Found a 96 Tacmoma with a SAS..should I get it?

I've been a long time reader but this is my first time posting so howdy. I've owned several Tacomas over the past 10 years but I've never had experience with the straight axle swaps. My daily driver is an 04 ext cab 4x4 but I've came upon this truck and I would like to see what you guys think. It'd be just mud toy on the weekends.

What I do know...

It's a 96 3.4 manual trans. Has 169000 miles on it and the guy's wanting $3,000.

I drove it around, seems to run good and the clutch feels fine.

Superwinch Lockouts

Has a Sky's off road designs kit on front (not sure what axle) or what size lift.

Has a 3" body lift

Has 37x14.50 toyos

Power windows, locks, etc.

The front driveshaft is out because the double carden joint is shot. Driveline shop quotes $150 to fix it.

Odometer does not work


What I don't know..

Is this a good buy at $3,000?

Is it safe to put the ole lady in and drive around?

In the pictures a few things seem sketchy to me but like I said I've never seen one done the right way in person. A few things I noticed was
-crossmember notched to clear front double carden
-carrier bearing drop looks sketchy
-rear leaf frame mounts look like they were moved maybe
-shifters have been extended to account for body lift.-

Trying to figure what axle is in the front?

Here are the pictures.. Thanks for looking

 

Screaming metal death trap.




I kid. Whatever suits you man

 

Looks like a bit of a fixer upper, but not too much work. I wouldn't worry about leaf spring holders being moved, 95-97 Tacomas have smaller leafs than the later years and usually kits are made for the later years. Looks like it was done on the cheap, welds are average and a bit boogery. You may need skills and tools you don't have to keep this thing on the road and safe.

 

buy it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yea there is some stuff to fix, but for 3k good deal.

1st thing ti do take the shity blocks out of the front!!!!!

I think its a dana 44 could be wrong

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/Dana44.shtml

 

Seems like a decent price, with that said, I won't buy another person's lifted truck, let alone someone else's SAS project. If it were done buy a reputable shop, with receipts I'd consider it, otherwise I say pass.

 

Do it! See if you can get the price down, looks like a fun fixer-upper!

 

dang dude, id offer him 2500 see if he bites, thats a great deal, that sas was probably well over $3000...
just please rip that body lift out if you buy it,

 

Does look like a Dana 44 after looking at that link. I'll see if there are any numbers on it to verify. The aluminum blocks are wedge shaped, I assumed they are correcting the driveline angle, correct me if I'm wrong.

I tried getting him off the price, he won't budge and there are about 16 other people around here wanting the truck. I told him I wanted it today. Supposed to pick it up the end of the week. I was looking at the body lift and thinking of removing it. They welded the nuts on the body mounts so I'd have to torch them off and reinstall new.

May have to downsize the tires if I remove the body lift. Not sure how close they are at full flex. The tires rub the leaf springs in front when turning sharp. I was gonna try and extend the bump stop bolt for lack of a better term to keep it from happening.

 

It's a Dana 44 out of a jeep (wagoneer, J-10, or other). Low pinion, near perfect width, and a very common choice for a Tacoma SAS

The transmission crossmember is hack, and needs to be removed and another one made. The way they did it is by dropping down the stock crossmember and notching it for what I assume would be a better front drive shaft angle. Dropping it down is putting more stress on the motor mounts and transmission mount, because it is twisting the rubber in the mounts which can and will make them fail faster.

The carrier bearing drop bracket doesn't look to terribly bad, but the carrier bearing is definitely shot

Needs crossover steering... and that would require a rear sump oil pan conversion

Those aluminum wedges in the front need to be removed immediately. if there is a pinion angle or castor issue, it needs to be fixed in another, safer manner

Rear springs are Chevy 63's, very common and a very good choice to lift the back. I don't care for the blocks though, at all

I'd remove the body lift if I were you

 

I don't know to much about SAS but it seems pretty good

 

Thanks for the information man, nice build you done by the way.

Could I do the crossover steering with the pump that's on there now? Any kit recommendations.

I would assume the wedges are to reduce the angle on the driveline. What would be the right way to do that?

 

Pics don't show up for me so I'm taking a guess. Most of the bad lifts I've seen they 'fix' the driveline angle by rotating/tipping the differential so the output ends up pointing at the tcase. And then they complain that they keep losing joints. The diff and tcase angles are supposed to be as close to matching but opposite as possible, anything else puts stress on 1 part of the rotation. That eats joints and also makes axle wrap easier.



