Topic: Rexy Re-Do: SUPER SLEEPER 1ST GEN!

[H8PVMNT]

Do you know what the measurements from spring eye to center pin is? Are they the rear springs? Thanks

No but I can get it for you.  These are the springs made for the front application.

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

It was 0 this morning so I wasn't too excited to get under the truck.  It had snowed a couple fresh inches last night so I went out and dug around for some bits while I still had a chance to find them.

Found a set of stock rear shackles I pulled last year and some bump stops, some 2WD u-bolts I want to try in the rear as a cheapo u-bolt flip.  I brought the vise in to the kitchen and decided to attempt to make the old shackles greasable.  Started with a rear as I have a spare one to mess up. Had pretty good success at drilling into the pins the long way, but the shaft has some kind of incredible hardness that I couldn't even get a hole started into with a fresh sharp bit.  At some point with things like this you have to add up the drill bits you would destroy and the time and decide if it's worth it or not.

I think I'll just slather them with some anti-seize and be done with it.

Mudmaster sent me a set of the elusive stock front shackles.  Found some nuts and washers for those so I am ready to shackle on!   

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

...

[CrazyYota]

No but I can get it for you.  These are the springs made for the front application.

That's okay I was thinking you were using the rear springs up front. Thanks anyway!

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

I wasn't really in the mood to work outside this morning.  We got -13 after the sun came up.

On the list of things nobody cares about...  Decided to take my drag link to the office to get it de-crustified and rebuilt.  The stock push-pull steering is famous for getting an almost incurable low speed death whobble from loose, worn and stuck drag link ends. The ball socket pieces can be tightened up to get rid of it but they get so crusty when people don't grease them that they get knocked out of whack and you can no longer adjust without at least taking it all apart and cleaning the pieces.  Plus the boots get torn or rot off so the grease gets replaced with old mud.

The rebuild kit for these is super cheap.  This one was all made in Japan bits too.

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

The threaded plug ends actually came out pretty easy. Being coated in a constant spray of motor oil probably helped a lot  . One end, the steering arm end, has a spring before the ball socket and the other, the pitman arm end, after, down deep in the tube. These springs kind of get bottomed out on a pin inside when you tighten up the sockets. 

The after the socket spring down in the tube required a bit of WD40 soak and some clever screw driver action to get out of the rusty hole it was in.

This is the pitman arm side...

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

This is the steering arm end that hooks to the J-arm.  It has the spring and pin on top of the stack so the spring is easy to get out of this end.  The inner hardened ball socket piece is bottomed out in this end and I could not for the life of me coax it out.  Here is where 20 years of experience messing things up comes in though...  The socket piece was still in good shape, not disorted and still has the same sharp lip on it as the new pieces, it doesn't have to come out, so I left this one in!  A few years ago I would have destroyed the drag link trying to get it out.

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Then I cleaned it all out with a little wire brush and some carb cleaner, stuffed some grease in the bores and goobed up all the new bits so they have a chance of staying adjustable and removable in the future.  Everything goes back in the same way it came out, just with less violence and swearing .

I tapped out and cleaned up any damage to the socket areas.  The drag link itself is quite maleable so it's easy to do with a small hammer.

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

The I put in the new, un-clogged grease fittings and yanked on the new boots.  Bam!  fresh drag link with no death wobble!

Remember the end closest to us in the bottom photo goes in your j-arm.  The other end with the socket closer to the end of the drag link goes on your steering box.

I know nobody cares since we all use hi-steer but I thought maybe some poor guy just wanting to maintain his old junk might find this useful one day.  The stock steering setup does in fact have enough range of motion to work with improved articulation as long as you remove the torque rod and don't lift over about 2".  At that low of a ride hi-steer gets hard to fit in between things anyway.  A little taller and you can do the j-ball flip, but hi-steer gets pretty superior after about 4" of lift and over 10" of shock travel in my experience.

 

[Rockcrawlintoy]

The I put in the new, un-clogged grease fittings and yanked on the new boots.  Bam!  fresh drag link with no death wobble!

Remember the end closest to us in the bottom photo goes in your j-arm.  The other end with the socket closer to the end of the drag link goes on your steering box.

I know nobody cares since we all use hi-steer but I thought maybe some poor guy just wanting to maintain his old junk might find this useful one day.  The stock steering setup does in fact have enough range of motion to work with improved articulation as long as you remove the torque rod and don't lift over about 2".  At that low of a ride hi-steer gets hard to fit in between things anyway.  A little taller and you can do the j-ball flip, but hi-steer gets pretty superior after about 4" of lift and over 10" of shock travel in my experience.

 

Lot of good tech in your threads. esp stuff that people dont see much any more

[Slabzilla]

Best write-up on the push-pull rod I've seen. Just tell them to make sure when installing to make sure that the balls are completely captured during installation. When I first got my truck some blond took out my front fender and J-arm, the body shop re-installed my rod incorrectly. The first 100 yards were fine, then I had to stop and pull the offending rod end, spin the puck to align the pocket.  Nobody works on my trucks vitals anymore.   

