Total Chaos Second Generation Coil-Over Caddy Kit (Four Wheeler Magazine)
Published by Trails Less Traveled on December 28th, 2004
INTRODUCTION
The off-road performance of ’86 and newer IFS Toyota trucks leaves a lot to be desired, especially when compared to the earlier-model straight-axle trucks. We prefer to build our trails rigs with straight-axles too, but wondered if we could build a more versatile long-travel IFS setup that would perform well off-road without compromising the ride quality or on-road ride quality.
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Total Chaos Fabrication of Corona, CA, has been building desert-racing-inspired IFS systems for over a decade. Their Gen. II Caddy Kit for ‘86-95 4WD Toyota trucks increases wheel-travel and tire clearance with minimal suspension lift to improve high-speed off-road performance. The Chrom-Moly upper and lower A-arms are extended 3.25” per-side and use 2.5×8” stroke coil-over shocks to dampen 12” of wheel-travel without eliminating four-wheel drive. The setup clears 33” tires (with fiberglass fenders) and is adjustable to achieve anywhere between 2-4” lift. As a secondary benefit, these suspension modifications actually improve the ride quality and the truck should handle better than stock. We ordered a Gen II Caddy Kit from Off-Road Warehouse to install on a ‘89 4Runner to compare the performance of an IFS overhaul to a straight-axle conversion.
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All of the components included in the Total Chaos Gen II Caddy Kit are shown here. To complete the installation we ordered a pair of Sway-A-Way Racerunner 2.5×8” remote reservoir coil-over shocks and two 500×18” Eibach coil-springs. These race-quality coil-over shocks should allow us to really dial-in the spring-rate and shock-valving for a great ride and improved performance on/off-road.
STOCK SUSPENSION
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Removing the stock suspension components on any older truck is a wild card. Almost every bolt and bushing in the front-end of our truck was seized in place. After removing the shocks from our ‘89 4Runner, we still couldn’t cycle the stock suspension through its’ limited range of travel because the factory bushings were so worn-out and dried-up that they were holding the suspension in place.
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With the vehicle supported on jack-stands and the front wheels removed, we began by removing the torsion bars, shocks and anti-sway-bar.
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We removed the preload from the rear torsion adjuster bolt and then removed the rear torsion socket from the frame mount. Moving to the front mount, we unbolted the torsion bar socket from the upper A-arm.
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The tie-rods were removed from the knuckle, along with the flexible brake lines. Then the hubs were disassembled in order to remove the CV’s from the spindle.
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After the knuckles were stripped-down, we removed the cotter-pins and castle-nuts from the upper and lower ball-joints. Then separated the knuckle from the upper and lower A-arms using a pickle fork (a ball-joint puller would also work well).
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We removed the upper and lower A-arms from the vehicle and then disassembled the upper arms so that we could reuse the cross-shafts.
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Total Chaos includes new Polyurethane suspension bushings to replace all of the rubber bushings, but two of the upper arms’ metal inner bushing sleeves are re-used. This helps to help keep the price down, but does require some extra work. We ended up just cutting the bushings out of the arms to save a little time. Then we cut the outer metal sleeve off of the bushings, peeled most of the rubber off of the inner metal sleeve and then used a wire wheel to get off last of the rubber residue.
CLEAN-UP & PARTS PREP
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The stock bump-stops will be reused, but they must be removed, repositioned and then reinstalled.
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A small portion of the stock upper shock mounts must be trimmed to make room for the new coil-over shocks. We marked our cut lines with a paint pen and then used a 4” angle grinder with an abrasive cut-off wheel to remove the stock shock mounts.
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The stock droop-stops also need to be removed. We used a cut-off wheel (on a 4” angle-grinder) to remove most of the material and then switched to a sanding disc to remove the last of the welds from the frame-rails.
PRE-ASSEMBLY
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The tapered upper ball-joint hole needs to be drilled out to a straight 3/4” hole to accept the 1” Uni-ball. It’s absolutely critical to drill that hole straight so that the Uni-ball misalignment spacer sits flat on the spindle.
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After they were drilled, we decided to paint the spindle uprights so they would be dry by the time we would need to reinstall them.
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We used a wire brush to clean the frame-rails and then laid down a coat of primer and semi-gloss black spray paint.
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The new upper control-arm and cross-shafts must be pre-assembled in a specific order. First, we greased the inside and outside of the long red urethane bushing and pressed it into the backside of the control-arm (with the flange toward the outside). Next we slid the cross-shaft onto the A-arm. Then we greased the short bushing (inside and out) and pressed it in the short side of the arm (with the flange toward the outside). Finally, we pressed the metal inner sleeves into place and reinstalled the stock washers and nuts.
