supersmyth211

First post, been lurking awhile so I know there are some killer T100 builds on here with SAS. Trying to decide what direction to go in with mine, she keeps shredding 7.5 gears so its time to upgrade.

I really want to run an FJ80 axle, perfect width for the T, but undecided on whether I would run leafs or coils/links with it. I found one for sale locally, didn't buy it yet - trying to add up expenses first

I already have a dana 44, picked it up earlier this year with the intention of getting all parts to do the swap from Sky's offroad (specifically made for the T100).. next thing I know they no longer offer any of said parts.

So now that I'm going to be doing alot of fabricating anyway, I'm all hung up on the 80 axle.. missed out on a great deal on CL too, with an e-locker

Right now the truck is basically stock, 33x10.5 k02's with 4 crawler BJ spacers and lift shackles, TRD limited slip, rear u-bolt flip & bilstein 5150's. It's my DD but the truck performs so well off road that I can't stop beating the hell out of it







Whichever axle ends up under it I'm planning on high steer, a selectable locker of some kind, 4.88 gears (or maybe 5.29's) on 35's. Looking to get into some moderate rock crawling so I want to get a decent amount of flex out of it. Driveability is a factor for the suspension, DD with occasional long highway trips.

I'll try to list some basic pros & cons

d44:
8.5" ring gear
would need at least one new flat top knuckle (pass side) to run high steer, I'd probably go with the Reid 4 hole knuckles
Cable operated locker available (OX locker), which I like the idea of
easier, more common swap

FJ80:
8" High pinion diff
would need Hellfire knuckles ($$$) to run high steer
factory e-locker would be awesome, finding one is the hard part..
keep it Toyota
beefy Birfields/ no ujoints or ball joints
might be able to run stock FJ coil springs?
if not leaf sprung, considering 3 or 4 link instead of radius arms

Any advice is appreciated, never done this before so I'm sure there are alot of things I didn't think of yet.

ryantowry_81

i think you should measure the width of a FJ80 front axle. they are only around 63.5" wide. for the t100 you really need 66" plus, that is why the full width Dana44 is so popular at roughly67.5" wide WMS to WMS (wheel mounting surface).

that being said, you can get a FJ 80 based axle housing from Ruff stuff, diamond, sky, etc and get custom inner axle shafts built for a wider toyota based front. I personally am planning my t100 build with a FJ60 front axle with a custom modified housing and some custom length inner axles from long field (back when bobby was doing them) but this is very labor intensive and requires some very critical welding and fabrication to keep the axle strait. Dana 44 is alot easier, even if not as nice of a axle in the end IMO.

As for leaf kit vs coil sprung SAS, i have searched ALOT and not found a finished linked front SAS on a t100 on the internet. I have started to collect parts to do a 3 link on mine but again it is going to be custom built and engineered by me and very labor intensive. leaf springs are much easier even if the sky kit is not available. you can piece the parts together to throw a dana44 in a t100 fairly easy if you do some research and have minimal custom fabrication.

really depends on how far down the custom fabrication and design rabbit hole you want to go, or pay for someone to go...lol