Fully polished TuRD

No problems getting the knuckles off besides me not cutting my line straight on one side and smashing my hand 4 or times with the mini sledge LOL. They were happy to be where they were for the past 32yrs that's for sure! I did cut too deep in places as well, nothing much i can do about it now. I see you can only press them in so far and there is a lip so im not concerned about my wobbly line. Good to know about the nitros, maybe ill cheat the cover over to the drivers side a bit to account for it, since i plan to burn the cover back on in advance.

 

Well, didn't mean to imply that the Nitros are thicker on the ring....meant to say, in general, any 488 or 529 will be thicker on the ring than a skinny 370 or 410. And I said it had to be perfect.....far from it
Just get it oriented correctly and give it a little room to grow for a thicker gear....I did pretty much the same thing and no problems.
I have not taken a picture of it yet but you probably noticed that the hole that used to be for the breather will get filled in with the MIG welder since it's on the bottom side now. So I used my new fill port on the top of the housing as my breather location....see below. It was easy to tap it for 1/8" NPT even if it was the Japanese near equiv of the American tap it still seals just fine. NON-magnetic plugs tap much nicer!!

 

I just need to know how close your tie-rod(cross-rod) is to the bottom of the leafpack....As shown in the pic below, I'm about 1 inch away from the bottom leaf ....The closer it is the more the castor.....hmmm, interesting way to set the final castor.

Now, I will do a much better job of setting your upper arm such that you don't have a full 3 inches of clearance with the top leaf like mine is. Mine is too high.....wasting draglink clearance to the frame. That will change in the near future though.

 

these are are real good idea with SAS......the adjustability is often desired after the final welds.

http://www.sky-manufacturing.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=SKY-LSH-4P

 

Man i'm getting ancy to swap this thing!! My FROR firewall plate, taco brake brackets and brake lines came in last week along with some new power steering lines i ordered. A shout out to discounthydraulichose.com, that place is awesome! They made me 2 custom length 3/8" hoses (i hope i orderd them long enough LOL) with 90* JIC -6 female fittings crimped on for 50 bucks shipped! Cant beat that. Great customer service, easy ordering and a shitload of tech on their website. I have a used 4runner steering shaft on its way to my house, and all i need to do is order my pitman arm, some trunion bearings, steel for the new frame pick up a steering arm local and i can swap this beeotch!! The plan is to swap it over a 3day weekend, or just a weekend at a buddies house, then do all the little stuff when i get it back to my house for the rest of winter (gears, RCV's, rebuild the knuckles, build a crossmember, driveshafts, bumper).

 

I know you hate TG with a passion but trunion bearing eliminators are so worth it. You never worry about exploding a bearing and they make taking the knuckle apart a breeze

 

Cant use them with stock arms. That's one of the few parts I would buy from them.

I have never had a Toyota axle, are trunion bearings that big of a pain in the ass or that weak? My driving style won't change, I have kept ifs together and Cvs intact for 10yrs and I wheel harder than most of guys here on tons.

 

Slander,
Where did you order the steering column from?
I need two columns to make one usable one. I have one now but having a hard time finding the 2nd.

Thanks.

 

There was a guy on pirate parting out two wrecked 4 runners. I have just been checking for sale forums daily on pretty much evrey Toyota site i know of. I'm hoping to only use one shaft, its a telescoping shaft out of a 4 runner, and i already have the joint for the ford box that ill need to weld on. Honestly getting the steering shaft to work is the part most intimidating me about this build. Chopping the entire front frame off and rebuilding it and putting an axle under there is the easy part for me LOL. I just cant figure out what parts work for the steering since there's like 100 ways top skin this cat. Supposedly there's a way to slice and dice the stock IFS rack and pinion steering shafts and get it work, but the thread i read on it had a bunch of pictures that no longer worked.

 

Was going through pictures and found some wheeling pics from when i first got the truck, my how things have changed LOL!!


Holy shit non rusty sliders!!!

 

wow....that looked alot like my 01 extracab looked. I had to take a double take. That amber tinted bug deflector up front must be a factory package option because I used to have the same one and I have seen it on other 01 tacos.

 

It was a toyota part, i ripped it off when it got snagged on a tree backing up on the trail. I never understood the point of them!

 

@ZUK Looks like I'm going to buy a histeer kit, i just sold some CV's and there is a full used marlin kit available on another site, so thank you for the offer, but I'm going to pass on it!

Updates: Still waiting on parts, got ripped off by a dude on pirate on a steering shaft, but Daves offroad is hooking me up, still waiting on Parts Mike to ship my damn pitman arm, and i will be ordering my diff gears at the end of the month! Hopefully the cutting will begin next month! I just hope all these problems with sourcing steering parts aren't an omen for setting it up.....

I am still trying to decide on 4.88s or 5.29's. This trucks a pig with 33's and 4/10s, i just cant see 4.88s and 37s working out too well. Strength is not a factor, this isn't a bouncer and i have a spare diff if things go kaboom.

 

Cost update.... Parts left to order: gears (OUCH) metal for the front frame, front shocks.

 

The sas has begun, i chopped the front of the frame off tonight. Pics in the solid axle swap bs thread.

 

Some observations: Its amazing the condition of the motor mounts after 8+yrs of wheeling with a crawler. The rubbers still great and the metal around the mounts look great! The frame snip is a bit more labor intensive than i thought, the motor mount bolts are a BITCH to get to. There is also a lot of little crap bolted to the frame. Another tip is to disconnect the steering shaft before cutting, i thought the shaft would just pull out of the rack when the frame dropped with the shaft clamp undone, wrong. The frame got hung up by that and kicked back into the jack stand holding the engine and trans up, WHOOPS. I had to cut the shaft in half with a grinder and it all came free after that. took about 3 hrs to disconnect and drop everything working by myself and taking my time.

 

I cut up my ifs frame and stripped the parts off, question: is there a market for the 4wd ifs spindles/hubs? Trucks add.

 

Of course Slander,
Those are very sellable but they do require a hell of a good power spraying for better presentation. That clam is worth between 100 and 200 if it has 410 gears.....and somewhat more if it has 456/488/529 gears.

 

Went with 5.29s, just orderd them today. Supposed to warm up this week so i hope to get the frame rails built and on. Probibly going to change the oil pan out tomorrow, permetex the right stuff will setup in temps in the 30s right?

 

@allenfab : what did you do to adapt the 2x3 tube to the stock frame rail? I did a test fit and its loose as hell, do you have any close up pics?

Got my oil pan installed today, it came off a hilux or something (bought it off a dude on pirate) and while its not the most high clearance pan, it does allow me to use the stock dipstick in the factory location which is nice. It has a big indent on the drivers side for a diff, but it might be a little too far back to really do anything. Im just glad im done tearing stuff down and im ready to start putting things back together.
Pic of the pan:
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I also got some extended studs since im going with IFS hubs, taco rotors and trail ready beadlock wheels which are thick. Here is the Dorman part number of the extended studs, i snagged them off Amazon, i think they are off a matrix or something.