Old Man Emu: Questions, Answers & Pictures

Cool. What was the deciding factor?

 

OME coils were low spring rate, so with the weight I'm adding I'm afraid it'll sag and bottom out easily. The Eibach were a good middle ground, with adjustable preload for weight compensation. I'm not doubting that many people have had good results with OME, but the two ends of the spectrum between spring rate and sag are so far apart.

The Eibach are 742# linear springs with progressive shocks.
The OME are 590# and #660 with digressive shocks.
Stock is 710# and linear.

So really the big difference comes down to the shock valving and from what I've read, the Eibach will have the ride quality I'm looking for at road speed and still be able to handle off road.

 

Got it. Yeah I read that about your stock springs. And I thought the 886 were meant to hold a lot. Crazy how much more weight the third gen has up front.

 

The 886 ARE heavy, but too short, and the OME shocks aren't adjustable. I don't want 5100, so Eibach it is.

 

Hey guys. Does anyone have pics of how they dealt with parking brake cable rear bracket? I think I've seen someone possibly bending and reattaching the bracket, but I just can't find it anywhere...

 

Metal zip tie.

 

For what purpose? Mine weren't re-attached after install, so I did it myself after hearing them rattle. Will the leafs flex to the point that it will strain the break line?

 

Instead of reattaching I zip tied mine to the old bracket so there is a little give. 7 years later and no issues with straining them.

 

Not sure if this can be added to the OP, but, a lot of us have issues with squeaky Dakars. The source of the bad squeaks as shown in Ghost ship's thread below, is the front sleeve that come with the Dakars rub the inside of the front leaf mounts on our trucks.

This past weekend, I installed new front bushings on my Dakars and it DRASTICALLY helped with the squeaks. Squeaks are now non-existent.

I started by following the thread posted by @GHOST SHIP which can be found here:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/change-the-front-bushings-in-your-dakars.479071/

If you're like me and live where it snows or your Dakars are older (mine were installed 5 years ago), you will likely need fire, a sawzall, a crowbar and a 2 lb sledge.

Altered "how-to" starts here:

1) Remove the leaf pack from your truck; front Dakar bolts, rear Dakar bolts and u-bolt on my flip kit were all 19mm.

2) Set fire to your bushings to remove the sleeve and seized rubber bushing:



*It might take multiple fire cycles utilizing brake cleaner and more fire to melt away the entire rubber bushing. It should be also noted that removing the entire bushing is not entirely necessary as I will explain in the next step*

3) These bushings have a steel race sleeve between the Dakar eyelet and the rubber bushing. Take a sawzall to the steel race sleeve inside the eyelet of the first leaf in the Dakar pack.

4) Take your crowbar/beefy screwdriver wedge it in-between the first leaf eyelet and the steel race. Then, 2 lb sledge and beat the hell out of the crowbar/screwdriver to mangle the steel race until it is removed.

5) Grease your bushings that you purchased here: They will slide easily into the Dakar leaf eyelet.



6) Put everything back together on the truck BUT, when you go to install the old front Dakar bolts, install these new, greasable bolts from Dobinson that you purchased here:

https://www.dobinsonsdirect.com/pro...it-for-toyota-tacoma-and-tundra-2005-to-2018/

*I believe these are 21mm*

Source: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...s-greasable-pins-and-bush-kit-2005-17.458013/



7) Don't forget to torque all your bolts, u-bolt and lugs.

Take her for a test drive and enjoy quiet Dakar leafs!!



