ZUK

iTrader: (1)

The moderators updated my Thread Title (thank you) and now it reflects more accurately what
I wanted to highlight and that is that this SAS was done with a 1985 FJ60 housing
that was flipped for driverside output and a front mounted shackle.....

SAS Tacoma.....
FJ60 axle housing flipped for driver side output
Shackles to the front
"old school" crossover steering(cross rod under the pack and draglink over)

FJ60 AXLE HOUSING FLIP and Front Shackle


Why FJ60 and why flip the housing?....BIG 9.5" ring gear and the FJ60 housing is already about 3~3.5" wider than the mini-truck version(79~85 models)......FLIPPING the actual housing results in proper alignment to the OEM driver side Tacoma transfercase. The 3rd member itself never actually gets "flipped".....think of it as it simply hovers from the passenger side over to the new driver side hole....it's still a low pinion configuration. Nothing gets turned in reverse like some have thought. It's business as usual.
Flipping the axle saves about $2000 because the stock oem chain driven 2.6 low range transfercase lines up just fine. Not doing the flip means moving the transfercase output over to the passenger side....which can be done using a Marlin "TacoBox" and modifying the front/rear driveshaft lengths for an overall cost of about 2000 big ones.

https://www.marlincrawler.com/transf...ne-ups/tacobox

It bothered me that having the massive 9.5" ring gear was neutralized by the smaller mini-truck axle/birfs but there is a $645 solution ....
http://www.rcvperformance.com/produc...=CVJ2851-PLC60

The RCV shafts are upgraded from 27 spline to 30 spline and the inner birf cage is max upgraded to 300M material. Birfs and inner axles are Chrome-moly material so that should make it stronger than the rear 30 spline factory axles overall.

Why the front shackle to the ends of the frame horns?
1----- Able to keep the stock DS with the stock spline travel. Because the driveshaft is travelling in the same arch swing as the leafpack means that the slip-spline hardly moves in/out at all. No fancy $400 long travel DS needed.

2-----No worries about the rear of the tire tearing up the wheelwell. On compression, the tire travels UP and slightly FORWARD. No requirement to move the axle and steering box 3 or more inches farther forward like a rear mounted shackle dictates.


3-----Nose dive tendency greatly reduced. Nose dive is a common problem on REAR shackle set-ups(ALL sas kits) with arched leafpacks....Nose dive can damage the leafpacks and ruin the tcase when the driveshaft compresses into brick mode and smashes the tcase. Nose dive may not be a prob during rock crawling but may become very noticeable on pavement during panic stops and also at the sand dunes (from personal experience).


4-----With the fixed mount now at the rear of the pack means the military wrap is where it was designed to be.....at the rear of the pack. The solid mount end sees more impact forces and the double wrap is more heavy duty to counter that.

"Shackle Reversal Pros/Cons"
http://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/f19/sh...ros-cons-5958/

http://www.wranglerforum.com/f218/sh...kit-36657.html

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/newbi...ersal-why.html



Hoping for http://MarlinCrawler.com and/or trailgear to offer a SAS kit with front shackle ...."kit d"


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Wow....getting ready to make the jump. Bought this Tacoma in 06 and procrastinated this project til
now. 175k miles on the ole Tacoma so the front end parts are wearing out......mainly the ball joints/
control arms.
So I have these 1985 FJ60 donor axles ....front and rear......both are 9.5" ring gear and going to
put the front in first. The front has the smaller mini-truck birfs. The pumpkin is on the wrong side
but it's very possible to flip it. The width is a bit wider than the older mini-truck axles but the 58.5"
width might need a little help with aluminum wheel spacers. Maybe the rear later on but I kinda
hate to give up my 8" e-locker at this point.
The rear 9.5" is a semi-floater that is held in with c-clips. Big ugly drum brakes.
Anyways, I "discovered" something interesting about the T100 oil pan addition to the 2000 and
newer Tacomas......and that is that the stock frontal dip stick can be re-used and no need to drill
the new hole near the driver's side motor mount to re-locate it. I noted that I could cut off about
1" of my present dip and there was no interference when checking my oil. Granted, I lost the
"low" mark to see the level but I still can see the "full" dimple.
I'm still driving my 01 on the road til I get the IFS power steering BOX and some misc.
Also, it looks like the total SAS costs will be over $1000 but much less than 2000. Money spent
will be noted as this progresses.

some pics below of the progress......