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The lower arms are fully plated and include mounts for an optional secondary pair of shocks. There’s a whole range of accessories and upgrades that enthusiasts can purchase from Total Chaos to customize the basic kit. We installed new bushings in the lower control-arms and pressed the inner metal sleeves into place.
CV AXLES
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Long-travel 4WD IFS kits typically require expensive custom CV shafts, but Total Chaos designed their Caddy Kit to use stock T-100 CV axles, which are 3.25” wider than stock, per side. The longer T-100 shafts are capable of delivering power through the full 12” of vertical wheel travel without any modifications. T-100 CV’s are readily available through local auto-parts stores and only cost around $200 for a complete pair (With core).
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To remove the CVs, we applied penetrating lubricant to the mounting hardware. After letting it soak in for a few minutes, we were able to remove the CV’s.
LOWER UNI-BALL UPGRADE
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The lower Uni-ball conversion replaces the factory lower ball-joints with massive 1” Teflon-lined Uni-balls and removes the last trace of ball-joints from the front suspension. This is another universal upgrade than can be installed on any 86-95 Toyota IFS truck. Note the differences in construction between the stock ball-joint on the left and the Total Chaos Uni-ball on the right.
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The tapered ball-joint hole in the lower arm must be drilled out to accept the standard 3/4” grade-8 bolt. Four bolts secure the Uni-ball cup to the stock lower ball-joint mount on the spindle.
HEIM JOINTED STEERING UPGRADE
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These Heim-jointed tie-rods offer a dramatic increase in strength and durability as compared to the stock steering linkage. The standard kit uses extended-length stock tie-rods, which are only as strong as the stock ball-joints.
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The optional steering kit includes a pre-formed gusset that welds on to the stock forged outer steering-arm, making a double-shear interface that is much stronger than stock. For optimum weld penetration, we pre-heated the steering-arm with a small propane torch. To properly locate the gusset, we assembled the Heim-joint and hardware and then tack welded the gusset into place. Then we removed the Heim before finishing the welds to avoid melting the Teflon lining. Also supplied with the kit is a tapered reducer that fits into the ball-joint socket to accept a standard 7/16 grade-8 bolt.
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The steering kit also requires drilling the tapered ball-joint holes in the center-link out to accept a standard 5/8” grade-8 bolt.
IDLER ARM UPGRADE
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This optional idler arm upgrade is another component Total Chaos designed to improve steering precision and strength. This heavy-duty Chrom-Moly arm is a universal upgrade and replaces the stock idler arm without any modifications.
INSTALLATION
We ordered a pre-fabricated shock tower and pre-bent shock hoop with our kit. The Total Chaos upper shock mounts accommodate any 2.0” or 2.5” coil-over shocks and includes mounts for an optional pair of secondary shocks. The mounts may need to be modified slightly depending on application.
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After reinstalling the spindle and the new steering linkage, we set the adjustable camber bolts to a neutral position, intending to have the truck realigned immediately after completing the suspension installation. Then we cycled the suspension from full compression to full droop. We compared the eye-to-eye measurements of the shocks to the location of the lower shock mount at full compression and full extension to verify the upper shock-mount placement.
The 2.5×8” remote-reservoir Sway-A-Way Racerunner coil-overs that we chose to run have the shortest eye-to-eye measurements of all the popular 2.5×8” stroke coil-over shocks, so we had to remove 1” from the shock towers in order to position the shock to attain all of the suspension travel this kit is capable of providing.
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After verifying the final positioning, we welded, painted and installed the new shock towers. The inner fenders needed to be trimmed in order to fit the new shock-hoops, so we started by cutting out just enough to test-fit the shock towers.
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The tubular shock-hoop is an integral part of the Total Chaos long-travel kit and MUST be installed to properly support the bolt-in shock tower. This plate gusset is welded to the forward section of the frame-rail to distribute the load. We prepped the frame and test-fit the gusset, then welded the plate to the frame.
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We held the new shock hoop in place and carefully traced around the outside of it to mark where the inner fender needed to be cut, removing only as much material as necessary to fit the hoop into place.
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After finishing the initial cut, we compared the hoop and cut away a little material at a time to get a perfect fit. Then we tack-welded the hoop to the frame and bolted the upper shock tabs into place before final welding.
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Positioning the new droop-stops properly is critical. They will limit extension travel if they are mounted too high and they’ll allow the suspension to over-extend if they’re mounted too low, which could damage the suspension. The polyurethane bump-stops will compress slightly, so we planned to shim the bump-stops with fender washers to dial-in the full-extension stopping point. After welding the mounts to the frame, we masked off the new arms and sprayed a few more coats of semi-gloss black paint.
