sexonwheels

Finally starting my axle swap after 2 years of reading and collecting parts!

Been wheeling with an Old Man Emu IFS lift for about 3 years and it has served its purpose for what I've been doing, but now it's time to bigger and better suspension! Learned a lot from the IFS point of view, now hoping to learn some more!

New Suspension Specs:
1981 Front Axle
Marlin Rebuild Kit
High Pinion 3rd
Yukon 29 spline 4.56 gears
ARB lockers front and back
Rears up front, 81 mains
High steer
Explorer leafs in the rear
u-bolt flip front and back

Just started 2 weeks ago and will hopefully be done in another 3 weeks in between school and work.

Axle prep and cleaning so far, nothing to special.





Have extra hub parts, so I rebuilt those as well.





New Trail Gear hub studs and Marlin seal.


Found these different hub body rings inside my IFS hubs. Seems like they have a brass collar.




The original 27 spline oil slinger didn't fit on the 29 spline shaft. Had to make the hole slightly larger to fit.







Set up the high pinion with the Yukon gears and got a really nice pattern.

The specs for the diff are:
Solid spacer with 0.089" shims
Pinion spacer with 0.052" shims
17 in-lbs of preload
0.006" backlash

Thanks to gearinstalls.com for all the good reference material!







Finished welding up the creeper gussets. I've welded everything on this axle with extreme caution because I've heard they are not hard to bend especially when you burn a large bead on them, and then it's a PITA to get the axle shafts in and out as well as hold oil... So I only welded a 2" bead in 15 minute intervals...the truss took me like 2 days to get welded on. lol. I'm just hoping for a straight, non-leaky axle when everything goes back together.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Ballsy setting up that high pinion yourself.. nice job Zuk does a great job on his write ups.

Are you going to be able to fab up new brackets to retain the ARB bumper? Can't remember if the SAS changes the mounting points much.

bump530

Looks good. It does take a while welding on that truss. I did mine not too long ago

sexonwheels

Ya, I have to figure something out with the bumper after I get the spring hanger on.

I'll still be using the 2 holes on each side, next to the body mount and the 2 holes in the front of the cross member, so I'll be using 6 original holes so far. We'll see if I can utilize more after the swap is done. I'll probably have to cut a bit of the bumper on the sides too, depending on how far forward my axle sits with the 33's.

sexonwheels

Got the remainder of the IFS cut out this past weekend and managed to torch a loose connector that was dangling in the engine bay.









Picked up my TG high steer kit!



I buddy of mine gave me an 8" round 3/8" thick forged pipe cap that just so happens to fit as diff armour!



Axle prepped and ready for paint. I'm using this paint called ALK-200, it's suppose to be heavy duty so we'll see how it is after it's painted.

sexonwheels

Got quite a bit done on the truck in the last week and a half.

Built the front hanger! I like the idea of incorporating the design into the frame of the truck and not just a few stitch welds to hold it to the frame.

I used some of the holes on the frame to align everything and then welded it just about everywhere. It takes a lot longer but is definitely worth it.













Also got the axle together.

About 13 lbs on the knuckle and 8 lbs of preload on the wheel bearings.







Using this little union piece from Toyota to extend the diff breather. It's the proper British Pipe Thread and fits a 1/4" fuel line.



Front axle and springs in!

Running the rears up front with 81 mains and all of the 89 rears plus an OME add-a-leaf.

sexonwheels

Much needed update!

With the front end finished, on to the rear end.

Used an explorer leaf pack for the rear with some shackle hangers from TMR Customs.

sexonwheels

Also trimmed my ARB bumper to fit with the new spring hanger. I made sure to take a few pictures cause I know there are a few people that would like to see how it's done, and it's actually quite easy!

The third picture is all the pieces that need to be cut off. After all is said and done it fits back nicely and still used 6 bolts to secure it to the frame.

sexonwheels

With how I set up my front hanger, I needed to push my steering box as far forward as I could.....Got it about 1.75" forward from stock and there's plenty of room for my steering and I could even put the springs forward farther if I wanted to use the rear 4runner mains later down the road.

sexonwheels

Next was to get my rear shock mount build and welded in.

I build it as high as possible to accommodate the largest shocks and I tried to get them as vertical as I could. The next time I do this I'm just cutting through the bed to get the shocks vertical for better handling.

rattlewagon

Wicked! How long/may leafs are those explorer packs? Do they axle wrap like the f150s do?

JasonYota

iTrader: (1)

Nice info on the ARB. I've been wondering how I'll get mine to work with the spring hanger if/when I do a SAS.

sexonwheels

I believe the explorer leafs are 57", and I actually bought 2 sets of explorer packs and ended up using a full pack +1 leaf from the other set. And it would be different if you have a 4runner as my buddy has a 4runner with explorer leafs in the rear and he had to use a full pack +3 I think.....

For my pickup, I find the axle wrap isn't too bad. I haven't really put it in any crazy spots since I put them in to really test it out, but I would like a traction bar eventually. Plus I don't run any leaf blocks and I tried to keep the suspension low to minimize stuff like that.

All in all, they are actually a really nice size spring for the overall Toyota truck size and they seem to hold some weight and flex nice at the same time.

I knew there was a few people out there that need it!
I'll try and post up another pic later of the bumper back on the truck and how it all looks together.

sexonwheels

Here's the finished look.

JasonYota

iTrader: (1)

Nice, are those 33's?

sexonwheels

Yep, 33x10.50r15 BFG KM2. I have quite a bit of room in the fender and will probably go to 35's when these wear out.

sexonwheels

Here's some reference drawings of the springs hanger I used.

The only thing you may need to use is the different drawings for Spring_Hanger_Part_3(a,b or c) depending on what size leaf spring you are using and how much lift you want to build into the axle swap.

sexonwheels

More...

sexonwheels

More...