Betterbuckleup's 2000 taco build & BS

I was thinking the same.
The ones that FROR sent with the housing are about .6" of height from top of axle tube to mounting surface which seems pretty low profile. Will have to compare what that is on the OEM perch.

 

I totally forgot to mention this yesterday. Since there's no drain hole on this axle, it is recommended to have the lowest 2 studs converted to bolts. You might have to weld a nut on the inside of the housing. Second, Brian builds these with crazy tight tolerances so don't be surprised if you need to break out the grinder to get the diff to fit. I had to do that with my dad's axles for his race truck to get the ring gear to fit.

 

Yea I noticed that. I figured I would either do that or just use a fluid extractor out the top fill port.
The stud kit that he included does have 2 bolts which I assume are for the lower 2 holes. Why would I have to weld a nut on the inside of the housing though? Only scenario I could think of needing to do that is if I were to drill into the bottom of the housing and add my own drain plug which I've seen some have done.

Good to know about the tolerances though. I definitely wouldn't have expected that so would have caught me off guard.

 

The bottom 2 holes aren't threaded from what I remember. Unless Brian is now threading them, you'd need a nut on the backside to hold the bolt.

 

Bottom 2 holes are threaded on mine so shouldn't need to weld any nuts on the backside

 

Right on! Love to hear that Brian made that change!

 

Yessir!

One thing I noticed that I thought is a bit odd is the offset between the hub mounting flanges and the center section mounting surface.

In the PO he stated the housing would have a 10 deg pinion offset iirc. I assumed that was to match the OEM config.

On the OEM housing, the hub mounting flanges on either side appear to be planar with the center section mounting surface (the two lines I drew are collinear instead of offset)

Hopefully that makes sense, but I'm wondering the reasoning behind doing so or if Brian is aware that's how it is OEM.
Can't think of really anything it'll affect other than the E-brake cable coming over the leaf spring higher & in a different spot and the brake line port being in a slightly different spot on either side.

I plan setting the spring perches on the housing to where it will the same pinion angle I currently have.

 

Interesting. I'm not too familiar with the Toyota flanges that he puts on their. All I know is that he has those machined in house for them. I'll have to look at my old axle to see what the offset is.

 

Yea if you have it laying around that would be good to compare.
Kind of hard to measure or get a good pic with it being on my truck.

 

Checked this out on my Diamond PO as well, although I made changes to how they were shipped. 10* is pretty standard built in for the axles to help set a better pinion/driveshaft angle. Diamond naturally assumes if your ordering this axle, your vehicle has some type of lift and the pinion angle needs to be modified. (Most with stock housings will get leaf springs with built in degree shims, or will bolt a pair on, or do nothing and live with vibrations).

Before you swap the rear axle, take measurement of the DS slope angle and current pinion angle. Then measure the new DS slope angle with your 3rd in the new housing along with pinion angle. Chances are it will be improved (Factory rear DS have a CV which typically need to stay within 1-3* of difference).

Ultimately when you set your leaf spring perches it will set your pinion angle, and your drums will be clocked forward toward the front of the truck from stock if you require a lower than 10* pinion angle. Or opposite if you required more than 10* pinion angle.

https://4xshaft.com/blogs/general-tech-info-articles/slopes-vs-angles

 

Gotcha. I don't have shims or anything to adjust my driveline angle. I've never had issues with vibrations with any level of lift I've had.
Current springs are spec'd for 3" lift.

I was planning on just matching my current driveline and pinion angle by measuring the way you are describing. I don't necessarily see any reason to clock it any differently or if there would be any benefit to doing so.

With how the diamond housing is clocked compared to stock, it will clock my drums more forward if I set pinion and driveline to be the same as they are now. So really the only difference in the end will be the clocking on the drums. Otherwise pinion and driveline angles will all be the same. Correct me if I'm wrong in my thought process of it all

 

With the 3" lift, some of the information is probably just splitting hairs on the need to change vs where your at now. What's nice about having a custom axle is you can really fine tune where you need placement on certain parts on the driveline that typically do not move when installed. Example if you did have vibrations from the DS and then to combat it you had leaf spring shims and a carrier bearing drop, now would be the time to get rid of those and make the change by setting a better pinion angle.

Thinking is right on, drums will just be clocked forward slightly and ebrake cable will probably run into the leafsprings like you mentioned.

 

Totally agree. Shouldn't be inducing any vibes just by swapping housings but keeping all same geo.

