Dreaded 1st Gen Bilstein 5100 Q&A again

Hello all. I’ve been lurking for quite a while but have recently acquired a 2006 DC 2WD. The previous owner installed a rough country 2.5” lift (struts, 2 inch blocks rear, front hockey pucks)

I wanted to remove the kit and go back to stock in the rear. I had a few questions as I could not find answers to these specifics :

Did the truck have rear blocks or did the u bolts just sit on the spring leafs?

Using Bilstein 5100s up front, what setting should I use to level the truck off if the rear is in stock position?

When going back to stock in the rear outside of “stock” u-bolts, are there any tips or things to watch out for?

Thanks to all!

 

Depends on the truck. Some had a spring seat, some had a pinion wedge also, to pitch driveline angles properly.

Depends what you choose for springs. Are you sticking with the factory OEM springs? Or going with a lifted spring?

You should look into whether your truck had wedges or not, and which way the wedge faced.

Do not re-use U-bolts (but sounds like you may already know that).

Always tighten down your four bolts on the seat evenly, in a criss-cross fashion. I like to get the bolts down with roughly three threads showing on each bolt, then do, like, 5 half-turns each, then 4 half turns each, then 3 half-turns each, then 2 half-turns, then rinse-repeat with two half-turns until they're all equally tight. Then torque to spec.

Did you read the Suspension/wheel/tires section over here? It gives a shedload of info on lifts for these trucks.

 

Thanks and hello Shifty.

They’re aftermarket coils from the kit, but I’m 99% they are standard OEM size. Not a lift coil.

How do I confirm whether it is a spring seat or piñon wedge? If a piñon wedge, how do I proceed back to stock?

I will definitely check out the link to the suspension forums. Thanks

 

Not the suspension forum. Just the suspension section of that thread I linked. The suspension forum guys probably aren't going to help.

I think the wedge was dependent on your specific truck model. And maybe it was just an earlier model thing, I can't remember. I saw it in one of the Toyota exploded diagrams for our trucks a while back. I think it was either tied to 2WD vs. 4WD or maybe it was trucks with TRD package? I honestly cannot remember.

 

Got it. Thanks.

Also from my research, looks like the pinion wedge/shim is a 4WD thing

 

Yeah, is one of those things ... I can't always remember

Too many small things with these trucks!

 

Spring perch 3 will give you level with slight nose down rake, assuming stock-like springs.

 

06 DC SR5 2WD here and just put Bilstein 5100s on mine raising at 1 inch in the front and adding a 1 inch block in the back.

the springs sat on a little shelf for lack of the proper term. It had a nipple that fit into a hole on the springs to keep it in place. The block I had had a hole to fit on that nipple and then it's own nipple to accomplish the same thing

all that to say nothing special there to worry about - just follow shifty's advice

 

Awesome. How did your install fair? I had a hell of a time compressing the spring. So much so that I had to settle for the perch rung 2nd up from bottom and not third like I wanted. Heck, I still had the other side to do today. It took almost 2 hours to release the installed strut because the mount bolt got caught sideways in the LCA and the spring was being a jackass

 

This is where your bottle jack is handy. Put your factory bottle jack under the LCA and use that to lift/support the LCA to a level where the bolt will come out easiest. Unless it needs to go the opposite way, in which case you need to step on the LCA while tugging at the mount bolt.

But of course, this assumes you didn't do something generally stupid, like leave the swabar links attached.

 

I complained about it and said I wouldn't do it again but I would. it just took longer because it was my first time dealing with suspension. And I learned to have the right tools. I've never worked with suspension and I trusted the local loan a tool to give me the best tool, but they did not

I had my coil springs pre-installed. Same thing applies. However, if I was going to do that myself, I would opt for a higher end tool and spend $100 or more extra Just safer, easier and worth it for me

 

I've had great luck with this type of spring compressor. It still feels like you're handling a time bomb when the spring is compressed. But a time bomb with a less sensitive trigger.

The spring compressor "ears" on this type of tool wrap around more than half the spring. Feels a lot more secure vs the loaner tool narrow "fingers".

https://www.amazon.com/stores/8MILE...ool/page/D6797A84-A5A4-49EA-A831-5742647C4AE3

 

Interesting. I used the clamshell style

 

Lol I loosened them. Once I finally got it out I realized it may have been n best to remove them all together

 

Yeah, you can't get the range of motion you need very easily unless you fully detach one swaybar link. Always detach the swaybar when installing struts or control arms.

For similar reason, when you lift, you really need to install an extended link, else you will not only limit travel, but can end up with clunks/thunks/knocks related.