Frankenstein Build: Stock -> 37's on IFS -> SAS

I will definitely get one when it's time to cut up the truck. Their is no way I'm cutting everything out with a grinder

 

Got one side all cleaned up! I found cutting as much off as you can with a cutoff wheel is the way to go. Once I got the majority cut off I used a grinding wheel to get as close to the tube as possible. I finished it off with a flappy wheel and I'll come in with a DA sander for the final touches. Overall this 1 side probably took 5-6 hours of just cutting and grinding!





One side to go, with me luck!

 

You going to truss it?

 

Yes sir. On these axles you gotta cut 2" off the casting so it's a good idea to run a to ensure you don't snap it in half.



I doubt my light weight Tacoma would break it but better safe then sorry.

 

Little update. 1st off my clutch pedal needed to move over a few inched because of the tub. The tub makes it so my pedal is about 1" from bottoming out. The clutch fully disengages but I can't start it without the clutch cancel button. I figured I'd just take it out, bend it, and be done. What I found was interesting. The spring had just about cut through the metal! Now I know the plastic bushing in these trucks is a weak link and disintegrates but I didn't think the spring would eat through the whole thing!



I ended up welding it and drilling a new slot. I figured this should give me another 250k miles right? The spring is about 1/4 worn through so I'll just need to keep an eye on it. I slapped some grease on everything and the clutch has never felt better! Oh and bending put it in the perfect place! I can now start the truck without the clutch cancel button.




And now the axle, it is finally 100% cleaned up and ready for welding!!!!


I started with cutting the 2" off the housing. This was awful and stressful and I still managed to nick it! I'll have to weld up some of the scratches but I'm not worried about strength. The tube is VERY thick. I'm also gonna run a bead around the casting and the tube for strength purposes and it's getting a truss so it should be just fine.


I am very happy with how it cleaned up. Looks like the Ford trailing arm mounts were never there!








Next step is sand blasting and welding!

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/clutch-pedal-truffle-shuffle.499079/

 

I came across your thread and the bronze bushing upgrade when I was looking in to fixing this! I made sure when I fixed it I was within spec. I don't think it'll be an issue since I've been driving without a bushing for who knows how long.

 

Mother fucking



While I disagree that you would HATE driving on 5.29's manual, and 35's I wouldn't recommend it if that's where you want to stop. The crawl ratio on 35's has let me get away with a crawl box for years and I can still hit 85-90mph though I'm at like 4300 rpms doing it. I've been able to drive from Jersey to Moab and back doing anywhere from 75-90mph the whole way.

For me the thought was if I want to go 37's I'd like to have a stronger rear, LT up front, crawl box and SC. Full balance of top end, strength, and torque. Love seeing someone making an IFS on 37's jump. How has the steering held up with the 37's? It's been my weakest point on the 35's in the past 4 years. I've replace the rack 3 times (2 remans and one brand new OEM) and it's leaking again now. Also went through 3 reman pumps and one brand new OEM in the same time.

Stoked on the work you do and will def read back on this build when I get a chance.

 

Thanks man! Your truck was a huge inspiration for me when I bought my Tacoma! I love your look and the fact you actually use it.

I went back and fourth between 4.88's and 5.29's for a while. I agree that the crawl ratio would be amazing! I just concluded when my daily is down this is my only other vehicle so I wanted it to be able to rip around at SoCal highway speeds without sucking gas haha. I ran on 4.88's and 33's for about a month and it was getting awful gas mileage trying to keep up with everyone. I will admit tho, it got going pretty quick! I almost couldn't shift fast enough from 1st to 2nd lmao.

I got a lot of crap from a lot of people telling me the 37's would be a mistake. I decided to just send it and see what happens. I'm glad I did. If you look through my build you'll see I have just about every reinforcement offered on my front end. I would NEVER go with a tire this big without all that.

