UNIBALLS & SPRINGS

good day Tacoma people!

This is my first post as a member but i have been creeping this site for years. first off thanks to everyone for making Tacoma modifications and repairs cheap and simple..... most of them!!

I have a few questions and i am sure there has been tonnes of threads asking the same shit but i have not had any luck

#1 whats the best replacement 1" uni ball for the Total chaos UCA

#2 I have ICON 2.5 coil overs extended travel and want to upgrade the spring i am looking for a 2.5 x 14x700lbs by king suspension or any other quality spring manufacturer any help?

I have a all pro plate bumper / winch and the weight is causing lost ride height and rubbing with 33s. Anyone else have these issues with ICON's ?

here's a blurry pic of my rig

 

Welcome aboard!

You can get 700 lb springs from Icon if I'm not mistaken, lots of people don't get the advertised ride height with the original Icon springs, especially with extra weight up front.

I think it's IconTodd on this site, anyway I know there is an Icon rep on here, and there are tons of vendors you could PM that will have the info you want, and many offer a Tacomaworld discount as well.

If you got the UCAs and Icons at the same time and the uniballs need replacement, it might be time for a coilover rebuild as well - that would be a good time to get new springs and be done with it all!

 

Ive had the uppers in for a few years now there is definitely some play coming from them now ! the shocks were in since July its been a rough ride since i have put them on. I haven't been to impressed with the icon's so far.. im going to be blowing tires up from all the rubbing and banging they do!
do You guys think its possible to stuff a 14" spring onto the ICON's?

 

#1: I think they all use FK. You might be able to do a Google search and find a good deal on FK uniballs. (I managed to pic up a pair of aerospace leftovers for $30!)
#2: King uses Eibach. So you can go through either and get the same spring (Eibach only sells King Blue to King, so if you want blue you'll have to buy from King).

As for your weight, let me just regale you with my story, since I think it'll help.
I've got an ARB front bumper, Smitty winch, dual Optima batteries, a Puma compressor (weighs as much as a battery!), Pelfrey front steel skid, assorted additional parts on the driver's side wheel well that add up to about the weight of another battery, assorted additional parts across the rest of the engine bay to add up to the weight of another battery (if you're keeping track, I now have the equivalent weight of about five batteries under the hood!), and my Hi-Lift bolted on the top of the ARB. Needless to say, I've got a shit-ton of weight up front.
In spring of 2015 I upgraded my OME 887 + LR suspension to King Extended Travel + Built-Right (TC clone) (and poly lower bushings and LCA skids...but that's superfluous to this discussion). The coils were 650#, and they may as well have been missing for as low as my truck sat. Thanks to King being a 10-minute drive from me, I was able to swap them to 700# coils. Got most of my height back, but still sat low. This surprised the guys at King, because 700# is the heaviest coil they have for the Taco. I ended up getting the 1-1/8" poly spacers from Wheeler's and milled them down to around 7/8", which ended up being about 3/4" once installed (poly spacers squish some once torqued down). I got my ride height back, but only by cranking the collars as low as I can before binding (do-over? I'd not mill them down so much, if at all).
Moral of the story: Your setup sounds similar to mine, so I would suggest keeping an eye on your ride height with the expectation that you may need to slip some spacers in the top, even after installing the heaviest springs available.

Some tips for you:
Poly spacers are easy to mill at home with a drill press and a tile hole saw. Aluminum spacers, not so much.
Watch the vertical sheet metal just behind and under the headlights. It's a common weak point in the Taco, and any kind of weight or wheeling seems to make it shear badly. I've seen it on MANY Tacos from mild to wild, and both sides of mine are completely FUBAR right now (I'm ignoring it, pretending like it's not there ).
Also keep an eye on the vertical portion of the wheel well sheet metal, above and rearward of the coil buckets. Another very common weak point in our Tacos, seen on all types of use and build.
When adjusting ride height with the spring collar on COs, you will want to compress the spring some first. Don't try to do it fully installed, or you'll break or strip things for sure. A cheater method that worked for me was to rent TWO coil spring compressors from the local auto parts store, and, using only two hooks from each, I mounted them on opposing sides of the spring and cranked them down until I could turn the collar. Off the truck, no room on the truck (I tried!). You'll want an air gun, unless time is of no concern and you need the exercise.