fleurys

The picture of my truck is exactly this setup (ac lift all around + 1" front spacer (my own) + 1" rear spacer...

yes, the first one is a 1" coil spacer that will bring the coil higher 1". It sits under the coil, directly on the coils seat. No drilling or bolting. It's a snug fit and I only put some regular adhesive for it to be stuck there. The lower and upper links will will be released at the same time. My version (2" block of aluminium will be available in special order, but the regular 1.5" solid aluminium block will be available for a lower price. They were already tested for rigidity , but now I'm finalizing for the bushing locking system (nordlock) that I talked in here a few weeks ago. The issue I was having is the nut always getting loose.... up to now the normal driving and few mall flexing I have been doing confirms that it stays tight. The real and final test will be this weekend. They are adjustable from 1/16th of a inch to 2" longer safely. So you can install them to replace the weak oem ones or to bring back your wheel a bit after a bigger rear lift.

It's been a long time I wrote something here.... Life has been busy on my side... but The development of new products has not stopped. This weekend will be the last tests for 2 new products. The lower aluminium links that now have the nordlock lock washer system and the newly done rear coil spacers (also in aluminium). I'm going to my yearly 2 days trip where there is a good ground for testing everything I do. I will hopefully come back with good news and a few good videos/pictures. For now, Here's a few pictures of the products and my truck now sitting on 255/85R16 KM2 (33.4") after alot of triming... but no sub frame drop. (I also have in there my front strut spacers that I made, but will not be selling.) (My rear bumper is still in construction... :-( )

I love this thread.... keep it coming...

The whoosh you heard was exactly air bubbles...... Unless you rad fins are full of dried dirt or are broken/bent, then you need to redo the procedure. Like I said, I had to do it twice for the truck to be ok.... So you can be sure you made it better, because no air is suppose to come out of the rad... If I were you, I would do it again...and make sure the truck is really hot when you do it and that you are at a real good incline...

Hopfully my story can help you... I just replaced my rad and was having no overheating issue at idle with the ac full on at 30+C.... no overheat either if cruising along on flat road. As soon as I would have the truck work harder or drive long incline etc.. the overheat would start. Me too I was thinking about the fan clutch.... but then when it was passed the half way, I saw the temp gauge drop in one second... whitout doing anything.... then I knew... Here`s what you need to try... make the truck work hard, put the ac on etc... and once you know the truck is starting to overheat do this. (be prepared, because you do not have alot of time in front of you to do this without your truck overheating seriously and possibly doing damage...) once the truck is starting to overheat (let`s say passed the halfway mark, near the 3/4 mark, park in a steep incline (no the kind of a driveway, but more of a dirt climb.. a good 10-15 degrees, then arm yourself with lots of shop towels, or special heat proof gloves, then while the truck is running, raise the hood and open the rad cap. You have to do this carefully so you do not loose control or burn yourself. You can safely turn half a turn without nothing happening, then as soon as you approach the 3/4 turn, you will see and feel the air come out. leave it like this until the coolant comes out. It can take up to 2-3 seconds...then retight the rad cap and go check your temp gauge. If it does like mine, it immediately went down to normal. To finalize this , I make the same thing again, and it took alot more trying to have the truck start to overheat, and on the second time, a little bit more air came out. Now my truck is steady on the 5th line (small line) on the gauge, and no matter what I do with it, it refuses to go higher.... So all along, my issue was air eventhough I had no problem while being in traffic or standing still... Hopes it help.

replace broken wheel stud install strut spacer rebuild front suspension install new 33 tire km2 align with 2 camber bolts replace fuel filter change the radiator redo the oil pan gasket change oil and filter 1 of 2 lower links changed i'm done.... I hurt everywhere ! :-) more monday..

nope.... I cannot find any info on this rancho part number...it's not in the catalogs anymore !

My idea is simple... I wanted rancho simply because they have a catalog with pretty much all the specs of their shocks... So I wanted to take the part number for the r50 strut (that we can't seem to find anywhere! :-) ) and cross check in the catalog to see the collapsed and extended length, and bottom attachement type, then start looking for same bottom attachement but with a longer extended length.... Then at that point lifting the front would be a simple change of strut with normal springs that comes with them and get the 2-4 inch like that. This would make the use of a spacer useless and make the hole thing more robust and affordable, I think... I'll try to see if I can find my numbers with kyb and start from there...

I might have an idea... anyone knows the rancho part number of the strut that 4x4parts sells for our r50 when you buy the lift coils from them... ?

I say it's probably really possible...just have to modify the base and the top plate to fit our strut tower.... or even maybe modify the tower too... at that point, sky's the limit... I guess someone working in a junkyard would be best placed to trial and error until one model is what we need (extra length and good compromise between firmness and smoothness)... So many ideas, so little time !

here's what I got. So basically, this setup brings it down instead of up, but at least we have a match for a different model that fits our r50... Just have to find one setup that lifts it !, but I'm afraid it won't help really... :-(

you get it... that's exactly that. Right now, there is no struts that would be longer and fit the knuckle on our r50 (at least that we can find....)... Now writing this makes me remember a post from another forum where one of the member from japan found a kit of coil over I beleive that fits our r50 because it was the same platform of another japanese truck which had a lot of aftermarket parts... let me look for this...

You can basically make some with old struts and modify tehm a bit and add some new parts (like the coils and threaded core) to eventually get something looking like this... here's a video I remember watching when I had this idea going through my head last year... This is for racing, but you get the idea.... http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2FMgLxxWLs

no you cannot because the coil is <locked in> by the top plate and the lower seat. To have what you would like, you would have to fabricate a coil over setup... and this is something very interesting...

ho boy.... forget my posts.... I was talking about Center to center dimension for the bolts... they are 22.25" apart from each other... I see you meant the size of bolts. LOL ! :coffee!:

Well, on my side I just bought mine... a koyo http://www.koyorad.com/ cost me 170$ , but the quality seems to be there... If it last anything like my oem, I will be more than happy...

no, no.. I thought I saw you write 21, not 22.... ho well, time for me to go to bed....

After your change now, my post makes me look like a retard , LOL !!! (ok people, he had wrote 21.25) ! hahaha

Are you sure... I have it at 22.25"...

seems to be part of the 54040 assembly ...check it here :

That's not a strut bearing.. The strut bearing has a plastic surface for the strut to <glide< on.. It looks more like some kind of seat for the rubber boot that goes over the shaft of the strut... but I never saw this part before...

Well, I think I'm going to change (again) the design to smaller and lower cost ! After a couple of static load simulations, the 1.5 inch lower link is more than capable of getting the job done.. Here's 2 graphs of the total displacement on a 20,000lbs and 100,00lbs on the middle of the link... Like you see, on the 20,000lbs , there is almost no displacement... considering the truck are 5000lbs and add the momentum of an impact (let's say 4x), the links are more than capable of supporting it. Looks like I'm gonna be the only one with a set of 2'' So the lower link should look a bit like my upper but will still have the uhmw and welded tab for the brake lines... more to come soon (and PRICES ! ) S

the strut number, for your 01 is 30 and 31... Go check at kyb itself.. http://showmetheparts.com/kyb/

yeah, you have to bite the bullet...that's the only way...it's in florida I think, so it's not that bad like california...but it is still good money to bring over...