Installing Struts and ran into a major hiccup. Need some help

Hello everyone!
Got some new struts and figured it would be a good Sunday project, but I have run into a large issue.
sI have attached a photo below, but what's going on is that my strut is so far away from the bolt that I cannot even get it close to the hole. I have tried a pry bar to try and pry it up, and have tried every idea that I had but no cigar. I have a 4 inch lift and these new Eibach struts are 2" larger than stock. The reason I went this route is due to the fact that this is the exact set up that was on the truck (only it was the rancho 2"+ struts). So I figured that I could make it work and press them in. I have a large ARB bumper that weighs the truck down so when the stuck is on the road it sits level. Do you guys have any tips for how I could make this strut fit in? Or should I just overnight ship a 2in spacer from someone. Thanks a lot for any advice!

 

Disconnect the upper A arm (easiest is from the spindle, heat it up a bit and wack it) and then the lower arm can droop. Slide the shock bolt in then use a floor jack to jack it up until the upper arm can get bolted back to the spindle.

Be careful the spindle doesn't flop around much when the upper is disconnected since it can make the inner CV joint separate which is not a big deal but can be annoying to line back up.

PS if you can have someone stand on the spindle the weight might make the arm droop enough to get the bolt in without unbolting the upper arm.

 

Jack with a block of wood to compress the shock?

 

Using extreme caution, I have a couple times used a pair of ratchet straps to compress a strut coil spring. Simply feed the straps through coils top and bottom at opposite sides so it evenly compresses the spring and ratchet the straps tight. You're responsible for your own safety here.

Something like pictured.

 

You disconnect the sway bar? If it is still connected you really can’t get much movement out of the lower arm.

 

Check it out this video. https://youtu.be/NPG44UUAw2w 30min+
Easy and fast way how to do it.
I did it my suspension 3 times already and this is the best way so far.

 

Wait, what do you mean you have a 4" lift AND are using 2" longer struts?

What kind of 4" lift?

 

Its a Tuff country. I was able to get the strut on, but cant get the upper ball joint top sit properly. Idk I think im F-ed

 

There is a lot of tension in the upper and lower arms from the bushings. I never had to disconnect the upper arm to do this, but if you are having a hard time leveraging the upper arm then loosen the pivot bolt. That will relieve the tension on it so you can swing it freely. You might need to carefully lower the truck onto the ground to compress the shock so that you can swing the upper arm down onto the ball joint properly. Once that's done you can tighten the upper arm pivot.

If you haven't done so already, disconnect the swaybar on each side. Leave it disconnected until you are totally done with the job, it is easier to reconnect while the truck is on the ground.

 

Holy what a bear. Darkness I used your method and it worked out well. I don't think that ill have enough clearance between the UCA and the coil so I need to rethink my options. Thinking about going with 2" spacers on the top of the strut. Thanks to everyone for all the help!

 

Post some full pictures of what you have going on. We need to see what you're cooking to know what will work. Good job getting it back together. I'm not familiar with the tuff country lift so not sure what you're working with, but with good pics it will be easy to tell you if spacers is going to work. I have a feeling you'll need upper arms.

 

Will do. I'll be able to get some more photos tomorrow. I'll post them. Not super excited about the tuff country lift, but is what came with the truck and don't really want to undo/exchange the lift until its warmer out.

 

Mixing lifts is really gonna create odd situations. Def get some pics of the entire area

 

If its this kit then it already uses spacers at the top and mixing other spacers isn't a good route. Do you have the ball joint spacers on your spindles? Those are scary.

 

Depends on how the kit is designed. If the arms are all at factory angles, then he can add more lift within the same range as doing a stock oem truck.

Meaning only if the crossmember, upper ball joint and spacers in the kit are all at 4.5" of height change.

If anything doesn't match then it will be potentially hazardous to alter the geometry further. And I agree, those upper ball joint extensions are scary.


Way back when I lifted my IFS 1st gen Tacoma, that was the reason I hunted down a Trailmaster kit which converted the upper ball joint & control arm to a secondary strut.

