Justin's IFS Torture Test; Build and BS thread

16.5 mpg this tank, all work commute and trips around town, no highway loving the high gears. I can hold 75mph at 2100rpm and still have some passing power

 

At this point it'll almost be easier and cheaper to SAS my truck with a donor fj60 instead of fixing my IFS problems... saw one on craigslist for $800 with a blown motor. Very tempting.

Need daily.

 

Doooo iiiittt

 

Daily first...

 

This is the reason I have stack of OEM manual hub CVs that I've harvested over the years. Parts store ones are just junk.

 

Wise. What needs fixing?

 

Axle seals, steering rack bushings, front shocks and coils, just replaced a bad tie rod, small leak in the steering rack, just replaced one UBJ nur the other is pretty warn. Ifs skid mount broke off. Front diff bushings are worn... bunch of little things. Want a daily and a donor Land cruiser or mini truck

 

Most of that stuff is pretty easy to fix and are problems that probably everybody has since these trucks are getting pretty old. I know my diff bushings are probably garbage and my lower control arm bushings are trashed. But you could probably knock most that out in a day or two and have a solid front end for a bit. Until those 35s wear it all out again.

 

Well I know I could do it fairly easily with less than $100 and a full day, minus replacing the shocks and springs of course, i just feel like it's almost not worth it to tear down the whole front suspension and the front diff and put all that work in it, then swap it later anyway. Wish i had the resources to just do the SAS now, but I'll have to keep bandaiding the IFS until I do

 

Well, here's irony for ya. Went out last Saturday and managed to pop the birf on my last factory CV (at least it was the birf this time and not the stub axle), but the NAPA CV on the other side stayed intact all day. It was probably just bad luck or the wear and tear finally got to it, but I was pretty impressed I didn't pop the NAPA CV as well. They are definitely stronger than the Autozone junk, but I'll snap one eventually. since I'm replacing the factory CV with another NAPA one. Lifetime warranty and all that. I'll accept a trade off between free replacements and breaking them more often up to a point. The Autozone one's broke far too frequently.

 

@slander you think that's still available?? It would be awesome, just need somewhere to store it

 

It was a rear axle. Check ih8mud classifieds though, those fj60 axles go for cheap!

 

Gonna need one of those at some point too haha, not yet though. Thanks for looking out, I'll keep an eye out for a front. Still looking for daily but waiting on money

 

Going to have to change the name of this Thread soon

 

Yep. Excited to see the outcome

 

He's alive! How has your truck held up since march?

 

Hahaha. It’s all good. Got a shock mount welded and the IAC cleaned. Runs like a charm

 

Got IFS hubs and steering box shipping here tomorrow too. Need hi steer arms and leaf springs next

 

@slander You flipped your third member to be oriented correctly after flipping your axle right? And have to cut off the back of the pumpking, flip it, and weld it back on so the ring gear clears?
Aside from that I just have to strip the stock brackets, rotate the knuckle balls to set caster, then build leaf mounts and that's about it, correct?
Sorry, big fat newb here. Everyone with experience can expect a lot of questions

 

Look up ZUKs build on yota tech. If you Google "ZUK Tacoma SAS" and look for his build thread on yota tech. I used that as my template as he flipped an fj62 front axle and does an excellent writeup. Long story short you do not do anything to the third, just cut off the diff cover and grind cutouts into the housing. As for the knuckle balls, they get flipped and swapped side to side.

My recommendation: don't flip the axle, swap in a gear drive pax drop dual case setup with a gear drive transfer case. It's quicker, yea it's more $$$, but duals are a better mod than an SAS anyway and should be done at the same time anyway. I would not flip an axle again. The only reason I did it was because I already had a ton of $$$ dropped into my dual setup and could not sell it for what I needed to build new cases.