*Hope this helps some with really bad squeaking that have never seemed to quiet them down any; aside from blasting them with a powerwasher only to not combat the noise*

 

I recently did a refresh on my whole suspension and used Dobinson bushings to replace the (4) wheelers bushings I had in there previously. What I found was that the Dobinson's have a thicker shoulder so the leaf spring eye with assembled bushings sit a lot snugger in the hangers (front and rear). I also noticed that the inner metal sleeve provided with the bushings was made of a thicker metal. Not sure if this helps any, but they "look" beefier. The only potential downside I can see is that the bushings are thinner walled by the overall difference in diameter of the thicker sleeve. Since I did a major reconstruction of my entire suspension, everything feels different so I can't comment if they're any better or not, but obviously everything feels tighter and brand new. Oh and I added this little guy:




I'll find out soon enough if it was worth it. I can tell you that spring steel is a pain in the dick to tap threads into, but now I can grease the bushings directly. What I never liked about the greaseable pins is that the grease is captured by the internal metal sleeve of the bushing so you're really only getting grease to the outer contact faces of the bushing shoulders once the sleeve fills and overflows. I think it would also be extremely beneficial to get grease between the bushing and spring eye so I went with zerks. This is similar to how and where UCAs have zerks to greasing their bushings. Makes sense to me, but I'm no expert.

 

Dude that’s awesome. Nice work. Please report back.

 

Nice job. Thought about going this route, but I might be completely swapping leaf packs in the next few years along with, potentially, other components and would hate to do it, then have to do it again when I swap leafs. I'll try this out and go from there. Can always go up from here. For now, though, this is a huge "win".

Have a link to the Dobinson bushings?

 

Thanks! Yeah, I thought it'd be easy: drill 4 holes tap them out and screw in the zerk. Goddamn spring steel fought me the entire time. I got 1.5 zerks in before I broke my tap and called it. So I have one zerk in and another that doesn't thread in all the way. Decided to leave it because I had to get shit installed and couldn't stop to go buy another tap.
I agree that the greaseable pins would be a huge help. I only get a slight squeak from the contact face on the front driver's side now so that's exactly where the pins will put the grease, lickuly that's where the single zerk is on my leaf pack too.

Link to Dobinson kit:
https://www.dobinsonsdirect.com/pro...ane-leaf-spring-bush-kit-with-greasable-pins/

Comes with two pins, but I got them from another member that kept the pins and kicked off the bushings pretty cheap. One thing I really like about them also is that the outside of the bushing has notches that are similar to the OME bushings but a little bigger. I believe that this will create grease "pockets" that help keep the bushings greased.

 

I am looking to upgrade my suspension without adding new UCAs... Below are my ideas:

Rear
Current Setup - Bilstein 5100s with 2" block on TSB OEM leaf pack
New Setup - DAKAR HEAVY DUTY LEAF SPRING SET FOR 2005+ TACOMA (EL096R X2)
Additional Information - I have a shell with a sleeping platform built in the back, roof rack on top with gear, and additional gear in the back. When it is fully loaded, it currently sags about 1". When fully loaded, I would like to maintain lift, eliminate the need for blocks and the inverted leaf packs.

Front
Current Setup - Bilstein 5100s set to the top perch with OEM springs
New Setup - Bilstein 5100s set at 0 perch with Old Man Emu 887
Additional Information - I am really wanting to keep my stock UCAs

My overall goal is to have a more reliable suspension setup that has less risk and can handle the load in the rear. I want to keep my stock UCAs and fit 285/70/17 on 8" wheels with 0 offset that has minimal rubbing.

Oh yeah, I am a locked 2008 2wd prerunner DCSB.



@4Wheelin4Banger thoughts??


Thanks in advance!

 

After four hours of reading this thread and maybe two others.... This is the opinion I was looking for... Holy !@# Thank you!

 

Back looks good. Don't know what the 887s are. I've got 885s & they made the 886s for plate bumper & winch.
The Dakar HDs can handle a load (3125 lbs & still had 1.5" to bump stops)

 

You'll definitely need to swap out your stock UCA's running 887s...no way around that one. And you'll need to do the CMC to fit 285's.

 

Thanks!

What about OME 2885 coils with 255/80/17 tires?

 

On my supercharged 4Banger I'm running 885s stock UCAs & 255/85R16s (same basic size) on 1st gen TDRs (push wheels out 3/4") with no rubbing problems ever

 

Hmm so you have spacers?