1998-2004 hilux owners, i need a favour

[ned]

im currently away from home at work and would like to order some suspension parts from the US to fit a tacoma.

they are asking for a couple of pictures of the front suspension to send the right parts. would someone please be able to snap a couple of pictures of there front ends?

cheers

[ned]

bump

[spongerx]

Tacoma front ends are different from the 98-04 model Hilux. Tacomas use coils while the Luxs use torsion bars. The diffs, axles and steering are different too. Any of the 4" lift kits sold for the US market 89-95 Toyota Pickup should bolt on fine. Snake racing and Superior Engineering sell kits that look like they could be from US manufacturers from the pix I've seen on their sites, possibly Procomp and Skyjacker. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this please.

[spongerx]

Here's some shots of my 03 Lux front suspension. Hope it helps.

[ned]

ok, well then il hit them up and see if thats true about it being more like the 89-94 US pickup than the next gen tacoma, makes sense cause yeah, the tacoma uses coils.

and to spongerx, i hate to be a nuisance and i really appreciate those pics, but wuold it be possible to get a pic of the upper arm, cause thats what im replacing. its so i can put a coilover shock in and get some nice smooth, long travel.

[spongerx]

If you're looking at the Downey or Total Chaos long travel kits you'll need to fab up some fenders with much wider openings to accommodate the increased travel at the front. With the Total Chaos kit Toyota T100 axle shafts will be needed as well since it's 3" wider per side, so 6" wider in all. Downey Offroad offers a package retaining the torsion bar setup but using arms that are 2" wider with a bolt on Porche inner CV assembly. Both of these kits replace the upper and lower arms. A friend of mine is looking at going the full Downey kit this year. Depending on how it works out for him I might go that route next yr.

Here's a pic of the upper arm, and yes, my swaybars are disconnected. Rides sooo much nicer that way. My 1.5" ball joint spacer is slightly visible in this pic. I've had to raise my downtravel bumpstop slightly with washers because with the BJ spacer my inner CVs bind a bit at full droop.

[mmaaxx]

contact Chris Bibby at Lockd Up 4x4, they'll help you out and surely at a better price -

http://www.locktup4x4.com.au/Default.aspx

they know their stuff especially about toyota fourby's in US and here

[ned]

i was actually looking at the camburg upper arm kit, but since its for the 98-04 tacoma which is different to our hilux, i dont think they make one for me.

the total chaos would be nice but i really dont want to run such a wide and illegal setup.

hmm, and i dont want torsion bars either. i really wish someone would make a nice 10" travel kit thats stock width and cycles really smooth.

thanks heaps spngerex for the pic and help.

[spongerx]

Unfortunately the stock CVs will never allow that much travel from the stock arm width. The inner CV is the Hilux IFS downfall when it comes to travel. Think it will only take 19 degrees before it starts to bind. Mine bind with only a 1.5" bj spacer
Downey's Porche inner CV is a pretty nice bit of kit. Bolts up to the stock inner CV mount and they sell a custom splined axle to mate up to the stock Toyota outer CV. This is 2" or so longer than the stock one and I'm not sure if they sell stock length axles, the Porche inner CV assembly may stick out further than stock. Hopefully my friend orders some so I can have a look at them up close
I've ripped quite a few outer boots with my increased travel as well but am trying out a set of boots from Downey that are much softer rubber than the stock Toyota boots so should hopefully last longer.

[ned]

so do you know of anyone that has used the downey LT torsion setup?
cause it does look like about the best kit available, especially with those porche CV'x

[eChef]

I'm interested in this kit from Downey as well... If anyone has used it I'd love to know how it went and what is required for the conversion.