I'm am currently putting on my OME springs on the front, i got everything put back together, BUT i cant get the bottom bolt to go in straight!! It's half way in, but i cant get it through the other side. what the heck to i do??? some one please help..

thanks in advanced.

 

Adjust the height of the suspension assembly, use your jack to raise or lower the lower arm untill it goes in.
Eric

 

Raise and lower it from the top of the control arms or the bottom??

 

Use a big prybar to coax the lower eye up the a-arm, wiggle the bolt and maybe tap it w/a hammer. There is no particular trick just keep trying.

 

Would it maybe help if i did the bottom bolt before the top?

 

Did you disconnect the Sway Bar ?

If you got it actually halfway in, you oughta be able to drive it through with a couple of solid whacks.

If worse goes to worst, undo the lower balljoint. 4 bolts. ( I had to do this with the OME shocks and cornfeds)

 

Sway bar is disconnected, the bolt is half way thru, but the "eye" holes arent line up, the bottom of the shock is crooked so the bolt cant get thru the other hole.

 

Try getting at the other side with a large screw driver and lining up the hole as you tap the bolt with a hammer.

Leave the top bolted up.

 

Dangit im starting to get stressed out, i'm tryin everything, and u guys are a big help, but so far nothing is workin :pat:

I remember i had this problem last time i did my revtek lift.

 

Get somebody to push the lower A arm down or jack it up as needed depending on the height.

If the bolt is not straight lining up, perhaps you need to turn the lower bolt hole with a breaker bar or something to get it lined up better. It shouldn't be that hard to get it back in if it is lined up correctly right to left in the bracket. Up and down height is easy.

You might take a pic to show exactly what you are talking about.

 

Thats exactly it, the lower part of the shock is not lined up correctly. I took pics but u cant really see what im talkin about, i cant get the right angles with the camera.

 

Leave the top fastened, pull the bottom part out of the lower mount, insert a long screwdriver, ratchet extension, etc and twist it so it lines up in the lower shock mount so the bolt goes through. You might need something to use as a breaker bar to get some leverage, but nothing to it.

 

thanks, i'll give it a whirl.

 

As easy as that should be, the thing isnt budging, the bushing is just takin all the impact when tryin to twist it.

 

I had the same problem.

Here's what I did. It worked, and worked every time I needed to get it in/out.

Take your bottle jack (that came with your 4runner), and turn it upsidedown.

Put the upper part of the jack down on the nut that holds the ball-joint in place on the A-Arm (the nut thats out the furthest on the upper a-arm). Place the bottom of the bottle jack up against the inner fender, the highest point.

Just screw that thing until its compressing the a-arm all the way. Do it for a little while.

That will align the bottom shock eye with the lower mount. Take out the bolt that your trying to wedge in there out, so you can look through and see when everything is aligned.

 

I did that already, but my problem is that the shock is twisted, so the bolt wont go thru, i tried twisted the shock, but it wont work.

 

Is this the bolt you are talking about? 6 or 8 inch extension through the lower shock hole while the shock is out of the A arm mount on the bottom, leave it attached up top, put a breaker bar on the extension and crank on it and turn. You might have to really put some umph into it. What bushing are you talking about turning?

 

Thats the part, the bushing inside the shock eye hole. I'll go try again with a 8 inch extension and break bar.

Thanks for the help!!

 

You may have to compress the coil again a little to releave some pressure on the strut so you can turn it. Although, I have used Waskilly's method with success.

 

Try taking the bushing out to turn it so the bushing doesn't absorb the load. You would much rather get this sucker to twist than have to recompress the springs.