hewitttech

That measurement is meaningless. You will always want to set your ride height first! Adjust your rear Camber and Toe if needed. Then on the front do the caster, camber and then the toe last. The reason for the sequence is the earlier steps will change the adjustments you do in later steps. The caster is usually just fixed because you are using a strut instead of an upper and lower control arm setup. I don't remember if the RX had adjustable lower control arms but if it does you can adjust the caster to an extent. In most cases like lifting you will want to increase your caster angle from factory specs, and if you want to get really fancy you will do your ride height settings first then a corner balance if you had something like adjustable coil overs before you do your alignment setup. Then you go back through it all again.

For static camber you just want to be at 0 deg. I have setup for very slight positive camber (top of wheels out) for running dirt/gravel forest roads at speed because of the way they are crowned for water runoff. It also helps a little bit with dynamic steering when you are under compression but that is less of an issue if your alignment is balanced well. I still think about getting another 300! miss ripping through the woods in that thing.

170 K on the trans or engine is not bad at all if properly maintained. I did crazy rejuvenation work to clean up internals and just a transmission drain and fill and had no problems. However, one thing you may really want to take a look at is if there are any transmission or oil leaks between the engine and transmission and the transmission and the front differential. If you see oil or transmission leaking at either of these points on the cases I would maybe avoid those vehicles. After a lot of hard wheeling, mud and water crossings my seals started to leak at both locations. First the differential/trans started leaking a bit of trans fluid and Blue Devil product fixed it quickly. Then the engine/trans started leaking a bit of engine oil and the Blue Devil Rear Main Seal treatment worked well again. It was not leaking when I sold it after a couple extra thousand miles. The engines do run a little hot and the front exhaust crossing where it does might also contribute to seal hardening in that area. The Blue Devil Rear Seal and Transmission seal products really worked well but pulling and splitting the engine, transmission and front diff apart to fix those seals was not something I was willing to do if it didn't last. I just happened to almost break it in half on a giant pine log and after fixing that, timing was perfect luck into my GX and I sold the RX for it. It still screamed and drove great though even at 230k miles and a rough use 20k miles it was lifted for off road fun. I still miss it, it was a lot more fun rally slinging it around but you can't do anything hardcore 4x4 in it.

Funny, my GX is down right now and waiting for a new upgraded 8.2" rear with ARB locker to get here. My mind was wandering yesterday and I started looking at RXs again. It was such fun compared to a big pig like my GX has become or your LX can be. I still think the RX is an awesome 4x4 but if you could get it to the level of say a stock tacoma off road. If I was to do one again I would see if increasing the spring rates considerably would be enough to run without the sway bars all together. Obviously in a more stock setup it would affect on road handling but considering how much lighter they are than a GX/LX it might be something to try out. It certainly simplifies the suspension. Just make sure you do proper bump stops/limit straps, that was one of the biggest issues I kept running into with stock struts/shocks. Then again I may have been a lot more rough with mine hitting stuff hard and getting air. Such fun! Enjoy and still awesome seeing more people getting into this side of the RX.

I was using stock style shocks... I blew them out because I was bottoming them on hard hits and didn't extend the bump stops to prevent this. You may also need to add a limiting strap to prevent over extension of the stock shocks or have the same result. Compress a front and rear until it bottoms and measure the distance from the stop then add bump stops or spacers to the stops to stop wheel travel before shock bottom. Then jack it up to get fool droop and measure the distance where the shock tops out and do the same to make a limit strap to do the same. I would get about a year out of stock spec shocks and they were cheap enough it wasn't that big of a deal but it did get old having to replace them when it was preventable from the start. You would have to do the same with coil overs but long travels like that can do the same thing and they cost more than my whole vehicle so I didn't bother. Then again, I was also getting all 4 wheels off the ground occasionally. I blew out stock, kyb and monroe...kyb lasted longer than the monroe and the stock had 200+k miles on them.

If I was doing it again I would go with the 40mm shock spacer instead of how I made my own spring lift. You will for sure need the camber bolts in the front if not two pair for even more adjustment. I think my single set of bolts was completely maxed. I went 245 but would also go down to the 235. Not sure how those fit as I was running a 2" spacer on stock wheels.. Can't wait to see it when you get it figured out! I thought I saw mine out in the wild the other day... couldn't confirm but it looks like all they did was swap out the wheels as it was still a little high... man that thing was tuned up and would scream.. I do miss it..lol

Love seeing the new additions to the crowd, keep em coming, they are looking great! I especially like seeing this on the 330's and 350's now. The strut spacers would for sure be the way to go to keep the cost down and make it simple, especially if they already adjust for the camber difference that is awesome. If you can get a link posted up for those spacers so everyone else can look into them if they wanted to. I don't want to turn this into a GX thread so I won't go into the build details but suffice to say... the GX has become a monster. It ate everything I had into my RX and was still hungry. I can't sling it around like it did the RX (which was most of the fun) but it will go places most people wouldn't even consider with a normal 4x4.

