- Joined
- August 3, 2000
- Messages
- 31,700
- Reaction score
- 8,359
- City, State
- NORTH IDAHO, 7B
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- B2 "Slightly" Modified
- Callsign
- FOURTEN
OKay so my GF/future wife Julee (love her) has a 2007 FJ cruiser 4x4, 4.0L Auto
The truck has been dubbed (by me) as her "Fun Julee"
She loves this truck, she loves fourwheeling, she loves Toyota so it was a perfect fit...
Last weekend (yesterday) I/we installed a lift kit on her truck.
The kit is sold by Toytec, which basically is a set of 3" Old Man Emu lift coils (884, softer coil) with a custom machined aluminum spacer that mounts on top of the strut to gain a true 3" of lift in the front.
The Toytec kit also goes one step further and replaces the factory rear coils with some custom medium duty coils. Many OME lift owners on these vehicles complained the OME coils were too soft and saged a bit, so Toytec had some custom coils made, again for a true 3" of lift
I also picked up a 1" front differential drop kit, to help with the new CV angles. I have not installed this kit yet, we will likely wait a bit until we go with even more lift in the front.
On to the pictures:
truck in the garage before lift:
front to fender masures 34-1/4":
Toytec lift kit, including OME 884 coils, aluminum strut spacer, diff drop kit, and new rear coils:
tire off:
disconnect the front sway bar:
front lower ball joint (knuckle from lower control arm):
Factory Strut removed:
factory coil compared to OME 884 lift coil:
New OME lift coil installed on Harbor Freight strut compressor:
(slow going here)
front put back together with strut and Toytec spacer:
Front done, measured 37.5" to fender before settling:
The front took us about 5 hours total, the springs are a ***** to compress and the hooks on the HF spring compressor are large so with the tight winds of the OME coil it was hard to get the strut back out of the compressor.
The first side took us twice as long as the second.....
The next day we tackled the rear, the total install on the rear was about 1 hour
Rear tire off:
remove rear sway bar:
remove rear shock:
we also unbolted the trac bar to help get the new coils in.
Here are the factory rear coils compared to the Toytec rear coils:
rear springs installed with factory rubber bump stop:
rear done
The truck out of the garage:
We will be getting new longer rear shocks shortly, the factory units will limit rear travel.
I will also be making some sway bar disconnects.
The truck goes in for alignment Friday after the new coils have been allowed to settle
Julee is shopping for tires and wheels...Looking at Pro Comp Xtreme MT 33x12.50x17 and 17x9" black chrome rims
This lift kit rides AWESOME, seriously in JUlee's own words "It took the car out of my truck".
I too am very impressed with this truck and this lift...I wish Gen II Explorer's rode on struts instead of t bars!!!
The truck has been dubbed (by me) as her "Fun Julee"
She loves this truck, she loves fourwheeling, she loves Toyota so it was a perfect fit...
Last weekend (yesterday) I/we installed a lift kit on her truck.
The kit is sold by Toytec, which basically is a set of 3" Old Man Emu lift coils (884, softer coil) with a custom machined aluminum spacer that mounts on top of the strut to gain a true 3" of lift in the front.
The Toytec kit also goes one step further and replaces the factory rear coils with some custom medium duty coils. Many OME lift owners on these vehicles complained the OME coils were too soft and saged a bit, so Toytec had some custom coils made, again for a true 3" of lift
I also picked up a 1" front differential drop kit, to help with the new CV angles. I have not installed this kit yet, we will likely wait a bit until we go with even more lift in the front.
On to the pictures:
truck in the garage before lift:
front to fender masures 34-1/4":
Toytec lift kit, including OME 884 coils, aluminum strut spacer, diff drop kit, and new rear coils:
tire off:
disconnect the front sway bar:
front lower ball joint (knuckle from lower control arm):
Factory Strut removed:
factory coil compared to OME 884 lift coil:
New OME lift coil installed on Harbor Freight strut compressor:
(slow going here)
front put back together with strut and Toytec spacer:
Front done, measured 37.5" to fender before settling:
The front took us about 5 hours total, the springs are a ***** to compress and the hooks on the HF spring compressor are large so with the tight winds of the OME coil it was hard to get the strut back out of the compressor.
The first side took us twice as long as the second.....
The next day we tackled the rear, the total install on the rear was about 1 hour
Rear tire off:
remove rear sway bar:
remove rear shock:
we also unbolted the trac bar to help get the new coils in.
Here are the factory rear coils compared to the Toytec rear coils:
rear springs installed with factory rubber bump stop:
rear done
The truck out of the garage:
We will be getting new longer rear shocks shortly, the factory units will limit rear travel.
I will also be making some sway bar disconnects.
The truck goes in for alignment Friday after the new coils have been allowed to settle
Julee is shopping for tires and wheels...Looking at Pro Comp Xtreme MT 33x12.50x17 and 17x9" black chrome rims
This lift kit rides AWESOME, seriously in JUlee's own words "It took the car out of my truck".
I too am very impressed with this truck and this lift...I wish Gen II Explorer's rode on struts instead of t bars!!!