Pre-installation Notes
Unless you're a performer with the Cirque du Soleil, I highly recommend you get at least one buddy to help with the installation. Some tasks are just not feasible to do on your own. A two-man install will make this much quicker. A three-man install will be faster yet: two guys can work on the front while the third guy works on the rear, fetches food and drinks, answers the phone, and whatever.
Fabtech suggests the following tools to do the job:
- Floor jack and jack stands
- Metric and SAE sockets and wrenches
- Large C-clamp - for disassembling the leaf springs
- Die grinder with a cut-off wheel or a Sawzall - for removing the crossmember
- Torque wrench
- Hydraulic press - for removing the hubs and pressing new bearings into the steering knuckles
- Ball joint press - for pressing new ball joints into the steering knuckles
- Coil spring compressor - for removing and reassembling the front coil-over shocks
- Toyota tool part #SST 09318-12010U - for manual hub installations
If you don't have access to a hydraulic press, then plan to spend an additional $175 to have the press work done at a shop. This brings up an interesting point. Why doesn't Fabtech press the bearings into the knuckles before they ship the kit? If anybody from Fabtech is reading this, then please take this idea into consideration: Press the bearings and upper ball joints into the steering knuckles before shipping these kits. The customer is already spending a small fortune on this kit and it's ridiculous to make the job even more expensive. There's no reason why the customer should have to rent, borrow, or buy a ball joint press to press the new ball joints into the steering knuckles especially when Fabtech claims to have "state of the art" machinery that can do the job with far more accuracy in a matter of minutes! Loosen the purse strings, Fabtech! Hire a kid to come in after school and press bearings and ball joints into the steering knuckles. It might add a few bucks to the price of each kit, but it will save the rest of us a lot of time and money in the long run.
Here are some other tools that should have been on their list, but because they weren't, it added a few more hours to the installation time:
- 36mm socket - for removing the axle hub nuts
- 5/16" tap - for threading a hole you'll drill into the frame for brake lines
- 12mm allen wrench for removing one of the front differential bolts
This tool is only available at an automotive or tool store. The local hardware/do-it-yourself store probably won't stock it.
If I can suggest a few other items to aid with the install, then it would be these:
- Zip-loc bags - for storing nuts, bolts, brackets, etc
This install should not be taken lackadaisically. Don't even try to remember the order in which everything is removed or the location it was removed from and then attempt to reinstall it in reverse order. If you don't use some kind of system for labeling and storing what you remove from the vehicle, then there will be trouble when it comes time for reassembly. - Sharpie or Magic Marker pen - for labeling the zip-loc bags
- Wire coat hangers - for suspending the front axle shafts during dissassembly
- Bungee cords - for suspending the front brake calipers
- Surgical gloves - unless you just love dirty, greasy hands
- Loc-Tite - for reinstalling important nuts and bolts with assurance that they'll stay tight
- Black spray paint - to paint bare metal areas after cutting
- Dremel - or another type of small rotary cutting tool to remove bearing races
