Noob who just ordered Toytec 3" lift

Yeah man i can wait since i cant afford to do any real mods to the truck untill i get some payed off. and really anything i get dont (excluding new sound system) im going to be getting done threw toyota since they will cover there work under warrenty

 

@WheelinJ91
The different groups discussing the warranties in TW and the FAQ section of the Toytec website say that the warranty shouldn't be affected by the installation of the lift, unless the broken item is directly affected by the aftermarket accessory. i.e. The drivetrain warranty shouldn't be affected by a suspension upgrade. However, if the suspension goes out after a lift has been installed, you're probably SOL.

Mine Toytec is scheduled to arrive at my office TOMORROW! Christmas is coming early this year for me!

 

On Friday, the lift kit arrived at my office. I brought it home and took everything out of the box and went over to the auto parts store to pick up a new jack, jackstands, clamps, Chilton's, and some incidentals. Here's a pic of everything laid out on the garage floor. It looks like Christmas is already here.
Nothing to do but wait for tomorrow to get started.

 

Ok, now its Saturday morning, so I got one last picture of the truck in its stock configuration.
Now its time to start work, got the tires pulled off, the bottom bolts yanked out, the top bolts weren't too bad, but the one closest to the engine bay (in the set of 3) gave me a bear of a time.


Then there's the original front coilover without the tire obstructing the view, a side by side picture of the old and new coilovers, and then the new coilover installed.

 

Once you get your lift installed you will obviously need to get a front end alignment. However, I would advise you to drive lightly for a day of two to let everything settle in before taking it in. You can search for good alignment #'s here, but a good rule of thumb is 0* Camber, 2.4* Caster and 0* toe.
Welcome to TW, congrats on your new truck!

 

So I finished the first side coilover, the second one went a lot faster, since I had figured out the trick to getting the new one in.

Then I moved on the sway bar relocation brackets. These couldn't have been any easier.

The diff drop bracket gave me a hard time, because the packaging from Toytec had the new nuts for the longer bolts packaged separately (which I mistakenly thought was for the rear lift). I tried using the original nuts on the new bolts, which didn't work since they were threaded differently. Then realized that the original nutsdidn't fit, went to the auto parts store and picked up 2 new nuts that fit the diff drop bolts. Here's a pic of them installed. They are only grade 5. I'll have to switch them out soon.

When I was reconnecting the sway bar, I wrestled the damn thing for 15 minutes before I finally gave up and pulled out these two frame brackets. Once I got the 4 bolts out that held those in place, the sway bar moved into place as easy as pie.

 

Got the front portion of the lift (coilovers and diff drop) finished up around 4pm. Just in time, since daylight was running out.

 

Here's the pictures for the last post.

 

Now its Sunday morning. I'm aching to get started on the rear AAL, since I want the truck to be done.
Got everything jackstanded up, removed the tires, pulled the old Bilstein shocks.
The center leaf bolt gave me a hell of a time, since even after I removed the U-bolts, the axle still moved with the spring. The axle was just hanging there, not attached to anything. I lifted the spring and the axle raised with it. I couldn't figure out how to get the center bolt nut off, since when I turned the nut, the bolt spun with it, and there was no access to the bolt head, since the axle wasn't moving independantly from the springs.
I finally pulled out the grinder and cut off the nut and bolt tip. Everything came apart after I cut it. The bolt head must have been snagged.
I wasted over an hour with that damn center leaf bolt.

 

While I was tightening one of the C-clamps to pull the old and new springs together, one of them snapped as I was tightening it. It felt like it exploded and hit me right in the cheek. Lucky for me I'm fattening up, so I had a lot of padding. Two inches up, and it would have gotten me in the eye.
Don't buy c-clamps that simply say "CHINA" on them. They are POS.

 

Damn!

 

Got the leaf springs put in the right order, clamped, shimmed, center bolt put in, U-bolts installed, and the rear shock put in. I used a spud wrench to get the bottom joint on the shock to line up with the frame holes. While I was doing this, the spud slipped out of the hole and my fist slammed into the concrete with my index finger knuckle underneath the spud wrench. It hurts to type, and a bruise is forming on the side of my finger. I feel like a dum dum.

At this point I realized that the bag of small spacers and large nuts that came with the Toytec ultimate lift kit were for the long diff drop bolts and skid plate under the diff drop, since there was nowhere to use them in the rear. I wasted my time going to O'Reilly yesterday.
Shit.

 

Got the tires back on. Drove it down to Wheel Works for an alignment. Got back and measured the fenders. Boy, I have got some SERIOUS lean going on. The front passenger is about 1/2" to 3/4" higher than driver. I can live with that.
The rear is a different story. The passenger side is 2.75" higher than driver. I checked the springs, they look equal (no odd looking gaps). The passenger wheel outer edge looks even with the outer fender. The driver side looks like its set back at least 1". I don't know what to do, I guess I'll give Toytec a call tomorrow and see if they can offer up any help.
If anyone knows of or has an idea on how to fix this, I am open to suggestions.

 

Don't know if somebody already mentioned this but you may need new UCAs if you have trouble getting alignment in spec after lifting. I know I did.

And x2 on the Spidertrax if you are gonna keep the stock wheels with 285s.

 

I got really lucky. I was wearing my glasses, but the clamp was pretty heavy and would have done some damage had it hit them instead of my cheek.

 

Wheel Works didn't have the alignment spec on (Hunter?). They pulled data from 2010 and aligned it to that. They didn't mention any trouble outside of that.

 

Thanks bud. I wish I would have done some posting before going to the tire shop. They fiddled around for a while finding the alignment specs. The guy pulled up the info off the internet on his smartphone. Thats good enough for me, but I wonder why they didn't have a computer with internet there.
Anyway, I got to BS with the front desk guy about Tacomas for a while while they were doing the alignment, so it didn't bother me that I had to wait a little bit.

 

You certainly didn't waste any time. Congrats on the truck.
We've got ourselves another DIY follower.
Looks great brother. Welcome too BTW.

 

@Mikehole, can't wait to see and hear results. I have a 2010 Prerunner TRD that I want to put a 3" lift on, but I put a lot of miles on it and need to it be as comfortable and reliable as the stock set-up. Not sure i can afford to go with the setup like yours, but maybe just a RevTek spacer/block setup. Anyway, looking forward to the finished pics. Nice to see that there are people out there that can turn a wrench. Surprising how many of my 40yr old friends can barely change a light bulb. They think I'm some sort of mechanical genius because I can replace the brake pads on my car. Funny.

 

Welcome from Union City!

btw, NorCal meet & greet on 12/29/11
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/northern-california/193632-12-29-11-norcal-meet-greet-oakland.html