Build Tacoma 4500 build

Another day of working on this housing…

Started welding out the subframe as well and made the slug for the upper link. Originally it was just a sleeve and then a nut on the end but the bolt was so long, the trans had to come out to pull the upper link. So I made another sleeve and tapped it for a 5/8-18 fine thread bolt. I’ll make a bolt on capture nut plate for the bolt head as well and some red loctite and it shouldn’t go anywhere.
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Malburg114 said:
It’s a 4 in bump currently and at full articulation there’s 2-2 1/8 of shaft showing. So roughly 2”. Big downside to the bumps being mounted so far inboard but there’s no room outside the frame.
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I'm in the exact same boat. I was just happy to see I was getting some bump action before the shock bottomed. It'll help a little.
 
What are the odds of hitting the bump hard at full flex though?

I mean I get the axle isn't going perfectly straight up and down, even in the desert, but I'd think if you hit full flex at speed, you're probably crashing anyway.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
What are the odds of hitting the bump hard at full flex though?

I mean I get the axle isn't going perfectly straight up and down, even in the desert, but I'd think if you hit full flex at speed, you're probably crashing anyway.
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I’m not overly worried about it. I’ll have the bypasses tuned to help with the bump zone and that’s only 2” of bump engagement at full articulation. That scenario will likely be very slow and why I left the rubber bumps on the shock shafts. I didn’t check like ride height one side and other side all the way up. I’d imagine more of the bump will be engaged. I was going to shorten the bumps but I’ll probably leave the, long for this exact reason and if I want them to do more I’ll have them tuned (if thats a thing) or run more pressure
 
gt1guy said:
I'm in the exact same boat. I was just happy to see I was getting some bump action before the shock bottomed. It'll help a little.
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Exactly my thoughts. When I first got the shocks mocked up and there was no room, running no bumps did cross my mind and just having the bypasses tuned as the bumps. But figured since I had room inside the frame to run them there for in the desert.
 
Talk with your shock tuner, but the few that I talked to suggested restricting the bumps to 2.5"-3" of travel for a 4500 car. Bumps are really meant for the last little bit of up travel, so if you consider we only have 7-8" of uptravel that means more for more than 50% of our uptravel, we are into our bumps...
 
Malburg114 said:
I’ll make a bolt on capture nut plate for the bolt head as well and some red loctite and it shouldn’t go anywhere.
Click to expand...
How will you ever remove a bolt that’s threaded into a welded sleeve with a nut capture plate on the bolt head?
 
Malburg114 said:
Started welding out the subframe as well and made the slug for the upper link. Originally it was just a sleeve and then a nut on the end but the bolt was so long, the trans had to come out to pull the upper link. So I made another sleeve and tapped it for a 5/8-18 fine thread bolt. I’ll make a bolt on capture nut plate for the bolt head as well and some red loctite and it shouldn’t go anywhere.
Click to expand...

make sure to cover the open side so it doesnt get filled with debris.


fl0w3n said:
How will you ever remove a bolt that’s threaded into a welded sleeve with a nut capture plate on the bolt head?
Click to expand...

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broken4_racing said:
Talk with your shock tuner, but the few that I talked to suggested restricting the bumps to 2.5"-3" of travel for a 4500 car. Bumps are really meant for the last little bit of up travel, so if you consider we only have 7-8" of uptravel that means more for more than 50% of our uptravel, we are into our bumps...
Click to expand...
This was my original thoughts as well. I’ll see what the guy I’m probably going to use for shock tuning suggests.

mobil1syn said:
make sure to cover the open side so it doesnt get filled with debris.




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I have some delrin I’ll probably make a plug from
 
This was a lot of welding. Same thing. Not the greatest welder when it comes to tube. But getting better already I feel. Front half of the subframe is welded out and to the frame and bump stop cans are in. I think I’m at the point to put the front axle back in and turn it around.
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Well got the front axle back in and wheel studs finally showed up. Having all sorts of issues with the brake kit and calipers not fitting so just carried on and went to turn it around it. Got the front tires on and went to put the back saw horse on some carts as they looked the perfect width. When jacking up the saw horse, it broke the tacs and clamps and car crashed to the ground. Only a more broken windshield cab bounced a little bending down sheet metal.

