Rezarf <><
Explorer
Here are a few pics of before and after...
Before...
After...
Before...
After...
40 Guy builds a 100 Series
- Thread starter Rezarf <><
- Start date
Rezarf <><
Explorer
Got out for a day of shooting yesterday with a friend. We got the 100 dirty and found a few ledges and rocks to play on along the way. He's ready to buy a 100 for his wife now!
Rezarf <><
Explorer
This weekend I finally had everything come together to get my Old Man Emu lift on. I had a local cruiser head sell me a used OME lift that he didn’t like (thanks again Wes! @wesintl) The only part of the kit I needed to add was rear coils. I went round and round on which ones to buy, but the gang at Cruiser Outfitters helped me land on 3” of lift for +400lbs of weight with the OME 864’s. I think they’ll be perfect once I get the drawers and fridge in the back. The weight of the Slee rear carrier already ate up my 30mm spacers I had in the rear. I bet I am at the 400+ by the time I add the tire carrier, jack, rear drawers (loaded) and the Fridge… plus add our family of 5 camping gear and I am sure we will hit it when loaded up.
There are a lot of good write up’s here on mud that I used, as well as, Slee Offroad's detailed instructions with pics, so the install went pretty easy. I did hit everything with PB blaster for a few days before starting the install but this is a Colorado western truck with very little if any surface rust. The whole thing took a buddy and I about 7 hours, with a few hiccups along the way.
Here is the Kit, it is the standard Old Man Emu 2.5" lift with the addition of 864 Rear Coils that give about 3" of lift with added weight. Note the 22mm flex head wrench... I wouldn't attempt the rears without this tool. I got mine off eBay for about $8 bucks. Totally worth it.
Next get the rear up as high as you safely can, drop the sway bar end links where they meet the sway bar... 1 bolt per side. That'll help you get the droop you need to pull the springs.
Here you can see the sway bar disconnected, the spring removed and the shock pulled out. You can't see that the floor jack is on the other side raising up the opposite axle. When done like this, the springs fall right out. Just watch your brake lines and diff breather hose, they can get taught, we didn't need to remove them to get the droop we needed. To remove the shock we used the ratcheting wrench on the top nut and then turned the upper shock by using a big ol' pipe wrench... this gave us the purchase we needed as a strap wrench kept slipping.
Here you can see our setup to remove each side's springs. The 100's really flex well, in the rear, the front.... not so much.
Here is the new 864 compared to the OEM Stock spring, the coils are thicker and they're are a few more wraps per spring, but they are about the same height, the lift is obvious attained through the spring rate and how much the springs compress under weight. The tapered end is the bottom, these are upside down in this pic.
There are a lot of good write up’s here on mud that I used, as well as, Slee Offroad's detailed instructions with pics, so the install went pretty easy. I did hit everything with PB blaster for a few days before starting the install but this is a Colorado western truck with very little if any surface rust. The whole thing took a buddy and I about 7 hours, with a few hiccups along the way.
Here is the Kit, it is the standard Old Man Emu 2.5" lift with the addition of 864 Rear Coils that give about 3" of lift with added weight. Note the 22mm flex head wrench... I wouldn't attempt the rears without this tool. I got mine off eBay for about $8 bucks. Totally worth it.
Next get the rear up as high as you safely can, drop the sway bar end links where they meet the sway bar... 1 bolt per side. That'll help you get the droop you need to pull the springs.
Here you can see the sway bar disconnected, the spring removed and the shock pulled out. You can't see that the floor jack is on the other side raising up the opposite axle. When done like this, the springs fall right out. Just watch your brake lines and diff breather hose, they can get taught, we didn't need to remove them to get the droop we needed. To remove the shock we used the ratcheting wrench on the top nut and then turned the upper shock by using a big ol' pipe wrench... this gave us the purchase we needed as a strap wrench kept slipping.
Here you can see our setup to remove each side's springs. The 100's really flex well, in the rear, the front.... not so much.
Here is the new 864 compared to the OEM Stock spring, the coils are thicker and they're are a few more wraps per spring, but they are about the same height, the lift is obvious attained through the spring rate and how much the springs compress under weight. The tapered end is the bottom, these are upside down in this pic.
Rezarf <><
Explorer
A big shout out to my bud for helping turning a wrench all day on his day off. Thanks again Brian!
