Installing new front struts.

I am installing new front struts myself. This truck has a 3" spacer kit on the front and blocks in the rear.
I have got the driver side strut out, and the spacer is an adapter style, where it just bolts onto the 3 bolts on top of the strut and it has its own 3 holes for the bolts coming through the UCA, meaning the strut is rotated now 180⁰ so that the holes on the spacer adapter line up with the UCA.

Now I have the new strut and spacer attached loosely to the UCA but it is seeming impossible to get the bottom bolt of the the strut lined up with the bracket..
I mean I just took the old strut and spacer out, so I know it should fit, I compared the old and new struts and the new strut is maybe 1" taller, assumingly because these old struts are embarassingly beyond worn out...

What am I missing? Even with a helper I can't get enough leverage on the UCA and spring to the lower bolt anywhere close to fitting in to that bracket....

 

Pry bar.

The best and easiest option is, placing your stock bottle jack on the upper control arm, and jacking it open which results in the entire assembly moving downward.

Place something in the inner wheel well as a cushion.

By the way, that front setup is a coilover.

 

Get your buddy to stand on the wheel hub to force the LCA down more. It is also possible to loosen the LCAs frame bolts.

 

I believe I was able to get a small bottle jack in there(1 or 2 ton?) to assist with this same issue.

 

This forum contains several posts on this exact same problem

 

I am sorry bud. I know about the tools on this site, and I looked through the 1st gen how-to's and most of the links were broken. Can you point me to where you're talking about? I appreciate your time.

 

No point, we gave you the answers above.

But in short, just google your question and add tacomaworld.

A new thread comes up about every week when talking about installs of front coilovers, and about one daily talking about lifts...which lead to the install question as well

 

You run slicks both front and back?

 

Ooooh shi-

I can't find SCS wheels that I like for the life of me, at least not in 16s

 

Always out of stock.

That and no one selling a set locally.

I can buy blems, but then the offset I'm looking for isn't available, wrong color, or gets bought up right away.

There's a waiting list so I said screw it; I'll wheel with old man chrome wheels.

 

I've always disconnected the sway bar for extra down travel for the LCA. That plus a pry bar and maybe an alignment tool. Also leave the three top nuts loose for extra wiggle and play that could be useful. Then just chase the alignment tool out with the lower shock bolt.

 

Agreed but if it's that problematic, maybe worth a try. I've had only a few difficult times with lower shock bolts. Most go right in with a pry bar.

 

Couldn’t get the shock into the control arms. Had three people cranking on it. I shouldn’t have bought the 882s, they are 20mm longer than the 883s/881s. We put the old shock back on, it fit fine. Going to take it to a shop, knew the suspension was going to be a nightmare

 

Bottle jack, you didn't try it?

 

I did what @SellyKlater said with the crowbar, mechanically the control arms bottom out at a certain point. I think it’s because of linkage or something. But after that, we tried the bottle Jack and it didn’t work, still bottomed out. We were a 1/4” shy of what we needed. Cranked the shock so much we gotta paint the bottom of it again. It’s just because the dumbass 882 is 20mm longer than the others I think. Tried real hard, took us about 4 hrs today just on one wheel well.

I’m sure if we did the rear suspension we could do it with the leafs too, but it started getting dark and we wanted to start drinking. My neighbor came over who hooked me up with my Falkens back in august said she knows someone who owns a shop that can do it.

now we are all in the backyard enjoying cigars and pretty hammered

 

This video really helped me when I did my suspension install. If you mark the alignment and loosen the LCA cam bolts you should have more than enough drop to fit the new components in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkVLBOnAifc

 

We tried to Loosen the two cotter pin bolts But they wouldn’t budge once the nuts came off

glad we did it it was a learning experience, I was getting worried I was going to be stuck on my bike for a week

 

I probably had about a 3 foot extension on the crowbar, if that helps

 

That really sucks.

My only issue one time was the bottom of the shock would not rotate with the leverage I had. Otherwise, it dropped down more than enough to bolt the shock and they're extended travel too; longer than the coilover you've got.

I remember if I went further (which I did), I'd have too much room...wonder why I have a lot of extra room?

 

Doesn’t matter. I will copy @SellyKlater’s build if it kills me. Or makes me go bankrupt. My TRD badge came in today so at least we could do that lol