Front steering/suspension rebuild

[washington taco]

After racking up 285,000 miles I am starting to collect front suspension/steering parts and was curious if any one has used this Safari-ltd stearing rack?

http://safari-ltd.com/parts.html

The plan is to replace the rack and pinion, lower A arm bushings with poly bushings, lower ball joints, upper control arm with Icon tubular control arms, and new wheel bearings. The front shocks and springs (OME heavy duty) were replaced two years ago and unless I find a defect with them I will reuse them.

Does anyone have any experience with the Safari ltd steering rack and the Icon upper tubular control arms?

 

[leelikesbikes]

UCA's

I think the Light Racing UCA's might be less maintenance up here in the NW because they have a booted balljoint instead of a uniball, but they still offer a higher angle than the stock ones. you can get em from wheelers offroad, i think they are the ones i will be running.

 

[washington taco]

Wheeler carries both the Light Racing and the Icon UCAs I will have to call them. Thanks for the sugestion.

 

[CYi5]

I would go light racing UCA with OME as well, coming from a guy with Camburg UCA and donahoe C/O's.

 

[cam-shaft]

Why not replace with factory rack? You did get 285,000. Is the safari rack cheaper? I am going to need to rebuild my front end on my 4runner soon so I will be following this closely. I would like to do manual hubs also, but we will see. I run Camburg UCA's with uniballs on my tacoma with 60,000 on UCA and no problems. I keep my uniball fairly clean as needed and I remove them every spring for clean and re-lube.
Cam-shaft.

 

[washington taco]

Why not replace with factory rack? You did get 285,000. Is the safari rack cheaper? I am going to need to rebuild my front end on my 4runner soon so I will be following this closely. I would like to do manual hubs also, but we will see. I run Camburg UCA's with uniballs on my tacoma with 60,000 on UCA and no problems. I keep my uniball fairly clean as needed and I remove them every spring for clean and re-lube.
Cam-shaft.

Yes 285,000 with the factory rack but it was worn out before then. The factory rack is about 900.00 shipped and the Safari is 550.00 plus shipping. I was thinking of looking for a boot that I could cover the uniball Icon's if I go that way. The Safari rack is suppose to be a heavy duty unit. Not sure whats involved with the manual locking hub swap. Something else to think about, that being said I have had no issues with the factory set up.
I didn't state this earlier but this is on a 2000 extened cab Tacoma.

 

[cam-shaft]

Keep us updated which way you go. $550 vs $900 sounds a lot better.

 

[upcountry]

Sounds like a fun project. Let me know if you need any help. I am always up for some wrenching, but, youll need to supply the beer.

 

[washington taco]

MMMMMMM Beer! No problem! Still laying the ground work with parts selection. Waiting for better weather as well as the truck doesn't fit well in the garage very well and I have to displace the GFs car. Thinking early May.

 

[upcountry]

I hear yoh on the weather. Sick of it. Have a wedding to attend locally in mid may otherwise ill be around.

Are you thinking of a marathon weekend to get it all done assuming you dont run into issues?

 

[upcountry]

I would go light racing UCA with OME as well, coming from a guy with Camburg UCA and donahoe C/O's.

That's the setup I have. Why the dissatisfaction with Camburg and ICONs?

 

[washington taco]

I work 4-10s so I will make it a long weekend, I plan on removing the steering knuckel during the week and have old bearing pressed out and new pressed in and back in hand by the Friday I start the meat and potatoes of the project.

 

[trump]

Manual Hubs!

I work 4-10s so I will make it a long weekend, I plan on removing the steering knuckel during the week and have old bearing pressed out and new pressed in and back in hand by the Friday I start the meat and potatoes of the project.

If you're planning on swapping to manual hubs, you need to consider waiting to do the wheel bearings. You wouldn't want to pay for two new sets of bearings.

 

[washington taco]

If you're planning on swapping to manual hubs, you need to consider waiting to do the wheel bearings. You wouldn't want to pay for two new sets of bearings.

Does someone make a kit for this or does it need to be a collection of factory parts?

 

[trump]

Does someone make a kit for this or does it need to be a collection of factory parts?

ORS makes a conversion, but aside from the high cost, it doesn't allow you the use of factory manual CV shafts. I would highly recommend finding the factory stuff. If you have ABS it will be a little more work to keep that system.