The Does Everything, but Sucks at Everything Build

Awesome write up on the fender flares. I just ordered new flares and going to copy yours. My stock flares are barley hanging on.

 

Haven't update this shit show in a while gonna throw out some updates in no particular order...
I've had a couple of questions about the weird black holder on top of my Prinsu, its a Scepter MFC holder that holds 3 cans in a straight line down the length of the rack. I wanted it to be low enough profile that without the cans on it I could still pull into my garage with the truck and not have it look too goofy without any cans on it. I consists of a couple lengths of 1/4" thick 2x3" aluminum angle offset and welded to each other and 2 end plates. the end plates are notched in the middle for a seat for a 4th ratchet strap to run the length of the cans. Used stainless steel eye nuts from Amazon for the anchor points.

I've had some really shitty tanks of gas since putting on 35s and when going out to back country areas it gets annoying having to duck out for gas every day or every other day. With the extra gas I can go out to places without worrying about running out of gas.

 

About how many miles per tank? I'm barely making 220

 

I had one in DV that I only had 60miles on the odometer at half a tank
Another one driving from Las Vegas to Barstow in high winds I was on 1/4 tank and about 100mi on the odometer.
Most haven't been that bad, but 60mi on a half tank freaked me out, I don't know what was going on with it, most tanks I'm getting around 200ish before the light comes on.

 

Real nice build man Thanks for the detailed write ups!

 

Sub'd! Love this truck!

 

Looks like I bent an inner tie rod, probably happened on Heartbreak Ridge. Part of the trail goes a long a cliff and I was staying away from the cliff edge, wasn't paying close enough attention and cranked a rock on the side of the trail pretty damn hard with the passenger tire. The gouging is weird, like I almost hit it directly on a rock.



As of 4/28/2017 it appears the part for the inner tie rods dealerships were using 45503-09520 has been discontinued, looks like I'll have to call and figure out whats going on and what the replacement stock number is

 

Some body needs to wash that birds mouth out with some soap

 

There appears to be a screw up with the inner tie rod part numbers, the old one that is used on both 2nd gens and 3rd gens was discontinued. The old part number is 45503-09520 and the new part number is 45503-09550. Some websites are listing the new part number as compatible with 2011-2016 while others are just listing it as compatible with 2016. I ordered up a replacements to swap out and will keep the old one as a spare. If you have to order one for your truck it would be wise to call up and verify you're getting the right part for your truck/trim.

Parts listings for second gens:
http://www.toyotamcdonoughparts.com...gear-and-linkage-scat/?part_number=4550309480
Parts listings for Third gen:
http://www.toyotamcdonoughparts.com...gear-and-linkage-scat/?part_number=4550309550
replacement part number:
http://www.toyotamcdonoughparts.com...er-tie-rod-4550309550/?c=aT1GODJDMDkwNCZyPTI=

 

This truck looks great, good job!

 

cool truck and thread, thanks for putting the time in!

 

After bending the passenger side inner tie rod I swapped everything out and kept the old ones on hands for spares. Pretty quick job, just annoying having to bend/flatten the washers that hold the inner tie rod position.
The part numbers that I posted previously look to be the right ones.
Inner Tie Rods - 45503-09550
Outer Tie Rods - 45046-09340

The tie rods come with the needed washers/nuts/cotter pins.

I tried to use these pinch clamps to replace what was on there but they turned out too large, if you want to put back in what came out you'll need something with a smaller diameter

Vibration-Resistant Pinch Clamps
for Firm Hose/Tube, Tight-Seal, 2-3/8" to 2-1/2" ID

https://www.mcmaster.com/#52545k32/=17n9dgb

I had these as back ups and they might be the beefiest worm drive hose clamps I've had my hands on

Vibration-Resistant Worm-Drive Clamps
for Firm Hose/Tube, 304 Stainless Steel, 1-3/4" to 2-5/8" Clamp ID

https://www.mcmaster.com/#5661k12/=17n9e83


I really should have power washed everything before starting, didn't realize how dirty it was until I had shit taken apart. Pre-work reference photo to make sure everything goes back the way it came out. If there's nothing damaged on your tie rods it would be a good idea to count the threads exposed, take measurements, or since its 2017 take a photo, so you can set it exactly the same. I cut my inner tie rods shorter to help with alignments, its unlikely I will cut the new set the same exact length I cut the old ones so I didn't bother taking measurements I also adjusted toe after I bent the tie rod, so my toe wouldn't be applicable with new inner tie rods, just took a photo of it and set close before I set toe later after the install was done. I also use 1/2 nuts for the jam nuts to provide for more room for toe adjustments after the +2 kit install. Moving the steering to one side or the other while working can make it easier to get access to components for removal.



Took a photo of the number of threads exposed. Once again this wasn't going to apply after the fact, just used it as a ball park.



Loosened up the extension and jam nut while the ball joint is still tight. Its a pain in the ass trying to loosen the hardware up with the tie rod flopping around.



Popping the ball joint.



Pulling the outer clamp off with a pair of channel locks. The outer part of the boot sits in a lip, makes easy to locate during reinstallation.



The inboard boot clamps seem like they are pretty light duty, inserting a screw driver with the proper size blade and turning it will free it up and allow pulling the boot off.



The inner tie rods are held in place by some washers bent over the flats.




Knocking the bent parts of the lock washer back to unthread the inner tie rod.



The rear tabs can be pain to reach, I used a giant ass flat blade screw driver and hammer.



The inner tie rod and rod have flats if you have some big ass wrenches you can do this the right way. The flats on the rod are pretty small so you may need a specialty wrench or just grind down (thinner) the right size to fit on it. I've got a good set of tools but don't have whatever sizes these are, I used a pair of channel locks and a narrow-ish crescent wrench to loosen them.



Old versus new. Old has the threads trimmed off. Also the flats used for adjustment are chewed to shit. About a year ago one of the alignment shops I've been to apparently used red loctite on the jam nuts. When I took it in for an alignment several months later to a different shop they destroyed the flats with pipe wrenches/vice grips/channel locks, I told them to stop and I would take care of it on my own. I went home fucked around with it and only think I could come up with was there was red loctite on it. I grabbed a torch and a laser thermometer and started heating it up and periodically tried to loosen it up, sure as shit when they hit 500F they broken free no problem......fucking alignment shops.....

With a little less than 50k the driver side inner tie rod feels completely fine. The passenger side that was bent seemed like it had a tiny bit of wear but it could have been my imagination.



Reassembly is straight forward, I used channel locks to flatten the supplied washers on the inner tie rod flats. I would recommend to be careful if you use channel locks or a pipe wrench to tighten the inner rod, you could create a sharp point/gouge and it may rub/cut the boot after repeated steering cycling. If you end up with one I would just stuff some paper towels to prevent shavings from getting in the recess, file it down and you're good to go. I prefer to put back on what came off so I got some pinch clamps, I just guessed the size off the boot, but got it wrong. I could wiggle the tool in there to tighten the clamp but it was the wrong size, I instead used these beefy worm drive clamps. The boots for the inner tie rods aren't the same passenger/driver, these clamps are actually a little to wide for seating area for the clamp on the driver side but went with it anyway, they are 5/8" wide.

 

Great build. I'll be chopping up my fenders to clear 37s soon, and I want to use the bushwhacker style flares chopped up and bolted to the fender. I know they won't cover the tire, but they will hide the mess

 

Bought @1MK 's old drive shaft to use as a spare. Apparently it wasn't playing well with his TC SUA kit. After I get some other things knocked off the truck-to-do-list I'll install it and tinker around a bit with it.

 

Been screwing around with the shim stacks recently. Changed them out twice now with more experimenting in the future. Ride has been rough on pavement/typical-offroad-PSIs and tinkering around with different options to see how much I can smooth things out. Talked to DSM to get some shims and some bumps for the rear. Currently have compression stacks of .012 with a .008 flutter between 2nd and 3rd shims. It feels a little better than it did on road but I doubt I could hit anything hard offroad without slamming into the bumps like it is. I read through any threads I could find on Dezert-rangers that sounded helpful and seems like there's an infinite number of things I could try, too many options and not enough time to try them all. I figured out some tricks to make the process go quicker and ways to optimize my shock holders so the second revalve took around 90 minutes to pull the shocks, revalve, reinstall, and retorque everything. (And yes jberry if you read this, I knew what I was getting with the compression adjusters )

Making the most out of my shitty old harbor freight welding table using it as a make shift shock workstation.


Oil was darker than I was expecting with only 2000mi-ish on them


Photos of the shims stacks with the piston still on the rod.



Rebound shim stack laid out for measuring them. All .012 shims.


When I was talking to DSM about ordering shims I recalled I emailed King about what the valving would be in the shocks and never heard back from them. DSM got a hold of them and turned out it could be a couple different configurations based on springs and a couple other factors I can't recall of the top of my head, this is was came in the shock configured for a TC kit with 700# coils.


Screwed up putting the coil back on the first shock, and didn't align the rod eye with the upper mount properly, damn rookie mistake.

 

You can fix that by bolting up the top and using a rod to rotate the shaft...might be a pain with stiffer coil springs though lol

 

I already took care of it, I just compressed the springs again and rotated it.

 

I'm going to be losing a bit of storage space in the bed with the dual battery set up I am piecing together, decided to salvage some of the storage I wasn't utilizing under the passenger seat area. I already removed the plastic storage bins and the area has been unused for a couple of years.

I rarely have more than 1 passenger in the truck with me so I rarely ever have the rear seat in, in addition to that the very few times that I do, I'm not concerned about the structure under the seat failing. I cut out some of the sheet metal to make enough room to get my hand in without any problems. I lined the cut sheet metal with some left over Trim-Lok from lining the fenders/flares with it. I didn't bother making it pretty since it'll be covered up with the carpeting anyway.


I removed the mounts for the stock jack and placed stainless button head bolts where the welds were. I tried to be delicate with the grinder and only remove what was necessary to get the mounts off, but still pulled out the welds from the body resulting in holes through the floor. I threw some extra SS bolts in there and good to go.

Looking at what I keep in my bed I thought my straps would fit well in the space I fit a ARB snatch strap, a tow strap and my tree saver in the space. I have no doubt its going to be a pain in the ass to get these back in whenever I pull them out, but they fit in their damn nicely with my cooler/dog bed platform out of the truck.




With the ARB cooler and dog platform reinstalled.

 

sub'd!

awesome build man!