1999 Toyota 4Runner Sway-A-Way Race Runners

Cornbred/Bilstein/Stock Coil removed.

Empty shock/strut less front suspension.

Sway-A-Way Race Runner in red. Cornbred/Bilstein/Stock Coil in yellow-blue-black.

Sway-A-Way Race Runners bolt right in out of the box.

Lining up the top holes tricky since you will only be using 3 of the 6 holes. Getting the right 3 to line up can take a bit of time. The Cornbred spacers were much easier to install, since they only had 3 holes and seemed to fall right in place. The Race Runners took a bit more effort to line up.

All bolted in.

Then comes the fun part. Instead of a big industrial spring compressor you get to crank up the tension on the springs with the supplied spanner wrench. In order to crank the springs the tire needs to be off the ground. Plan on quite a few ups and downs with the jack to get your desired amount of lift. I ended up at 2 3/4" of threads on the passenger side and 3" on the drivers side for 2" of lift. As you got near the 3" mark they were quit difficult to keep cranking up. This is really the only difficult or challenging part of the install.

All cranked up.

The infamous recessed Schrader valve. It also looks like Sway-A-Way is now drilling twice as many holes into the ring you crank up.

Here is a Sway-A-Way ad for the product. From the ad photo you can see they have refined the product over the years.

Updated 7-22-2002

Now that the honey moon is over. I turned the shock around so the Schrader valve points inward away from the tires.

The Sway-A-Way instructions have you remove the top plate. Bolt it on first, then insert the shock and spring up into the top plate. This is necessary if you want to place the valve inward. You can bolt them right up out of the box but the holes will only line up if the valve is pointed toward the tires. The instructions indicate that you point the valve out ward but quite a few people have sheared off the valve with the brake caliper of the big 16" wheels brakes.

Updated 9-30-2002

The poly bushing between the spring and the top plate was cut by the sharp edge of the spring end. This happened to the other side as well. Sway-A-Way sent me some new poly bushings under the warranty.

To prevent the spring from cutting the bushing in the future, I rounded the sharp edge of the spring with a 50 grit abrasive disc on my 4" Makita grinder. I then sprayed the exposed metal with a clear coat to prevent rust.

Update 11-1-2003

After thinking about what the ultimate spacer lift configuration would be, it occurred to me that you could use the 3/8" Revtek top out spacer with the Sway-A-Way Race Runners. This spacer goes on top of the entire assembly and gives you 1/2" of lift, which then allows you to lower the lift cranked into the Sway-A-Way springs by 1/2" which results in a softer set of coil-overs. The Revtek 3/8" spacer is the max you can space the unit downward, even at this distance the outer CV boots will slightly rub on the lower arms rivets at full droop.

I tried 500 pound springs in place of the 650 pound springs that came with the Sway-A-Way shocks. Basically what happened is that you had to crank the nut up higher to get the same amount of lift. In the end the 500 and the 650 springs set at 2" of lift where the same. One had the nut cranked up to 3.5" of thread and the other only 2.75" of thread. The more you crank the nut up the stiffer the assembly gets. I took the blue springs off and sent them back since the 650 springs set at a lower level produced the same results. Another thing that occurred is that the higher the nut is cranked up the less it takes for the coils to fully compress and stack. The Revtek top out spacer and the ATS arms are really the only worthwhile ways to enhance the Sway-A-Way unit. While the unit was apart I further rounded the edges of the springs which seems to be an excellent way of preventing the edges from cutting the poly bushings as listed above.

Update 12-6-2003

I have removed and sold my Sway-A-Way Race Runner front shocks. After a recent trip to Southern California and seeing the type of off-roading they do over there it is clear that there are far better solutions for rock crawling than using High Speed Desert equipment. In Southern California you want a stiff front end that will not fade. The Sway-A-Way Race Runners are designed to be stiff and fade resistant, they do this well. For rock crawling in Arizona, there is no need for a very stiff front end to go fast, in fact you will want to go slow over the rocky terrain. Making any of the Southern California High Speed Desert products a poor choice for Arizona. I have switched to my ultimate spacer set up with stock Toyota coils, it is very soft and flexy. Just because the coil overs are the most expensive of the 3rd Gen 4Runners front shocks, does not mean that they are necessarily the best solution outside of Southern California.