Total Chaos Front Lower A Arms, PN 86500
Part 1. Some Assembly Required.
First, a little history. February 2008, DeMello Offroad Open House. Total Chaos Fab was one of the vendors at the DO Open House and Nicole from TC was doing an informal survey about potential interest in stock length aftermarket front lower A arms, similar to the Long Travel front suspension TC has for the 4Runner and FJ Cruiser. I told Matt and Nicole that I was definitely interested in getting these A arms. About four months ago, Pat from TC followed up with emails to let me know that TCF was working on the prototype stock length A arms and was looking for an FJC for testing these prototypes. Unfortunately, I was working out of town during this time so Jason's FJC was the truck TCF tested the stock-length A arms on.
Well, I ordered mine through DeMello Offroad as soon as TCF showed them as being available on their website. I picked these up about a week ago and am extremely impressed and happy with their build quality. All the piece parts appear to be laser-cut and CNC bent (except for the lower ball joint mount which is CNC machined) and the welds are very uniform. The A arms seem to be double powder-coated (silver then clear). The A arms are unassembled and very well packaged in their boxes. These A arms are pricey but I think their high quality more than offest their initial cost.
Unassembled front lower A arms. Included in this kit are the two spacers for the OEM front bumpstops which I won't need.
TC employs a 1" Uniball to replace the lower ball joint. The Uniball adaptor is a one-piece CNC-machined steel housing. M16x45mm bolts are provided to assemble the lower Uniball assembly onto the factory spindle.
Installation instruction and TC decals were included with these arms. The well-written instruction calls out for a thin-walled 1-1/8" socket for the 1" Uniball lower joint. I had to modify my Sears Craftsman 1-1/8" socket by turning down its OD to ~1.46". The torque for this 3/4" nut is 100 ft-lbs. The 3/4" bolt requires a 5/8" Allen wrench.
Unlike the +2" and +3.5" LT kits, the +0" A arms have zerk fittings for the polyurethane bushings. Note that for the location for the zerk grease fitting is not centered on the forward bushings. I installed the bushings as shown below (shorter bushing is on the inboard side).
Notice the gap between the two bushings. Grease being injected from a grease gun through the zerk fitting will fill this gap an the grooves molded in the ID of the bushings.
I applied a little synthetic grease to the OD of the sleeves prior to installing them after I installed the bushings onto the A arms. Finally, the zerk fittings are screwed on. The 1/2" hole on the A arm is for mounting the strike cup for the LR hydraulic bumpstop or for adaptor for the lower secondary shock mount. Each complete TC lower A arm weighs 33 lbs.
to be continued.
Got a Sandstorm ? Go 
However, I would rather spend the efforts putting the new Toyota D-4D twin turbo 4.5-liter diesel V8 in my FJC.
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