Half way there... gotta' little stink bug rake happening but I knew that would happen until the weight gets up to speed in the back. Front torsion bars in this pic are probably 1" over stock.
The fronts are actually really easy to do. Removing the Torsion bars is the biggest pain, but mine came out without too much fuss. If they are rusted and locked in there I can see how this would be extremely frustrating. Proper PB blaster, a big hammer and a heavy duty brass drift made quick work of the Tbars. Shocks up front are as easy as unbolt the old and bolt up the new. I was stoked to see that my mystery clunk up front was from a sway bar bushing that had long died. I will likely weld up some DOM sleeves over the factory sway bar end links and drop them 2-3 inches and add all new bushings. She's due at 320k miles now. :bounce:
The rear torsion bar adjusting arms are probably where most people are gonna get hung up if your bars aren't sliding free. Here is what I came up with after scratching our heads for a while. Once the fronts are free... they simple get driven off the torsion bar towards the rear of the cruiser, you have nothing to hold the tbars in place to drive off the rear adjusting arm.
I decided to lock 2 pairs of vice grips (round jaws) onto the Tbar... clamp them down with all your might, and double them up to prevent sliding. Then push them up against the frame that the tbar passes through. Now when you strike the adjusting arm to drive it off the rear of the tbar you have something holding the tbar into place. Once we figured this out the adjusting arms popped off with a dozen heavy blows... probably the trickiest part of this whole install besides the rear shocks upper bolts.
If you've been under there then this picture makes total sense to you, this is the passenger side tbar looking from the front towards the rear. It took both of us to hold the tbar and drift into place while the other guy whacked the drift with a 3lb hammer. Once we figured this out, it only took a few minutes per side to remove the adjustment arms from the Tbar.
Half way there... gotta' little stink bug rake happening but I knew that would happen until the weight gets up to speed in the back. Front torsion bars in this pic are probably 1" over stock.
The fronts are actually really easy to do. Removing the Torsion bars is the biggest pain, but mine came out without too much fuss. If they are rusted and locked in there I can see how this would be extremely frustrating. Proper PB blaster, a big hammer and a heavy duty brass drift made quick work of the Tbars. Shocks up front are as easy as unbolt the old and bolt up the new. I was stoked to see that my mystery clunk up front was from a sway bar bushing that had long died. I will likely weld up some DOM sleeves over the factory sway bar end links and drop them 2-3 inches and add all new bushings. She's due at 320k miles now. :bounce:
The rear torsion bar adjusting arms are probably where most people are gonna get hung up if your bars aren't sliding free. Here is what I came up with after scratching our heads for a while. Once the fronts are free... they simple get driven off the torsion bar towards the rear of the cruiser, you have nothing to hold the tbars in place to drive off the rear adjusting arm.
I decided to lock 2 pairs of vice grips (round jaws) onto the Tbar... clamp them down with all your might, and double them up to prevent sliding. Then push them up against the frame that the tbar passes through. Now when you strike the adjusting arm to drive it off the rear of the tbar you have something holding the tbar into place. Once we figured this out the adjusting arms popped off with a dozen heavy blows... probably the trickiest part of this whole install besides the rear shocks upper bolts.
If you've been under there then this picture makes total sense to you, this is the passenger side tbar looking from the front towards the rear. It took both of us to hold the tbar and drift into place while the other guy whacked the drift with a 3lb hammer. Once we figured this out, it only took a few minutes per side to remove the adjustment arms from the Tbar.
Rezarf <><
Explorer
Everything else has been detailed really well in the FAQ on Mud so there is no need to double up. Here are the final results, I need to get it aligned today but I wanted to give it some miles to settle and fine tune any adjustments.
The ride quality is awesome! The 100 no longer feels like a sofa cruising down the road. No dive when I brake, no body roll through the corners. I would have to say (with no trail time on this suspension) the suspension feels much "sportier" it tracks smooth, steering is more predictable, no body roll, and it really levels out the bigger bumps and dips. That said, the trade off is I feel more when I go over a man-hole cover or imperfection in the road. It is not a more plush ride (the OEM really smooths the ride out) but it is much more acute and "tight." I am really please with the ride so far and look forward to trying it on our Colorado "baby head" rock trails.
