59.99 ebay leveling kit instruction mods

Alright so I went and purchased this 60$ kit off eBay to give my truck a leveled look. Think it turned out pretty good - the base wheel/tire pairing looks silly but I think am going to go for new tires when I get back to GA from my family's place in MD.



Light offroading with lighter sports equipment (hockey stuff, pew pews, etc) is the goal for this old bug crusher Orkin fleet vehicle. Like the higher look and sitting up a bit higher. (am thinking about doing something cool with this aluminum system in the bed at some point so I will do the aals to beef it up then)

Did not see any modified instructions on the leveling kit on TW but I might have missed it because the site is so vast - and after going through the process with the instructions that came with it there were a few things that could use some elaborating and changes.

1st change: The bolts on top of the strut

• The directions say that you should only cut 1/2" off the top of the longer bolt (1 of the 3 is longer)
• 
• Pretty sure these are the same directions that come with the 2.75" kit with the AALs since the download also includes that part - after consulting with google, TW, my dad, and anyone else i could think of - I decided that having the old bolts all sit above the spacer would be bad
• 
• 
• test fitted it to confirm the theory - and it was bad
• 
• 
• 
• just cut them all down so that you can fit the spacer flush

2nd change: No real instructions on the rotation of the top of the strut

• I looked at ALOT of posts on this because there was 0 instructions in the videos I found or the ones that came with
• https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-rotate-top-strut-ready-lift-kit.51047/
• https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/front-block-install-rotate-strut-120°.486220/
  
• https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/rotating-top-of-strut.37572/
  
• https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-order-to-lift-will-this-cause-issues.342793/
  
• thanks to @5 Lug Fury for getting back to me on this on a 3-year old dead post
• he said that I should do the shock decompression with the jack - BUT at that point I had already tried the bar and rotate method and HOLY SHIT
• 
• Instead of rotating the top - I unseated the bottom of the strut while the spring was still under tension
• I chose to go and rent spring compressor clamps the next day from o reillys, with those on it was easy to get it reseated and do the rotation!

For the rest of the instructions honestly the paper PDF was fine for me, easy peasy
- but there is also this youtube video - which is basically the same product.




LMK your opinions for tires/wheels --- I would like to be able to commute in this thing and also be capable in light offroading / look a little tough lol!

 

Looking good man. Thanks for writing up more up to date instructions. I only had that old video when I did mine

 

thanks man! I actually think it feels a little better to drive its more tight and less soft on the suspension with the spacers in, had a lot of slop because this thing was used hard as a work truck for the first 70k

 

Hey Amocat, saw your post about the coil becoming unseated when you rotated the bottom of your shock and I’ve run into a similar issue. From what I’ve gathered, the way to go is to secure the top of the strut assembly and to twist the bottom of the shock with leverage, preferably with the coil under compression. So, I went and got a spring compressor, and twisted it 30 degrees or so to align with the bolt holes. It was then that it became unseated but aligned nonetheless. The questions I have for you are did you end up rotating the top or the bottom after you got the compressors, and how did you do so without unseating the coil? I’m also thinking that the coil may decompress itself back into the groove Know it’s been a few years but any help is appreciated! I attached a few pics for where I’m at.