new suspension ideas

[scrapz253]

good idea. been debating it. body work and paint will wait till after the winter. next year will be putting on bigger tires too. maybe I'll cut up the fenders and do 15's with some bigger tires....

[scrapz253]

tracked down 2 more vacuum lines that went to the distributor area that were completely unplugged. just chillin there. thanks to petros for the timely response and quick info on them. I plugged them up per his recommendation and now i have no more hesitation and miss while idling. also installed the catch can today.

also installed some over fenders that i made from lawn edging. cost me all of $4 at ace hardware and a couple hours of my time...

[Kapteinmoby]

hey, i just bought a Tercel angain, 5 moths with another car and i couldent take it anymore. so i came over this topic and saw the "air lift 1000" and just threw money on the screen! do any of you know wich size will fit the Terc?

[scrapz253]

i didnt use the airlift 1000 bags. instead i used the air shocks.

so i've been busy with my new job but i do have some updates. i ended up doing a lift on the front this last weekend and took a slightly different approach than everybody else. instead of using a spacer on top, i moved the lower strut mount up one hole on the knuckle and used plate steel to reinforce it. added a slot on the middle hole for camber adjustment and got 2 3/8" of lift with the same ride quality as factory. now since lifting the car, it amplified some other issues. cv's were going out and now with more angle on them, they are really bad. the tie rods were orignal and boots were non existent, and brakes were completely shot. so next weekend i will be replacing the rotors, pads, cv's, and tie rods. already ordered them all, just waiting for them to show up. ill take some pictures when i get all the new parts in. cant really go test it offroad yet because of how bad the cv's are and both wheels are toed out and squealing. couldnt get the alignment right with these super old tie rods. but i will update next week. on the other hand, i've got the motor running strong and just hit 280,000 miles and got the auto choke working like a charm.

[Tercel__jon]

Damn, I actually had that idea with the plate steel and whatnot. I saw it on a subaru and saved the picture. Here it is.




I was thinking when I do mine, to oblong the bolt holes a little so I can adjust the camber properly.
The biggest issue Ive found is the higher, you go, the closer everything gets to the body due to where the lower control arms are mounted. They either need to be lowered, or custom longer ones built. I designed a subframe to mount in the original lower control arm mounts that would relocate them about 4 inches lower. It has cross braces and ties in with the front crossmember. I need to buy a mig welder and some steel before I can actually build it. Im also in the process of figuring out how to turn the front sway bar into just a locator arm instead of it doing double duty as a locator and sway bar. I believe the swaybar limits the amount of flex. Obviously without the two front wheels being connected there will be alot more body roll but as long as you're not taking corners at breakneck speed, I honestly dont see how that would be a problem. We'll see after I get the welder and start building and testing.

[scrapz253]

yup. that's exactly what i did. still not quite as tall as i wanted, might need to add some spacers on top of the strut but it is a lot better and i oblonged the holes so i have more camber adjustment. i see what you are saying about the lower control arm. but at only 2 3/8" lift, its not that big of an issue that i can see as of yet. mine is still in the beginning stages and have lots of modification to do. one other issue that im having is that i may need to install wheel spacers because of how close the tire is to the strut now, but its working out. all my new parts should be here Friday but not sure if i will have time to install them till next week.

[Tercel__jon]

Yeah, thats another thing Im worried about. I really hope the 27" Interco SSR's that I want will clear the strut...that and money are the two biggest reasons I havent bought them yet.

[scrapz253]

just ordered 1 inch spacers. because i also am going to try to run the same tires. i usually dont trust spacers, but the car is so light, i dont think it will be an issue

[dlb]

i have very little to add to this but wanted to say that after installing lifts, make sure to loosen off all nuts and bolts securing suspension bushings (both front and back) and then re-torque them while the car is sitting on level ground. otherwise the bushings will be constantly flexed and wear out prematurely. in the case of the control arms, they may also eat through the frame like what happened to xirdneh a while back. this may not be news to you guys but i thought i'd mention it just in case.

that's a great pic of the subaru lift jon, makes it easy to understand.

[Tercel__jon]

Its good to mention it every time the subject comes up DLB. I actually had that problem with the stock suspension eating through the frame. I forget how I fixed it since it wasnt so bad. Its part of the reason I want to build a bolt-in subframe that would relocate the arms and make better attachment points.

I found that pic on a subaru forum I think. Loved the idea so I stashed it in my "tercel mods" folder.

Scrap, Cant wait to see the tires. I know they'll perform amazingly if they fit.

[scrapz253]

soooo. after a week of having this lift on. i took it off before i wasted a brand new set off tires. did all the new parts and got the car back in alignment in all of about 2 hours. so. the main issue with this is that with the weight of the car and all the pressure being put on the plates, it kept forcing the camber negative. you have have to make the holes absolutely perfect to have no play and the camber set on the money. so.... back to the drawing board. i am going to go with a top mounted spacer as others have done.

after replacing all the front end components, the car drives like a dream. better than some brand new cars imo. new lift will be installed next weekend. the only thing that worries me is that the cv's might not be long enough. but we shall see.

[KZ750]

Sorry for the bump scrapz253, But did you ever figure out why your tercel was running on 3 cylinders? I think your compression should be fine. I've noticed almost a difference of 60 psi from checking compression cold without throttle, to warmed with wide open throttle. I'm also having a 3 cylinder issue. I have spark to all four cylinders. Great build and cool find on the shocks.

[atoyta]

I had a set of Monroe air shocks on my 83 for a couple years. Worked great for carrying heavy loads. Do realize once you have those babies pumped up to 60# of pressure the rear end is going to hop all over every time you hit a bump while driving on the road. I have airlift bags inside the coils on my 90 4runner with basically the same rear suspension as the wagon. Those work great & do not affect suspension travel when aired down. (At least on the 4runner they don't.)

[sdoan]

I put air shocks on my '84 a week ago. They are the Monroe version of the Gabriel shocks mentioned early (fit Ford E-150 van or something).



They fit a little too close, I should have tried to hammer the flange away from the shocks. They don't seem to rub unless driving over uneven land. Perhaps the Gabriel shocks are thinner and leave more room.



The airline fitting runs close to the body flange, but does not touch.


I was able to press out the steel sleeve through the lower bushing with a bench vise. I then pressed the rubber bushing over the original Toyota lower mount using a series of different length bolts and spacers and some rubber lube.



Thanks for the idea!

[dlb]

how do you like the air shocks so far, shawn? where does the air line run to?