I am not responsible for anybody who follows my directions and doesn't go by the ones supplied by Daystar. If you are hurt, hurt your truck, or cause any damage to any person, property, place, or thing, don’t come crying to me. Please, use this as a guide only!
Daystar Part number: KT09117 (two letters on the end for color, I know the kit comes in black and red, not sure what other colors)
I got closer to 2” of lift out of this kit, not 1”, just an FYI.
First, start by reading the instructions that come with the lift. You should have two spacers, 6 studs, and 6 nylon lock nuts. Make sure the kit is complete. Also, make sure you have all the required tools, including a ball joint separator and a spring compressor. You will also want a torque wrench that does foot-pounds. These can be rented from toll rental places or borrowed from friends. You don’t need to buy them unless you plan on using them more than once. Also, now is a good time to get some pictures of the way your truck looks before the lift, and also some measurements if you want. Give your self a few hours so you can take your time and do it right! Two people are always better than one; see if a buddy will help as well. I wish I had three hands a few times…
Start by removing the front factory skid plate. There should be four 12mm bolts holding the skid plate on. This needs to be removed to be able to get the jack on the front cross member so you can jack the front of the truck up; both tires need to be off the ground at the same time. You should use two jack stands to hold the truck in the air. You will need the jack later for a different task, or a second jack. (No pictures of this, I started by trying to do one side at a time! You can’t do it this way. You have to lift the entire front of the truck all at once, or the sway bar will not move out of your way later!)
Next, remove the center cap from you rim using a flat head screw driver or pry bar. It shouldn’t take much force. Remove the 6 lug nuts on each wheel and remove the wheels and tires and set them aside. If you are not using an air gun, loosen the lug nuts before you jack the truck up or you will never get the lose, the tire will just spin!
Remove the sway bar end links on both sides of the truck. I took all four nuts off and took the links off completely.
Next, remove the upper ball joint cotter pin and nut. Then using a ball joint separator, push the ball joint out of the spindle. This is where you need to be very careful. I tried to do this with a pickle fork and ended up tearing one of my dust covers or boots for my upper ball joint. Please use a ball joint separator tool or you will end up in the same boat as me! Granted, my ball joint is ok, and it doesn’t hurt too much, but these are sealed ball joints, there is not a way to grease them. Now mine is unprotected from water and dirt getting in there and wearing them out faster. I fixed mine the best I could with some black RTV and put a ton of grease back in the dust cover only because I couldn’t find a replacement. Just so you know, you can’t get just the dust cover and you can’t get just a ball joint. You have to buy a new upper control arm! I was quoted $480 for one. This is the same part for a ’03-’06 4-runner. Good luck finding one and for the price, you may want to consider just putting on a 3” lift kit that has the new upper control arms include. So long story short, use a ball joint separator please! There is one other way to do this. I’ll explain it the best I can. After you have removed the cotter pin and nut, put the castle nut back on upside down so it sits just flush on the end of the ball joint threads. Then using a small hammer, (5 lbs mini sledge should work) give the nut a few good whacks. If this doesn’t work, hit it harder! Don’t complain to me if you destroy your ball joint though, I told you earlier to use a ball joint separator. Also, after you have this done, use a few zip ties to tie the spindle to the frame so the brake hose and abs/atrac sensor wire are not just hanging there getting stretched. (I didn’t get any pictures of removing the ball joints, I was quite pissed off about wrecking the boot and I forgot all about the camera at this point. Use a ball joint separator please!)
Now remove the three upper strut tower nuts holding the strut assembly to the strut tower. The back nut is a pain to get to; I had to use an open end wrench to get to it. It took a bit of time and patients to get this one off. (Putting it back on will but just as fun later.)
Remove the lower strut nut and bolt from the lower control arm. Remember which way you removed the bolt, it needs to go back in the same direction.
Now you should be able to remove the strut assembly form the vehicle. I had to swing the sway bar way out of the way. This is kind of like one of those puzzles when you were a kid, it mite take some time and fines, but you will work it out of there eventually. Just go back and forth until you see a hole big enough to get it through.
Next you need to compress the coil springs. You don’t need to go over board, just enough to get them so you have 3/8”~1/2” of play in the spring. Once the spring is loose, remove the nut on the top of the strut assembly so you can remove the mounting plate. I used a set of vice grips to hold the stud in place at the top and an open end wrench to loosen the nut.
Now the fun part, get you hammer and whack those old studs out of the mounting plate. They should come out fairly easy, if not, hit them harder! Once they are out, “press” the new studs in using a socket and hammer. I would imagine you could use a table vise to get these in as well, but a hammer works just as well. Just set the mounting plate on the large deep wall socket, drop the stud in and pound it in, or put it in a vice and “press” it in.
