Squeaky Penguin's (Trip Reports) Build Thread

Collecting quite the pile of parts. Got my Energy Suspension LCA and UCA bushings in, to add to the upper and lower ball joints, and front shocks. Also, got some shock tabs from Ruff Stuff for the relocation, along with a crossmember mounting kit to begin fabricating my belly skid. I'm probably going to make one long skid that goes from the IFS skid to the new rear crossmemeber to replace my banana shaped All-Pro transmission skid.

Also, headed to a pick and pull today and picked up some leaves to begin modifying my current pack:



They came out of a '91 S-10. We'll see what ends up working, but hoping to get 1.5-2" more lift than I currently have. Truck is sitting pretty level right now. So, with swapping back to stock shackles going to have to get 3"+ more lift out of my packs. Hopefully I can make it work.

 

your going to hate the energy lca bushings. they require you to reuse the inner sleeve AND the outer sleeve from the oe bushings. worst design ever, i tried , gave up in an hour. if you some how miraculously get the bushings out of the arms in one piece, you then have to cut or melt the rubber out and reuse the 2 sleeves. i got my whitelines on Amazon.....

 

Timmy didn't seems to have a problem.

Hoping the outer sleeve comes out when using the bottle jack, and I'm prepared to light them on fire. Whiteline bushings are backordered from the manufacturer until late March at the soonest. Didn't find anywhere else they were still in stock, checked Amazon.

 

Looks like a good leaf pack. Are those the 63" that everybody talks about?

mine are sagging just a bit now after hauling sandbags around for a second winter. I'm hoping to use you as the learning curve.

 

No. Not the Chevy 63s, albeit I did walk past several of those. From my understanding, they came on a bunch of years of half ton trucks. They only have 2+overload or 3+overload configurations IIRC. Because of this, I don't think they would be good packs to pull leaves from. People use them as a complete replacement pack after welding in a new front hanger. I do know they are famous for flexing very nicely though. And, I only paid $44 for the junkyard leafs, so the swap could be done relatively cheap.

Anyways, Doubt I'll need all the leaves out this pack. So you're welcome to what I don't use. Need to figure out getting my free labor out of Eric to help me build these things too. These were SUA and have a nice arch, so don't know how much rearching I might need.

 

Got something fancy today:



Well, at least I though I got a score when I found a pair of 10" 7100s brand new for $200. Turns out they have different valving. Already lined up to return them, unfortunately this was a one time thing and they can't be exchanged. Debating keeping them and re-valving them myself.

 

Just revalve them..

Cost you Very little and you'll know how to do it to tune them to your truck.

 

Here you go

http://www.eshocks.com/bil_ORpi.asp?Sub_Index=Q4&Manf=All&SubChar=Q

 

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/lo...7-long-travel-bs-thread-2532.html#post9523151

Thanks to Jason. Maybe there is something there to help.


Brett I saw the pics in the BS page. She's looking good bud.

 

Big thanks to the other Brett (BDN) and Eric (TeamHypoxia) for helping me build a set of springs yesterday. Started like this:



Did some of this:



And some of this:



To get this (full droop off jackstands, note: we purposely pushed the shackle inverted for testing purposes):



End result was created with rearching the two main leaves off the Wheelers pack, and then using three Chevy leaves and one more Wheelers leaf to get a 6 leaf pack. Got exactly what I wanted with 1.5"ish more lift while dropping back to the stock shackles. Ride is much improved, if anything I lost vibes, way less body roll, and everything feels much more controlled.

Cleaned them up with a quick coat of paint this morning, so here's what I'm left with:





Supper happy with the results, and really happy to be rid of the shackles. They were a learning experience though, but now I don't see any reason to add longer shackles to any direct replacement pack. Screws up a lot of things to get you a little more downtravel.

 

I haven't seen a shackle angle like that since I had my jeep... Very nice.

 

Looks good! Mod days are the best days.

 

Yeah, shackle angle came out perfect. Curious to fully flex it and see what they look like.

Thanks! And yes, always fun to hang out and BS with other members.

 

I'm a little jealous of that shackle angle.. The angle I got with my expos and extended shackles is *just* within the "correct" angle range for a truck, but I'd prefer an angle like yours, smoother ride and better articulation...

 

Well done, decide what you are going to do with those shocks?

Serious question, how many times a year do you swap wheels/tires?

 

Place I bought them from is sending me the 255/70 valve stacks for free. Would like to mess with tuning them eventually, but this will work for now. Need to find a local place to fill them with nitrogen too. Also need to figure out how to mount them correctly with the spherical bearings and the ruff stuff tabs. I'll take a picture when I get home of my confusion.

Think this was the forth swap this year Wanted the big tires on when I worked on the springs.

 

Have you thought about shock towers and running them inside the frame? The thing about running taller shocks outside the frame on our 1st gens is that you get tire rub on the bodies when you flex. They do look thinner so you might be able to get away with it. Your best bet is to cycle them in your suspension to find the right hight to mount them. You don't want them to limit your bump and droop. When you cycle them do it without the nitrogen. Your pretty witty I'm sure you'll figure it out. You can shoot me a PM if you need a hand. Good luck bud.

 

Thanks Ray. Have thought through the mounting, my question is related to me being a fabrication and fancy shock noob.

Not going to bother messing with trying to mount outside of the frame. Was planing on running a simple crossmember, and mounting the shocks angled back slightly, maybe inline with the stock driver side mount, maybe slightly forward of it, and a bit below it. Will be mounting them inward slightly of the stocks mounts as well. They will be kept vertical and not angled though for my purposes. Anyways, will have to tweak mounting heights to get the most out of the shocks, but I think that should be fairly straight-forward.

My noob question is this, and might need to take it to the MT threat et. al.



Can't put the mounts tight against the shocks mount, as that will defeat the purpose of the spherical bearing. So looks like I need some sort of spacer between the mounts and bearing I believe. Don't know if there is something specific for this application?

 

High misalignment bushings. Links are for reference only.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/fkb-16-10hb?seid=srese1&gclid=CIWVvoWyn8QCFQ4yaQod7oUAuQ

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/fkb-14-10hb?seid=srese1&gclid=CL6ozZqyn8QCFQuMaQodtGoA1g

For a shock application though, I would make my own.

 

misalignment spacers.

http://www.polyperformance.com/Synergy-Shock-Bungs
Or something like this

To be honest I never set anything up before. I only done a lot of reading on how to set up triple bypasses. But it all works the same. You do have the right idea. And to get the best performance out of the shock you want to be close to vertical as possible. I can forward you a pm from one of the LT guys that's been helping me out that explains in detain how to set up the shocks. I'll send it tomorrow.