04 Extra Cab SAS

Well, I made a little headway this evening. Today turned out to be a day full of chores so I can be free hopefully the rest of the week.

This morning I went and exchanged the electric right angle drill, for this air drill that actually fits. So much hassle to drill 1 flippin' hole




With a shop towel blocking the windage tray, I began drilling. As soon as I pulled the trigger and started drilling, I knew right away there would be a better way to apply pressure. So I grabbed one of my pry bars to assist, and maaaan did it make life easier. It still took a while because my air system is pretty underwhelming.




After what seemed like an eternity, we made it through.





Here's where my evenings road block happens.

The kit and instructions from Off Road Solutions said to use a letter U drill(luckily I have a complete letter, number, fraction drill index up to 1/2"). It said to use a 3/8"(.375") drill if a letter U isn't available. A letter U is .368" which sounds perfect. Generally from my experience in the field, drilling without a pilot you can expect the hole to be a couple thousandths over sized. So I figured if it grew by about .005", I would be golden.

The union measures .3775". The hole after drilling measured....... .386" So now I have a .009" over sized hole for what I am to understand is a press fit application. My suspicion is, since the sleeve for the drilling fixture is probably a tad larger than .375", It walked on me(It certainly felt like it was) and that caused the hole to grow by almost .020". Tomorrow I will take some measurements of the drill and fixture to see what potentially caused this.

About all I could see trying, was coating the crap out of the union with Toyota 103 FIPG, and putting it in. I decided that I want to let it cure before installing the engine mounts. That way I can see if I am happy with it, or just say screw it and JB weld it in.

So I decided to just re-install all the exhaust with fresh OEM seals, and call it a night.

With any luck, tomorrow I will have the oil pan finished up(minus the final FIPG seal),engine back on the engine mounts, and the axle rolled back in.

 

The shitty thing is, for the price ORS is selling the pilot setup, they should have include the U bit. But they could be like, we're charging you an extra $40 buck more because we're including the U bit at the same time. I was able to locate a U bit and the union was a snug fit.

 

Weird. I wonder why mine didn't go smoothly

I didn't think their price was too much. I do it for a living and know what it costs to make stuff and material costs

 

I drilled the block when I had the engine out on the stand with open access. That help out a lot. Maybe the bit walked a little? FIPG should do the trick, there's no oil pressure there and no reason why it should leak.

 

R151f turbo truck trans/case. The FJ 80 rear isn’t too far offset. My driveshaft may be a little longer than the rear section of an extra cab though, since mine is a regular cab.

That’s tempting. It’s cleaner than the one I have too. Nobody wanted to run them years ago with no steering alternatives. Now they are becoming more popular, and every 80 guy wants the lockers.

 

Just run the 80 axle offset. I have been since 2014 and my truck is driven everywhere, no real vibes up to 75. You do need to set the pinion angle almost dead nuts on and the driveshaft phasing is super critical (DONT EYEBALL IT!!), both things that should be done anyway. I also learned that you need an OEM driveshaft center bearing from Toyota, not the $70 "OEM" ones from Amazon TW loves, because they last the longest with it. I would not switch over to a cruiser tcase, parts are expensive and hard to find and low range options suck.

 

Agreed. Plenty of folks with tacoma, 4r, and samurai I know went with the 80 rearend for the 9.5, ff, and rotor/drum combo.

 

That would make sense. I think with the hole of the fixture being probably a fuzz larger than 3/8", it walked on me.

Thats good to know. I actually have a line on a complete elocker rear 80 series axle. I suppose it's something to consider. Especially since I am considering down the road doing a 1uz swap.

 

Awesome! I kind of wish mine was an elocker, I loved my 8" elocker, but couldn't find one! I have a spartan in my 80 axle and it works great!

 

My truck already has a factory Tacoma elocker so I really didn't plan on doing anything but re-gear

 

But can't go wrong with a 9.5 elock.... I'm running a tjm in my 9.5

 

love love how low you're going to keep it

 

I certainly am trying. We will see what the finished product is

 

Just to add I ran and fj80 rear too. I loved mine. The offset took a little extra work but nothing I wouldn't do again. Definitely worth it though.

