Build The DirtStyle Runna (1st gen 4Runner on tons)

tribal4krawler said:
I do have some UTV springs off my Polaris cars but I don’t know what the spring rate is. They’ve never divulged what the stock rates are. What really sucks is I’m pretty sure I’ve got some 3” king 14” 250 springs somewhere in my garage from my OG Yamaha but I can’t find em. I’m sure they’re buried under some **** 😂😂
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Google the year/model that the springs came off of and you might find the spring rates. I did that with my KRX and found all the rates.
 
The biggest issue is the springs are way too short. All good, I’m getting those other coils today. I should be able to resell the coils I don’t need for something, hopefully. 💁
 
I did find markings on my 16” 2.0 coilover springs - they are 150/250s. So the 200/250s should help firm things up just a tad with the initial couple inches of travel. I’m definitely curious to see if I can feel any difference going from the 2.0 16s to these 2.5 Kings. Valving should be significantly better id think but I have no idea how these are valved. I’ll get them serviced when I’m at KOH next year which should help quite a bit too.
 
mobil1syn said:
do the math, stop guessing
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Don’t tell me how to freedom! 😂😂 like I mentioned before I have no clue what this thing weighs, don’t have easy access to scales or I’d do exactly that. I do know the 150/250s felt too soft to me, so I’m hopeful that the 200-250s will be mo betta. I ran to the race shop and grabbed my last 40” sticky that I need to mount, my treps that I need to sell and Ken also let me borrow his jd2 hydraulic bender. Score. That should make things a bit easier. I’m not gonna kill myself trying to make something perfect, as eventually I really want to front half the truck and really make it a nice 4ruggy. So this will likely all get chopped off and redone.
 
tribal4krawler said:
Don’t tell me how to freedom! 😂😂 like I mentioned before I have no clue what this thing weighs, don’t have easy access to scales or I’d do exactly that. I do know the 150/250s felt too soft to me, so I’m hopeful that the 200-250s will be mo betta. I ran to the race shop and grabbed my last 40” sticky that I need to mount, my treps that I need to sell and Ken also let me borrow his jd2 hydraulic bender. Score. That should make things a bit easier. I’m not gonna kill myself trying to make something perfect, as eventually I really want to front half the truck and really make it a nice 4ruggy. So this will likely all get chopped off and redone.
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for reference I'm 4450lbs with the hardtop, toy axles and 37's

and surprisingly close to 50/50 weight distribution

that'll get ya somewhat into the ballpark with your rig :flipoff2:
 
I’ll check it out on the computer tomorrow. Thanks for the link. Got the 200/250s on, feels better so far just driving around the yard. I may get froggy tomorrow and take the air bumps out and reduce them from a 4” to a 2” bump.
 
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Reduced the air bumps from a 4” to a 2”. Gives some more breathing room until I hit the bumps. The real question now is what psi should I run? I’ve got em at 100ish right now.

The bender has been giving me fits, I think it’s low on hydraulic fluid. Honestly at this point I only have 3 weeks left so I may just forego the engine cage until after GAC. I’m going to make a spare driveshaft tmrw that’ll work for the front or the rear. Other than that, I’m pretty much ready to go. Got my 2nd spare sticky 40 mounted too. I’m going to bring my extra 2 methods out to GAC just in case they’re feeling generous and hand out some stickies
 
Nitrogen charge in resi coilovers is to keep oil from foaming not hold up your vehicle. They should all be 200-250psi and charge will have near zero affect on spring rate. You can basically disregard N2 pressure and valving and worry about sprung weight and spring rate. At least for figuring out rates.

If you get the ride height and rate you want and it blows through travel that's valving not spring rate. N2 stops foam, valving controls motion, tenders springs hold things tight and springs hold it up. You shouldn't need tenders, you should have 1.5-2.5 spring preload if the rates are correct.
 
94toytruck said:
Nitrogen charge in resi coilovers is to keep oil from foaming not hold up your vehicle. They should all be 200-250psi and charge will have near zero affect on spring rate. You can basically disregard N2 pressure and valving and worry about sprung weight and spring rate. At least for figuring out rates.

If you get the ride height and rate you want and it blows through travel that's valving not spring rate. N2 stops foam, valving controls motion, tenders springs hold things tight and springs hold it up. You shouldn't need tenders, you should have 1.5-2.5 spring preload if the rates are correct.
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As it is to get the height that I’m at now I am at essentially 0 preload - meaning the ring is just touching the coilover spring at full droop. (I’m pretty close to my ideal ride height right now, could maybe stand to go an inch lower) I’d have to go negative preload on the passenger side coilover meaning there could be a chance the spring keeper on the bottom could potentially wiggle off at full droop. I don’t think it’s likely but I can’t imagine having a gap between the preload ring and the coilover spring at full droop is a great idea anyway. As it is I’ve got about 5” of uptravel straight up at the frame but as the fulcrum effect does its thing I wouldn’t be shocked if it uses all of the available 9” uptravel on the shock. I also wonder if the cant of the coilovers plays a role too, from my utv days I seem to remember the more the coilover is laid over the less effect spring rate you get on a vertical plain. So I’m curious since my coilovers are like /\ if maybe my actual spring rate is reduced.
 
