Man A Fre Safari FJ 40 Lift Installation,Rob's Rig

[Rob]

Pete sent me some teaser pics of the new suspension system he and Sean installed today on the FJ40. They still have a few tweaks to finish up, but it's looking good. Sean and Pete can add more pics and commentary when it's finished.

Thanks, guys. It's almost trail ready.

5875

5874

5873

[Smash]

:2thumbs:

[Chris]

Looking good Rob, when's is the trail test?

[Rob]

Looking good Rob, when's is the trail test?

I could go this Saturday or Sunday. Something up this way and not too hard. Something just hard enough to get an idea of what it can do (and not do) without breaking anything right off the bat. Pole Hill? Caribou? Johnny Park?

[KnuckleHead]

I was over there for a little bit so Pete could do a quick weld for me ( Thanks Pete ). The lift was done for the most part in the front and looked really good..... I also got the story on the cut up parts which I will let Pete and Sean tell you about.
I will say that the lift looks really good...

[Pathrat]

:lol: LOVE that first pic of the pile of parts

[Chris]

I could go this Saturday or Sunday. Something up this way and not too hard. Something just hard enough to get an idea of what it can do (and not do) without breaking anything right off the bat. Pole Hill? Caribou? Johnny Park?

You pick Rob, I'd just like to get out. ;)

[Rob]

You pick Rob, I'd just like to get out. ;)

I hear ya. I've got a trail jones. I'll start a planning thread and put something on the calendar. :thunb:

[Pathrat]

I could go this Saturday or Sunday. Something up this way and not too hard. Something just hard enough to get an idea of what it can do (and not do) without breaking anything right off the bat. Pole Hill? Caribou? Johnny Park?

I thought I answered on this thread. I guess am losing a few bits of white matter.

I don't know Pole Hill or Johnny Park but I am interested.

[Rob]

:lol: LOVE that first pic of the pile of parts

The other two pics are of a pile of parts, too. They're just more organized parts.

[Pathrat]

The other two pics are of a pile of parts, too. They're just more organized parts.

Organized and connected

Again, I like reading your posts. :lol:

[Rob]

Organized and connected:lol:

Well, mostly connected. You should hear it rattle ... and that's just on asphalt. I figure it'll take a few months to track down all the parts that aren't connected and get them in order. But that's what cold winters are for. :wrench:

[Funrover]

Nice! Now for the bigger tires!

[Brody]

More pictures to be posted soon!

That pile of parts was just what had to be cut off from the back springs. We had another pile just like it from stuff we cut of from the front. Both front and rear spring hanger ends were a solid piece-rubber bushing, spring eye/wrap, and through bolts. We had to split the eye on all the springs on these ends, heat and hammer the spring pieces off, cut the rubber bushing out with a grinder as it was almost as hard as the steel, then cut the bolts to drive them out. One side on this was so bad that I had to hammer it around in order for it to be moved. I don't know how it was flexing at all on the truck. Anyone who has seen me use a BFH knows how gently I hammer stuff when it needs some TLC, so these things were on there!

It provided quite a bit more lift than a 4" lift sounds like it would. Rob now has plenty of room to run 33s.

[Mporter]

I can't wait till mine goes on...as I was spraying it with Liquid Wrench the other week I noticed that the bushing on the spring/shackle end on the front were cracked and there was probably a 1/4" gap between em :erm:. I can hardly wait to see what else is cracked and broken hehe.

[1freaky1]

Thanks Rob for having us do the lift for you, it was a good reminder of what it is like when dealing with old OEM parts that have never been removed. I am sure you will like this lift after you drive it for a while and get use to the feel on the trails. I was impressed at the completeness of the kit you bought, just wish they included some instructions (I know, men and instructions).
As Pete has said if anyone attempts one of this lifts that has never done on before make sure you have the right tools for the job and a extra set of hands!

[ShutUpHippie]

Nice, it looks great! You guys do some top-notch work. :thunb:

[Pathrat]

they sure do!

[1freaky1]

Thank you we definitely try to do the best we can, our motto is we do it till we are happy it! That way we know you will be happy too!

[Rob]

Nice! Now for the bigger tires!

But I just bought those 31s!

Bad planning. I didn't initially think I was going with the 4-inch lift. Guess I'll have to wear them out as quick as I can so I can go to 33s or 35s. :thunb:

Then lower gears; and a rear locker; and a winch ... the list doesn't end.