 

More updatage:

This morning before my time at the gym, I checked on the union. I was pretty happy with it, so I decided to proceed with re installing everything around it.




Later in the afternoon, I started to tackle plugging the old dip stick tube hole on the block. The Off Road Solutions instructions uses a threaded pipe plug. I personally think that's a little ghetto. Additionally, I can't fit a tap in from the top without spending hours removing a bunch of crap off the front of the engine. Another reason is, I didn't like the idea of permanently altering that hole in the event that the engine got pulled and someone else needed that hole.

So I decided to machine a brass plug and press it in. I couldn't get a good measurement of the hole itself. I was able to get a fairly consistent measurement of the flattened out O-ring on the old dipstick tube of about .516-.518". I had some spare .562" brass rod, so I turned it down to about .519" and included a taper to start it. From there I simply set it in, and popped it a couple times with a hammer and long brass pinch until it was seated on the bottom lip. With any luck it will hold. If not, it won't be terribly complicated to remove. Just a punch from the bottom with the oil pan off and it should come out pretty easy




With that out of the way, I installed the new pickup tube(old seal was a BITCH to scrape off), the dipstick tube, an temporarily installed the oil pan with a couple fasteners to see how everything looks




Next I Heman-ed the axle under and got the radius arms bolted in. At this point I discovered that unfortunately the oil pan will need to be modified. I was thinking if anything, the axle tube might be close to the front edge of the sump. However, the real conflict is the pass corner being really close to the 3rd at ride height. So, I will have to pop the pan off and start butchering it.

I was hoping I could actually push the axle back some, but I think that will cause a lot of other clearance issues. Low trucks are time consuming to build!!

 

Update time:


Today I made a fair amount of good progress, but not in the way that I thought. First thing I did was mark the oil pan to start cutting, then realized the caster being off might effect what I do. So I pulled our bone stock 80 onto relatively flat ground for some baseline measurements. It seems the truck has about a half a degree of rake, an about 3* of caster. I am shooting for about 4* or so of caster.






I ended up measuring about 0* of caster on my truck, and decided to take out the rear radius arm bolts and roll the pinion down. Initially I landed at about 3* of caster but that's not the end of my caster adjustments today.



At some point during my process I noticed the axle was shifted to the drivers side a little less than an inch. This lead me down a path of lots of measuring and adjusting. During which, I ended up seeing that I really needed to lift the whole truck about an inch to achieve the 4" of up travel I am shooting for.



At this point I decided to shift my focus from the oil pan modifications, to getting the axle where I wanted it, truck sitting at the new ride height, and go from there. So first thing I did was remove the windshield wash reservoir, and tack on the pass side plate.




With that done, I got my cherry picker out and lifted the front end up so I could lift the jack stands under the sliders by 1 click. Then I jacked up the rear and found a good/ghetto way to get the back sitting how I want. This gives me a very slight rake, and now I have gained about an inch up front.




After a lot of time getting things set where I am reasonably confident they will be, I see I have more room at the oil pan. It now sits with about 2.5* of caster, and I hopefully will be able to get it to 4*.

The rest of my evening was spent measuring to set the coil mounts, and getting a panhard mount figured out. I decided that I need the panhard mounted to keep the axle center. Then I can jack the pass side up and see when/if things will collide. I keep visualizing things moving up front as if it was a leaf sprung rig. But the panhard should keep the axle from swaying into the oil pan as badly as if it was on leafs.

With any luck, tomorrow I will have a panhard mount made and tacked in, and the coil mounts tacked in. I'm really hoping I can actually set on its own weight in the next day or 2, to see how much the springs compress.

 

If you need more caster buy or make caster correction plates for the radius arm mounts.

 

I was looking at the caster correction plates from Ironman, but I don't like how they drop the radius arms

 

Just cut and turn the knuckles, it's not very hard.

 

I had considered that. We'll have to see how everything turns out. I may utilize that option worst case