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We elongated the compression bump-stop mounting-holes to position the bump-stops where they could make full contact with the new tubular control arms. Then we reinstalled the stock rubber bump-stops.
LOWER FRAME GUSSET
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This optional weld-in truss strengthens the IFS sub-frame, which is prone to bending under hard off-road use. The slight bend in the tube allows the front differential to be removed after the brace is welded into place.
SPRING-RATE SELECTION & INSTALLATION
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Replacing the stock torsion bars with coil-overs (retaining 4WD) is one of the most distinguishing features of the Gen II Caddy Kit and provides enthusiasts with a much wider selection of spring-rates. We selected a pair of 3.0×18” x 500lb coil-spring for our application. 16” coil-springs are often used with 8” stroke shocks, but most 16” springs over 450lb have less than 8” of spring compression, which would result in coil-bind. This meant we had to use 18” coil-springs in order to get enough spring compression from free length. The 18” coil-springs needed to be compressed about 3/4” just to fit onto the shock, which meant that there was no more room to adjust the preload/ride-height. Luckily the final ride-height settled to exactly what we were looking for: about 3” over stock.
HUB/SPINDLE/BRAKE REBUILD
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Here the coil-over is shown installed with the reservoir mounted to the shock-hoop. We painted the brake calipers and installed new rotors, pads, wheel bearings and seals; figuring that it was good time to address those things since we already had the front end torn apart. The total cost was about $150. Extended-length DOT-approved flexible stainless-steel brake lines are included with the kit. We installed and bled them when we reassembled the hubs and spindles.
FIBERGLASS FENDERS
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First we removed the turn signal screws and then the bolts along the hood seam. The last few bolts are only accessible when the doors are opened.
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The factory turn-signal mount needed to be reused, so we carefully drilled-out each spot-weld and then reattached the mount to the radiator core-support.
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We didn’t see any point in keeping this stock fender-mount, which is now behind the enlarged wheel-well opening. So we decided to relocate the stock front lower mounting point to gain additional tire clearance, trimming the fiberglass fenders before installing them.
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We lined up the flared fiberglass fenders, drawing intersecting lines at the center of each of the four fender-mounting holes inside the engine compartment. We drilled the holes and then bolted the new fenders onto the truck using the factory hardware, including the rubber hood-bumpers.
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Three holes needed to be drilled through the fender to fasten it to the turn signal mount. Rivets secure the fiberglass fender to the steel turn-signal mount.
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With the fender loosely installed, we adjusted them for fit. Notice how well everything lines up (without any bodywork). Aside from starting with high-quality parts, the key to making fiberglass body panels fit well is spending the extra time that it takes to do the job right.
TIRE CLEARANCE
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The Caddy Kit is designed to clear 33” tires at full compression and from lock-to-lock steering. We hammered the pinch-weld at the firewall flat against the body as an added precaution to ensure that the tire doesn’t contact the body on full compression.
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We trimmed the mounting tabs for the inner fender skirts and removed the excess material, as shown in the second picture above. The third picture shows the prepped pinch-weld ready to be folded flat.
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We laid down a thick bead of silicone along the inside edge of the pinch-weld seam where it was going to be folded over. Using either a large ball-peen hammer or a small sledge, hammer the pinch-weld down flat. Once the silicone has dried, spray a coat of paint on the exposed metal edge.
WHEEL & TIRE SELECTION
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We chose to use 33×10.5” BFG Mud Terrain tires, mounted on 15×8” forged aluminum wheels from Alcoa with 4.5” of backspacing. This is absolutely our favorite tire size for compact IFS pickups. These 10.5” wide tires are noticeably lighter than 33×12.5” tires. The reduced un-sprung weight improves acceleration, braking and handling without compromising traction off-road.
COMPLETED INSTALLATION
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The Total Chaos coil-over Caddy Kit is just as expensive and almost as time-consuming to install as a properly done straight-axle conversion, but this is not a second-rate upgrade. Our completed 4Runner only sits 3” higher and 6.5” wider than stock, cycles 12” of vertical wheel-travel and clears 33” tires.
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Our initial impression is that we’re going to enjoy the improved ride-quality, handling and all-around performance of this versatile setup. We’re planning to install a pair of Deaver leaf-springs in the rear along with a pair of 2.5×12” remote reservoir Sway-A-Way Racerunner shocks and then enjoying the drive on our way to the trail.
This Article was originally published on Four Wheeler.com December 2004 (Related to February 2005 Print Magazine)
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