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I still need to rebuild or replace the uniballs in the front lower arms at the axle side. Not looking forward to that, I suspect I’m probably going to have to just cut them off and put new ones on. I think they’re a super old design, they’re 3 hole pronged with a chamfered surface on the opposite side. Kind of look like ballistics but ballistics are 4 pronged from what I remember. My final to-do will be to install my rugged radio set out of my race car.
 
tribal4krawler said:
So according to this calculator if the ideal spring rate is 60, that means I’d have to run 100/150 springs. I can’t imagine that’s right. What PSI is this figuring the coilovers are at?
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looking over your numbers that seems a little light, but im not suprised. is there really 9" of shock shaft at ride height on a 14" shock?

94toytruck said:
Angle does affect things and there's a way to calculate it.
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the calculator is working off spring load, so its all build into it. this way takes out all the guestimation needed to be done when you use corner weights.
 
Yes. If I raise the preload ring on the passenger side more I’m able to get to 7” shaft showing which I’m alright with, still allows for about 4” or so of up travel (straight vertical travel) but then I’ve got 1 3/4” of gap between the top coil and ring. I’ve toyed with the thought of just getting some of those 0 rate springs to keep some pressure on the springs at full extension. Otherwise I’m going to have to probably try and find some 150lb upper springs, and run 150/200s which is a little less than what the 16” coilovers were (150/250). With those coilovers with pretty much the preload rings at 0 it was very close to the desired ride height. Those felt way too soft but like someone mentioned maybe it was just the ****ty valving in whatever those are. I guess worst case I can just throw the 16s back on for GAC and figure out the Kings later. I’m sure one of my racer buddies has a set of 150s in their shop.
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something weird is going on, rate should decrease as the length of the shock increases. how do the collapsed/extended measurements compare?

tcase in neutral when you take things off the jack after swapping shocks?
 
Something here doesn't make sense. The difference between a 150/250 and a 200/250 is pretty minimal in overall rate difference. I wouldn't expect that much ride height change with just a upper coil change. You sure those are 200/250's you bought?
 
So keep in mind I went from a 16” to a 14”. Also, I have only measured it with the 14s, not the 16s. One thing I changed for ****s and giggles was I put 2 14” 200s on the passenger side and a 12” 200/14”250 on the driver side (since I don’t have 4 14” 200s) and set everything at about 0 preload and now I’m showing 7.5” shock on the passenger side which I’m fairly happy with considering what I have to work with and the truck is level from side to side. It’s still got a cali rake to it, but about what it was with the 16s before. I think if I went to a 150/200 it’d be perfect but I’d for sure have to move the air bumps outboard. The other thing I notice is if I stretched the front end forward another 2 inches I’d gain another 2+ inches up travel with how the frame comes up naturally. That plus moving the air bumps outboard to a more conventional setup would allow for a much, much lower overall stance which would be awesome. Might have to be something I look at a little more seriously after GAC. I’ll have a couple months to mess with it before TopGun at Katemcy.
 
Also, I think I figured out why my 16s felt so floppy… the dual rate nut is stripped on both coilovers and just slides up and down the shock. Meaning I always had dual rate instead of getting a few inches and then the 250 coil.
 
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Anybody recognize these uniballs? Trying to find the right tool to take them off (and rebuild them)
 
I was able to get one apart, just has two brass ends that hold the uniball. There was a bunch of dirt and grit in there so I cleaned it out real good and packed it full of grease and put it back together and it’s much better then it was before. If I could find the actual tool to loosen/tighten the end nut it’d probably get even better but meh.
 
Added some comms to the Runna. Went with one of my Rugged race radio setups out of my race car. Didn’t do the intercom, just the radio.
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Also cut and lowered the corbeau seat bracket as low as it’ll go, gave myself a couple more inches of headroom which is great as before I had to kind of slouch in the seat (freakishly long torso means I sit like I’m 6’5 or something)
 
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Alrighty. Think we’ll call that good. Decided on a whim to paint the cowl part of the hood satin black just to break it up a little. I still gotta open up the diffs and swap out the gear oil, when I get em opened up I’ll paint the diff covers too.
 
Got the diffs opened up today. Patterns looked good, no issues at all. Replaced with some new gear oil and repainted the diff covers gold and slapped it all back together. Now just need to get everything packed up and sorted for the trip next weekend.
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