Builds jsig's lx470 build

[jsigone]

Lift is complete, rears are 23" even w/ 5gallons of gas in the tank, and misc tool kits. Fronts are set to 21.5 with 23.75" with wheels lifted, droop = 2.25"/57.15mm. I'll see if it settles in the next few days before I get it aligned.

 

[jsigone]

found a good parking spot at the MTB trail head for a quick after work jam. Next time I'll look for a bigger rock

 

[bentonrover]

Awesome build. Great prices on suspension. I too was looking for alternatives to OME. Good luck

 

[yotaboy]

hey i'm following your build... i love my AHC and am looking for a nice backup for when s*** hits the fan... how are you liking your new suspension set up?

 

[jsigone]

I loved the AHC when it worked. So nice to hit a button on different road surfaces or decenting a paved mt pass I can put it in sport mode and have way less body roll. But it’s been giving me a hard time the past few months and stayed in limp mode 3 times last week.

Been only a few days on the new suspension. It’s everything I could want from a mix of parts and lot of homework on shock brands. The stiff ome springs are 220 and the thicker 31mm SAW t bars are bit stiff on sharp shallow hits/bumps. But also makes it nice in the corners. Once the suspension compressed beyond the sharp hits, the plusher fox shock are flat out smooth and begging for more speed or bigger bumps. Aka I’ve been getting horrible MPG this week.

The truck feels like I’m driving a brand new one off the lot and maybe better. I’m been heavy footing the gas pedal to hit the bumpy roads at higher speeds and it’s still plush, doesn’t shake side to side or make my kids say what was that. I like plush ride but not caddy plush where the truck shakes around like a boat in the sea. Almost that floating plush ride I had with Kings on my FJC. Except 1/3 he price!! The suspension is working well under the truck and the truck is staying flat over the crappy roads I throw at her.

My only off roading has been a 1/2 mile fire road to get to MTB trails yesterday but tire pressure is at 55psi so not what I’d do on real trails. Maybe this weekend I’ll test it out on some good dirt while airing down.

I’m running mix of the fox 100s fronts for 1.5” lift and 105series rear for 2.5” lift. Couldn’t find anyone running the 105 rears so it was a gamble but would also replicate the slinky system I read about and make more use of the taller springs. The OME 2.5 meds won’t fall out at full rear extension so far. I need longer brake lines and extended rear sway arm to make the most of the longer travel rear. Also running Trail Tailor diff drop kit to make the front CV happy. My only armor/weight so far is WKO sliders. I’ll add skid plates before end of yr and offset that weight by fully removing th AHC parts and pump (60-75#s).

 

[jsigone]

Been a busy week. I finally got some time and energy to tackle the sound system. That job took longer than expected. I couldn't find any info to bypass the ML factory amp w/ different connectors/wire colors then on the Faqs page. I should have cracked the case of the AMP to see if I could see the copper routes but instead I installed both factory and aftermarket 5way amp. I'm left with a GND wire buzz.

Amazon $30 bezel fits pretty good, held in place by e tape.

Saturday I took my son out for wheeling on Palomar Mt. Highpoint Truck trail w/ this fire tower at 6140ft up

taking a lil snack break

We headed down the Mt before it got dark, shooting into sun isn't always the best

 

[jsigone]

Sunday we headed to the desert where the heat awaited us, 107* in Borrego Springs for some night time wheeling

air down before the crappy miles worth washboards started

first stream crossing was enough to fling mud on the trucks, but thats about it. Trail was closed ahead for the Big Sheeps in the summer months to have access to the water streams.

Drove back to town and looped around to Inspiration Wash, nice smooth soft sand w/ whoops in some places. But the wash was filled with a massive sand drift and pinched to the right hand wall. Around the corner was collapsed wall on the right and sand drift on the left

My buddy has F/R lockers in his taco, me I have Atrac and never tried it under this condition so we played it safe and was able to back out the sand drift w/o sliding into the wall.

