a fun story and question about changing front suspension!

howdy yall. Have a fun story about why spacer lifts suck and a question.

I bought my truck last year and it has a spacer lift on it. Replacing my shocks with kings right now. Rears went on beautifully. Front end was a different story. Disconnected the upper control arm, sway bar link, and tie rod. When trying to get the lower shock bolt, I couldn’t get the LCA to drop low enough to get the bolt out cleanly (I’m assuming bc of the spacer lift) so I roached the bolt getting it out. No worry right? Go to a dealer and get a bolt. Call my local dealer. They don’t have it, but a dealer an hour and a half away has two and another dealer an hour away has 1. Call the dealer with two, knowing that I won’t make it before their parts department closes. They have two. Great. Can I pay over the phone and you guys give it to the sales department? Nope. Ok. Call the dealer with one in stock. Turns out it’s spoken for. End solution is wait until Monday to go get the two from the one dealer. Gonna try using a spring compressor to get the front shocks out in the meantime. Pain, but whatever.

My question! Do I need to loosen the LCA to get it to drop lower? Brake lines aren’t holding it up. I don’t think the axle is holding it up, but could be wrong.

Anyway, hope yall enjoy my story!

 

Update: many lessons learned. For those who are interested in doing this yourself without prior experience working on suspension:

• Have a friend who has installed CVs before help with the axle swap. Getting them in was a bitch bc I couldn’t tell when the splines were engaged.
• Start early and work on a day when your local Toyota parts department is open
• Don’t use a metal hammer on the axle to push it in (luckily didn’t destroy the threads)
• If the OEM shock isn’t coming down easily to remove the lower shock bolt, push down really hard on the LCA. Also can loosen the LCA bolts to make it easier to push down. (Answered my own question, Yipee!)
• Make a list of every tool you need and make sure you have it before you start (only one trip to Lowe’s for me!)
• Lastly, if you have the money, have a professional install!

Got everything all assembled with the stripped out bolt ready to swap out on Monday. Had a friend/coworker who builds rock crawlers come save the day. And, because most threads are useless without pics: