Builds Gerry's Build thread: "If it happens again I'm buying an Abrams" (2 Viewers)

[MongooseGA]

Tires are back on the ground, LC t-bars have been leveled side to side, and she got an alignment this afternoon.

Driveline clunk is much better, though not perfect. At this point, all bushings are new (suspension and diff), both drive shafts are new, axles are new, axle flanges are new. I don't think there's really much more potential to remedy this. Old truck life. Driveline vibration is reduced as well, but not gone. Again, I may be nearing the end of what I can mess with without really digging in to nitty gritty. My alignment guy also adjusted my rear trailing arms to straighten the axle relative to the frame. One side was slightly forward of the other, about 1 turn of the Jonny Joint, I believe.

The LC t-bars are definitely softer than the Tough Dogs I took out, but I don't dislike it. I can actually feel the front shocks doing their jobs now, and the front end feels overall nicer. It is more floaty, and the front sway bar delete is more noticeable. Not positive if I'll keep these in or not, but for now I'm not regretting putting them in.

LCA bushings were a pain, I haven't heard back from SuperPro about them yet. Doing the PS was much, much faster than the DS once I had a strategy and familiarity. I could probably do it all again in one full day.

Rack bushings suck. **** those.

Just for my records, this is what I replaced:

Rack bushings with SuperPro Poly
LCA bushings wit SuperPro Poly
UCA bushings with SPC X-axis bushings(came in the arms originally, but 100k wore 'em out)
TREs with OEM from Toyota
CVs with OEM from Toyota
Axle flanges with OEM from Toyota
Front drive shaft with OEM from Toyota
Torsion bars, used OEM Toyota

Mileage is 336,3xx.

 

[7toy9]

Tires are back on the ground, LC t-bars have been leveled side to side, and she got an alignment this afternoon.

Driveline clunk is much better, though not perfect. At this point, all bushings are new (suspension and diff), both drive shafts are new, axles are new, axle flanges are new. I don't think there's really much more potential to remedy this. Old truck life. Driveline vibration is reduced as well, but not gone. Again, I may be nearing the end of what I can mess with without really digging in to nitty gritty. My alignment guy also adjusted my rear trailing arms to straighten the axle relative to the frame. One side was slightly forward of the other, about 1 turn of the Jonny Joint, I believe.

The LC t-bars are definitely softer than the Tough Dogs I took out, but I don't dislike it. I can actually feel the front shocks doing their jobs now, and the front end feels overall nicer. It is more floaty, and the front sway bar delete is more noticeable. Not positive if I'll keep these in or not, but for now I'm not regretting putting them in.

LCA bushings were a pain, I haven't heard back from SuperPro about them yet. Doing the PS was much, much faster than the DS once I had a strategy and familiarity. I could probably do it all again in one full day.

Rack bushings suck. **** those.

Just for my records, this is what I replaced:

Rack bushings with SuperPro Poly
LCA bushings wit SuperPro Poly
UCA bushings with SPC X-axis bushings(came in the arms originally, but 100k wore 'em out)
TREs with OEM from Toyota
CVs with OEM from Toyota
Axle flanges with OEM from Toyota
Front drive shaft with OEM from Toyota
Torsion bars, used OEM Toyota

Mileage is 336,3xx.

I just swapped my IM torsion bars for OME last weekend. Gotta say it’s the single best move I’ve made in terms of ride quality. The MRA shocks can actually work and manage suspension travel.

I’ve a decently heavy truck (especially front end). The IM bars are just crazy stout.

 

[MongooseGA]

When I made it home from alignment the other day, my passenger side fog light was dangling out of the bumper. Crap. Not the end of the world though as one of the lights was actually dead, so I hadn't used fogs in a while.

I ordered a set of Baja Designs Squadron R Sport, in the driving/ combo yellow flavor. Yesterday I pulled the ARB fog light buckets and installed. Instead of rigging it myself like I'd done with the old lights, I ordered a pair of 3d printed brackets from eBay to easily install my 3.5 lights.

While I had the buckets out, I disassembled the ARB turn signal lights and cleaned years of mud out of them. Now there's a visible light, AND it's amber.

I also got sick of my filthy headlights, so took them out, baked and removed the lenses and cleaned the lenses and shrouds with hot soapy water. Sanded the lenses from 800-2000 grit.

 

[MongooseGA]

This was super cool. I ordered a headlight Vapor cleaner from Amazon for like $30. It heats up a little cup of solvent, the vapors of which melt the surface of the plastic, making them perfectly clear. This was literally like magic to me.

I also aimed the big lights after finishing the fogs.