Toyota drivetrain lift
Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:52 am
Well, I've got my pile put back together after doing some clearance-enhancing modifications. When I first starting building up my truck I decided that I wanted to keep the suspension lift to a minimum for stability which of course leads to some ground clearance issues in certain situations. After getting various parts of the undercarage repeatedly hooked on rocks it was pretty obvious that I needed to raise some things. I put a 2" body lift on a while ago so that I would have room to raise the things up that I wanted to. On the 4runners, the gas tank hangs down ridiculously low and gets smashed into everything, so that needed to go up. The factory crossmember I think is actually a recycled boat anchor that some Japaneese engineer decided should go under a truck. I can't count the number of times that has gotten me hung up.
The first thing that I did after the body lift was raise the gas tank 2" It was pretty straight forward. I just droped the tank, cut the mounts into fun shaped peices and then welded them back together so the tank was 2" higher. Now it is above the leaf spring and is about the same height as a pickup gas tank.
For the crossmember, I ditched the stock one and ordered a new one from Sky Manufacturing. I ordered it with the 2" spacers to raise the tcase up to be in the same relative position to the body as it was before the body lift. This gave me almost 4 more inches of clearance under the crossmember. It also resolved the issue of the shifter hitting the body after the body lift was installed.
I decided to raise the motor up the same amount just to keep everything in line. I also had some problems that were fixed with that too. The stock motor mounts were toast from stupid low gearing and liberal use of the go pedal so I tossed those and replaced them with some Rockstomper mounts. I put some 2" spacers under the new mounts. My tie rod used to hit the oil pan when the front suspension bottomed out since I only have about 2.5" of suspension lift. Now with the motor raised up, this is no longer an issue. Also I don't have to use those stupid radiator drop down brackets that came with the body lift since the motor is now lined up with body how it's supposed to be.
The first thing that I did after the body lift was raise the gas tank 2" It was pretty straight forward. I just droped the tank, cut the mounts into fun shaped peices and then welded them back together so the tank was 2" higher. Now it is above the leaf spring and is about the same height as a pickup gas tank.
For the crossmember, I ditched the stock one and ordered a new one from Sky Manufacturing. I ordered it with the 2" spacers to raise the tcase up to be in the same relative position to the body as it was before the body lift. This gave me almost 4 more inches of clearance under the crossmember. It also resolved the issue of the shifter hitting the body after the body lift was installed.
I decided to raise the motor up the same amount just to keep everything in line. I also had some problems that were fixed with that too. The stock motor mounts were toast from stupid low gearing and liberal use of the go pedal so I tossed those and replaced them with some Rockstomper mounts. I put some 2" spacers under the new mounts. My tie rod used to hit the oil pan when the front suspension bottomed out since I only have about 2.5" of suspension lift. Now with the motor raised up, this is no longer an issue. Also I don't have to use those stupid radiator drop down brackets that came with the body lift since the motor is now lined up with body how it's supposed to be.