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

If you plan on going 37's (let alone 35's), I would highly recommend doing 5.29 gears instead.
Keep in mind that when you go up in tire size, the rotational mass increases a lot and it becomes exponentially harder for your truck to spin them. So even if the gearing may be a match to stock gearing, that does not mean same performance.

A lot of people on people on here, including me, believe that 5.29 is generally the standard for 35's whether you're auto or manual.

37's will be a hell of a lot heavier than 31's

 

I definitely considered 5.29's. I would just hate to regear twice but I soppuse if I go with one tons it won't matter at all. Good advice!

I'm also on 33's now but I know what you're saying

 

I was able to get my hands on some 37's yesterday! They are used but in good condition. I paid $800 which wasn't an awful price but not steal. Either way I am happy with them and can't wait to see them on the truck.

 

Got gears and wheels ordered today! I went down to Yotamasters and talked to them about my awful plan. They said I was crazy but recommended I get 4.88 gears because they are a little bit stronger especially on the already small 7.5" front. Went ahead and put an order in for 4.88 front and rear gears, a master rebuild kit, new bearings, and a front Spartan locker. Front rebuild and locker will be here end of next week. They had the rear rebuild kit, bearings, solid spacer, and both sets of gears in stock so I went ahead and took them home today:









Total cost for everything was 1,188.54 through my boy at Yotamasters, not too bad!

I also ordered some new wheels. I went with flat black ProComp 97 series steel wheels, 17", 6x5.5, -19mm offset with 4.25 backspacing. Came out to exactly $400 through my wheel hookup.

I also decided to go ahead with some DIY beadlocks. Total Metal Innovations makes the best DIY kit which comes with everything you need to convert your steel wheels. It came out to just under $350 for all 4 rings, valve stems, hardware, and shipping. Unfortunately I don't have a hookup for these guys . I went with the slim style because I am a basic guy like that.



Wheels will be here in a couple days and beadlocks will probably be here in a couple weeks.

 

Next steps will be relocating the battery, running limit straps, and cutting!

I will call Kartek tomorrow and figure out which battery tray will work for my battery. I'm thinking I can relocate the battery under the bed of the truck in the back. if anyone has done this I would like some input.

I will also be getting limit straps to hopefully take some load off my spindles at full droop with all the weight I'll have from the wheels and tires. I have some friends running 7-8" adjustable straps on their 3rd gen 4runners and they say they work amazing. Since I have the eimkeith reinforcement kit I have a limit strap mount all ready to go on the LCA, I just gotta weld a tab to my frame.

Now cutting will be a PITA I don't even want to think about

 

I'm interested to see what you come up with battery wise under the bed. I want to move mine out of the stock location because my fender is collapsing due to cutting it up, and I can't just toss it in the bed because I still use my crawler as a "truck" and carry shit.

 

Here are the items I bought for the relocation:

• 15' 1 Gauge solid copper wire
• Battery box
• 1 gauge lugs
• Terminal Posts

I called Kartek for my battery box but they didn't have any that would work with my battery. I just bought this one from eBay, seems decent enough quality but only time will tell.





The plan is to get the battery under the bed near the gas tank on the passenger side, run a ground to the frame, run a positive to the engine bay using the wire, and terminate it at the post terminals:



I'll tie everything that's currently on my battery to the post terminals and run a ground from the frame to the new negative terminal.

 

I also got my limit strap hardware. 2 adjustable Trail Gear clevis's and 2 7" limit straps. I also have tabs to weld to my frame. Should be pretty easy, my biggest concern is my coil overs interfere with the strap, but I guess we'll see.

 

Little update on my tire selection: I liked the Kevlars but upon looking more closely at what I bought I realized they were really old (2012-2013) unevenly worn, had bad rock rash, were cracking, and about 40% used. I wasn't really happy with them but I mean they were cheap.

Anyway yesterday I decided to sell them. I managed to get $800 for them (what I paid) with the intention of saving up for some new tires. Then by some miracle someone posted these basically brand new 37x12.50r17 Pro Comp Extreme MT 2's for $800! The guy selling had no idea what he had. I checked them out a little more carefully this time and I couldn't pass them up.



No cracks, 21.5/32 tread depth (new is 22/32), evenly worn, no cracks or rock rash anywhere, and even better they are all 2019/2018 tires, so basically new!

I will feel much better driving with these guys and more confident they won't explode on any road trips. Definitely worth it!

 

Good find on the Pro Comps for 800! Ready to see you start assembling that part pyramid your building.

 

I want to see how tall I can get my parts pyramid first!

 

Slight wheel update:
The wheels I thought I bought had a -19mm offset. Unfortunately my hookup could only get them in a -6mm offset. I calculated I'd at least need a -19+ for this to work. So because of this I have decided to run wheel spacers. Luckily my buddy was selling some for super cheap so I picked them up. $100 for 4 Spidertrax 1.25" spacers. 2 are hub centric and 2 are not. Do you thing the non hub centric ones will be an issue?

 

Nice! I have the procomps and dig them, great on the street and fine offroad, good balance between the two which is what I needed. As for the wheel spacers I rocked some 1.25" I believe trail gear spacers, no idea if they were hub or lug centric, but looked like yours for a few years and didn't die.

 

Finally got some parts so I can start working on this thing!!



Spartan locker and differential rebuild kit for my front diff.

I've had the rear diff parts for about a month now and these guys finally came in to YotaMasters!! Looks like the next week or so will be gear and locker time!

 

The work has finally began!!