You’re half way home, now you just have to put it back together. Make sure you have the rubber isolator on top of the coil springs, then put the mounting plate back onto the strut assembly by using the vice grips and a wrench. I guess if you have a vice that would work as well.
Next you can let the pressure off of the spring compressors. Make sure you have the coil springs lined up. Look at the bottom and be sure it fits into the grove. Make sure the top is centered as well. Take you time, this isn’t a race. The instructions say to torque the upper strut mounting plate nut to 18 foot-pounds, but who reads instructions? Ok, you need a torque wrench and see what you are at. I just went till mine felt snug.
Place the new 1” coil spring spacer on top of the assembly and put it back in the truck. I had to use a small breaker bar to get the bottom to go back in. I got the top in and put on three of the new nuts to hold it in place, only finger tight, the got the bottom back in place by using the breaker bar for leverage. Then I used a long flat head screw driver to get it lined up so I could put the bolt back. Make sure you put the bold back in facing the right direction. Once you get the bottom of the strut assembly in place, torque the bolt to 100 foot-pounds. You are supposed to torque the upper strut tower bolts to 18 foot-pounds, and then once you get the wheels and tires back on and get it back on the ground, torque them to 50 foot-pounds. I don’t see how you are supposed to get a torque wrench anywhere near that back bolt, so I just set the front two to 50 foot-pounds and got the back one as close as I could by hand and also by checking how much of the stud was sticking out. This should be close enough, unless you want to do it the right way, then follow the instructions.
Now you will need a second jack or you can trust you jack stands and the placement of the stands. (If you are like me you will use a second jack. I don’t want to be a driveway/FJ sandwich. Call me a girl, but I have an extra jack, so I used it…) Place the jack under the lower control arm and raise the lower control arm until you can connect the spindle to the upper ball joint. You don’t have to go too high; you can press down on the upper control arm to get it closer as well. Once you have it in, replace the castle nut and torque the nut to 80 foot-pounds. Don’t forget to replace the cotter pin as well; you don’t want that nut coming off! Remove the zip ties you had holding the spindle to the frame so your brake lines weren’t stretched. (It was really getting late and I got in a hurry and didn’t get a picture of this. When you’re done it should look just like it did before.)
Now you can put the front tires back on and get the lug nuts snug. Lower the vehicle back down, tighten all you lug nuts again and then put the center caps back on. This would be where you are supposed to check the upper strut mounting bolts; they should be at 50 foot-pounds. (Again, it was late; I forgot to get a picture. This is the same one from before, but you get the idea.)
That’s it. How does it look? I think it looks level. Feels weird driving it, I’m not going down hill all the time anymore and I can see the stop lights, I don’t have to duck forward to see them! Make sure you re-torque all the bolts after 500 miles or so of driving for safety reasons. Also, the alignment won’t be off much. I had my local tire shop align it and it took about 20 minutes and cost $50. Now if only I could afford new tires! I measured today and it is sitting at 36” on the driver’s side and just under 37” on the passengers side. I started at 34" and 35". No my truck doesn’t lean, my drive way does!
The truck drives exactly the same as before. It handles the same, feels the same, and stops the same. It’s just level now. 285x70/17’s should be a problem at all or even 33x12.5/17’s. In fact, I got 2” of lift out of this kit. I don’t see why you would spend $500 on a RevTek lift when you can do this and be 1” shorter but save over $400 and it will ride just like factory. I’m guessing not many people will even know I lifted the front. I need to find a different FJ to park nose to nose against so I can see how much I really got out of the kit. It looks like the nose is a bit higher in some of my pictures, but my driveway is on a hill, so the back is lower than the front because of the slant. It really looks level when you are on level ground. I won’t be getting new tires for a while; I need to save some money. If I go on a local trip with somebody, maybe we can bold up a spare and see what it looks like with the larger tires. But for now I’m done with playing with the FJ. I just need to get it muddy!
I hope this was informative enough to give some of you and idea of how this is done. I consider myself an average home mechanic and I feel that anybody could do this lift, it was that easy. Just take your time, make sure you have the right tools, and be safe. Again, this write up is only to use as a guide line, don’t try to sue me if you mess up your self or your truck. Give yourself plenty of time, like a Saturday afternoon, and you should be good to go. Now get out there and get this kit! Oh ya, I got it at Rocky Mountain Suspension Products. They are online at:
http://www.rockymountainsusp.com/
The kit was $77, with shipping it was $86.05 at I had it in four business days. They sell the same kit on e-bay for $85. The kit is the same one for the ’03-’06 4-runner and the ‘05+ Tacoma. Any questions, send me a pm or e-mail, I’ll try to get back to you as quick as I can.
