This hardly ever happens to me, actually I can’t last time, if ever it did. I was gonna change shocks on the Tundra, fronts came assembled, with leveling kit. Then I was gonna change the oil, and finally install airbags in the rear, for towing
Because of leveling block, it was a bit of a pain to fit them in. The block is only 2.5”.
Rear
Front
So as you can see, rear sits at 39” and front is at 36”. So you would think a 2.5” block should even things up. Nope, now it sits at 40.5” in the front, looks all fcuked off. Alignment is also obviously fucked, with tons of positive camber.
However, here is before and after 4’ level sitting on the running board.
But it just looks wrong and I’m not sure that the alignment shop can fix that without changing upper control arms. I don’t have time to shop or instal UCAs, as I’m leaving town in 2 weeks. Anyway, see for yourself.
Before and after
So since I had the truck in the air, I figured oil change should be quick. Yeah, nah. It has a skid plate, that needs to come off, just to find oddly shaped housing that requires a special wrench to remove it. Never seen one like it. So to the store I go, pick it up, get it done. Took way longer than it should have
So then I spun the truck around to have rear in the garage shade. I couldn’t remove the nuts from tops of the shocks. Never had that problem before. I started throwing wrenches and cussing! I had to heat them up with a torch!
By the time I was done, and started to work on the airbags, I said “FCUK THIS!” I decided to clean up. I started at 8 am and it was already 4 pm. It didn’t help that it was 100° outside.
Anyway, I think I might return front to stock tomorrow. It shouldn’t take as long this time.
My portable lift sure came in handy.
EDIT: I just put a plumb bob on the front wheels to show how much camber is off. Check it out
Comments (16)
Aah come down to South Carolina and you'd fit in with all the "squatted" trucks. Lol in all seriousness, I wonder if the shocks being new & not having settled yet is causing that. Although that is a pretty drastic difference.
It’s not the shocks, or springs. New and old are exactly the same. It’s just those stupid blocks. I’d have to replace the spindle, or upper control arms
Reply to: The Dude
I see, that's really too bad it's so complicated.
Nice!
Do they sell aftermarket lift blocks for your truck? I'd assume you could get a 1.5" lift block for the rear and level it out perfectly
I’m sure they do. For now I’m leaving it alone. I’m leaving town in couple of weeks and have other things I need to take care of, that take priority
Those leveling blocks make disassembly so annoying lol. Had to do shocks on several tundras in the past, and definitely didn't enjoy it :sweat_smile:
Reply to: The Dude
Yuhh, was just happy to get everything situated the first time I dealt with leveling kits. Trust me, it was done right haha. Good spot tho :eyes:
Reply to: Yohan (Jonah)
I returned mine back to stock yesterday. Only took me two hours this time to remove both shocks/springs, pull off the leveling blocks, and reassemble. The only upgrade I ended up with, was 2000 mile Bilstein shocks all around.
Reply to: The Dude
Fancy ass. The first time took me a little over 3 hours, and then we had 3 other tundras getting the same upgraded shocks. Ended up getting those done in right under 2 hours. Leveling kits are the devil!
Damn, I never would’ve imagined that would’ve made that much of a difference, looks like you were pulling the infamous invisible trailer. It happens though just go back to stock for your trip then figure out how to make it work when you get back.
Yeah, I’m pretty much at that point.