Well, I've got the strut coil shock tower built.
Put it up into the truck top plate, but couldn't get the shock eyelet
at the bottom to line up with the hole.
I've tried everything I can think of
-Used the pop bottle jack to lower the upper a-arm.
-Put the coil compressors back on as much as I could.

Here's some pics showing where I am at:


So close...


I cranked the upper a-arm down as much as I could, but after a point
the arm did not drop anymore, and it was coming in contact with the coil


I think I read somewhere that you can remove 4 lower ball joint bolts to make this easier.
Are these two of those bolts circled in red (the other two are on the other side)?


Anyone have any ideas other than removing the lower ball joint bolts, or is that the only way?

I'm not sure why this is so difficult, I must be doing something wrong.




...

 

Hmmpph... That is weird.

Ive re-installed mine so many times and never ran into that problem.

I would say to take it out, compress the spring some more, and then stick it in there.

BTW-- were did you buy OME stuff for the tundra?

 

a couple of quick questions:
are you using any aftermarket topspacers with the strut? It looks like it on the pic.

also are you sure you installed the top plate and bushings correctly on the strut? It look very low from the pictures in the top.

I would remove the sturt completely and any aftermarket spacers. Validate the strut is assembled correctly and then out it back. A trick I use is to pull the strut in with the top nuts first so it creates more room at the bottom. But I think something is off on yours. Either a spacer or the strut/top plate and bushings are not assembled correctly.

 

I ordered the OME parts from wheelers off road (N91s shocks).
Got the tundra trd springs from 1sttoyotaparts (48131-AF100 & 48131-AF090)
This is the driver's side I'm doing first so yellow/yellow (48131-AF100)
I also double checked that this spring was the longer of the two.
I'm using Andy's custom 3/8" spacer.

Here's a pic I took of the assembly order:


Here's a pic of the finished coil with Andy's spacer on top before putting it back on the truck:





I guess tonight I'll try to take it out completely and start over,
maybe try to compress it before I put it on the truck (altho that's difficult cuz the compressors gets in the way).


...

 

you've got it assembled correctly.

you can try several things to get it to go in.

1. get some help. you need to stand on the rotor while the other person shoves the bolt into the strut eye.

if that doesn't work, go to #2...

2. doesn't the lower spring cup rotate on the shock body?

if so, rotate it counter-clockwise about 90* (1/4 turn) when looking from the top. that will spin the coil wrap out of the way of the upper arm and allow the upper arm to droop more w/o contacting the coil.

if that doesn't work, then go to #3...

3. loosen the 4 lower ball joint bolts enough to get the lower strut eye bolt in and then re-tighten the 4 lower ball joint bolts in a cross-pattern, gradually working them down until you have them re-torqued. do that BEFORE you release the jack on the upper arm.

let me know if you have any more trouble...


it seems that the problem is that the ome bushing that goes in the coilpack on the top spindle is pretty thick, so when you add the top out spacer, it makes the uncompressed coilpack so long that it's hard to get in when the coil spring is in the position that you have yours...

if you have a lot of trouble, you can trim down that bushing by about 1/4" and reassemble the coilpack and then it will slip right in. the OME shock still has enough unused droop to make up for the shorter bushing. it won't affect the ride height at all since it's the coil and the position of the lower spring seat that do that.

 

You HAVE to take the lower 4 bolts out with the OME shock and the top-out. No other way to do it with the OME shocks.

Also YES the back of the ball joint hits the coil. Only way to stop that is the front limiting strap configuration I have put together.

 

Thnx for the advice - I'll try all of these things tonight.

Hopefully at least one of them works!

 

When I installed my friends it took 3 of us. I know my friend was getting a bit nervous so he broke out the crow bar, however i dont know if i would recommend doing that, but he pried (sp?) it up at the bottom while i stood on the rotor and and then the other shoved the bolt thru. It took us awhile but we also compressed the spring 2 or 3 more times before we got it to fit. But these other members look as tho know more about it haha. Good luck tho!!

PS i noticed the spring compressors look to be upside down, well or in a hard position get to off once you installed it. I dont know, it may be just me?

 

Thats exactly what i did...it took 3 of us to do it. one person stood on the rotor, one person pried up with a 2x4 and the 3rd muskateer slipped the bolt in. and BAM finished. Good luck on your attempts. you'll get it

 

haha glad im not the only one

 

Well I finally got the driver side done!

I ended up having to completely remove the 4 lower arm bolts and leverage the arm down with a 2x4.

Here's some pics:

I tied a piece of webbing around the lower arm
and stuck a 2x4 through to get leverage.


After removing the four bolts on the lower arm I was able
to force the arm down just enough for my accomodating wife
to slide the bolt into the shock eyelet.


Once the bolt was in, I used the floor jack to compress the
lower arm back up into position for the 4 bolts


I retorqued the lower bolts to 59 ft/lbs - that was the only number I could find in the Chilton manual.


Today I do the passenger side.
It should be a piece of cake based on what I learned from the driver's side


...

 

59 ft/lbs is the correct torque value for those 4 bolts. Did you put some threadlocker (blue loctite) on them before reassembly?

 

Doh! No, I didn't know about that.
It did seem strange that those bolts didn't have nuts on the other side.

Can I get this threadlocker (blue loctite), at any auto parts store? (i.e. Checker or AutoZone?)


edit: Would this stuff work (not sure if there are many different kinds) ?

http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductD...rtnumber=37419

 

I think I bought the Loctite at Wal-Mart but I assume it would be available almost anywhere.

 

Finally finished! Yay!!

Got everything bolted back together - used threadlocker on the 4 bolts of the lower arm (thnx for that advice Lance!).

Being the second thing I've ever done to a car in my life, I'd say it was pretty challenging (first was replacing the steering rack and pinion bushings).
I'm glad I did it myself though instead of paying someone and not knowing how my suspension worked.

Maybe now I can actually change the oil myself (for the first time ever of course )

Here's some crappy before and after pics.
I forgot to take a before pic, so scrounged up one from a few years ago.
The after pic was taken in my garage right after finishing.
Pretty miserable day today - cold, snowy, and about 37 degrees all day.







This next week I'll be installing a diff drop from 4Crawler and heading over to Firestone for a Lifetime Alignment

Now it's time to

...

 

Got the alignment yesterday.

Drives MUCH better. Was pulling hard right before.
Now it's more or less straight... .I guess my BFGs are worn unevenly though, so it's a little off.

It definitely is a much stiffer ride though, compared to the soft mushy 7 yr old shocks that were replaced. Can't wait to try it off road!

Next up - new wheels and tires!

 

Congrats Crux! i suffered through all that (and more) just a few weeks ago. Definitely satisfying to do it yourself tho!

 

hey crux u planning on 285s for it

 

Yeah, that is the plan.
Just researching new wheels and what kind of backspacing to get.

Right now I'm leaning towards the wheelersoffroad.com black aluminum alloy wheels with 4" of backspacing and some kind of MT (goodyear's mtrs?) in 285/75/16.

I can't wait!

 

I did the same front suspension work myself. It was a serious pain to get the strut into place. I did it on a Tacoma, but the problem was the same. I ended up using the bottle jack, a crowbar with one hand and pushing the bolt through with the other hand. I know, not smart to do it alone, but I got it in there. BTW, awesome pics on the assembly process.