longbed

There, that should cover everything except my WTB items. I've been reading for a couple of weeks and thought I'd go ahead and wade in. My current project is an 85 SR5 longbed which will eventually be in the permanent collection. Had a carb'd version about 10 years ago, let my wife's cousin talk me out of it just after after I purchased an FJ60. Time passed, really missed the truck, took about a year to find the SR5. High miles but spent it's life in Southern Kali and Georgia so I've not had to deal with any rust. Had a nice 85 4runner along the way but it just wasn't what I wanted.
I'm getting into the restoration pretty well at this point. Yup, resto, not a "build". Bed has been sandblasted/media blasted/seam sealed/POR 15'd, painted underneath and is at the painters right now. Cab will soon follow. Picked up a low mileage 87 4runner to scavenge the a/c, IFS steering box, etc. from as well. I have a site with a bunch of pics but they're mostly for my own reference when reassembling. I'll share when there's fun stuff to look at.
The truck will be getting a full OME suspension and will ride on 32's, electric lockers F&R w/4.56's. I've decided NOT to use the IFS rear axle, I want the tires under the body (yeah, boo, hiss, I know). It's for daily use and for getting me to rivers and trailheads.

Now, onto the questions which I've been unable to find the answers to here or on pirate (despite many late nights of reading).
The reason I got the IFS box is because my 85 4runner had a slight lift and was rather ill-behaved under braking. Crossover steering takes care of that.
I have the IFS box out of the parts 4runner and Marlin's mount kit, but a dry fit (figured it would be nice to get it located before pulling the cab and painting the frame) revealed that I'll be losing the front sway bar. I will be doing a lot of driving in the mountains and remember what it was like when a sway bar link broke on my first longbed and I had a full load and canoes on top, not fun. I read one post where someone fitted a V6 front bar w/limited success, another post had pics where the steering arm went under the sway bar but there wasn't much clearance. I remember the sway bar on the 60 was in front of the axle down low, actually had a bend to accommodate the pumpkin. Anyhow, if someone has input or pics on this quandry please chime in. Don't worry, I'll put disconnects on it, but for the street I want the control. I've been looking at drop draglinks, that's how serious I am about it.
The second issue is that someone posted that you can't do crossover with an OME suspension as you need 3-4" of lift. True or false?

Thanks in advance,
Allen Patterson

Wardamneagle

Allen,

Sounds like a great project. My 85 4Runner has an OME suspension and is rather well behaved under braking. Unfortunately, I cannot answer your cross-over steering question. My gut feeling is that I have enough lift to switch but I didn't try it so I cannot say for sure. Hopefully someone on here with an OME suspension can shed more light on the subject. I do know, FWIW, that I got more lift that advertised and that it was enough that I needed a Procomp drop draglink to make the steering work.

Hasbeen

You may not be able to do Hysteer but you can do crossover without a lift I thought.

Wardamneagle

As far as I know, HySteer is just a registered trademark for a particular brand of crossover steering kit. In other words, Hysteer and crossover steering are technically the same thing.

http://www.marlincrawler.com/htm/steering.htm

longbed

It's good to hear that you have a predictable truck w/OME and the drag link, but I keep looking at the amount of lift you got, it's quite a bit. You almost couldn't tell the difference on my 60 after the 32's were on, I'm not sure my old dog could get into mine if it was sitting where yours is. I keep moving backwards here, no crossover, perhaps I'll just keep the stock rear springs and get some fronts made, keep the 31's and make the old dog happy (which might be me depending on the day LOL).
Like your rig BTW...my first longbed was the same color, thought about doing a color change on this truck (but red isn't too bad). Got to see my bed at the body shop yesterday, skim coated and ready for primer. Hoping to get the cab prepped this weekend. And thanks for your reply...

Wardamneagle

Those are brand new BFG MT's in 10.50x31-15 in the photos of my 4Runner. Unless you are going to regear, I wouldn't go any larger than 31" tires. In fact, I'm going to regear to 4.56 this summer by installing 2 TRD elockers which you can get from the factory in 4.56 gearing.

I have been told that the OME suspension will settle a bit after driving it for a while. I haven't put hardly any miles on the 4Runner since the lift so mine is still about where it was when installed. It does ride much better than stock but, again, it's an inch or two higher than anticipated.

RandyatBBY

Yes that is correct the OME springs do settle in and get a little softer as the break in. The latest thing I have done is to add a little weight to the rear of my 4Runner, I think it is about 80 pounds with the other mods the truck is real comfortable. I do not think the leaf springs will compress that much and the crossover steering should not be hampered unless the IFS box drops a lot. I have thought about doing the same thing but other than ground clearance and bling efect I knew of no other reason to add it. My 4Runner is a daily driver too and will not get much off roading.

longbed

When I put the OME on my 60 I couldn't get the springs broke in. Tried everything, including loading as much fertilizer in the back as I felt I could carry. Finally figured out it was flexing, not weight, that got it settled and softened. I have drainage ditches in the front of my house, just started driving in and out through them instead of the driveway. After a few days the difference was huge, my kids loved it too
Got down to a frame and cab over the weekend. I pulled the drag link off at the steering box and found that it had been run dry so long the cup has cut into the ball on the pitman arm. So I either need a pitman arm or box, I assume the j-arm looks the same so that's on the list, I was planning to replace the tie rods anyhow, plus the drag link needs rebuilding or replacing, it sure would be NICE to use the crossover as now it's probably cheaper!

Wardamneagle

I see Pitman arms and J arms on ebay either no sell or go for less than $10.00 on ebay all the time. Cheap, cheap, cheap. There are some on there right now. Crossover steering is fine but not cheaper than replacing one or two of these parts using used.