1st Gen Lunchtable Thread - General Discussion

I need to drive it tomorrow morning. I’ll try my best.

Whats a good way to alleviate the A-arm issue?

 

what's wrong with them?

 

With your rust free suspension, you should be able to disconnect the dog bones. Here, we don't even bother, because we know the fuckers are not gonna budge. We end up using big pry bars to pry the A-arm down to connect the bottom of the assembly.

 

Probably the "wrong" way, but I used the factory bottle jack on top of the a arm to push it down

 

I’m sorry, I don’t have my suspension lingo down. Hash. I assume by dog bones, you mean disconnect the control arms? At what points?

 

Nothing. As mentioned before, the way they are positioned makes it difficult to install the coilovers.

 

Sorry, the "dog bones" are the links that connects the end of the sway bar to the A-arm (control arm). There is one on each side.

 

Here is a pretty good pic of a dog bone(slang).

 

Here is how you disconnect the link. sorry about the 1st pic, I think that was of a 2nd gen tacoma.

 

Ah. So just disconnecting the sway bar link will help putting the control arm in?

I was told just to remove it completely since I have the stronger coils now.

 

I'ts good advice. the sway bar will just limit you getting full use of the new coil assemblies.

You can remove the links and leave the sway bar. I don't believe it will get in the way.

 

Any other helpful tips you can give me to help this go smoothly?

Thanks for your help.

 

Have you sprayed the top three nuts that hold the coil assembly to the shock bucket with some good penetrating oil?

We can count on those freezing up too. We heat them red hot with a propane torch and hopefully not catch the truck on fire.

 

The assemblies are heavy. I don't know what those Icons weigh, but holding them up with one hand so you can thread the 3 top nuts on will be work. I can do factory assemblies by myself. You may want a second person to help you hold up the Icon's to get them mounted up.

 

Good tip, but being in Cali I doubt he'll really have a problem, my truck (rust free Oregon) everything came off super easy

 

I’ll do that right now.

The u-bolts nuts came off by hand, so I don’t think seized nuts will be an issue. I should be able to hold the assemblies by hand - I believe the Icon bodies are aluminum so it’s relatively light.

So the only things keeping the coilovers in are the three top plate bolts, and the main bottom bolt - right?

@E30325 can you elaborate on how you used the bottle jack to push the upper control arm down?

 

1. REMOVE FRONT WHEEL Torque: 110 N·m (1,150 kgf·cm, 83 ft·lbf)

1a. disconnect sway bar end links

2. DISCONNECT SHOCK ABSORBER FROM LOWER SUSPENSION ARM
(a) Remove the shock absorber lower nut and washer. NOTICE: Do not remove the bolt. Torque: 135 N·m (1,400 kgf·cm, 101 ft·lbf)
(b) With lowering the lower suspension arm, remove the bolt and disconnect the shock absorber.

3. REMOVE SHOCK ABSORBER WITH COIL SPRING Remove the 3 nuts and shock absorber with the coil spring. Torque: 64 N·m (650 kgf·cm, 47 ft·lbf)

4. Install your coilover, secure with 1 nut or 3 whatever works - just remember to snug down.

5. Now, for the lower shock bolt, Remember the orientation. Nut faces forward, bolt head aft.
couple of options: this is where your bottle jack may come in handy. place it under the LCA and slowly jack it up until you hit the sweet spot so the bolt goes in - hand snug it, no torque wrench yet.
alternative to the bottle jack is to use a pry bar at the top of the UCA and pry downward.
You can also try the bottle jack between the wheel well and resting on top of the UCA.

NOTE: DO NOT, DO NOT loosen your LCA, really going to need an alignment if you do. You can match mark those cams until your blue in the face, it'll still be off (mainly because you are changing ride height but if you loosen those LCAs, well... lol. Get that alignment ASAP after doing the front no matter what.

**Do not torque the Lower shock mount until you have it off the stands and on its own weight.

 

I'm sure that is the case.

I just know the fuckery I have to go thru to change those on a 10 year old car.

I antisieze all fasteners when I do this work. Because of that fact, a torque wrench is no use. The torque numbers will be skewed because of the antisieze.

 

We luck out on that aspect. No need for PB Blaster. Even the front hanger bolt was a simple matter.

 

I thought you were doing new UCA's as well when putting them on? Mine was all stock stuff just putting 5100's in, didn't disconnect the swap bar, just put the bottle jack on top of the UCA and jacked it into the top of the fender to move it down enough to line up the bottom hole. Like I said, no ideal and probably a better way to do it, but it worked. It will scuff up the inside of your fender, but who cares