CV axle help

Hi! I noticed some grease where it shouldn’t be and I’m pretty it means my CV axles are going. Here’s some pictures. I’ve got a 3” lift with the diff drop. No weird noises or anything. Am I on the right track? Thanks for any help!

 

Wow. What southern state u in!? That’s a rust free rig!!

 

Did you inspect he CV boot to see if it is compromised?

 

I’m in southern PA, which isn’t in the south last time I checked . The guy I bought off of took great care of it. Thanks!

 

Yep, looks like a ripped CV boot. It's not a hard job to reboot it yourself, and Toyota OEM boots last a lot longer than anything aftermarket. They're also significantly less expensive than a new CV! It's a bit messy, though!

How-to: Rebooting a Tacoma or 4Runner CV Axle – AdventureTaco

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Is it just me or do those CV angles look pretty bad? I know in this thread you said you only had a 3" lift but I saw photos in your new member thread and it looks way more than 3". Looks like you could stand up a soda bottle on your front tire and not touch the fender!

 

3 inch lower than stock he said.

 

Rookie mistake! I'll check later today. Thanks!

 

I'll double check the paperwork from the guy I bought it from, pretty sure it said a 3" lift. If I do need to replace the axles should I go with stock or something designed for a lift?

 

Someone more familiar with this generation 4runner will have to answer that. I know when I lifted my 5th gen I checked that the angles didn't look too bad since I didn't do a diff drop. I'm only about 2.5" in the front though since I have KDSS. I believe there are special CVs you can buy that deal with the angles better but not sure about yours.

This is what I'm looking at in your pictures. The first one appears the boot may have come loose on the thin end. The second picture shows how the tight angle is causing the boot to rub on itself. Hopefully someone more knowledge than I can chime in and give a better explanation or correct me

 

It’s generally not advisable to go above 2.5” on an IFS, beyond running into shortened CV life, the lack of droop will make the ride quite harsh. I’d suggest dropping the lift 1” - either by removing any spacer the PO put on, or dropping a clip or two on the coilovers while addressing your boot tear

 

So the boots aren’t torn, but each one is loose on the end closet to the wheel. I looked around and found cv axles specifically made for lifted 4Runners.
https://www.yotashop.com/cv-axle-to...g4PAsDpdxCW09cP5zNnA4WSSmE4gdVvfXQTUz_B6vCud8

In theory it makes sense. Anyone have any experience with this product or similar?

 

Those CV angles are bad bad.

 

I know you probably don't want to hear this, but the correct long-term solution (with any CVs) is to correct that CV angle by lowering your front lift an inch or two.

That will make your ride a lot better as well, as right now you don't have much (if any) downtravel/ability for the shocks to extend when you hit a hole.

 

Simple to stop or delay grease oozing from where boot is clamped. As long as boot has no tears.
Clean with mild degreaser (I used Simple Green and a bunch of rags) rinse well and let dry. Then with a good auto grade gasket maker, use a gloved finger to smear the gasket material on the edge of the boot overlapping onto the cleaned metal. Let cure and you should be good for thousands of miles.

 

What’s the best way to lower the lift in the front?

 

Depends on what you're running up there as far as shocks and springs go.

If they are coilovers with threaded shock tubes, you can just remove a bit of preload. If they are 5100s, you might be able to use a different perch for the spring. Depending on the spring rate, it might be good to drop down from a 650-700lb spring to a 500-550 variant.

If that doesn't mean much to you (which is totally fine!), throw in some pics of the suspension setup as well as the front of the vehicle (so we can see the weight situation) and we can help from there.

 

I’ll post some pictures later today. Thanks guys!

 

Here are pictures my suspension setup.

 

Ooof, yeah, that is a lot of lift! Probably closer to 4" than 3", and I bet you've got a reasonably rough ride when you hit potholes, etc. because the wheel can't drop down at all without dropping the entire vehicle. Your upper ball joint isn't happy, either.

Looking at the N3 4Runner option at Rough Country, it looks like there are two versions:

* Leveling (N3 Leveling Struts | 2 Inch | Loaded Strut | Toyota 4Runner 2WD/4WD (96-02) | Rough Country)
* Loaded (Loaded Strut Pair | 3 Inch | Toyota 4Runner 2WD/4WD (1996-2002) | Rough Country)

The leveling version says that it only provides a 2" lift (non-adjustable), so my guess is that you have the Loaded pair, which, if you are not actually loaded (steel bumper, dual batteries, winch, etc.) will provide way too much lift. If so, one option would be going back to the standard coil springs that Rough Country sells.

Another option - depending on how old that lift is (and if it's ready for replacement... generally after about 40-60K miles), would be to go with a different setup that provides less lift. Note that if you go this route and like the "leveled" look that you have now, you'd have to lower the rear a bit too. If you like a bit of rake (rear a bit higher than the front), then you might be able to leave the rear as is.

 

Thanks for all the great information! Replacing the lift outright isn’t really in the cards, was put on less than 5,000 miles ago. Yeah, going over anything but smooth pavement is an adventure! I’ll look into getting the 2” struts for the front.

So from what everyone has mentioned on here and pretty much everywhere else 3” and above on 4Runners isn’t the way to go. But yet you can buy them, what kind of crazy setup do you have to run?

 

In order to run a lift higher than 3" (and really, higher than about 2.5" because a 3" lift rides terribly), you need to go to long travel upper and lower control arms. These arms are ~3.5" longer than the stock arms, and allow for a lot more movement. However, they push the wheels out ~3.5" in the wheel wells, and require longer CV axles. It's usually a several thousand dollar upgrade.

 

Yeah, definitely not in the budget . Thanks for the help!

 

This adds a telescopic feature to the axle shaft, but the joint boots don't look any different. In your case you can just stretch the boot a little so the fins aren't digging into each other, then cinch down the small clamp. Use a hose clamp for extra clamping power.

It's possible the prev owner had some heavy skid plates and steel winch bumper which weighed it down, but removed them before selling. I say this because you're missing even the factory tinfoil front skid.

 

Rough Country is an apt name for their company. RC shocks are terrible, and the easiest way to fix this would be to remove them and throw them away. A cheap, decent alternative would be Bilstein 5100s with OME 2880 coils for the front. This would give you 1.5” which is about the sweet spot for these trucks, and restore your 1” rake. If you really want a level look, you could get 2881 coils, which would be about 2.5”, but again that pretty much pushes the IFS to the limits. Price will be ~$600 new, or you can check FB marketplace for some, as it’s quite a common replacement shock for lifts.

can you post a picture of what coils you have in the back? The stock ‘99 coils provide 1” lift, so just want to make sure the PO didn’t put a coil spacer in the rear. You can leave the rear RC shocks for now.


Other than that, good looking truck! Looks very clean suspension is the easiest thing to remedy, so I wouldn’t get too concerned, but it is something you should fix. With those CV angles, I’m not surprised you got a tear after only 5k miles

 

Thanks! It wasn’t easy to find one this clean. I’ll post some pictures of the rear later, it’s the same setup as the front and the truck sits level right now. Next question, I have 285/75s right now which I know are pretty much 33s”. If I go down to a 2” lift can I keep the same tires? I don’t want to cut anything and really don’t want to get rid of them, they have less than 5,000 miles.

 

Here are pictures of the rear suspension. It’s 3” rough country springs and shocks.

 

Ordered Bilstein 5100s with 2881 coils for the front. I'll post an update once I have them on. Thanks for the help!