So a few hours of undoing all the front axle again and getting the rear on the cart I got it turned around and put the front at full bump and leveled the frame to start figuring out the back. Got the wheelbase right around 117-118 which I think is where it’ll stay. I got a few tubes in after these pictures but forgot to snap one.
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Only got in the garage one day and spent most the day making something I didn’t like. Not sure what I was thinking not having the rear down tubes start from the ones coming out the cab and it looked funky working off the tubes I bent so cut it back out and redid it. And rear fram section was to narrow to fit a 40” spare so widened it some. Front of the rear frame narrows to make sure there’s plenty of room for the shocks and bump stops.


Old
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New
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What's the wheelbase?

It's hard to tell without crawling around it, but will the fuel cell be supported on the back side? It just looks like a lot of leverage on those welds.

It also looks like you're going to run a front mount radiator? I've been hmming and haaing on mine, and I'm leaning towards a rear rad and a decent sized intercooler up front. I don't know how much foot room I can give up being 6'4", though I could Shaq it and mount the drivers seat in back seat 🤣. I'm very curious to see how your package looks up front.
 
DocRamsay said:
What's the wheelbase?

It's hard to tell without crawling around it, but will the fuel cell be supported on the back side? It just looks like a lot of leverage on those welds.

It also looks like you're going to run a front mount radiator? I've been hmming and haaing on mine, and I'm leaning towards a rear rad and a decent sized intercooler up front. I don't know how much foot room I can give up being 6'4", though I could Shaq it and mount the drivers seat in back seat 🤣. I'm very curious to see how your package looks up front.
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Should be 117-118.

Fuel cell will have a bracket that bolts to the tube that goes between the c pillars to the top of the fuel bracket to help hold it down/counteract the want to leverage down.

Plan is a rear radiator. I may have the room up front but I built the front with plans for a rear radiator and probably run the oil/power steering/trans cooler up front.
 
Good progress I feel. Pulled the rear axle and notched the truss to fit a set of shock mounts. theyre the same as the front and I think they turned out great. The shock mounts will get welded first then the truss around it. This ties the link mount, shock mount and truss all together. I made some mockup links made and got the upper links cut. I jacked the car up to ride height (7.5 inches of uptravel front and rear) and plugged the numbers into the 4 link calculator. I posted a comment in the "hows my numbers" thread if anyone wants to give some input but I think Ill lower the upper link a 1/2 from where it is now so the anti squat options i have are 26.6, 45.4, and 64.4%. Im thinking itll live in the top or middle hole but these numbers give me good options and make the 3rd hole useable.

I want to notch the cross member for the fuel cell to gain about another inch of up travel. Its a 2" tube so ill probably put a radius in it and take an inch out. that should give me 8.5 inches up in the rear and 7.5 in the front.

Post in thread 'How's my numbers?'

Malburg114 said:
Thoughts? Newb to rear 4 links. Front 3 link is pretty well in place and can't change to much besides the frame side upper link length and height and even then, it's pretty minimal.

Rear 4 link its pretty wide open. The numbers I listed are the ideal places, but I can narrow or widen the lower links at the frame more and move them up. The upper link at the rear frame can go up and down some but not much more inboard without some crazy braces.

Car is a 4500 car for koh/ultra4 series that will see a bit of regular crawling at sand hollow/rubicon/jv and street driven on occasion. The...
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Full calculator
4 link calculator 5.2025 v2.PNG


rear only top hole
4 link calculator 5.2025 v2 rear only 1.PNG


middle hole
4 link calculator 5.2025 v2 rear only.PNG


bottom hole
4 link calculator 5.2025 v2 rear only 2.PNG
 
Damn! Everything looks great! Thanks for the updates.

Are you welding everything with that little Miller Multimatic 215?
 
Boomtacoma01 said:
I bet you have 20 lbs of welding wire in this bad boy. looking good!!
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I’ve gone through 3 or 4 10lb spools already lol. Done a few side projects but not many. And there’s still a lot of welding left

McBastard79 said:
That’s good to know.
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I’ve never used the stick function (don’t know how) and I tried to learn tig on it but ended up grabbing a miller tig welder (still don’t know how to tig weld 😂). The auto settings kind of suck. I use them as a base. Take the voltage and the wire speed and subtract 100 from the wire speed and it seems to weld good. The auto settings push to much wire for my liking. I had to replace the torch and liner a year or two ago and went to a 15ft lead which is nice.
 
Notched the crossmember for the fuel cell. This gave me another inch of uptravel in the rear which should be 8.5. Not my best notch but considering it was done on my back and I can weld the gaps and cut/grind it clean, I’ll be happy.

Started on the shock mounts. Version 1 looked weak and small so made another that’s a little bigger. Tire almost kisses the shocks so I’ll bend the brackets in a 1/2 or so.
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