Before: What we started with...
Before:
What we started with this Saturday.
Well, like usual, life has a way of messing up our plans. We wanted to work on this little project every free weekend, but those "free" weekends are few and far between. It took more than a month later to get some more progress going on our "Weekend Beater." But hey, that's exactly what this project is for. This gives us the chance to learn how to slowly but surely work on a truck one weekend at a time. So, to pick up where we left off, we had the truck completely torn down and back-halved the last weekend, so now it's time to get going on the rear suspension.
After: What we ended up with...
After:
What we ended up with Sunday.
Follow along and we'll show you how we set up our rear suspension in the comfort of our own driveway. What we learned from spending an entire weekend building everything from scratch was that, depending on your application, it's definitely worth it to buy pre-fabbed four-links and tabs! For more information, contact the companies listed in the source box.
One of our pet peeves is making...
One of our pet peeves is making sure the wheels are centered in the wheelwells. So before we set up our rearend on just wheel-base measurements, we decided to measure the bed and set up our rearend to assure the wheel will be centered in the well opening.
After we measured and marked...
After we measured and marked where we wanted to set the rearend at, we made sure it was centered in the framerails and then welded it in so we could set up the links.
With the rearend in place,...
With the rearend in place, we measured all the way to the back of the cab wall because we wanted our link bars to be as long as possible. The factory pieces that were in the way had to be cut off. (And of course, we never hesitate to give our trusty Sawzall a workout!)
Lucky for us, Bobby is a Toyota...
Lucky for us, Bobby is a Toyota specialist, so he already had tabs that we could trace for our link bar mounts.
With everything cut out, we...
With everything cut out, we marked and drilled our holes in all the link mounts.
Another thing that we try...
Another thing that we try to do is keep everything super-clean, so all the tabs are rounded and smoothed out on the grinder.
Here's a look at our link...
Here's a look at our link mount setup. So far, so good.
Instead of just welding the...
Instead of just welding the tubing directly to the frame, we made sure to use another plate to strengthen the link mounts. That plate will be completely welded to the frame, and the tubing will be gusseted to ensure the link mounts are super-strong and can withstand the abuse.
Next, the link ends were measured...
Next, the link ends were measured and set up in the mounts...
so that we could assemble...
so that we could assemble the actual mount and weld it together.
After the mount was built,...
After the mount was built, it was measured out and tacked into place. To ensure that both mounts were equal, everything was triple-checked before being fully welded.