First step, gather tools.
I have a rolling cart that I use to try to keep from having tools all over and to preposition tools I know I will need. I love it, and normally it works, but I still found myself going back and forth to my larger tool chest, and as you will see from pictures, I still ended up with tools on the ground. Since it turned out that the project spanned multiple weekends, the cart did help with cleaning up the garage even though my LC was still on jack stands during the week. I also learned from many posts on the forum that some tools make things go faster, such as ratcheting combination wrenches. Accordingly, (and since more tools is always better!) I expanded my tool supply before beginning. (I decided long ago that every project should lead to more tools so my bride is somewhat used to this.) With that said, I admit I may tend to go overboard when it comes to tool buying. For instance, here is my socket drawer (this is a result of getting incredibly frustrated in a previous project and deciding I never wanted to have to buy a socket in the middle of a project again. I may have gone overboard.):
However, the back and forth to get tools can get frustrating so I will try to highlight specific sizes of tools needed for each step.
My final tool list:
1. 2 Floor jacks (I ended up borrowing my friend’s after my 25 year old jack’s seals failed after the first weekend, with the happy result that my garage floor now has some well lubricated spots. Haven’t bought it yet, but a new floor jack is another new tool for this project since seals for my jack are no longer available. Dang the luck.) You can likely do it with one, but two turned out to be helpful. Until we had the second one in place, we used the LC jack from the back, but while it worked, I don’t recommend that method unless you like monkeying around with jacks. There are pictures later to show what I mean.)
2. Jack stands. I have about ten of these, but only two that are heavy-duty. The LC is a bit beefy, so we ended up positioning these two on whichever end we were working on at the moment. My LC went up and down like a yo-yo as a result. At some point I will buy two more heavy duty ones for future efforts.
3. Metric ratchets (1/4, 3/8, ½ inch drive) and sockets (5, 10, 12, 14, 17, 19, 20, 22, 24, 27, 30mm)
4. Ratcheting wrenches (Regular or flex-head in the same sizes as above) [while you can do most of it with regular wrenches, a flex head is particularly useful for the top of the rear shock. Not sure why Toyota didn’t put an access panel in the inside for that since it is ridiculously hard to reach.]
5. 3lb metal mallet (This was primarily to disconnect the spindle from the UCA, but we ended up using it on other parts. More on that later.)
6. ½ inch torque wrench (the high torque values are 133, 150, and 221 ft/lbs)
7. Punch of some sort, preferably brass. (This is primarily for the bolt on the lower front shock, my punch was a piece of steel rod since it is what I have.)
8. Cable ties or nylon strap (I used them to hold items like the tie rod out of the way.)
9. Pry bar (Preferably a thin one, a crow bar is too big. Ask me how I know. Thankfully I have friends with tools.)
10. Anti-seize (I likely did not use this enough, will likely pay for it later. Now that it is finally all in, my OCD will probably make me go back and methodically correct myself.)
11. Vise grips (Normal sized are is ok, but needle nosed ones might help if everything goes sideways. More on that later.)
12. 1/2 Cordless Impact gun (air or cordless, we had and used both)
13. Paint marker to mark alignment cams
14. Strap wrench to hold shock body in place (may not need if shock has flats on top of bolt or shock body. There is a way to do it with a vise grip too where you clamp the vise grip under the lip of the shock, but we couldn’t get that method to work reliably.)
15. Ball joint separator (More on this later, but not only did I buy one, but I modified it with a Dremel tool to reduce the potential for damage to rubber boots on tie rod ends.)
16. ½ inch breaker bar. Mine is 18” long, ended up using a piece of schedule 40 pipe on it to get more out of it on a couple nuts.
17. Poor man’s thread chaser. (I made this with a 14mm-1.50 wheel stud. More on this debacle later. If you end up going this route, PM me. We will both share a laugh.)