The Dunes are a great place...
The Dunes are a great place to practice jumping. The sand gives a nice soft landing, and there are ever-changing jumps. The old Clampster lost a taillight, the tailgate, and the old aluminum topper off the back, plus the helmeted head of our pal took out the back window on one of the landings, but amazingly we cleared over 30 feet. Even after the abuse, Clampy's frame didn't crumble and the darn truck still runs like a champ. The Total Chaos suspension and Sway-A-Way shocks helped the front of the truck land great, and we can only imagine how well the truck will take rough roads once we address the rear suspension.
Disclaimer--What we did to the truck should be duplicated, because it worked great. What we did with the truck once the installation was finished should not be duplicated, unless you realize that you could get hurt. (Now that we've gotten the legal crap out of the way, let us tell you how we tried--and failed--to kill our free farm truck Clampy.)
It was a cold, dark, and stormy night, and we needed to do a story on a quick install. We looked at the sad state of our truck and decided that our tRUSTy old truck Clampy was going to be the recipient of a quick and easy IFS suspension installation, or so we thought. We had seen and heard good things about the Total Chaos Caddy IFS kit for '86-'95 Toyota trucks and 4Runners, and planned on installing it on our rig over the weekend, but there were a few glitches.
Most of the problems we encountered were because this truck started its life in New York state (where we think it was permanently towed behind a salt truck). To explain to all our West Coast readers, in New York and some other Eastern states they drop salt on the roads in the winter to fight the snow and ice, and to help destroy the value of nearly every vehicle within a few short years due to rust. Clampy was no exception, and we spent most of the installation just trying to deinstall the original IFS parts. But once we had the new long-travel front suspension on Clampy we were more than happy with all the work.
Yes, we know that we always say IFS is lame, and that you should just cut it out and make a solid-axle rockcrawler, but we felt that since Clampy now resides in Southern California, it would be interesting if we could make it into a SoCal prerunner-type truck which requires a go-fast independent suspension. Plus, then we could jump it. (If you have never jumped a truck, you are really missing out. It's way cool!) Independent suspension works great for going fast since it has less unsprung weight to control than a solid axle, and thus can react to the terrain quicker, plus each tire can react independent of the opposite tire. The Total Chaos kit, when installed with a set of Sway-A-Way shocks, torsion bars, and T-100 axleshafts, allows for up to 12 inches of wheel travel to really soak up bumps and jumps.
So within about a week we had the ol' Clampster torn down and rebuilt into a better, faster Clamp. Well, at least the front half. We are now debating what to do with the rest of the truck. It keeps running (aka it can't be killed) so we just may spend the time and money on making the rear suspension work as well as the front. Though the rust holes in the rear section of the frame do have us a bit worried, we feel that we owe it to the old beast. And then maybe nitrous. Stay tuned.
 The Total Chaos kit comes...  The Total Chaos kit comes with new upper and lower welded 4130 chromoly A-arms, stainless steel brake lines, and all the bushings. It also includes tie-rod extensions and upper shock hoops that need to be welded to the frame (not that hard of a welding project if you are a novice), and some weld-on droop mounts. You will also need to track down a set of replacement T-100 front axleshafts since the longer A-arms require them. We called around and finally found them in stock at a local auto parts store, but most stores will need to special order them. |  You will be reusing the upper...  You will be reusing the upper pivot shaft from the original upper A-arms. The one on Clampy was so rusty that we picked up two new uppers from a local recycling center (junkyard). We also got some used factory bumpstops since ours had rotted away years ago. |  To really get the best control...  To really get the best control out of the Total Chaos kit, we used these 2 1/2-inch, remote-reservoir Sway-A-Way Race Runner shocks with 10 inches of travel. The valving can be adjusted to give just the control and rebound desired, but for now we left them at the factory settings, and they worked flawlessly. We also replaced the old torsion bars with a new set from Sway-A-Way. |
 Finally, we headed to nearly...  Finally, we headed to nearly every auto parts store in town to track down all the little bits that needed replacing after 200,000 miles. Ball joints, steering joints, brake lines, calipers, rotors, pads, bearings, grease, everything for the steering that could wear out, and a bunch of rust-penetrating and grime-cleaning chemicals. |  The old parts were a mess....  The old parts were a mess. The brakes alone should have gotten us arrested, if not killed. The steering tie-rod ends had so much slop that steering was like stirring soup. The A-arms made some very scary noises at every bump in the road. We had grown used to all this from our time in the saddle of old Clampy, but we felt that there had to be a better way to go down the desert trails without beating ourselves to death. |  We knew that we would need...  We knew that we would need a hand on the install, but it was actually the removal of the old parts that took the most time. Luckily, we convinced a buddy to let us take over his driveway for a few days and drink all his cold beverages. Our first step in removing the IFS was to get the top A-arm off, and this required disconnecting the torsion-bar mount, unhooking the shocks and sway bar, and unbolting the old upper pivot shaft and upper balljoint. Then we could remove the knuckle from the axleshaft and the lower A-arm. |