BlaZuk!! - installing Blazeland and Zuk stuff!
01-17-2012, 09:55 AM
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This almost closes out the Blazuk! thread. A couple more mods in the rear, the front is now about done!
As a brief reminder, a while ago I went 4-wheeling in an automated car wash. It turned out the inner tie rod on the driver's side as completely wasted, allowing for some incredible toe-in under some conditions.
It had just been aligned no less than 2 weeks before that, so I was pretty upset since we had been jumping the truck across water bars on our last offroad trip (best distance - 22' from takeoff to landing - we measured in the wet dirt! Best height - only a couple feet, these 5100s are just 2" shocks after all AND we don't have a cage yet!!)
I was thinking stock replacements. Then it hit me - I'm only throwing more go-fast hardware at this truck, take the $300+ and put it towards some real good offroad parts.
Some guy had a used TC heim kit for sale, but didn't have the reinforcing tabs to go with. Since this was going to be on here long term, I wasn't a fan of used parts either.
ORW had my TC kit to me 2 weeks after ordering it. I got some other toys while I was at it (more when I get those installed!).
Two weekends ago I planned to do my Total Chaos heim steering upgrade.
I *strongly* recommend a tie-rod puller. I have always used pickle forks, and since I didn't care about the boots on the old tie-rods, got to town on it. No way, not even close. With the tie rod puller, it took 3-4 turns to get them to pop out, and I was putting some muscle into them. The were not willing to come out, and when they did, it was with a "pang!!" as they released.
I got to the point of installing the new parts, then realized my 5/8 drill bit was not in its home. By then, everyone in a 20 mile radius who had a 5/8" drill bit was closed, and everyone else only had up to 1/2". Sure, I could use my 5/8" mill bit... except I haven't replaced my mill yet... D'oh! I wasn't willing to do an hour round-trip for a drill bit at 8pm at night.
That left my truck looking like this.
This weekend was it!
Then, Friday night at 10:30p, I learned we had some critical work activities starting at 8AM on Saturday. OK
So Sunday... Err, no, 6pm Saturday saw us going into Sunday.
So Monday, which is a holiday for us...
I installed my TC idler arm. Of course, it started raining. By gum, I was installing this no matter what!!
Man that's a nice piece.
I did have to grind one weld away from a bolt hole (bottom hole on the arm in this shot), but I sent pics to TC and they're going to check their other arms. Mad Props to the TC guys. They are very nice over there and assumed I DID have a problem, not that I was mistaken. Usually the guy on the other end tries to explain to you in simple terms that you're an idiot, and finally recants after getting the pics. Probably because most of the time, that's the case.
I didn't weld the braces on yet (makes the arm-side double-shear) as my welder is all the way in the back of the garage and I wasn't pulling the arms off and certainly didn't have the right extension cord to do it in the driveway. My garage is as far away from the breaker box as it can be and the wiring used is borderline for my power-tools. For heavy welding work, I usually take the welder to the other side of the house and do my welding there, with much better results.
The install is pretty straight-forward if you have a 5/8 drill bit. Harbor Freight had one since mine went the way of loaned out tools. LOL
Here's the beef installed (yes I also didn't have any black paint. Sigh.)
No more worries about my steering doing bad things on landings OR in carwashes! ;-)
Next up, more work on the rear!
Eric D
87 4Runner Turbo!
As a brief reminder, a while ago I went 4-wheeling in an automated car wash. It turned out the inner tie rod on the driver's side as completely wasted, allowing for some incredible toe-in under some conditions.
It had just been aligned no less than 2 weeks before that, so I was pretty upset since we had been jumping the truck across water bars on our last offroad trip (best distance - 22' from takeoff to landing - we measured in the wet dirt! Best height - only a couple feet, these 5100s are just 2" shocks after all AND we don't have a cage yet!!)
I was thinking stock replacements. Then it hit me - I'm only throwing more go-fast hardware at this truck, take the $300+ and put it towards some real good offroad parts.
Some guy had a used TC heim kit for sale, but didn't have the reinforcing tabs to go with. Since this was going to be on here long term, I wasn't a fan of used parts either.
ORW had my TC kit to me 2 weeks after ordering it. I got some other toys while I was at it (more when I get those installed!).
Two weekends ago I planned to do my Total Chaos heim steering upgrade.
I *strongly* recommend a tie-rod puller. I have always used pickle forks, and since I didn't care about the boots on the old tie-rods, got to town on it. No way, not even close. With the tie rod puller, it took 3-4 turns to get them to pop out, and I was putting some muscle into them. The were not willing to come out, and when they did, it was with a "pang!!" as they released.
I got to the point of installing the new parts, then realized my 5/8 drill bit was not in its home. By then, everyone in a 20 mile radius who had a 5/8" drill bit was closed, and everyone else only had up to 1/2". Sure, I could use my 5/8" mill bit... except I haven't replaced my mill yet... D'oh! I wasn't willing to do an hour round-trip for a drill bit at 8pm at night.
