~RiceClick!~

The SAC part collection continues as I find my next jewel.

Enter the OX Locker!

Ox Locker

The ox locker is cable actuated, but it also has optional air and electric actuation as well.   This thing is REALLY beefy.  I can barely carry the damn thing!  Now I have what I need to get my gears installed into my Dana 44.  I’ll be shopping around for some good prices on a master install kit and for a shop that can do the install.   I was playing around with the idea of doing it myself, but I’m not sure if I trust my skills enough to do it!

For more info on the locker you can take a look at the goodness here!

http://www.ox-usa.com/ox/

My bushings arrived from Amazon yesterday and I was able to put them in today.  I removed all of the heim joints and pressed in the bushings using a c-clamp, a piece of wood and a large socket. 

 I ended up tossing in some 3/4″ washers to offset the shocks a bit to help prevent the leaf springs from hitting the shock bodies.  I’ll try to cycle the suspension to see if it is really necessary.

Took the truck for a test drive and it seemed to handle well.   Can’t wait to put them to the offroading test soon!

After a trip to Anza Borrego I ended up breaking the mount off one of my OME shocks.  I guess they weren’t made for racing through the desert!  Of course the shock was a tad too short for my needs being only a 9″ shock.  I ended up replacing the shock with some emergency Autozone special Garbriel shocks which were surprisingly 8.5″ shocks.  I was sure I’d get some weak sauce 6″ stock length shocks, but I was pleasantly surprised later when I measured them.  Not bad for $16.99+tax and a life time warranty!

I’ve been looking around for what a good shock upgrade would be and found that the Short Body Bilstein 7100s were the ticket.  They gave you a good amount of extension with a smaller shock body that can fit in the stock location.  I found a set of 10″ 7100s resevoir shocks on pirate4x4 for a resonable price and ended up picking them up.  I’ve attached some shock pRon for you to oogle!

As you can see they came with some nice Outlaw Offroad mounts and are in pretty good shape still.  These puppies are completely user rebuildable and revalvable.  The current valving is 170/60 which I hear is perfect for the weight of a Tacoma.   I heard some feedback on TTORA that 255/70 was a little too harsh so I got lucky scoring the lighter valved version.  

The installation will be a little more challenging than I first thought.  The 7100s come with 1/2″ ID heim joints which of course won’t mount to the 3/4″ OD Tacoma Shock mounts.  I toyed around with the idea of adding some 12mm reduction misalignment spacers and using a 12mm bolt off the stock mounts like someone on TTORA did,  but decided against it.  The setup puts an enormous amount of leverage on the stock mounts, and I don’t believe I have enough room with my huge 33″ spare to fit the shocks inboard where they would need to be. 

The current plan is to remove the heims and purchase some Energy Suspension hourglass shaped bushings that I can hopefully stuff into the 1″ eye openings.   The specs are 3/4″ ID. 1″ min O.D. 1 1/8″ MAX OD  1 7/16″ long.  The Energy Suspension part is will be 9.8108r for the red bushings.   They are $4.59 / pair from Kragen so I’ll put in an order tomorrow for a set to try out.  Hopefully all will come together and I’ll have my shocks ready to rock in a few days!!

Well I was driving back from a Christmas party and about 2 miles from home I hear a loud *pop*!! I pull over right away and find out I had a flat. Now I have some pretty meaty mud terrain tires so I was curious what actually damaged my tire enough to actually pop and go flat instantly. It ends up that I had run over a huge sharp piece of metal that was about 5″ wide and 1/2″ thick! It went right through the thick part of my lugs and sliced right into the tire. So very SAD! There is no way I’m wheeling without a good spare! Boo!!!

Looking forward to a new trip Sunday the 28th! The wife and I will be wheeling with N at Cleghorn Trail! I hear its a short but rewarding trail so it should be a quick getaway. I can’t wait to put the truck into 4lo and crawl up some new trails. Hopefully there won’t be too much snow up there!