Part of the reason I have been procrastinating is because my truck has been my only vehicle/daily driver. I have been applying to jobs since I've finally graduated and I needed to make sure I had a way to get to interviews and a job when I got one. After 4 months I finally landed my 1st real job! I'm pretty excited to start. On another note, due to a complete accident I somehow made a good chunk of change in Doge Coin. I decided to use this new found "wealth" and invest in a commuter car. Here it is:







A 1 owner, garage kept, 1996 Honda Civic EX. It has 310k miles on it (I know, it's a ton!!), it's 5spd, and it's AMAZING on gas. Believe it or not, you're looking at the original paint too! It was owned by an older lady who took very good care of it. It was put on non-op 6 years ago so it needs a few things (wheel bearings, A/C recharge, tires, trans fluid, etc.) but I've been driving it for the weekend and so far it seems pretty reliable. Since I have a daily and a job I can finally start digging in to Frank, so let's get in to that:

Body, Engine, and Trans Mounts:
Started with the mounts. My body and engine were clunking around so I figured it was time to replace the mounts. I used Energy Suspension body mounts and RockAuto special trans and engine mounts. Talk about a PITA on those engine mounts. Took me about 3 hours to get one side done. Never. Again.

Looking at the old mounts you can tell they were about done.





Engine mounts cracked all the way through.



Trans mounts starting to crack.



Body mounts completely separated.

The new mounts made the truck feel new!

Gears:

Didn't get far on these today, just got the truck in the air and the wheels off. I brought the truck to my grandparents where they wouldn't mind if it sits on jack stands for a while. My plan is to get the gears done this week. I am going to tackle this job myself (famous last words...) I found the FSM for the job and I plan on following it to a T.



I'm hoping to have the front and rear diffs out tomorrow, regear them Wedsnday, and reinstall them Thursday/Friday.

New Parts:
Finally some more parts have started showing up to add to my pile! My beadlocks finally came in after 2 months of waiting:





An EimKeith upper coil bucket reinforcement kit:



And some proper springs for my coilovers:



They are new 600lb X 14" King springs. I wanted these springs because I have been running Bilstein strut springs on my coilovers. No idea if that's bad or not but I figured it wouldn't hurt to put the proper springs on.

What's Still Coming:
I still have a coil bucket reinforcement kit from All Pro on the way. I purchased it through Yotamasters and they said if I waited 2 weeks I could save $15, so why not. I also need to order the proper valving for my coilovers. I know I have the valving all jacked up from when I rebuilt them originally. I didn't understand the sims but I have since learned what they do and how they are supposed to work.

I called the people at DC Shock Services and they recomended a #10 shim stack on compression and a #12 shim stack on rebound. If you guys have an other recommendations on valving I am open to ideas!

I'll keep the thread updated for those interested. Wish me luck on the regearing!

 

Got the differentials out!



I was worried the front diff would be a massive pain but thankfully it came out pretty smooth. I jacked the diff up to unseat the bolt in the back, slid it forward so the bolt wouldn't drop back in the hole, lowered the front, and used a small pry bar to shove the bolt off the cross member. Then it just rolled on to the floor.

The rear was also very straight forward. I followed a nice guide from a fellow TW member. Didn't even need to take the brake lines off. I will need to remove them when I replace the seals but all I wanted to do today was get the diff out of the truck.

What I did screw up was the stupid e locker actuator.





As you can see it was very rusted in there and when I was prying it out it snapped the aluminum casing. I'm going to need a new one which sucks but ya live and learn. When I install the new one it will get a liberal amount of antiseize!

 

I spent the entire morning trying to set the computer in the Civic reset so I could smog it. The little bastard is being suborn and not setting the Catalyst system monitor to ready so after 2 hours of driving around I gave up and decided to work on the truck.

I started by printing out the FSM gearing pages so I could take it in the garage with me. On the 1st page I noticed they were using a bizarre attachment for a dial gauge. I have never seen an attachment like that before.



I spent the next couple hours figuring out what that thing was (indicator hole attachment) and then hunting for one at all the local hardware stores. Anyone I called had no idea what I was talking about. Right when I was about to give up and order one online I got a call from my grandpa saying that he actually had one lying around. I checked his garage 1st but somehow I missed it. Thankfully he remembered where he hid it and was able to get it before I spent $70 on a new one! He also had a test indicator too!



Now on to the tear down! I started with the rear diff because it was more simple. This came apart pretty easy. I was able to get all the bearings and races out with a hammer and some punches which was nice. The service manual wants you to spend a small fortune on specialized tools which I wasn't about to do.



Torn apart and ready for new gears!

The clam shell was a little more difficult. This one is critical that you follow the manual. Doing things out of order makes it harder on you down the line, trust me. It still isn't completely apart because I left my good pullers at home and I couldn't get one of the bearings off. Tomorrow I'll bring my collection of pullers so I can finish getting that apart.





Gotta stay organized too! I found using old muffin tins is a great way to organize bolts and keep them off the floor, I highly recommend.



My favorite part about replacing parts is building up the pile of old parts. The bigger the pile the more satisfied you are at the end of the day



Gonna go back tomorrow and get that clam shell stripped, everything cleaned, and start the re assembly process! Wish me luck...

 

Are you still running without a rear fender? Run into any issues with the police regarding it?

 

I don't have a rear fender, bumper, or lights on my license plate and so far so good. I'm honestly kinda suprised.

 

How did the cooper evolution mt's treat ya? I haven't been able to find many reviews on them..