Trying to ID/ improve my lift.

I have a 98 Taco with what I believe to be the sway away 2.0's and I'm thinking just Downy extended shackles in the rear. I've had this truck a while now and I'm thinking about adjusting it down a few inches to eliminate the extreme angles on the upper ball joint/uca and such and to make it a little better on gas and on the highway, and then maybe my next set of tires be 33x10.50 A/T rather than the 33x12.50 M/T's. I saw that you can tune the coils down with a spanner wrench fairly easy, so Im thinking about doing that and getting new shackles an inch or 2 shorter or can I use the other hole that is already in the shackle? Any thoughts on my theory?

 

The front can be lowered by releasing some of the preload with a spanner wrench as you mentioned. Not sure about using the other hole in the shackle, I'm not overly familiar with shackle lifts. One thing I did notice in your pictures is it already looks like your rear shocks will bottom out long before you hit the bump stops. If you lower it even more, you would have very little uptravel before the shock bottoms out.

 

it looks like your front coilovers are preloaded pretty high with all the thread showing, so if you find the right spanner wrench you should be able to lower them. Soak the threads with wd-40 or pb blaster first. I don't think that bolt will fit through the upper hole of the shackle, you may need to get shorter shackles for the rear.

 

goddamn look at that CV angle!

crank those puppies down a couple notches and you're going to have to get a new shackle that hole is there just for fun.

 

I haven't messed with lowering anything yet because I'm going to wait for new tires and do it all at once. I did notice the pass side feeling weird and found this... Is it just me or is the bushing not installed?!

 

That doesn't look good... You might want to have that taken care of sooner rather than later. If the shock can float around like that, I'd wonder if anything is really hold the top of the coilover in the mount. At full droop, does the shock drop out of the mount?

 

Thats my worry, it could end badly for the SAW. The driver side isn't offset like the pass side is but doesn't have the bushing either, any reason it would have been left out? O'reileys has the moogs for $45ea. in stock looks like I know what I'm doing tomorrow..... Suggestions on a better bushing than the Moog?