That left my truck looking like this.
This weekend was it!
Then, Friday night at 10:30p, I learned we had some critical work activities starting at 8AM on Saturday. OK
So Sunday... Err, no, 6pm Saturday saw us going into Sunday.
So Monday, which is a holiday for us...
I installed my TC idler arm. Of course, it started raining. By gum, I was installing this no matter what!!
Man that's a nice piece.
I did have to grind one weld away from a bolt hole (bottom hole on the arm in this shot), but I sent pics to TC and they're going to check their other arms. Mad Props to the TC guys. They are very nice over there and assumed I DID have a problem, not that I was mistaken. Usually the guy on the other end tries to explain to you in simple terms that you're an idiot, and finally recants after getting the pics. Probably because most of the time, that's the case.
I used to sell computers. I had more than one angry customer call me to complain about the POS I had just sold them not working. Since we burned them all in, we knew that they didn't often die on the drive to their house.
Me: Sir/Ma'am - (after thanking them for calling, yada, yada) This is going to sound really basic, but I need your help to figure out the problem and to be my hands and eyes. Can you grab the power cord where it plugs into your computer and follow it back to where it's plugged into the wall
S/M: What kind of idiot do you think I am? Of course I plugged it in!
Me: Absolutely, this is rarely the issue, but my boss makes me ask all these questions. Can you help me out and just check? It'll be real quick and we can move onto the next step right away.
S/M: [grudgingly] Ok. [pause] I'll call you back (no further calls)
I never mentioned *I* was the boss.
Then it was onto the heim tie rodsMe: Sir/Ma'am - (after thanking them for calling, yada, yada) This is going to sound really basic, but I need your help to figure out the problem and to be my hands and eyes. Can you grab the power cord where it plugs into your computer and follow it back to where it's plugged into the wall
S/M: What kind of idiot do you think I am? Of course I plugged it in!
Me: Absolutely, this is rarely the issue, but my boss makes me ask all these questions. Can you help me out and just check? It'll be real quick and we can move onto the next step right away.
S/M: [grudgingly] Ok. [pause] I'll call you back (no further calls)
I never mentioned *I* was the boss.
I didn't weld the braces on yet (makes the arm-side double-shear) as my welder is all the way in the back of the garage and I wasn't pulling the arms off and certainly didn't have the right extension cord to do it in the driveway. My garage is as far away from the breaker box as it can be and the wiring used is borderline for my power-tools. For heavy welding work, I usually take the welder to the other side of the house and do my welding there, with much better results.
The install is pretty straight-forward if you have a 5/8 drill bit. Harbor Freight had one since mine went the way of loaned out tools. LOL
Here's the beef installed (yes I also didn't have any black paint. Sigh.)
No more worries about my steering doing bad things on landings OR in carwashes! ;-)
Next up, more work on the rear!
Eric D
87 4Runner Turbo!
Last edited by edeslaur; 01-17-2012 at 10:01 AM.
01-17-2012, 01:30 PM
#63
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$489 for the heim steering upgrade: http://www.offroadwarehouse.com/prod...roductID/50745
$375 for the idler
http://www.offroadwarehouse.com/prod...roductID/37430
Minus my "I'm pretty and shop here a lot" discount. Which, I will say, they don't have a lot of wiggle room on TC parts.
A bit more than if I had built it myself, but I didn't have to buy a LH tap to use just once, and it's a well-proven design (and length!).
JD Fab is another option (mid-page, red box on the right), if you get the whole thing from them it's quite a bit cheaper overall (appx $1300 vs appx $1600 TC). However the TC guys were confident I would not need their King-Kong centerlink/pitman arm, so this ended up being the cheaper route.
About $400-600 over stock parts (top-line aftermarket or Toyota OE) in the end. Someone could always go with the cheap line ($250?), but not this guy.
I'm looking forward to looking back in 5 years and thinking it was a great investment.
$375 for the idler
http://www.offroadwarehouse.com/prod...roductID/37430
Minus my "I'm pretty and shop here a lot" discount. Which, I will say, they don't have a lot of wiggle room on TC parts.
A bit more than if I had built it myself, but I didn't have to buy a LH tap to use just once, and it's a well-proven design (and length!).
JD Fab is another option (mid-page, red box on the right), if you get the whole thing from them it's quite a bit cheaper overall (appx $1300 vs appx $1600 TC). However the TC guys were confident I would not need their King-Kong centerlink/pitman arm, so this ended up being the cheaper route.
About $400-600 over stock parts (top-line aftermarket or Toyota OE) in the end. Someone could always go with the cheap line ($250?), but not this guy.
I'm looking forward to looking back in 5 years and thinking it was a great investment.
Last edited by edeslaur; 01-17-2012 at 01:54 PM.
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