4 inch lift

I've been meaning to get into it for years. problem is me and my wife live in a little cabin with a dirt driveway downhill in the middle of the woods. can't complain but I don't have anywhere to really do any serious work. luckily I have two buddies that each have a shop. teehee...

yeah... to make a long story short it's a 1978 I bought it from a buddy for a good price and took it up an old logging road way in the middle of nowhere, got stuck at a severe decline, went out the next day and the cylinders were flooded with gas engine would not turn over, pulled out the plugs hit the starter and it fire balled. it's sat there for 4 years. only people that go out there are typically hunters until the Forest service gave me a call. Guy was super cool and with help from the same buddy I bought it from we got it out.

it still hurts... I love square bodies and this one was mint. had a crate engine and the th350 swapped out for a sm465 with np205 tcase.

 

i gave the rolling husk to a guy i know. wants to build the chassis into some sort of crazy long travel suspension pre-runner deal on one tons... that'll be sick...

 

Aww fukk dude... That really sucks! At least it sounds like someone is willing to breathe new life into it, though I'd be afraid of the heat having damaged the temper of the frame and whatever else. Maybe you'll get lucky enough find another one, although apparently they're starting to fetch crazy prices now (especially nice ones).

 

Oh ya.... I'm more than aware of the square prices these days. I've got a '75 K20 pickup now so the itch is more or less scratched... In 2016 when I was 20 I bought a K10 shortbed 4 speed with a 305 all factory for $2,200. That same truck now I bet would sell for like 6k. Ridiculous...

 

well it was Black Friday so I got a new winch... I've had my smittybilt 12k on for a year and it's had a rough life... The synthetic rope had snapped at one point so I tied it to the drum and the gears inside of the drum itself we're starting to skip under load. I can't afford a warn and I've heard really good things about the badlands winches. got it for $480 on sale. just what's in the box and installing it seems like it's better quality honestly. we'll see when I have to use it. I found out too that the steel plate the winch bolts to is warped and a part of the cast aluminum winch body was broken. poor thing lol.

The rear bumper worked out at least... good thick steel. now I can back into trees n shit.

 

Emotional indeed to say the least. I will be reposting this post in other threads in hope others with the issues I am having will be cautious of this type lift.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a mechanic, just mechanically inclined.

To start this: I bought this truck in TN from a tall (6' sumthin) kid who slapped on a hodge podge Drop bracket lift. It used BDS and tuff country parts. (knock off rough country) It has 4" spacers blocks for the front and rear. Tuff country UCAs and BDS rear shocks. (Stock shocks on IFS) On top of mix matched 285/70/17s with Rockstar rims with a negative offset. (1-2" maybe) [ODM @ 170,000 miles]

Appearance: Tall, Aggressive, Barcelona Red, dirty girl, been a few places. (from what I saw, a Diamond in the rough)

Ride quality: It was a rough ride from the get-go. Not that I knew what good Tacoma suspension felt like but it def was very stiff and bumpy. It handled, "ok" on turns but it would squeal and moan on the tires. The drive shaft only vibrated once while the test drive and thought I hit something, so it went under the radar.

After getting it home: The main issue it was having at the time was drive shaft vibrations. (While coasting at high speeds, right when acceleration was applied) [60-80 MPH] When first diagnosed it was just the U-joint gone bad. Easy fix, slapped in a new u-joint and boom smoother driving. Fast forward a couple of weeks, it starts vibrating again but not as much as it used to, (Now at much lower speeds, off and on, still only when accelerating, especially up an incline) [25-35 MPH] So I let it slide and kept greasing it. At that time, I did start to notice on the tires that the outer edge of the tread of the tire was having much more wear than the rear tires. Went and got it aligned. Instantly was driving better. (I was at the time kind of wheeling her a bit with the off roading due to my hobbies and added more wight with a camper shell) [ODM @ 190,000 miles] {Around this time I did hit a pothole hard and bent a tie rod. I got both sides replaced and realigned. As well as ditching the rims and moved to the stock rims and tire size} [265/70/17] Did some long +300-mile trips and replaced the U joint two more times and I am still dealing with the vibration issue. I apparently let it slide too long and after an intensive off roading trip, on the way home, the drive shaft said, "I'm tired grand pa" and snapped at the knuckle. (Had to put it in 4WD hi and limp her home. Now repaired) I did some digging on here and learned about the axel wrap issue. (Will add this story to the threads about the drive shave vibrations and axel wrap) I took it to a couple of shops, and they all pointed to the carrier bearing and the leaf springs. I got a new carrier bearing and has been playing with the spacers and shims just to get those angles right.[ODM @ 200,000 miles] (Will follow up with the maths of all this on a later post) After plenty of trial and error to help the angles it calmed the vibrating drive shaft issue. (still minor vibrations) [35-45 MPH especially while applying acceleration] Sure enough of them rear leaf springs were also not happy. They were stressed and frowning. Surely, they are now the root to my affliction I am thinking. [Current ODM @ 224,000 miles]

NOW: I finally scrapped up the cash and bought a 2.5" lift OME leaf spring pair and some Bilstein 5100s for front and rear. My game plan is to remove the spacers and run the new lift as intended. Play with the carrier bearing a bit for adjustment of the angles. Hoping the new leaf springs completely stops that dang vibration due to axel wrap. Slap some new shocks in and call it a day. Smoother rides off into the sun set and many life fulfilling adventures to come.

MY questions/concerns moving forward: Due to the lowering of the LCA mounting point, I am wondering how it will affect the scrub radius. What should I consider adjusting to getting it closer to "factory" or "most efficient" geometry without having to remove the drop bracket. Bigger tires? Return to negative offset, adjust the caster and toe? I don’t know. (most will agree, RIP THE MF OFF/GET RID OF THAT HERESY, but I say naynay, I am too poor) (Actually I'm just in love with the truck and just trying to help her the way I can)

Will follow up with pics, math, and measurements.

 

Well if it's a 4" kit keeping it at a 4" lift is supposed to be more or less factory geometry for your tie rods and cv shafts. (rather than jacking it up to a 6" lift) Scrub radius in my experience isn't affected since the track width isn't changed at least on the rough country kit. If anything you should have better clearance for turning than factory. I run 1.25" front spacers with -10mm wheels, cab mount chop, on 33s. It still rubs sometimes but not bad. Toe remains factory spec, for additional caster and camber I would highly recommend the SPC upper arms with the adjustable ball joint. My camber was negative with the cam bolts maxed out before I got those arms. Now alignment shops can get it to factory spec. As long as it's aligned properly and you run a lighter tire it all works pretty well at least for me driving wise.

I also have rear driveline vibration. I'm at 155k miles but have not replaced any u joints. Also carrier bearing spacers made the vibration worse so I'm not running any. Need to go to a 1 piece shaft with some shims to clock the pinion when I have the money to do so. Hope that helps answer some of your questions!

 

I have ¾" drop on my driveshaft carrier bearing (actual rear lift ~3.5"). Between that and raising the pinion up another 2° or so, I was able to get the vibration to about 80-90% better than before I did anything to it (it's close to about the stock vibration these trucks are known to have). The proper fix is a one-piece shaft though.

The lowering of the LCAs causes little change in scrub radius (wheel offset has a far larger effect on this).