Again this is a guess, but since he has the front dshaft out he has probably gotten tired of bad vibes and replacing the joints. That combined with the booger welds mentioned, it's probably his backyard DIY conversion. I've quit buying other peoples projects. They cost more time and money to fix than just doing it right from the beginning.

 

Are you buying this for a daily driver??

If yes...then I would say.......STAY AWAY!!!

Trail Rig only??
Fixer Upper for sure....I'm not all that rehearsed on things...but... It's a hack job!

**First off - inspect the frame. if the frame is toast, don't touch it.

**There are way too many spacers on that thing. Huge spacers on the carrier bearing,

**Stacked degree shims on the FRONT axle. Bad idea....

** What the hell did they do to the crossmember? Another bad idea...

**Overly huge lift blocks in the rear!! Bad idea...

**If you do any offroading and compress the front suspension, you're gonna be hitting the pitman arm.

The only good thing about the conversion..is the Dana 44.

 

It looks like a half ass project with someone who didn't give a crap about the quality. Kind of like... well I got some of these... let's put that on. I got some big ass tires, let's make those fit. I got a torch, let's cut some shit. It was done on what appears to be the cheap with a lot of beer and buddies involved. If I just wanted to drive it off-road, heck it's hard to beat a bucket for $3k. But I'd be spending a lot of time undoing so much of the wrong I see on this truck.

It's cheap for a reason. If you have a few grand, time and perhaps don't fully care about your safety while driving it as-is, go for it. If you want a project and have the skills and money to fix the problems, go for it. If you want to buy this thing and drive it all over the place, wheel the shit out of it thinking it's gonna be reliable like a stock Taco - run like hell.

 

Thanks for the diagram that makes sense. The guy that owns the truck has no clue about anything. He bought it from another guy just to keep at his deercamp. He got the truck stuck and ended up breaking the double carden joint on the front driveshaft.

Definitely not a daily driver, I have a nice stock Tacoma for that. For $3K I was just debating if it's worth it. I'm a welder and have all the tools a fellow would need and I enjoy tinkering with stuff. I don't expect to drive it 70mph down the highway with my pregnant wife in the passenger seat, It'll just be a mud/trail toy to play around in.

Frame is good on it, its been down south its whole life so zero rust on the truck.

I did think the leaf spring was close to the pitman arm wasn't sure if it would compress enough to hit. Would the high steer conversion correct this?

I appreciate all the replys.

 

Decent price for what it is, I've just never been one to buy someone else's project, unless I trust them and know they are highly competent.

 

Looks like a dana 44 front end to me. I'd buy it right now if I was closer, that's just what I'm looking for for a wheeler, and it's in my price range.

 

Definitely a Dana 44 up front.

I'd think long and hard about this one, body lift gotta go.
Blocks under springs, bad.
Really way too much to list, carrier bearing drop is sketchy but prolly work, bearing itself looks bad.
Crossmember chop looks like an act of desperation.
Front pinion angle is wrong, the tapered shims were used to point the pinion up in an attempt to straighten the front driveline angles. What is happening now is the castor is backwards, might suck to drive.

To do a proper castor/pinion angle setup, you have to cut the inner "C's" off the tube's and reweld them back on at the right angle. The last one I did I rotated the C's 15 degrees. This gave me 5 degrees castor and 10 degrees raised pinion angle, steers with a pinkie finger..., no front driveline issues.

You will end up most likely dismantling the whole thing just to set it up right.
Who knows what else was cut, spliced, stacked, to make up for the body lift.

However, if you can talk the owner down, the axle and front steering components may be worth it.
Crossover steering is great but what they have there will work just fine too. I have another vehicle with the same tierod/draglink setup and it hasn't been a problem.

I can't say that I wouldn't be interested in it myself, it's got potential if you have the drive.

 

cross over stering was done wrong also. the steering box needs to be tilted more, and ditch that z drag link.

 

If it runs decent & not too beat $3k seems like a deal, dump the body lift /any blocks (especially under front end) maybe downsize tires (unless mud bogs are your flavor, straighten out a few anomalies

& I think you'd get a capable DD for another $1500 invested