[Brody]

The second set of pictures:

[Brody]

The third set of pictures:

[Brody]

The fourth set of pictures:

[Brody]

The fifth set of pictures:

[Brody]

And the last set:

[Brody]

Here are the pictures and the story of the lift:

ManAFre was really good about scheduling a time for arrival and getting the parts to us on time. After double checking that all the parts had arrived, Sean and started the installation. There were no instructions included with this kit, BTW, and there were no locating marks on the springs to show front or rear location or orientation. The shocks were also not marked front or rear, nor were the extended brake lines. Not a big deal if you have done lifts, but disconcerting if you haven't. Here is what we did for that:

Shocks: The bigger shocks go on the rear of the rig.
Springs: The biggest arch goes on the rear axle. We matched the part numbers on the springs with the ManAFre site application. We measured the distance from the center pin to the eye on both sides and also against where the pin sits in relation to the axle.
Extended brake lines: Easy-longest to the rear

Cautions: Expect to have to do a lot of cutting either with a torch or cut off wheel on a grinder. Rob's parts were OE and had never been off. The bushings and shackles were rusted together as were the spring eyes.

We first raised the rig and set it on 4 heavy duty jack stands. Then we removed all of the wheels giving us access to the springs. Make sure that everything is very well set as you will be doing a lot of hammering with a BFH and spending a lot of time underneath the rig.

Rob had already been hosing down everything with PB Blaster for the last two weeks, so most of the nuts and bolts came out with no problem. We didn't bother with loosening the u bolts and cut these off. We were able to unbolt and drive out the shackles on all four corners, but the spring eye to frame hangers had become a single piece and wouldn't even move with a hammer. We couldn't figure out how it was flexing at all. We simply cut the springs off at this connection, and then proceeded to cut off the spring eye inside the hangers, allowing us to finally get to the bolts which we then cut off. All of the hangers were then cleaned of as much rust as we could get off and painted. We also cleaned and painted the areas where the new u blots were going to sit on the axles.

After locating the springs, we then installed the bushings, using a liberal amount of grease. Note the the bushings supplied in the lift come in two packages. The bushings with the thinner shoulders go into the fixed hanger ends of the springs. The thicker bushings are for the shackle ends. We then pre greased all of the through bolts and used some anti seize on the Toyota style pins (fixed hanger ends) to make future removal a little less problematic.

On the front end we ran into a problem with shock clearance with the stock steering arm. The shock wouldn't even fit into the bottom pin due to hitting the arm due to the size of the shock body. Reversing the shock presented the same problem. After playing around with this for a bit and rotating the sterring wheel back and forth to check clearance, we cut off the axle mount for the shock and moved it as far out as we could towards the wheel, then welded it back into place. This managed to get about 1/8" clearance or less on the arm. This is something that we thought ManAFre didn't do such a hot job on, but maybe this particular kit was designed for a hi steer set up.

After everything was put back together and all the nuts and bolts were double checked for tightness, we then bled the brakes. Due to the lift on Rob's rig, both driveshafts are going to have to be lengthened. I am taking them down to Englewood Driveshaft this morning. You can see the difference in the driveshafts in the pictures. The tape marks the stock height, pre lift. There isn't much travel left in either driveshaft. Englewood is re sleeving both shafts with heavier gauge stock and replacing the two bad u joints on the front axle.

After I dropped off the driveshafts, I clipped off all of the rock catcher bolts on the underside of the springs. I also found out that the lift had maxed out the adjustment of the parking brake cable and would actually limit the wheel travel (!!??), so some adjustment was needed there. What I did was to cut of and extend the bracket that mounts to the horse collar, thereby lowering the cable. I also relocated the mount on the side of the gas tank skid plate, made another bracket and welded it to the bottom of the gas tank skid. I then took a pipe wrench and tweaked the axle bracket over to straighten it out. All of this took all the sharp bends out of the cable, gave it the necessary length and allowed for any fine tuning.
All that was left to do was to weld on some tow points, and lengthen the axle vent.

