Replacing suspension - full restoration

Hey everyone, this is my first post, I am going to be getting into some moderate to heavy restoration on my 03 Tundra that my father passed down to me (He bought it new and has been keeping up with most of the regular maintenance, oil changes, brakes, etc..).

I am newish to car maintenance and have done some light stuff like replacing headlight housings, fixing some interior stuff, and some stuff in the door panels.

I have found that my whole suspension system is needing replacement due to either seriously worn or broken parts. I am starting with the rack and pinion bushings that seem to have been obliterated and causing some pretty loose steering. Also, I am replacing the front brakes and rotors at the same time.

I've been learning from YouTube, but I wanted to see if anyone here had any good tips, tricks, or warnings before I start down this rabbit hole.

Thanks a lot! Any input is appreciated.

 

How’s the frame? Any rust or do you live in a salt free state?

 

Welcome to the forum!

Start here, my friend: https://www.tundras.com/threads/so-you-wanna-buy-just-bought-a-1st-gen-tundra-eh.115928/

Everything you need to know there but come back to this thread if you have questions or anything there isn’t clear.

Note: I didn’t write that thread, I just organized and posted it. It’s a community effort.

 

Very minimal rust, a little here and there but no flaking or major pitting. I was going to remove rust, as I went, on parts that I wasn't going to replace. i.e. the frame, and add a protective coat or sealant.

Edit: I did live in a salt free state but have since moved to a state that will salt in the winters... which is the reason for wanting to do the rust coating removal etc..

 

Thanks! I'll give it a look over.

 

I was already looking at aftermarket lower ball joints, not going to do that now lmao.

That thread is very helpful, I will definitely be using that often.

 

If the ball joints haven't been done before you may want to put that up on your list, the timing belt as well.

You'll need to determine if your 03 is the small ball or the big ball joint style, since 03 was the changeover year. If you'll post up some pictures of your front end components we may be able to give you some good recommendations for some parts.

 

Those rack bushings are a beast. Mainly the two smaller ones. Then getting everything lined back up to get the bolts back in.

 

For the rack bushings you’ll need some sort of press and maybe a sharp knife to cut the collar off the center and drivers side bushing. That is a job I never want to do again. Some videos make it look easy but I was unprepared tool wise and needed to make a press using sockets, washers and all thread. Just make sure you have everything you may need before you start or it’s going to be a loong day.

 

Ive been keeping up with the timing belt (about 40k miles left on my current one, until it’s 90k life)

and this was one of the early 2003 models, it was purchased in October of ‘02, I will add pictures soon.

Recommendations would be great!

 

Probably should reconsider this. Go with OEM here. And if you don't know when they were last done it's a good idea. Your truck will be done if one of these fails.

 

Here are some pictures of my suspension.

 

Holy shit those swaybar links are over tightened up too.

 

I’ve never touched those, is that something that would be changed in an alignment?

Edit: if you’re talking about the cracking rubber, that’s just been dry rotted for a while.

 

I see Quickstruts too, those are probably riding pretty harsh at this point.

 

Yea those are on my list to replace (they were not my choice to put on), I was looking at putting in Bilstein, I’ve seen that those are supposed to be one of the best.

 

Well that, and they’re fucking sandwiched. You’re only supposed to tighten those down to the point they are barely engaging the rubber. Once you get to this level of bulge (_) it’s already too much. Those are even more severely tightened, and it’s probably part of the reason they cracked. Whoever installed the quickstruts likely did it, didn’t know what they were doing when reinstalling. You really need to disconnect the sway at to stuff new struts in.

 

Ah I see, thanks for the tightening tip, I will make sure to do that when I put new ones in.

Here is a more up close pic of the sway bars and ball joint.

 

Ps - this is why we like pics. Like, A LOT.

We can’t be there in person but we can totally advise you on what’s fucked and what’s not if we see it. Some of the members on here shock me with some of the crazy little details they pick up. But I’m also pretty old and blind. Or is it dumb and blonde? I don’t remember.

 

These are a great option (LINK) but they show out of stock and I honestly think they have been for a while so I'm not sure if they exist anywhere else or not. If you run the Bilsteins you'll need new coil springs most likely as the aftermarket ones most likely won't fit, are you looking to lift or leave at stock hight?

As stated already you could use some new sway bar links as well. I think struts, ball joints, and sway bar links would be a pretty good start. The ball joints do look like the small ones. Check this thread here (LINK) and (LINK)

Lower ball joints need to be OEM, some of the other parts you can go cheaper on if you desire/need to. Just don't order any OEM parts from Amazon or Ebay as they could be fake. Please hop back on here when you have a parts list and tell us what you're getting and where from and we can make sure you're sitting right.

 

Lower strut bushing is also toast.

 

Update: Rack and pinion bushings replaced, my steering feels 1000% better, no loose wobble feeling anymore.

Before



After


First repair of many....