The Getaway...Crom's build and adventures

With all the chat about HF tools if thought I'd mention we have a new HF tool thread over here

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/harbor-freight-tools-thread.462076/

I generally like HF stuff, but I do stick to their hand tools only.

In wonder which ones you have?

I only buy their 6 point sets.

I've had great luck with their color coded 6-point sets in 1/4, 3/8, drive. Also really like their impact sets. No problems so far and use them a lot.

 

After bleeding it did you fill it to a 1/4 inch below the fill hole?

 

Is that a Toyota 3rd Gen Jack?!?!?

 

Stealership tomorrow.

 

Excellent so far.

My initial impressions of in the cab quietness on the interstate are much improved. I can't believe how much racket the front diff needle bearing was making!!! Holy crap! Wow!

Shocks do dampen better, no doubt about it., I test drove over some ruff ass pavement with regular oscillations for a mile, it cost millions of dollars to create this perfect proving ground, called U.S. Interstate 8. Shocks work overtime there and truck handled much better.

Poly LCA bushings transmit more road feedback I think, going to need more testing.

Prior to the front end work I had been chasing a steering wheel shimmy between 50-60. I ruled out the drive line by driving in FWD, with no rear drive shaft. Everything pointed to a dynamic imbalance in the tires. I have ballancing beads in the correct quantity in each front tire. I even swapped my spare to the front driver, removing from the equation my 4runner wheel sourced from Transwheel. That wheel has never been spun on a ballancer.

I very well admit that it could have been a fluke with how the front pass wheel was mounted. Could have been a rotor, not sure. When putting everything back together, I cleaned and inspected the wheels very well and looked over every square inch for anomalies. Everything checked okay.

Anyways, long story short, shimmy is gone.

Truck alignment was positive. I'll post results next week sometime.

I'm still gonna have to drop the front circlip though, too high in the nose for me.

 

Awesome!

 

I don't think so, as I recall tried to remove all air possible. But please check instructions!

 

Removing all the air makes sense. They mention to leave it a 1/4" low under the bleeding instructions, but when changing the fluid and putting in new - to fill it to the fill hole. Thanks. And appreciate the HF link.

 

Sub'n

 

BRAKE CONTROL – VEHICLE STABILITY CONTROL SYSTEM

When I was driving away from the alignment shop yesterday I noticed that the skid control lamp light went off on the dash and it stayed on. I referenced technical documentation which told me that the VSC system was either malfunctioning, or it wanted me to perform a calibration.

It was the case that it wanted to be calibrated.

The system is sensitive enough to know that that something was wrong with the front end alignment even though I had just had it done. the issue was the height. it was too high in the front and the system knows that. During this period Trac and VSC are unavailable and will not function.

The ATRAC system uses TRAC, so going off-road in the rocks was really out of the question until I had this resolved. Not to mention that VSC is a great life safety system on the interstate.

In order to remedy this there are two possible solutions. One is using a semi-automated procedure using the Toyota techstream tool, and the second is a manual process using a piece of wire.

Regardless of which tool is chosen, the sequence of steps are the same:

1. CLEAR ZERO POINT CALIBRATION
   
2. PERFORM ZERO POINT CALIBRATION OF YAW RATE SENSOR AND DECELERATION SENSOR.

I performed these two procedures on a flat piece of parking lot, using a bubble level, and a piece of wire. It took all of 10 minutes.and it worked fabulous. The offending skid control lamp light never returned to the dash.

I will do a step by step write-up on how to do this. Toyota's documentation is technical and overly wordy, and I found an error causing confusion. lol

 

@Gply was asking about this a couple of days ago

 

Thanks, I have a love/hate with VSC and ABS systems on these trucks once you leave "stock" settings.

 

The Toyota documentation states that the procedure should be performed after any front end alignment adjustments have been made.

They will be happy to know after 20 alignments I finally did the procedure! Haha.

Really the only reason I did it was because the VSC computer had a problem with it.

Today i adjusted the front suspension, by lowering it.

Much better now.

and I'll have another alignment tomorrow and then repeat the procedure.

 

Crom knows all. Lol.

 

Thanks Jay!!!

 

Yep, I've seen many a post where a too high front end causes that. Before I put in my suspension and I had all that weight on the crappy OEM leaf springs I was effectively a bit too nose up and saw VSC kick in on a few turns where it shouldn't. In the end more by luck than design my post lift rake was pretty close to stock so I haven't had to do the calibration yet but I suppose it would be wise to do all the same!

 

@stairgod - wasn't this your issue a few months ago? Yaw rate sensor issue?

 

As stated I lowered the Bilstein circlip today. There are 5 height adjustments possible.

Here are my before and after measurements.

****PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE MEASUREMENTS WERE DONE ON A SLOPED DRIVEWAY****

Hub to fender measurements in decimal format

Truck with circlip at 4th notch

• DS: 22.75"
• PS: 24.25"
• Taco lean: 1.5"

I adjusted the circlip to 3rd Notch on driver side

• DS: 22.125

I adjusted the circlip to 2nd Notch on passenger side

• PS: 23.125
• Taco lean: 1.0"

So lowering one notch on driver yielded a difference of 0.625"
Lowering the circlip on the passenger side two notches yielded a difference of 1.125"

One thing to note with all of this is I noticed is that when I separate the spring from the top hat rubber isolator if the spring doesn't go back exactly the way it was it will in effect be more cushion than it was before, this will probably add some small margin to the height of the lift.

I also searched back in the Forum and found a measurement that I took a long time ago with my 5100 and 885 Springs.

Comparing my new numbers to the numbers below I am pleased and this matches almost what I had before with some settling it should be good. I was able to measure rake before, and I will measure rake tomorrow and I can report on that as well.

Also noteworthy is I was greatly aided by my LCA polyurethane bushings I never had to loosen the cams I can move the Arms by hand once I separated the steering stop from the spindle. it only took me 30 minutes each side to make the adjustments.

Edit:
I remeasured on a flat surface the next day

• Hub to fender on driver side 21.75 inches (circlip 3rd notch)
• passenger side 22.375" (circlip 2nd notch)
• Taco lean: 0.625"

One inch rake.

 

Similar. My traction light would go off when turning corners fast. Brandon recalibrated the yaw sensor for me at Manbecks. But it still happens from time to time. And the VSC caused a scary situation on the interstate once. I need to disable it.