As an aside here, Englewood Driveshaft not only does a stellar job on driveshafts for all sorts of rigs, they really understand wheeling...and fast cars....and driveshafts. They appreciate all the business from Front Range 4x4 and have been offering extremely good (read :discounted) prices to all Front Range members for that reason. Their work is total quality and they do it on time. Anyone from this forum that needs any kind of driveshaft work done, for any vehicle, please check them out. Mention my name, Peter Brody, or Front Range 4x4 and you will get the best price around:

http://www.google.com/mapdata?CxWuGF0CHZUFvvkgDwxAjgJIuQFSAlVTkAECygECZW 4 (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS339US339&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=Englewood+Drive+Shaft+Engle+wood+Colorado&fb=1&gl=us&hq=Englewood+Drive+Shaft+Engle+wood&hnear=Colorado&cid=0,0,3824684363374351160&ei=OA3WSqqyHIqQtgeAiqCZDA&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBEQnwIwAA)Englewood Driveshaft Inc (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS339US339&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=Englewood+Drive+Shaft+Engle+wood+Colorado&fb=1&gl=us&hq=Englewood+Drive+Shaft+Engle+wood&hnear=Colorado&view=text&latlng=3824684363374351160)


3364 S Broadway
Englewood, CO 80113-2428
(303) 781-0554

Please note: On any suspension lift or when you do anything to the suspension, EVERYTHING needs to be retightened and double checked after about 500 miles of driving.

Here are the starting and ending measurements, older first, after lift second:

Drivers front: 34 1/2 39 1/8
Drivers rear: 32 1/8 37 7/8
Passenger front: 35 39 1/4
Passenger rear: 32 5/8 38 5/8

[Mporter]

Then lower gears; and a rear locker; and a winch ... the list doesn't end.

It never does....it never does..

[Air Randy]

But I just bought those 31s!
Guess I'll have to wear them out as quick as I can so I can go to 33s or 35s. :thunb:

No, no, no take them off and sell them now while they're still almost new so you get maximum value, then go buy the bigger ones.

Word of wisdom-What ever you think is the largest size tire you would want, buy the next largest size :D

[Brody]

No, no, no take them off and sell them now while they're still almost new so you get maximum value, then go buy the bigger ones.

Word of wisdom-What ever you think is the largest size tire you would want, buy the next largest size :D

X2!! Think about this before you go get 33s, especially if you are planning on a regear in the next year or so. Might as well get the 35s, deal with the power loss (not horrible) and simple regear later on. Beats taking a beating on a near new set of 33s....

I started with 31x10.50 on my heap when it was still IFS. Sold them with lots of tread on them, went to 33s. Did the SAS, wore out a set of 35s that I sold the 33s to get. I wore these out, ran a set of 36 Swampers for a bit, sold them and went to 37s, wore these out, bought another set of different 37s, and bought the current set of 38s when the last set of 37s bit the dust. When these get replaced, I will probably go up to a 39.5 which is about the maximum I can do and stay in my power range...People never go with smaller tires on 4xs....

[Chris]

But I just bought those 31s!


You should have listened to your elders Rob. :lol:

[Brody]

FYI, both driveshafts had to be lengthened, the rear more than the front. When the front shaft came out, it became apparent that both u joints were worn and had to be replaced. I had noticed that the rear u joint on the front shaft was bad and the other one showed up when I took the shaft out.

When I took both shafts doen to Englewood Driveshaft, Bill found out that the yoke spline on the front shaft was also bent and had to be replaced. He said that this was something very seldom seen on Toyotas. Incidentally, he replaced this at no extra charge. The guys ROCK!

Once again, for any of your driveshaft work, whether it is on a DD, your go fast ride, your work truck or your 4x4, please take your driveshaft work to Englewood Driveshaft.

I am getting the 40 back to Rob today after reinstalling the driveshafts and double checking the torque on all the lug nuts and spring perch bolts.

As a side note for people who do this or any suspension work on your rigs, take the extra time to go around and check every single bolt or nut for tightness and/or torque even if you 'know' that you have already done this. Do this before you leave the garage and do it all over again after 500 miles. Make this SOP every time and you will eliminate a lot of future problems.

I do this to everything I can reach under my rig every two weeks if I have been doing a lot of trails in it. You will also be under your rig every two weeks or so, so take the time to look at everything else under there, checking for broken, cracked or loose parts and pieces. Better to do it in the relative comfort of your garage than in the dirt, wet, or snow on a trail. Preventative maintenance goes a long way.