Well folks. Operation cut off my entire suspension has been successfully completed.
The mission here was to install the JD fab lower pivot kit, JD fab upper control arms with less caster correction than the Icon UCAs, install 887 coils in place of the 885 coils, regear to 4.30 and ultimately fit 35” tires.
The JD fab lower pivot kit replaces all of the LCA mounts and hardware so you start by completely disassembling the front suspension and cut off the OEM mounts and clean up the frame to fit the new mounts. The mounts come with tabs that bolt to threaded holes in the frame but require a bit of fitting to get into place with minimal gaps.
Once fitted up the brackets are tacked into place and final welded.
The view from the front with the new high clearance skid plate crossmember.
Final welded and painted and ready for reassembly.
The front suspension reassembled with the new UCAs
The next step (which was actually prior to reassembling the front suspension) was regearing to 4.30 gears using a 3rd gen Tacoma front differential and a 3rd gen 4runner rear with e-locker. Here they are ready to be installed.
The rear diff in place, I also installed a Marlin crawler actuator guard and a Yukon triple drilled flange. One thing to note about the rear e-locker is that the bolt pattern is asymmetrical and I messed up by drilling the stud holes with the gasket upside down. So I had to weld up the two long stud holes and redrill them. Also getting the third member into the housing with the axle under the vehicle was a huge pain in the ass. There isn’t a lot of clearance to the gas tank and the third has to be lined up perfectly to slide in. I installed the long studs into the housing after the third was in place, it would have been impossible otherwise.
First shots back on it’s own weight, these are 35” nitto trail grapplers on FJ cruiser wheels off of my FJ40 until I buy new tires.
Aside from strengthening the suspension mounts and tabs considerably the advantage to the JD fab kit is that it moves the LCA forward up to 1” to give more clearance to the firewall and body mount.
The tires pretty much clear at the back at ride height but I will need to hammer down the pinch weld and see if more clearancing is mecessary.
The front is another story, the tires are hitting the wings of the bumper and I can’t steer to full lock backing up. This will be pretty easy to fix by trimming these wings but will also require relocating the windshield washer reservoir which I was already planning on doing.
The tires are also hitting the bumper itself under compression so I will need to trim the bumper caps back and weld them back on. Ultimately I will likely also trim the wheel opening larger in the body and fender flares to match. I plan to do this incrementally and get it fully flexed out until nothing hits then trim everything out to look good.
Here’s the finished stance, 35” tires on 2.5” of lift, I love the proportions.
Got the washer bottle relocated. I used a Dorman coolant overflow bottle with holes drilled in for the two pumps and low fluid sensor. Only downside is it only holds about 1/2 gallon.
Also got the skid plate mounted. I went ahead and DA’d it and hit it with some 2k clear to hopefully keep it clean and not corrode.
The 4.30s seem pretty much perfect with the 35s, much better than stock gearing with 33s (obviously). The transmission is downshifting less on the highway and getting more consistent TC lockup.
The two fuel tanks hold 45 gallons so highway range is 550+ miles.
Had a bit of time in the last week so I went ahead and trimmed the wheel wells and bumper. I basically took 1” out of the rear and top of the wheel well then from roughly the mid wheel well forward I took that same line but paralleled the top of the flare instead of the bottom. That opened up the front half of the wheel well a bit further. Then matched that on the bumper. I also beat the pinch weld flat, no more rubbing on the body but I am occasionally hitting the body mount so I will probably have to do a CMC.
Friday I got the new tires installed. I went with the Toyo RT trail 35x12.5x17 on the stock wheels. Also got 5 new Toyota TPMS sensors.
Also undercoated the wheel wells which looks a lot better.
I was chasing a squeak and assumed it was the LCA mounts. The JD fab kit comes with 3 thick spacers and additional thin washers for each mount. I tore down the front end and added 1 additional thin washer to each mount which made the LCA have absolutely zero slop and took a bit of effort getting the thick washers back in on a couple of them. After struggling with that I went to reassemble and realized the sway bar is hitting the lower coil seat . Squeak is still there but I ordered a set of sway bar spacers that I should be able to install tomorrow which will hopefully resolve the issue. I also went ahead and ordered a new set of OEM outer tie rods. I am still playing with alignment settings after brakes plus did a half ass job and didn’t fully tighten down the LCA bolts and some stuff moved. If anyone has a suggestion for a good alignment shop in the Denver area let me know.
I got the sway bar spacer installed tonight. I am not sure how I didn’t catch this during reassembly except maybe the order that I put things back together but the sway bar was getting pretty intimate with the coil seat on the front shock.
Kinda tough to see but this is what we were dealing with.
Can see the damage with the sway bar removed.
I went ahead and chased the threads while I had it apart.
I worked on installing the new outer TREs today and they fought me the entire way. The outers were seized on the inners and no amount of heat and penetrating oil could get them off. I ended up just putting them back together and ordered new inner TREs and boots. I went with 555 for these because looking at photos they actually neck down less than the OEMs so should be stronger.
I bought a wrecked 05 4runner and will be swapping the engine and transmission into my FJ40 so I’ve been spending most of my free time getting my shop reorganized to make room for the project. I probably won’t have a ton of new progress on the GX for a bit.
. Squeak is still there but I ordered a set of sway bar spacers that I should be able to install tomorrow which will hopefully resolve the issue. I also went ahead and ordered a new set of OEM outer tie rods. I am still playing with alignment settings after brakes plus did a half ass job and didn’t fully tighten down the LCA bolts and some stuff moved. If anyone has a suggestion for a good alignment shop in the Denver area let me know.