Well thanks anyways Hilux808. I am pretty sure that my main problem was that I was in a bad mood last night. I will hit it again this evening with a better attitude & bet that it will go much smoother.

 

Hopefully everything works out for you. My whole rear end issue was a Bad Mood for me.

 

I appreciate the write up. It was really helpful during my own install.

 

I know its kind of a longshot here but....

Hilux, I got a question for you. I used this build thread to do my own lift and it made it all so much easier. So thank you for your work and thorough write up!

Now my question is this. After my lift I decided to install the energy suspension rear sway bar kit that you did along with this build. Got the same part number ordered and went to install it.

However I couldnt finish it because the new bushing are not seating properly and I cant get the stock screws to bite into the thread and synch down.



Because of how the pushings push the brackets away from the axle I cant install it.

Did you run into this issue and if so any advice? Thank you.

 

Hey 2DoorJoRunner,

I had the same problem you're having with your rear sway bar. It's like this for every sway bar I have done with poly bushings, even on my Nissan Frontier. Because the bushings are new they are really stiff and it makes the install harder. I basically had use a lot of force to get it on. I hand started one bolt a few threads and just had to try to force the other side of the bracket as close to the axle as possible till I could get the other bolt started. It took me a couple of tries and it's a real pain. once both bolts are started you can tighten them evenly with a ratchet. I would also spray some penetrating lubricant on the threads to help the bolts out.

At least you have a lift to use to work on your truck. Man if I had that my body wouldn't be as sore, you're lucky! That's great you got new rear taller springs, I'm thinking I should have done the same instead of spacers. Whats the part number for those? Love the 2 door too, I've always thought about getting one myself.

 

Hey Hilux, thanks for the response man. Imma see if I can tackle it during round 2 this weekend. Thanks for the tips!

I got the ome 901 coils. Heavy duty. I bought em from trdparts4u.com promptly delivered too! They dont ride stiff at all really the ride quality all around is fantastic imo.

Ya that lift is a lifesaver. So is my old man lol. Wish me luck!

 

So, I would first like to say, great post with really good photos. I have been searching all over trying to find something that closely matches my rear axle; I am sure there is a place to post questions like this, and I know it's something I SHOULD know about, but I'm still learning as I go when it comes to this stuff. So, Don't mean to post in the wrong place if I am. But, here it goes:

Couple questions. 1) What does this cross bar do? Like, what's the point of installing one? and 2) Is it supposed to be level with the axle??? I have this same set-up installed, but the bar is WAY angled. I'll throw a photo up right after this post. I am trying to figure out what's going on here so I can prep to pull the body lift off this thing, I don't want to have to put 35's or 37's on it for it not to look all crazy. This is a lot of lift. Tires are expensive!!! I'd much rather a 4" suspension (pull the 3" body lift off) and a set of 32" or 33" tires. Getting off topis, sorry.....

So, what's the point of this bar and why is mine not level I suppose is what I need to know here. Photo to follow, thanks in advance for the info. I know it's probably a dumb question. Sorry! gotta start learning somewhere, right??? Thanks again!

 

Note the extremely not straight angle of that bar?

I had my girlfriend take these this morning, I just picked this thing up last night, so I am going to take more photos this afternoon, clean the interior up all shiny and clean. . . . start plotting how to get this 3" body lift on so I can put tires on it that don't cost $200+ a pop. Anyways. . . any knowledge you can share about this would be great. Thank you!!!!

Holy crap... That only took like 9 tries to figure out the photo adding process. Anyways, there you go. Photos, added.

 

The track bar works with the control arms to locate your axle. Because one side attaches to the axle and the other side to the frame, your axle will move a little side to side (on the arc of the track bar) as it moves up and down. That side to side movement is minimized when the track bar starts in a horizontal position. In your case, unless that track bar has been lengthened, it's already pulling the entire axle towards the passenger side a bit, which is putting undesigned-for stresses on your driveline and control arms. Worse, as the drivers side suspension unloads and moves that side of axle away (down) from the truck, the track bar is going to pull the entire axle even farther off center.

I don't know exactly how bad that is, but it certainly isn't good.

 

Well, being that high up, I am going to guess that if it were pulling the axle it would be noticable wouldn't it??? Can I just straight pull this bar off or would there be some adverse effect?

 

It's also what keeps your axle from shifting side to side when you corner. The control arms are not angled properly to keep the axle from shifting themselves, so don't remove it!

 

now when u got it aligned did you have any problems??

 

I just bought it last night. I noticed the bar this morning and wanted to know what it was. I know that the gears in the rear axle need to be replaced, the guy I bought it from said he has the parts to do it and we were going to knock that out this weekend. There's also a caliper that needed to be replaced on the driver's side. Could any of that be due to this bar not being horizontal? Really suddenly thinking maybe I bought a bad deal. indeed.

 

OK, so after doing some research, I have reached the following, can you guys tell me whether I am off base here???

The bar CAN be at an angle, as it is in my 4runner. It DOES however have to be the right length to accomodate the angle..... vs. being exactly horizontal.

The rear axle gear grinding thing is apparently a bushing. The guy tried to re-gear it, never finished the process, put the stock gears back in it, but screwed something up and now there is a bad bearing....

As you can see, I don't know a whole lot, but as I said, I'm trying to learn as I go. Hopefully I don't have to learn the hard way with all this stuff. I am going to stop by a shop on the way home and see what they say about it. Maybe I'll luck out and it's not such a big deal. so I can hope. . . . . . . . . .