FJ 80 Terrain Tamer suspension install

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liberalgeek

10 Year
Joined
Dec 24, 2011
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2
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Terrain Tamer suspension install

I got my suspension recently from @wardharris at Cruiser Brothers, the install on it went for the most part, smooth as butter, the only things not smooth about it was the de installation. Pro tip, spray some penetrating oil on every single bolt you can reach in the weeks leading up to the install, you will thank me later for that tip.

Below you will see some pictures of the process that me and my helper went through to undo and redo every bolt necessary and most importantly, how we got the spring out and back in again


To get the front shocks out, use a shock adjusting socket wrench, they exist, we did not use it, and instead used a myriad of wrench’s and socket drivers to accomplish the task. The issue was not necessarily the tightness, but instead that the location of the top nuts were shall we say awkwardly positioned.


Passenger Side
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Passenger side tools required
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Driver-side tools required
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For jacking the axle down from the car we tried several methods, but the most effective was the bottle jack that come stock with every fj80. It worked beautifully. After removing the spring continue jacking a few more pumps to make room for the new spring, since it’s a bit longer. Watch the body to axle brake line…I was told it would suck to rip that off.

Method to move the axle
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Old vs New spring
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Be very careful while jacking it down, to not jack to much, as there are brake lines that you should not break, horrible pun, sorry just had to…

The brass looking tube on the axle there is a breather. The PO (my helper) installed remote breather filters and the hose popped of…no biggie. The black oily goopy mess stuff is the brake hard lines.

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Now it’s time to setup the shock, this is what it should look like top and bottom, place the 2 other pieces it comes with at the top and bottom of the mounting points on the car

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Front passenger side done
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The most challenging portion of this job was the removal of the rear shocks, there was no way without the special tool we couldn’t find, to lock the shock in place and rotate the nut, we got around this by using the tried and true vice grip. After we finished the job, I read the FSM, and it said you could remove the top shock mount with 2 bolts, this would have ben good to know before I started, but meh, job still done!

FJYfz27.png


You do have to push the bushings into the rear shocks, this is extremely easy if you have a vice…

You simply lube it up with some anti seize, then you line the bushing up with the hole, and you press, easy peasy but heres a picture

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Here is what mine looked like before and after*

One side done, il let you guess which… please don’t shoot the messenger but I forgot to take a full before picture, but it was level at the height of the rear before I did anything to it

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All done
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Coming soon to a forum post near you is a post about how to do the install of the steering arms and steering stabilizer.
 
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Great job.
What size lift is that?
What is the free height of the coils?
If you take out the front control arm bolt out it makes the axle drop out a lot lower.
 
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I can't wait to start seeing more in the US from terrain tamer.
 
I am the PO, and the "helper." Actually, we are a team...Ben has helped me with my 60 for 10+ years, so working on his 80 together is a special joy. Here are a couple of extra pics...

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Ben -

Great job on the install and write-up. You have done us proud and we are very grateful for the leadership in product research.

As a result of his project, Cruiser Brothers will now import the 80 Series suspension kits along with 100 Series.

Promotional Pricing for the 80 Series $995 *
http://www.terraintamer.com/images/pdf/Suspension/Toyota/SK006.pdf

Promotional Pricing for the 100 Series $995 *
http://www.terraintamer.com/images/pdf/Suspension/Toyota/SK003.pdf

* Plus $75 if air freight from Australia (30 days) vs. sea freight (60 days)

Shoot me a PM or give me a call and I will hook you up with one of our installing shops / resellers.

:cheers:

Here's an interesting short video on the coils....

 
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Ben and I are not trained mechanics, we learned what we know on my 60. The suspension install on his 80 was far easier than on my 60. We took our time, broke for lunch and coffee. Shocks and springs took 3.5 hours, again working very casually. Removing the old shocks took the most time. Ben arranged for the caster correction bushings to be installed at Torfab, that's the only part we didn't do. Replacing the control arms and steering damper took another 3 hours, again working at a very casual pace. The truck drives great, better than on the OEM springs/Bilstein shocks that were on previously.
 
The post continues…

Here is my install guide for the front control arms and the steering stabilizer that I got from @wardharris, of cruiser brothers…

The steering stabilizer, really could not have been any easier, all I did was remove the two bolts that held it into place, assembled the shock and slapped it back on there…. Just kidding, I first had to remove the cotter pins from the castle nuts. Once I did that it came off easy peasy. The P.O helped me with this task. And the reinstall was the exact opposite of removal, the cotter pins being the only task that was mildly difficult.

Now, the control arms were quite the different story, I had @torfab install the castor correction bushings in there. Originally I was just going to go without them, but when I noticed that above 40 miles per hour it felt like I would die, I decided to correct the castor. Anyway they pushed the bushings in so all I had to do was remove the old ones and reinstall the new ones. Sounds easy right, well it was with a few exceptions.

The process was as follows

We removed the front bolt on the left side first and then inserted a temporary holder otherwise known as a gigan-TOR- screwdriver, sorry had to do the pun… these bolts were on super tight, but honestly, that’s a good thing, these pieces are not something you want to fall off on the freeway.