[Mudder]

I may have to try that over high steer for my '84. The steering on it sucks and I have high steer but it's not easy to install with an OME lift height as you mentioned H8.

[helipilot77]

I didn’t have any trouble installing high steer on my 4ruuner with OME springs. I even had it installed with factory springs before I got the OME’s. I did have to use extended shackles, but it fit.

[redneckcustoms13]

Agreed, i have ran high steer with stock fronts. Run it with ruf now. Is the issue oil pan clearance or something else I'm not thinking of?

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

We have hi-steer on Caleb's truck with a very, very low ride height on pretty much flat RUF packs.  The spring will hit the drag link but we have the wrong pitman arm and no bump stops.  It will work fine on there when we tweak it a little.  I'm not saying it doesn't work on a low truck, it's just not as necessary with a 2" lift and less flex as it is with a taller ride and more flex.  I can get away with stock style steering on this setup with 2" emu and 10" of travel.  If the '80 were taller and had better flex hi-steer would become a necessity really quick.  For now though this is a "what I need" build not a "what I want" build so we will see how this works out.  I have a HUGE thick tie rod that won't bend when you drive into a stump so that helps .


With the ability to get the front end further up front, the tie rod out of harms way, the longer drag link geometry and no brake dive pull hi-steer is undeniably superior to the stock steering.

That's all I have to say about that   .

[Toyotadon]

Appreciate the drag link tech, as I'm actually doing almost the same on my '82.  I got the rebuild parts from Toyota, buying each piece individually, so I'm sure I spent much more than you did.

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Appreciate the drag link tech, as I'm actually doing almost the same on my '82.  I got the rebuild parts from Toyota, buying each piece individually, so I'm sure I spent much more than you did.

That kit was about $18 from rockauto.

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Well it warmed up to the low 40s this week which was a welcome relief.  Now I am working in puddles, but warm water is better than -10 degree air.  Had very little time to do anything this week but I did get to work on the front springs and shackles this morning.

I chose the energy suspension bushings instead of the OME because they were half the price and were available in black poly instead of red or yellow.  I want this thing to look lame and stock to the un-trained eye.  I had been using rubber bushings on this truck for years because they allow things to squirm around better than poly, but after replacing the front ones twice in 7 years I thought poly would be better his time.

I like anti seize    I find when I take bushings out years later the anti-sieze is still on there a bit and they come out easy instead of having to whittle or burn them out.  On the shackle pins and such I like to use the wierd grease that comes with the bushings and a slather of anti-sieze on top for ease of installation.  Greasable shackles would be better yet but they cost money.

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Here's an interesting thing:  Toyota has different size bump stops for the different height perches...

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

I did spring for the special OME flat u-bolts for the drag link side.  They give you plenty of extra u-bolt. I will have to cut that off. The drag link hitting the u-bolts isn't as big of a deal as they make it, but it is a little annoying and occasionally causes a bit of bind.  I got away with it because everything was always so greasy. Without all that oil leaking I can't depend on the extra lubrication now though.

Shackle angle looks healthy and not all ganky like I've seen in some people threads with these springs. Maybe they are all using the heavy rate springs. There is not motor or drivetrain so this isn't final ride height...

[Rockcrawlintoy]

Greasable shackles would be better yet but they cost money.

grease attracts dirt. i never used them in the past because of this.

[GuyonaBuffalo!]

Wow. You put the '80 on marlin.....rexy is get I getting famous!

[helipilot77]

Wow. You put the '80 on marlin.....rexy is get I getting famous!

I hope that’s a root beer there!

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Wow. You put the '80 on marlin.....rexy is get I getting famous!

Get to work on your '83 and you can start your own thread!

[300k]

I hope that’s a root beer there!

Probably some weird foaming coffee

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Probably some weird foaming coffee

That's probably correct.  But you go out and work on your truck too!

Maybe you guys can go wheeling in June if you both get on it.

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Last week I got the drag link on.  You back out the threaded plugs most of the way, then the ball pops into the enlarged part of the slot.  The you thread the plugs back in with a screwdriver, then a big screwdriver turned by a wrench to get the play out of things.  I tighten until they bottom out and then back it out maybe 1/16 turn from completely tight to give room for grease.  Don't forget the keeper pins.

Now you can grease the thing again!   

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Ooooh, beautiful!   

I put a picture here below of the clearance between the new Old Man Emu flat u-bolts and the drag link.  This used to just barely kiss, now it has maybe a little over 1/4".

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

This morning I got my big herkin' tie rod off and put new FJ-80 ends on it.  I got this tie rod off somebody here with an old school cross-over arm.  This thing is either 2 layers of tube or maybe just really thick.  It weighs a ton and doesn't bend when you dunce a rock or stump.  It's like a slider with rod ends on it.

I found these super-cheapo FJ-80 ends on rock auto for something like $10 each.  We will see how long they last.

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Part numbers for the cheap FJ-80 ends are ES3550 and ES3549.  They are made in China.  They don't come with new jam nuts.

I like that they have the part number etched on for ease of replacement.     I don't like that the keeper pins that came with them are one size too big for the hole they are supposed to go in.