I actually think it might be better off than if it is now with the e-brake cable, as it currently basically sits on top of the springs and drags on it when you engage them. So rotating it forward a little might give it more vertical clearance over the spring pack as long as it isn't hitting the bumpstop. We'll see how it all sets up when I get it mocked up under the truck.

 

Lots of pictures incoming

Finally got my RCV's in the mail. Also have been collecting a bunch of other parts to do a refresh on the front end while I was in there.
Got it all done this weekend and buttoned up. Should be dialed for a while now.
Work done:

• new UCA uniballs
• new spherical bearings for the lower eyelet on the coilovers
• Solo motorsports UCA double shear
• New OEM motor mounts
• New passenger side UCA bolt
• Hand-me-down ADD spindles, non ABS
• RCV's installed

The weight difference between my manual CV axles and the RCV's is about 1.6lbs in case anyone was wondering.





I thought about swapping out the boot clamps since Dan had his pop off on the rubicon, but I figure I'll just carry a set of clamps and a clamp tool with me and chance it. They seem to be clamped on there pretty tight and I would hope that RCV had addressed this issue since they built my axles a while after they were made aware of the issue on Dan's set. I had heard of others having this same issue with the clamps too a while ago. We'll see I guess.

They shipped the outer dust seal separate from the axle so that it wouldn't get damaged in shipping which was a good idea. Got it pounded on with a brass hammer. The part number is an OEM toyota part number and I confirmed that it is an OEM toyota part when I spoke to RCV.


Before installing them into the truck, I changed out the inboard C-clips with the OEM ones off my other axles since I had heard reports of the ones they provided shattering upon trying to put them in. In comparison, they are a little bigger in diameter and a noticeable different material. Perhaps not as malleable or flexible. RCV on the left side.



First order of business was getting everything stripped down and then removing the Total chaos UCA spindle slug to be installed in the new spindles.
I wasn't able to fit my ball joint press in there, so I had to cut out the gusset.



To install the puck in the new spindles, I did what I did last time which was freeze the puck and then heat the spindle with a map torch and it slid right in with a single tap of the hammer. Love that trick. Makes it so much easier.

Installed the spindle gussets onto the new ones.





Then painted them and added a few coats while I worked at the other stuff.
Before installing the double shear, I took the opportunity to replace both motor mounts since I wouldn't be able to get in there anymore from the fender wells once the double shear brackets were welded in. Passenger side wasn't so bad, but drivers side definitely took some finessing to get in and out with all the stuff in there.

passenger side mount:




Driver side mount:




Both weren't terrible or completely separated or anything, but the new ones definitely firmed things up a bit and it's good peace of mind.

Installed the new uniballs into the UCA's thanks to borrowing @Dan8906's TC uniball tool.
The old uniballs were starting to squeak and groan so it was time.


The whole reason I did the UCA double shear is I found out that the passenger side UCA bolt was slightly bent at the very end at the threads. Not sure when this happened or how long it has been like that, but you could visually see that side of the UCA move up and down if you put a ratchet on the end of the bolt and spun it. First picture is the old bolt.





The solo motorsports double shear kit fit up great and I had to do very little to no grinding.
I tack welded the brackets in place with the UCA installed and ran a couple beads. Then pulled the arm and put the bolt back in and fully welded it.








Once I got everything back together, I cut down the lower shock mounting bolt a little bit since it would just barely rub the boot at full droop.




I drained and filled the front diff for the first time with the new gears after doing both sides only to find that it was pretty low on fluid and that my fill plug was loose
Pretty sure that was from the most recent rubicon trip so I'm not too worried about it since I've been running around with the hubs unlocked since then.

Lot of shmutz on the drain plug magnet though

 

3.5" OD with 1/2" wall? Isn't FROR using 3/8" wall?

 

I know it's 3.5" OD, but idk about the wall. Thought it was 1/2" wall from what @cbechtold told me.
Either way, 1/2 or 3/8 should be more than enough for my needs

 

FROR never made them with 1/2". Been 3/8" for years. Plenty of meat

 

Good to know. Yea that's for sure.

 

Went up north this last weekend to the lost coast and did some camping and backpacking. I love being on the coast. We had great weather.

20220821_165841 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

IMG_6079 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

20220821_153312 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

20220819_223414 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

 

Only issue I ran into was finding a loose motor mount bolt on the drive up. Guess I missed that one.



Also, the passenger RCV inner CV boot clamp came off. The driver side seems to be sliding around as well.
I have an email into RCV so hopefully they give me some replacements.
I really hope the outer clamps don't come off.