these are the same ones Toyota would sell you at their parts counter, just marked up a ridiculous amount. Mine have been holding up well so far even with a spool on wide tires. The left one might be getting a little sloppy, but that might be my steering rack guide since the other side still feels nice and tight.

 

I recall saying the parts that we were having problems with they changed like dodge and ford. Wasn’t sure if every one went to or style. Since then we don’t have to warranty that much with them makes. I’ve never had to warranty a set of tacoma ball joints. Cv axle is a different story. Just return them and go the route you said with the 555 joints. I’ll be buying spicer ball joints for my axle when I get some more funds available for the swap. Bought a moog hub assembly over the duralast.



Edit. I don’t want to replace until I have to so it will ride for now. Just like my rack that’s been messed up for s year. Not spending 400 on something that’s going to the scrap yard. On the flip side I may have spindles but you have a front diff. So that trumps that aspect.

 

TLDR

 

Wut