Next we removed the second bolt on the front, and finally we removed the third NUT, emphasis on the nut. On the front bolts there are serrations, to make it not slip out of torque where you remove the bolt in order to not destroy the serrations. On the rear you remove the nut in order to not destroy the serrations.

We next tried to install the replacement one but we could not get the bolts to align this makes sense in hindsight, which is always 20/20 unlike the po’s vision… the reason it makes sense is that we were trying to line it up while the other end of the axle had the original castor to it, so they were off by 3 degrees which when you are working with very precise fitting bolts, is enough to make a difference.

To compensate for this we removed the right control arm, first two bolts came out real smooth. The third, the one with the nut, the bolt was blocked by the cat. Not the meow kind, the environmental kind. We removed the bolts holding the cat up against the body and that allowed us just enough room to knock that bolt out. Just be careful because when you remove the screwdriver holding the front in place it’s going to drop its entire 60 pound wait on you. That does not feel good.

With both now removed it became significantly easier to install the first one, the install process is simply the reverse of the removal. The torque values on it are insane though 135 foot pounds if my memory serves correctly.


Next job is doing the front axles, that should be great fun.

I Already bought the birfs from @wardharris, great customer service and an excellent dude to work with. This will be posted to either this thread or a new thread, within a few weeks.
 
Air impact gun (with a swivel impact socket for the DS top) makes removing and installing the pin end of the shocks a total breeze. The impact action removes/installs the nuts without the shock shaft being able to spin free.

cheers,
george.
 
liberalgeek said:
I already bought the birfs from @wardharris, great customer service and an excellent dude to work with. This will be posted to either this thread or a new thread, within a few weeks.
Click to expand...

Technically, a sale fulfilled from our warehouse on behalf of @torfab - we partner with our installing shops and resellers to help keep the logistics efficient!

The Cruiser Brothers management team appreciates your kind words....

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which is always 20/20 unlike the po’s vision…

Wait...he's talking about me! WTF? Ok, my eyes aren't what they used to be.

Ben is right, removing/reinstalling the control arms is pretty easy. The only real head scratcher was the cat. We had to remove the bolts holding the cat in place, so we could push it up out of the way to remove one of the control arm bolts. This is yet one more example of where using a penetrating oil a few times before you start the work will pay off. We didn't know we'd need to do this...and we broke one of the two bolts. If we had been a little more patient (letting the penetrating oil do it's work) we would have two intact bolts instead of one. Live and learn.

So, now that this install is done, how does it compare to other mods in terms of difficulty?
  • Oil changes are easier.
  • Replacing the power steering pump takes less time, but if you can do that, you can do this also.
  • Replacing the fan clutch or water pump takes less time, and if you can do that, you can do this also.
  • Doing a lift on a 60 is waaaaaaay harder.
  • Doing the front axle on an 80 is harder (more s*** to clean, which takes a lot of time). If you can do a front axle job, this suspension install will be easy.
  • Brakes on an 80...I'd say they are similar - both are real world jobs, but if you have reasonable mechanical skills, are totally doable as a DIY project.

The truck looks great, drives great, and I'm happy that Ben and I got to do this together.
 
lovetoski said:
which is always 20/20 unlike the po’s vision…

Wait...he's talking about me! WTF? Ok, my eyes aren't what they used to be.

Ben is right, removing/reinstalling the control arms is pretty easy. The only real head scratcher was the cat. We had to remove the bolts holding the cat in place, so we could push it up out of the way to remove one of the control arm bolts. This is yet one more example of where using a penetrating oil a few times before you start the work will pay off. We didn't know we'd need to do this...and we broke one of the two bolts. If we had been a little more patient (letting the penetrating oil do it's work) we would have two intact bolts instead of one. Live and learn.

So, now that this install is done, how does it compare to other mods in terms of difficulty?
  • Oil changes are easier.
  • Replacing the power steering pump takes less time, but if you can do that, you can do this also.
  • Replacing the fan clutch or water pump takes less time, and if you can do that, you can do this also.
  • Doing a lift on a 60 is waaaaaaay harder.
  • Doing the front axle on an 80 is harder (more **** to clean, which takes a lot of time). If you can do a front axle job, this suspension install will be easy.
  • Brakes on an 80...I'd say they are similar - both are real world jobs, but if you have reasonable mechanical skills, are totally doable as a DIY project.

The truck looks great, drives great, and I'm happy that Ben and I got to do this together.
Click to expand...
Priceless!

:bounce::bounce2:
 
Did you measure the lift you got? That front looks a lot higher than 50mm above stock.
Are these springs rated for bumpers and other accessories or are there a choice of springs depending on weight you intend to carry?
Thanks!
 
it is higher then 50mm above stock... i got the springs rated for highest weight as i plan to add a rear storage camping area and a front bumper and which at some point...
there are several spring rate options though
@wardharris could better answer your questions about what is right for your vehicle
 
Yeah, I'm here in the USA & was wondering if anyone else has this lift. I like Terrain Tamer products. I noticed @cruiseryard sells them.
 
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