So as far as steering goes, it's alright. I can tell my ball joints are getting worn faster then with the 33's and it'll bump out of alignment just driving down the road. I can only turn about 3/4 of the way before my tires smash against my frame. I'm working on a solution for this as that's my biggest issue atm. So far my OEM rack and Duralast pump are just fine. My buddy and I are working on a solution for fitting a 2nd gen Tundra rack in but progress is going slow on that.

 

I'd make one of these before doing all that:



https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...c-linked-4dr-xlt.401632/page-16#post-24100261

 

Woah what!!?? I've been looking for something like this forever!! That is so cool! The power of the rack was never an issue, it was always the weak ass joints and whatnot. This looks like it would solve everything! Thank you for this gem!

As a side note, does any one know what those brackets the rack reinforcement bolts to are for? I ground mine off cause they were in my way when I was doing something.

 

Sway bar but you could just bolt it to boxed tabs off the frame.

 

Oh yeah my sway bar has been gone for a long long time. I'll have to figure out what parts were used in that guy. Looks like they used bronze bushings for the internal bar to slide on. Pretty interesting design that's for sure.

 

Yeah, and JD fab in San Diego makes them for 2nd gens as a bolt in part.

The truck in the picture is basically using heimed tierods and a clevis at each end of the rack to bolt to. Here's something that solo makes for a ball joint replacement that you wouldn't necessarily need, but could sell you the tie rods and clevis's separate.

https://www.solomotorsports.com/sho...ota-parts/toyota-lower-uniball-heim-steering/

Here's essentially the same thing except from TC and for LT trucks, you could do the same with just a shorter tie rod:

https://www.chaosfab.com/accessories/1996-2004-Tacoma-Long-Travel-Heim-Joint-Steering-Upgrade-96099

And you can buy the clevis's from Camburg:

https://camburg.com/shop/fabrication/fab-steering-clevis-kits/camburg-steering-heim-clevis-kits/

 

I'll check them out!

 

Oh man, my shit box was an inspiration to someone? You need to set your bar higher... That's cool though, you were like me where I wanted to go from aggressive 32's to 35's and I would not let anyone convince me otherwise. It's funny that you mentioned the 2nd gen tundra rack because I was thinking the same but with a first gen tundra rack since these trucks share a lot of similar parts like the brakes. I always liked the idea of the rack slider too but felt retrofitting the beefier rack and tierods would be better. I am afraid to go heim everything because of all the road salt my truck can potentially see on my coast.

The biggest issue I see now with that setup is there is literally nothing protecting the racks seals now. The bellows on the rack were never perfect but I am sure they helped quite a bit to keep mud and road salt out.

 

Yeah out in the southwest there’s not too much of an issue with that so a lot of trucks ditch the ITR boots. You could make boots out of shock boots and hose clamps.

 

Haha, I probably only found your truck cause you're a pretty active helpful member, so thank you for that. I think the 1st gen Tundra rack is pretty close in size to our OEM racks, that's why I wanted a 2nd gen rack. Solo Motorsports makes a custom 2nd gen Tundra rack ready to be fabbed in but for almost $2k I'll pass! https://www.solomotorsports.com/sho...ta-parts/toyota-tacoma-steering-rack-upgrade/ I agree a better rack would probably last longer but the reinforcement would probably be good to get you by in the meantime. I guess a great perk of the west coast is the lack of salt on our roads I'm gonna SAS anyway so it won't matter in a year or so anyway.

 

^^ I was just gonna say you could make some sort of boot out of something. A shock boot is a good idea. A CV axle boot may work, cutting the OEM rack boot could work. I'm sure something out there would work.

 

Just picked up this guy:



It's a Sterling 10.5 from an 09 F250 Superduty! It's the perfect match for my Superduty dana 60 front end. I was originally looking for a 14 bolt but, as you may know, the Ford dana 60 has an 8x170mm bolt pattern and the 14 bolt has an 8x6.5" bolt pattern. Obviously the Sterling 10.5 matches the D60 with an 8x170mm bolt pattern. Now here is the best part, I got it for the small price of $250! Around here that's a steal!!!