We ventured off to another trail at the top of the grade, it has changed since I've been there a few yrs ago. There was a shelf that tested my WKO sliders and suspension droop

We got off the trails shortly after midnight, plus 90 min drive home. Coffee is good today!!

 

[jsigone]

sniff sniff I smell something sweet and it wasn't chocolate or donuts.

The PO changed one side of the TEEs, the other side snapped when I tried to rotate the clamps. The broken side took MUCH longer to fix, since I was clamping the hose and trying to remove the hose while planking on top of the engine. And do my best to get all little broken bits out of the system. Hoses seemed fine. The other side was 5min job at most.

Topped off with red coolant and let it run for a couple mins at 2k rpm with the rad cap off to burp any air that might be in there. I think I got some coolant on the serp belt cuz now it's howling like a banshee. I'll tackle that this week.

 

[jsigone]

new belt added and lets hit the road! Ah so quiet again. Quick solo trip out to Anza borrego state park.

3yr warranty with autozone

time for fun, the air down staging area

 

[jsigone]

Quick day trip to Borrego Springs, hit up the Rockhouse Canyon and test the flex of the new suspension. Sliders a must for this area, both sides are without paint on the bottoms. Good stuff

 

[duvinclunk]

Good looking Cruiser, love the two tone.

 

[jsigone]

On Jan 2nd took 2 kiddos and sister and her kid on road trip thru Arizona to Flagstaff. Hit up Sedona after our travel day, my LX470 and here Highlander. Area just got hammer with 9-12" of snow on New Years Eve so the weather was crispy and views were spectacular. We arrived in 12* with a low of 1* overnight and in the AM. Truck took a bit longer to crank over than normal.

Hit up Broken Arrow Trail.

the bump to Submarine Rock

[

Sadly shortly after Submarine rock, I dragged the hitch on a rock later in the trail. That impact was the last straw for the Fan bracket bearing. It started sounding bad right away. It was old 208k miles and likely first time it ever been in sub freezing temps. I climbed the next steel rock section to get to a pull out since the Pink Jeep Tour guys go thru here often. Checked the noise and it was coming from in front of the engine buy the fan and its was a bit wobbly. This is a one way trail w/ the exit part about 50 yards we had just past. I crawled back there w/o seeing another truck coming and we limped it back into town. The first speed bump the fan went quiet again.

We parked and shopped. I still had to air back up and bearing sounded pretty bad but kept going. Made the drive 45 miles back to flagstaff hotel while climbing 3000+ ft. Thank god it didn't explode. A night of homework revealed I was correct but the job was near timing belt assembly proceedure and wasn't going to do that in 15* temps in the hotel lot. There was a toyota dealership 5 miles away. I dropped the truck off there on Friday, parts order and was to be completeed Saturday. Fan bracket + timing belt service and water pump. +1 extra day in Flagstaff. We went to the Grand Canyon in my sisters car on Friday, another awesome day of views. Saturday we went back to Sedona to check out some other stuff wile the truck was still getting worked on.

Toyota closed at 5 saturday, 3:30 I got a call saying they got the truck running and airing our bubbles in the coolant line and start other test like timing n stuff. 15 min later another call saying there is a leak coming from the water pump they just installed...eek. Being a 3-4hour job on the book rate it wasn't going to get done. Add that a winter weather advisery was issued Saturday for another 9-12" of snow Saturday night starting at 7pm. We had hotel booked in Phoenix for Saturday night, took the comp rental down before the snow storm hit. Still in Phoenix tonight, will take the sweeeeeet senna mini van back up the Mt tomorrow after breakfast.

 

[jsigone]

 

[jsigone]

Got the truck back and drove it 500 miles from Flagstaff to San Diego. Got the best MPG from the beast EVER. Than again it was a 6000ft downhill to the I8, got 18.6mpg for 210 miles. Next tank along I8 to home was 15.8mpg including climbing one mountain range. It was 17.4 ish range before the san diego mountain crusing at 65.

Played in the snow on Schnebly Hill outside of Flagstaff after getting the truck back from Toyota Dealer. This road goes to Sedona, but I didn't take it the full length, nor did I know if the middle gate would be open. They got a foot of snow a day before. Being from San Diego, Yes I wore shorts n tee in the snow. Was only 40*.....far from the single digits numbers from last wed/thurs.

 

[jsigone]

Energy Suspension polyurethane bushing/body spacers arrived. I'll try to tackle this weekend. I hope to use one for the missing rubber on the front diff mount. I don't have a garage to pound out/torch the old bushing. Going to macgyver one of these spacers to fit the void and reduce the clunking. Material is 1/2" thick polyurethane 70a, softest they offer. I'll have to dremel on side to match the chamfer angle of the bottom plate. $25 for kit of 8 of these things. PN 9.9528R for future ref if this works HAHA

Diff bushing macgyver mod by jsig1, on Flickr

 

[jsigone]

Some dremel work needed to counter bore the polyurethane bushing

bit more needed on the edge, changed the counter sink to a counter bore

quick test drive around the block. The thumping between reverse and drive is done. Acceleration thumps are gone.

+Edit

After the first commute to work after this fix...WOW night and day difference. No more thumping between any gear, no more delays when I hit the gas. Even in cruise control up the hill, there used to be a heavy thump when the ECU would downshift to make it up the hill. None of that mess anymore. Well worth the $25 and hour of time. Most of the time spent was on the dremel. 1/2" thick, counterbore was roughly half w/ OD around 1.75"

 

[Alibaster]

sniff sniff I smell something sweet and it wasn't chocolate or donuts.

The PO changed one side of the TEEs, the other side snapped when I tried to rotate the clamps. The broken side took MUCH longer to fix, since I was clamping the hose and trying to remove the hose while planking on top of the engine. And do my best to get all little broken bits out of the system. Hoses seemed fine. The other side was 5min job at most.

Topped off with red coolant and let it run for a couple mins at 2k rpm with the rad cap off to burp any air that might be in there. I think I got some coolant on the serp belt cuz now it's howling like a banshee. I'll tackle that this week.

How did you find the hose fitment on the stainless heater T?

 

[jsigone]

How did you find the hose fitment on the stainless heater T?

they fit OK, found the amazon link for them on the mega thread about them. you will need new hose clamps for them, the factory ones will not work. Also use a ratchet on the clamps, hand tighten will lead to leaking so I found out.

 

[jsigone]

Running down the repair list Dealership in Flagstaff in effort to make the truck confident in for another long trip

Fan bracket and t belt kit done at dealer...yay

Deferred repairs
Fan clutch - ordered eta 1/25

Idle pulley - not yet

Power steering leak everywhere -> will replace low pressure hoses to res and bleed with 1- 2qts synthetic atf, part in garage
Hope I don't have to replace the high pressure hose. I'll find out after I try the other parts first

Rear brake pads are low and were 1mm few weeks ago.
Taking this opportunity to upgrade the system, I live in hilly, mt areas, and tend to late brake. Driving habit from having a mitsu EVO 10 with dope brembo brakes. Not a great idea when the 100 weighs a ton more literally

~DBA slotted t3 rear rotors on order, have a few more days to decide which pads to use. Debating on EBC green stuff or Hawk LTS eta 1/30

I have more time to do the fronts, wish list
Matching rotors and pads
Replace the wheel bearings, nuts, washers and seals... I think originals are still in there!
Swap in Slee extended SS lines....extra credit if I have time.

Future trips coming up on pres day weekend....eek

 

[jsigone]

ah the joys of finding the nuts stripped out from the handy dealership's work when they did my tbelt/water pump/fan bracket. I didn't even attempt to remove it, yet. Knowing good n well I wouldn't put a well rounded "nut" back in the truck. I just put all the tools back and closed the hood Time to find the PN from the dealership.

new clutch waiting to go in and