The ride quality is awesome! The 100 no longer feels like a sofa cruising down the road. No dive when I brake, no body roll through the corners. I would have to say (with no trail time on this suspension) the suspension feels much "sportier" it tracks smooth, steering is more predictable, no body roll, and it really levels out the bigger bumps and dips. That said, the trade off is I feel more when I go over a man-hole cover or imperfection in the road. It is not a more plush ride (the OEM really smooths the ride out) but it is much more acute and "tight." I am really please with the ride so far and look forward to trying it on our Colorado "baby head" rock trails.
Rezarf <><
Explorer
I had a hair-brained idea to take 2 twin cylinder air compressors from Costco and make one QUAD-Cylinder compressor for my 100. I don't want to clutter this thread and I'll do a summary write up thread but here's a link to the build thread on my local forum... My quad compressor build... - Rising Sun Member Forums
Here's a few pics for you guys...
Performance was pretty good. About 4:30 to fill up a 35x12.5 r15 tire from 20-35psi... Doubling them up should put my into the 2 minute range per tire. Wish me luck. $29/each I gotta' try. I know its no ARB twin but it is just over 1/10 the cost.
I'll likely mount them beside my yet to built drawers, and add a 2.5 gallon tank in the spare spot with air ports to my bumpers front and rear.
I stripped my compressors down to the bare minimums and started to mock up some mounting brackets and plumbing. I removed the pressure gauges from the unit as I plan on mounting this in the wings next to the drawers I am building this winter. My system will be pretty simple… 2 pumps each on their own pneumatic circuit via a check valve, running into a 2.5 gallon tank mounted in the spare location, with air outlets front and rear on the bumpers. I am waiting on a few air filters before going forward, but I should come out around $125 buck or less all in for a complete on-board-air system. Time will tell if the Bon Air pumps and motors hold up to the test of time.
I picked up a Viair 2.5 gallon tank I am going to add to the mix. I should wrap it up by turkey day
Here's a few pics for you guys...
Performance was pretty good. About 4:30 to fill up a 35x12.5 r15 tire from 20-35psi... Doubling them up should put my into the 2 minute range per tire. Wish me luck. $29/each I gotta' try. I know its no ARB twin but it is just over 1/10 the cost.
I'll likely mount them beside my yet to built drawers, and add a 2.5 gallon tank in the spare spot with air ports to my bumpers front and rear.
I stripped my compressors down to the bare minimums and started to mock up some mounting brackets and plumbing. I removed the pressure gauges from the unit as I plan on mounting this in the wings next to the drawers I am building this winter. My system will be pretty simple… 2 pumps each on their own pneumatic circuit via a check valve, running into a 2.5 gallon tank mounted in the spare location, with air outlets front and rear on the bumpers. I am waiting on a few air filters before going forward, but I should come out around $125 buck or less all in for a complete on-board-air system. Time will tell if the Bon Air pumps and motors hold up to the test of time.
I picked up a Viair 2.5 gallon tank I am going to add to the mix. I should wrap it up by turkey day
tbonebrown
New member
Nice work Drew! If you ever get that PS stove mounted up I'd love to check it out. I'm right up the hill from you in Evergreen! Keep up the build man!
Rezarf <><
Explorer
Sounds good man!
Rezarf <><
Explorer
Jumped up to 35x12.50-r18 BFG KO2
Nice tires, quiet and smooth.
Nice tires, quiet and smooth.
toyotech
Expedition Leader
Those "compressors" are just inflators. Not meant for extended run time. For the money. You should just have gotten a pair of viairs or my personal favorite. 12v puma compressors. I own two. One in each rig and comes with a 1.5 gal tank.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Rezarf <><
Explorer
My tests show it'll be a great inflator... So it's good that's all I need it for.
Rezarf <><
Explorer
Land Cruiser heaven... and right down the road.
Spent 170 miles on dirt, dust and mud this weekend. It was a blast till I had to clean it up.
Camping was epic...
Sooooooo much mud and cow patties... yum.
Spent 170 miles on dirt, dust and mud this weekend. It was a blast till I had to clean it up.
Camping was epic...
Sooooooo much mud and cow patties... yum.
Rezarf <><
Explorer
I build an attic ala Land Cruiser Phil... but for a 1999.
Built some brackets...
And whoala!
Built some brackets...
And whoala!
Rezarf <><
Explorer
Installed some Trail Tailor recovery brackets on the front since ARB doesn't provide recovery points on the Sahara bars.
