| WCOR IFS KIT INSTALL |
| Part Two |
| All images can be clicked on for a larger view. |
| Now that the steering linkage, torsion bars, brake lines and axles are removed, the final dissassembly process involving removing the spindle and then the upper and lower A-arms can commence. Unfortunately, I lack the pictures of removing the actual spindles. I attacked this process a little differently. I elected to retain a combination of my stock original ball joints and the ball joints that came on the used A-arms. My reasoning for doing this is that all of the ball joints in question appeared to be in perfectly good condition. They could easily be replaced at a later date, but by not remplacing them, installation of the arms was made far easier. The upper ball joints were left attached to upper part of the spindle. This allowed it be very easily bolted to the new WCOR upper A-arms using the 4 bolts. The lower ball joints were left attached to the lower WCOR A-arms by the original owner. This allowed to be easily bolt the lower A-arms to the spindle using 4 bolts. None of this required me seperating any of the ball joints, which is what I was trying to avoid to save time and trouble. Once the spindle was unbolted, the upper and lower A-arms simply unbolted from the frame. The upper A-arms are bolted to the top of the frame using 3 giant bolts. The lower A-arms are bolted to lower frame mounts using two long bolts. |
| The spindle unbolted from the A-arm. Note the upper ball joint still attached. I also elected not to dissassemble the rotor and wheel bearings. This was the save time and cost in parts. The wheel bearings can easily be attended too at a later date. |
| The stock upper and lower A-arms sans spindle. Note, how the lower ball joint is still attached to the stock lower A-arm. This is the ball joint that I will NOT be reusing. The new WCOR A-arm also has a ball joint attached in the same manner as on the stock arm and it is that ball joint that I will bolt to the spindle during reassembly. |
| The stock lower A-arms removed from the lower mounts. Also showing the lower mount bolts. Note the upper bumpstop at the top of the picture. It is this bumpstop which limits the droop of the suspension. |
| A four stock A-arms, finally removed. More parts to be stored, probably never to be used again. |
| All of the stock IFS suspension removed. It was at this point, that I began to lament how close I was to a solid axle swap. Removing the front diff and then just breaking out the torch and cutting off the IFS mounts on the frame and simply welding on the leaf spring mounts. Ah yes, it was a very mixed feeling moment. But alas, I've chosen this option instead. Perhaps, in future years, an SAS may still prevail. |
| The stock lower arms (left) compared to the WCOR lower arms (right). Note that the WCOR arms are 2 inches longer. Don't let the apparent size fool you. The WCOR arms are every bit as heavy, if not heavier than the stock A-arms. |
| One final prep work must be done before the new arms can be installed. The stock shock mounts are not long enough for the new travel of the WCOR arms and must be cut off to allow for the installation of the Downey long travel shock hoop. This is the only cutting of the entire project and no welding is required. I used a grinder to removed the shock mount as as such the cuts are not as clean as I would have liked, but it did the job. Care must be taken to not cut into or compromise the upper A-arm mount. |
| Showing the upper shock mount after it was cut off. The circled areas are what needed to be removed. Not how the shock mount is an intregal part of the upper A-arm mount. Care must be taken not to destroy this mount. The notch to the right was needed to clear the new upper A-arms. |
| Now we're ready to bolt the new arms on. The upper arms were extremely easy to bolt on in my case. With a new kit the upper A-arm shaft would have to be dissassembled from the stock A-arm and then installed with new bushings onto the new arm. This can be a difficult and messy process. In my case, the original owner left his A-arm shaft attached to the A-arm since he had no need for it with his solid axle swap. This meant that I only had to bolt the upper arms down with three bolts. At the same time that the upper arms were being installed, I installed the supplied Downey shock hoop. This allowed for the use of a much longer shock. While many shock hoops are weld on, this one is entirely bolt on, using two of the three upper A-arm bolts as the main support. It is further bolted down using one of the lower bump stop holes and an already existing hole in the frame. Next, the lower arms were installed as were the steering linkage. The lower A-arms were a little more difficult. This is the area where this particular kit has one it's greatest faults. The arms were not designed to use the stock bushing and as such, creats a huge problem trying find new replacement bushings. In addition, the arms were not properly designed to fit perfectly within the lower A-arm mounts. My understanding is this is not a problem on the newer kits out there, especially Rockstomper's kit. When I installed the lower A-arms, the mounts were small enough that when tightening the bolt, the mounts were pulled into together. The destroyed bushings and poor design of the lower A-arm mounts caused me many hours of later work to try to rectify the resulting loud squeaking and creaking of the lower A-arms. So far, I've only succeeded in part. |
