What Did You Do with Your 80 This Weekend? (50 Viewers)

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@Broski @Road Apple let me know if you’d be up to hitting those trails again soon. I’ll be through there around the 24th.
To bad the timing wasn't right It would have been nice to meet up and run some trails with you.
Like Ron, I'm back home as well 🤷‍♂️ maybe another Time ;)
 
Grabbed a set of Bilstein shocks from @wngrog to throw on the 80. I don't know whether to thank him for the shocks or cuss him because installing Bilsteins is always a fight :lol:. Front installation was kinda challenging because the shocks had to be compressed and the working room for this was crowded. Had plenty of droop on the rear that the shocks lined up fine. These replaced a high mileage set of OMEs and I'm looking forward to see how the ride improves. While at it I mounted up a set of 255/85/16 Yokohama Geolanders, these tires have a few thousand miles left on them and we'll see how these feel on the road and in the dirt. The wheels are some steel 16x7 and I think with 3.75 or 4" backspacing. I bought these from SummitView attachment 2752870View attachment 2752871View attachment 2752872View attachment 2752873View attachment 2752874 years ago and ran them on my 60 and needed spacers. On the 80 they fit without needing spacers.

One week later and I had the opportunity to do some miles with the "new" Bilsteins from @wngrog . Dramatic improvement over the ragged out OME shocks. Wheel stud PSA here, Toyota thread pitch is M12x1.5 and a M12X1.25 lug nut will not work well. I only had to replace 9 wheel studs to get this back on the road. The M12X1.25 lug nuts were from a Scion FRS and sure looked right at the time (late afternoon, >90 heat index, dehydrated. Just a little rust on the studs and that's why it's tough :lol::bang:). No more twitchy handling at highway speed and more control in the slow stuff.

Also took the time to swap in a rebuilt rear locker actuator and deal with oil leakage at the hubs. New bearings and seals cured the leakage. Eliminated the inner axle seal to allow the gears to roll in straight gear oil. Discovered though the rear rotors and calipers need attention.
 
This weekend I replaced the rear brakes, from the e-brake bell crank to the drums. Then of course had to go for a drive to make sure they work.
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The M12X1.25 lug nuts were from a Scion FRS
That's a disguised Subaru. The only Toyota stuff on it is the badging and that is suspect.
 
Installed my Blackhawk rear control arms yesterday.
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Grrrr…gone. Installed a new rear driveshaft and the growl when feathering off the throttle at speed is gone!

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I got the 49inch. I wanna say the exterior dimension is 53 inches which could not be more perfect for mounting to the gutter mounts. Honestly the 49 inch i think is enough room for two people I like how it opens as a square so two people can fully sit up in it which I think is a advantaged compared to the A frame design.

My last CVT was a 55 inch and just personal preference but I hated overhang look. That coupled with my black truck and then a black bowfin rack, and a big bulky black tent and aesthetically I didn’t really like the look. On top of that I could feel the bowfin with the CVT a lot more in the corners compared to this Freespirit. I am of the opinion 80s driving characteristics drastically decrease as the weight on the roof goes up I think it effects driving charctersitics more then just about anything else so loosing a 100 pound rack was a priority to me and made a big difference.

As far as the bowfin rack with the CVT tent I will say the wind deflector on the front of the bowfin rack makes a big difference for straight headwinds the lack of a wind deflector on the freespirit and in direct headwinds I can feel the air getting trapped under the tent and feeling like a weight. If i end up keeping the tent I will definitely be fabbing up some wind deflector. I am debating gutting the interior and making it a liveable space and thats why I would end up getting rid of the tent



Here are a couple more up close pics of the Freespirit
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And my old settup for comparsion sake
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Banquet? 🍻
 
What size lift do you have?
I was wondering too. Mine never went away and I tried everything.
I’ve got the Dobs 2.5” VT’s up front and 2” Ironman‘s in the rear right now. Sits roughly 23.7“ up front and 23.2” in the rear unloaded, pretty level stance. The VT’s have been in for a couple of months after getting my front bumper and winch installed. I will be dropping used VT’s in the rear since I just got my rear 4X4 Labs bumper installed this past week. I’m planning to replace the front u-joints when I have a free day.

The grrrr became more pronounced after the VT’s went in which isn’t surprising, they raised me about 3/4”. I definitely had some spline wear on the old shaft and the u-joints had a touch of play. I greased the splines in the new shaft with moly and filled the u-joints as well before installing it, super happy with the result.
 
Looks really good. Where can I get one?
Nowhere, at the moment. I'm not professionally a welder or engineer or fabricator or anything related to the sale of vehicular armor and my understanding is that selling a bumper might come with a lot of potential liabilities to navigate.
 
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I was wondering too. Mine never went away and I tried everything.
My growl was the bearings in the rear nose of the transfer case. Might check that if changing out the U-Joints doesn't work.
 
My growl was the bearings in the rear nose of the transfer case. Might check that if changing out the U-Joints doesn't work.
Unfortunately I’ve already tried that.
 

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