It Begins: Miss Blue

Yea that makes sense. I think I have seen the video on that a while ago. I was nervous as shit using a small hydraulic compressor.

 

Can't do that with the Icons though

 

So I crawl under the truck tonight to change the t-case fluid and grease the front drive shaft, because it's been a while and the skids are off right now for regear/gear break-in. So I change the t-case fluid. Fluid looks pretty good after 10k miles of mud, dirt, water dunking aplenty. Nice seal job Toyota.

Then I get to the front driveshaft. Grease the rear u-joint. Gravy. Go to slip the grease gun onto the front zerk and the whole god damned yoke goes cla-thunk as I press in. What the fuck? Upon closer inspection, it appears ECGS hand threaded the driveshaft bolts back together a few turns but in no way tightened or torqued them. There was a full 1/4" between the yoke and the front diff pinion flange.

I could've done without that.

I think I'm through with turnkey work at this point. These new diffs are works of art, they ride smooth as glass without one bit of noise or vibe. But this is grade school stuff, and it was completely overlooked.

A good tip, but I don't think it works with adjustable C/Os? Only replacement springs a la OME or Eibach over 5100s?

Regardless, I have access to a floor mounted unit and will be using that.

 

thats why when i got my front locker, i just ordered a completely new front diff and sent my old one back as a core. atleast then i knew everything was tightened down correctly

 

Which I normally would do. The problem for me was a barely driveable truck and no place in barely-driveable range to tear the diffs out and leave it that way for a couple days while the rear was rebuilt.

 

true. when i did my crawler, my truck was down at Barry's for 3 weeks before i finally could drive it. thank god for a second vehicle.

the front diff install was long. started at like 9, was fully completed at 8 that night. most of it was installing something, then forgetting something and havin to take parts back off and so on, and so on. and then mounting the solenoid and wiring it up too took a little bit

 

No solenoids here, so just unbolt and re-bolt.

 

I'm out of town visiting family and my cousin got a new Titan. He wanted me to show him how to work on the basic fluid changes and such. I was researching stuff about the auto tranny over on titan talk and ran into a bunch of posts about the titan rear axle.

Those poor fuckers got some nissan modified dana 44 that leaks and implodes on stock trucks. Makes me feel a lot better about our maybe not as shitty 8" axle, least it's not a half ton with a V8.


Too bad about ECGS and the loose bolts. My instructor lectures us every class about leaving bolts loose, as in, don't put em in if you're not gonna tighten them up. Too easy to forget and overlook little things like that.

 

Yeah, that's one of the Titan's "legendary" qualities. That's why Toyota put a 10.5" ring gear in the Tundra...I wish they'd bump the 120 platform to a 9" ring gear. It'd make the damn things bulletproof.

Things happen. That's why I tend to do most work myself. At least then I know who to blame.

 

that wasnt the problem other than strippin bolt heads and havin to get more. it was just start to install something and realize oh wait, we need to install this first and have to take it back apart

 

Did you ever call them to inform them of their mistake? They are pretty much the goto shop for gears, so they may need an ego check.

 

Nah. I'm not gonna worry about it. I know all I need to know at this point.

 

I was thinking about driving down and having them install mine so I could avoid double shipping charges, but you got me seriously thinking about that now. I'm sure it was just a 1 in a million over site, but that could of been much worse had you not caught it.... I don't feel like "catching" anything on a 7 hr drive home + breakin would be an issue.

 

The double shipping you saved would be eaten up by labor, so really you'd be paying more because you'd pay the labor plus travel costs.

I'd core-charge the diffs and install 'em yourself. I would've done exactly that if I had had somewhere I could've left the truck torn down for 48 hours. Apartment living, very occasionally, bites slightly.

 

That's also my issue...well kinda. No garage, no other car, and working under a tree in the grass out back can be a PITA. Might just borrow my moms work truck like I did last summer for my month's long IFS repair. The lack of power and no lockers with these 255's is starting to piss me off.

 

Shit, backyard works fine. Throw a tarp over it when you're not working on it, tape off a trashbag over the axle housing and ADD tube, and you're good.

Thanks. The rims are destroyed at this point. Rock rash city.


On another note, looks like a pretty good color match, no? Soon to be rolling on Kingcon Vehicle Dynamics C/Os.

 

I got ez-ups for my "garage". Winter rain sucks when working out back.


Hope you like the 700#'ers

I did a review for DSMS when I got mine last year or whenever it was. They started recommending them, then stopped due to complaints from owners saying they were to stiff. Personally I think my truck drives nicer then any of my friends that have 650#. Maybe one day Ill measure and see if they have sagged at all over the 30k I have on them.

 

The 650s that came stock on the Icons are adequate...but just barely. I have the driver's side spring maxed out, and I'd be willing to bet they'll wear out faster than 700s.

700s would be too stiff for most people - but when you have an extra 120lbs of bumper, 140ish of skids, and 80 or so of sliders, and you flex the shit out of the suspension often, you need that up front. For most of the web-wheelers on here, 650 is the right number.

I don't have a permanent winch in bumper, so at least that's a bit less weight to worry about.

 

I love mine Icon is who told me to go with a 700# 14" spring. The best part is I have hardly any preload on mine, so they don't hurt the down travel as much. They ride very nice IMO, even the day or so I drove around with them before my bumper was installed. I saw a few with the 650# springs with bumpers and they had a shit ton of preload. Can't say enough about them!

 

Lift height is more what affects downtravel. Preload affects spring rate to attain desire lift height.
Less preload will decrease chances of coil bind though, so that is nice...too much preload will cause coil bind during uptravel.