| The new WCOR upper A-arms and Downey bolt on shock hoop installed. |
| The lower A-arms installed, awaiting installation of the spindle. |
| Spindle installed. |
| Steering linkage installed. Note the much longer adjusting spacer between the two tie rod ends. This is to compensate for the 2" longer arms. |
| Both suspension arms installed. All that's needed now is to reinstall the torsion bars, install the new shocks and plug back in and bleed the brake lines, and make sure everything is torqued down to spec. The axles were installed at a later date. |
| This picture shows the available travel of the suspension. The torsion bars were not yet hooked up with allowed for the easy cycling of the suspension. |
| All Installed. First time on the ground. Of course, it was no where near finished. I had the major hassle ahead of me of making new lower A-arm bushings and then rebuilding the axles before install. |
| The final two installments involved making new bushings from scratch and rebuilding and installing the axle. I don't have any decent pictures of making the bushings, which is just as well. I don't wish to relive that hassle. It took me many hours to find the right size tubing and then find bushings that I could work with. I then had to bore out the only bushings I could find that would fit the A-arm mounts so that they would slip over the new tubes. After many hours and good amount of grease later, the new bushings seemed to initially solve the noise problem. However, the creaking and squeaking have since come back, although to a much less degree than before. It appears it's something I going to have to live with short of having new bushings made by a professional at great cost. I really wish WCOR would have taken better care to design this part of the kit better. Since they are now gone, I can only hope that the current makers of similiar kits have done this part of their kit properly. The axles were a much better story. Although I did have to unexpectedly replace both inner Lubro CV joints, I was able to order two new units thanks to the super help of Scott at Rockstomper and the install of these parts and the axles went rather smoothly. |
| The Sommers Brother's axle. It's made out of chrome moly and much stronger than the factory axle as well as being longer to fit the new A-arms. The inner splines are cut to fit a standard Lubro CV joint, such as from a Porsche or BMW car. The picture shows the inner splines prepped for the new Lubro joint. I had replaced the stock outer Toyota CV joint boots, but elected to retain the joints which appeared to be in decent shape. |
| This is the Lubro joint as would have been installed on a Porsche 930, or BMW 8 series. The joint is far stronger than the stock Toyota inner joint. It can withstand far greater torque and extreme axle angles. The inner splines allow the shaft to slip in and out as axle moves up and down. In this pictures, the joint is bolted to the special adapter required to bolt the CV joint to the IFS diff axle flange. |
| To the left is shown an assembled Lubro joint and axle flange adapter. To the right are the two parts seperated. |
| Packing fresh grease into the new Lubro CV joint. |
| This picture shows the backside of the Lubro CV joint as it's installed on the axle shaft. Note how the axle can slide in and out of the joint. This helps to allow the extreme angle this axle is capable of. |
| A completed axle. Now ready to bolt into the truck. The axle shaft is unlikely to break as is the inner Lubro CV joint. The weak point now becomes the outer Toyota CV joint. However, the outer Toyota CV joint, unlike the stock inner Toyota CV joint was designed to withstand extreme angles. Remember it has to allow the wheels to turn at relatively great angles as well as allow for the upper and down movement. It's interesting to note that the outer IFS CV joints are not only the same birfield type found on the Toyota solid axle, but are actually larger and stronger. Contrary to popular belief, at least in theory, the Toyota IFS may actually experience less birfield breakage on the trail than the solid axle trucks. |
| ALL INSTALLED!! This is the final product, with everything installed. For more pictures of the truck and suspension in action, visit WCOR pictures page 3 and page 4. |
| U P D A T E |
| This system failed me early in the summer 2002. The driver's side A-arm snapped in two while I was off roading in a relatively remote area. I was just barely able to limp back to a highway, where the truck was towed to the nearest location, my parent's house. The cause of the failure was determined to be poor design at the high stress point near the torsion bar mount. The arms did last 3 years of hard off road abuse, but this failure would not have happened on well designed A-arms. Fortunately, better designs are available today. Instead of attempting to repair the WCOR kit or installing the stock IFS, I chose to do a completely solid axle swap. For more info, click HERE. I haven't completely discounted the IFS system. This kit worked extremely well, the short time I had it. For high speed 4 wheeling, desert racing or sand dune running, I still recommend A-arm kits that are similiar to this one. |
RELATED LINKS
| To Return to Part One, Click HERE |
| THE END |