Just so there is no confusion, this is just simply a limited slip (LS) differential, it is not a Torsen, it is not a Posi-trac and there is no such thing as a torsen posi. You can generically call it a posi but Pos-Trac is/was GM's name for their limited slip units, its like calling a bandage a Band-aid regardless of the brand. The problem with almost every limited slip is the clutches only have a certain amount of service life. I would not expect a 200k mile limited slip to really be any good without replacing the clutches but maybe you get a good one. Torsen is a completely different type of unit that uses extra helical side gears to balance power and it is a much better option. You find the torsen as center differentials in the higher end Toyota/Lexus 4WD vehicles, and not typically as front or rear differentials unless you are talking higher end performance cars. To me, the center diff (called a transfer case on the RX) is the biggest limiting factor for off-roading the early AWD without VSC. It is a 75/25 front to rear wheel power split and without a way to lock it or stop a wheel from spinning you are still completely limited by the traction of the other wheels. If you loose traction in the front like getting stuck in a muddy ditch, your limited slip in the rear really doesn't matter much because you are not going to get power worth a flip to the rear wheels. I had a LS rear tracked down for mine for $300 and decided it was not worth doing especially considering I would still probably have to replace the clutches. The best solution without changing vehicles or doing a full power/drivetrain swap was to pull the VSC out of an 02-03 to put in my 00'. It would be much easier to get an AWD with VSC though and build that. I still love the idea of a 2.7L Tacoma 4x4 power/drivetrain swapped in with a turbo.... I was running 2" wheel spacers and those give you much more clearance at the spring perches. The major problem is the AWD already couldn't turn fro crap and the spacers made it even worse. But they do let you fit bigger tires, especially like the BFG K02 that have those big side lugz. Keep up the good work though I really love seeing what people are still doing to have fun with these! If you get your rear limited slip in I am curious to know how it does so keep us posted.

You will likely not be able to find a part number unless you are browsing in that region. If you can get on a russian version of something like toyotapartsdeal and look at the parts breakdowns that would be the easiest. The US has the 'right to repair' laws which is why I can have a professional subscription to Toyota TIS and other Toyota in other regions may not have things like those breakdowns available. You might also be able to reach out to a business like partsouq and see if they can help source it for you. I buy the occasional new Toyota/Lexus part from them that are hard to find or more expensive than they should be in the US. The partsouq on Ebay ships from the UAE which I think is in the same Toyota region you are looking for. It couldn't hurt to reach out to them for help. Another option may be a limited slip out of an early 99-03' or whatever the last year was it was an option before they added electronic traction control and no longer offered the limited slip. I had one tracked down but $300 was more than I was willing to spend on it.

I love seeing this thread continue. I still think about my lifted 00' RX every time I see one on the road because I had so much damn fun with it. One thing I would recommend for everyone using a spacer lift on a stock setup is to add bump stops to prevent bottoming the shock out. I damaged two sets of front shocks in a year on mine before I figured that one out. Or just be careful and don't hit stuff too hard but what fun is that...And also you definitely need the camber bolts. Mine was at the limit of adjustment with the lift I did. Here is my current build just to have a picture in my post, 05 Gx470. It is way way more capable but it is heavy and I miss being able to really "rally" it like I was doing in the RX.

The middle shaft was shortened about 1.5 in. When it twisted and it pulled the front shaft backwards. I was able to cut about a 3rd of an inch off the front of the front carrier mount so the axle flange hardware would clear. There was still enough spines in the output to still seal so I filled it back up. On Sunday it took me 3 hrs to go 50 miles back to civilization. I was able to track down a totaled 03 awd on craigslist. The driveshaft was pretty much all that was left abs she would only take $20 for it. A road trip with my dad and a few hours later I had it swapped out and was back on the road. The funny part is I did my usual search for local GXs for sale and traded my 00 RX for an 05 GX the next day. Lexter 2.0 and I havent had to do any mods yet!

So some blue devil in the oil and trans seams to have fixed it well enough for now. Yesterday i really could have used some frame sliders. We pulled the front shaft and ran out of front diff oil half way back to camp. She will not move with no oil in the front diff and none of the local salvage yards have an AWD. Guess i will be headed back to the river again for a "repair trip" soon.

My rear main oil seal and transmission/transfer case input seal went out on the way back from my last trip. The oil leak was really bad but some blue devil rear main oil sealer did the trick in about 50 miles. The tranny fluid is getting worse and need to try some blue devil there. It is killing me that this might be the job that replaces my RX300, two stupid seals that would probably take me a few days to do. I have another trip coming up in a month and have started looking at a lower price GX470 as a replacement. The extra tow capacity and a V8 will is a must upgrade if we get a bigger boat in the next year or two, besides it is a true 4x4. It is essentially a land cruiser on a 4runner foundation and you can get them used for much less than a 4 runner which is amazing. If I decide to fix my RX I will be back, if I sell it I will probably head over the GX side.

Very nice guys. I had another successful trip a couple weeks ago and glad I replaced both front struts before I left. I finally got the suspension driving perfect with no rattles, no hard spots in the steering, no wander and no instability up to 90MPH. Only got stuck once this trip, honestly though an F350 would have gotten stuck so I don't feel too bad.

I know the 1999 and 2000 vehicles you could get a limited slip rear as an option before electronic traction control. I had a limited slip rear tacked down for $300 at one point. Closest thing i could come up with. The lack of either on mine is why i try to keep it out of anything serious. Even 1-2" deep red clay mud on some of the "roads" we go down can be tricky. Not many options for better 4x4 other than maybe engine and drivetrain swap to something out of a 2.7L 4x4 taco. Major major build issues which is where considering an lx,gx might be recommended.