Daniel wanted a little more height for his 2001 4-Runner without a big cost. The Old Man Emu (OME) suspension lift was the ticket. |
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The
kit comes with 4 new coil springs, 4 new shocks and hardware.
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Here
is the before shot. The rear is sagging some.
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The first step is to raise and support the front of the vehicle. The factory strut has to be removed. |
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Remove the lower bolt and then move to the top of the strut. You can see the lower strut bolt here and also the CV boot. The CV angles are very good and the boot fins have lots of room. |
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When removing the top of the factory strut, you have to be careful to only remove the mounting nuts, shown here in green and not the larger center nut shown here in red. Removing the large center nut can result in the strut and spring coming apart and cause serious injury! |
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You
will then need to compress the factory strut spring and remove the top
plate. If you don't know how to do this, take it to a shop
and they can do it for a small fee. You only need the top
plate, the rest can be set aside.
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Assemble
the new strut and use the factory top plate to put it all back together.
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Here
you can see it together with the factory top plate on the new OME strut.
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The
factory and OME strut side by side. The OME setup is slightly
longer and also has a stiffer spring.
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Installation of the new front strut is the same as it came out. Make sure to torque everything down good and tight! The front end installation is all done! |
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The
front sitting high with the rear still stock.
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The rear is coil spring and shock. Raise and support the rear of the vehicle by the frame You then have to remove both rear shocks and the track bar and lower the rear axle until the factory rear springs can be removed. |
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Once the axle is lowered enough, they just come right out. In this picture the track bar is disconnected and the spring is out. |
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With
the stock springs out, install the OME springs. Make sure
to turn them so they sit in the seats correctly!
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Raise
the rear axle and install the new OME shocks. Reconnect the
rear track bar.
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Here you can see the shocks and springs in. The rear install is complete! |
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Above
is the before and after picture. Daniel reports that the ride
and handling is much better than before with the stock setup. After he
gets a chance to play with it off-road we will get another report from
him.
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1-6-2005
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