 

Those ball joint spacers are scary AF. Adding extra angle with lift shocks is downright suicidal

 

Yes I have that kit, with the ball joint spacers and those scary 4.5" strut spacers. Definitely seems suspect. Here's my theory for why I think bolt-on 2inch top strut spacers would work. First, I didn't realize that my new Eibach struts would cause such an issue. I ordered them knowing that they added 2+inches of lift (I made a post on here earlier before I bought them and many of the guys who responded didn't think that it would be an issue) and I didn't want to go Rancho again because I wanted higher quality, plus the struts that were on the truck were the rancho quick lift so again, I figured it wouldn't be an issue. Tonight I was only able to install one strut (passenger side) when I measured from the top of the tire to the fender on the passenger side it was 12 1/2in and the driver's side was 10 1/2in (I have not removed the strut yet on drivers side). Soooo if I get rid of that scary 4.5 inch top strut spacer, throw in a more solid less scary 2-inch spacer, I should in theory end around 10in from the top of the tire to the fender (similar to where I was before the strut replacement). I don't really care that ill lose a half-inch, I would almost prefer it.

This might be a stupid idea, but I don't really see why it wouldn't work. I am learning about all of these lift kits and such so I am not super educated. If you guys think this is a horrible idea can you please explain why? Thanks for the help again and thanks for reading the paragraph above!

 

I do know that they made UCA ball joint spacers, but I have the lower ball joint spacer. Im not sure which spacer you guys are talking about. But I wanted to clarify that. Plus this is a 4X4 tundra.

 

@Can Can Looks like the problem I had when I put the strut perch on upside down and these guys helped me out. Can't tell from your pic, but worth a check.

 

I wish this were the issue. But I bought my struts from the toyotec factory with the already installed

 

So long story short, you want to eliminate the tuff country 4.5" strut spacer from your truck and instead use your new 2" lift struts with a solid 2" spacer instead. Correct?

This may work fine as .5" lowering shouldn't hurt suspension geometry. But may be more like .75-1" lower.

 

Be sure that the spacer is meant to provide 2" of lift. You don't want a spacer that is 2" thick. I think the lift ratio is something like 1:1.6 on these trucks, meaning a spacer that is physically 1" thick provides 1.6" of lift.

Sounds like your idea will work, from the first read I thought you wanted to run a 2" spacer in addition to the 4"(lift) spacer.

The ball joint spacer is at the top of the spindle. It's a scary setup because it turns a direct connection for the pivot point into a two-piece ordeal, and it increases leverage on the spindle which is fairly weak on its own at the top. That spacer might limit any use of aftermarket upper arms.

 

The math is not just in regards to height. The question is the travel in the shock in relation to the arc of the suspension movement. Mixing struts,spacers, drop bracket, you can’t be certain if things are in sync.

 

Since he has crossmember drop brackets, if both the spacer and the brackets are 4.5" (eye to eye.for brackets) then the ratio doesn't matter. If he can match the 4.5" total (so use 2.5" spacer with overall 2" longer strut) he'll be where he needs to be.

If the drop brackets are some other "eye to eye" distance than 4.5", then he's going to have to account for that with suspension arc/spacer.

Good point. Edited my above post to reflect this.

 

This solution worked for me

 

Yes this is exactly what I want to do.

 

I'll double-check this this morning, but I think @assassin10000 is right about how the ratio doesn't matter in this case.

 

If it were me, my number one concern would be that uca spacer bolt being the strongest piece of metal on the truck and properly torqued. Im sorry, not trying to insult your ride but it is a downright dangerous lift design

 

I would agree. I know its a scary lift. But it's what was on the truck when I bought it.

 

Okay here are some photos of the new passenger-side installed strut (grey) and the dusty old driver's side strut that will soon be replaced (black). When I jack the truck up from normal ground level I am able to lift the truck up about an inch before the steering knuckle hits the coil. So not good haha.