My 2001 Taco....175k miles and still the original timing belt







The donor 1985 FJ60 front 9.5" axle housing.....going to flip it for the driver's side diff so as to use my stock drivers side chain driven tcase.
Shown in the above pic is the flipped look. The drain plug will now be on top and I will probably leave it there. I will not add to possible
problems by adding a drain plug back on the bottom ( a rock smacking it and loosening it up). The knuckles will be rotated.....the diff cover
also will be rotated. More on the flip later in this thread.








Still will be driving it on the road for a few more weeks but I can remove a bunch of weight right now.....front driveshaft is removed.









The front flange of the tcase has bolts that are serrated and pressed in.....easy to tap them out and use normal bolts later on.








Also, removed the cv shafts. Had a little trouble separating the the outer bells from the axles so said "screw it" and cut them off....axles themselves are still undamaged but
the outer bells are now good for only one thing.......








.....to hold the front end together and continue driving it on the road til I really tear into it.







oh ya, took this nasty thing out, too.






I knew the T100 oil pan would have to be put in sooner or later so why not now. I did some research and it seems the 2000 and new Tacomas have to be drilled for the
new dip stick location....in the above picture, I have my finger on the nub that is supposed to be drilled. Oh boy, what a PITA location it's in.








So, the T100 pan at the above location concerned, has a depth of 1.5"....and, as shown above, I have 2.5" of stock dip stick sticking down. hmmmmm.








So. if a little over 1 inch of dip stick is cut off from the factory stick, then the stock dip stick should clear and not contact the bottom of the T100 pan. The "FULL" mark is
still retained and very much functional.








Here's the stock front oil pick-up......








Here's the T100 rear pick-up mounted in place.







T100 oil pan bolted in place with minimal trouble. I used the Toyota black rtv for the sealing surface. Cost of T100 pan kit....Ebay $278.99 free shipping,
seller is "coreswest"






I put the whole 5 quarts in and still nothing registered on my modded stock stick......must be a little more capacity with the T100 pan ..............






.....so added 1 more quart and presto!....I can see my oil level is now at the stock full positionand a bit more. The picture makes it look like 1/2" over the FULL mark but it's
only 1/4" over. Some of the oil migrated up the stick before I could take the pic. A total of 6 quarts did it and I did not change the old oil filter out yet so factor that in.

So anybody googling and searching this kind of info out then here ya go It's nice toget away with re-using the stock dip And the stock frontal location
Ken

ZUK

iTrader: (1)

Having drove it around now and no low oil light or splashing noises, I guess this shortcut is a keeper.While I'm looking for a good ps box I can be prepping
the front axle.....break loose the front cover....

scuba

Subscribing.

BigBluePile

iTrader: (3)

So. Much. Win.

Find a hi-pinion elocker for the front!!!!

JasonYota

iTrader: (1)

Subscribed.

Staceman1

subscribed.
If you need help, I'm available on Sundays.. (except this one coming up)

God knows I owe you a bunch of favors ZUK!

aztoyman

Zuk, you are very methodical and meticulous with your diff builds and I enjoy reading those posts. Learned a lot. Nice to see you do a build like this for a change. Nice job on the dip stick mod. I did the drill the blank boss on my 3.4 swap. I also noticed it took 6 quarts with either pan in place. I'll be watching this one for sure.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Me too. Gonna be replacing the Trekker in year or two. This is one route (01-04 Taco DC) i have been considering with the bigger FJ diffs/axles.

I know Zuk will do it right. .

Roark

After so much work to the trekker??

ZUK

iTrader: (1)

from dropzone......"Me too. Gonna be replacing the Trekker in year or two. This is one route (01-04 Taco DC) i have been considering with the bigger FJ diffs/axles. I know Zuk will do it right. "

hahaha
Thanks for the confidence. This is going to be a "basic Build".....man on a budget build. About $1000 total, As such, this should attract some interest for sure. Just purchased the 1994 power steering box for 80 on Ebay......same guy has the steering sector shaft/rag joint for a smoking $25 (kind of deal one would expect Staceman to find )
My sister is kind enough to pick these items up on her way to Prescott this weekend....part of the reason I received such a good deal.
As far as the radiator......I went with the "extra small" one designed for the 2wd 2.4L pickup(18 11/16" core) so will be flush with the frame. I have the Scanguage2 so I can watch temps to the nearest degree. I'm kinda curious if the little radiator will handle the cooling needs of a 3.4L(spoiler alert! ....the little rad handled the cooling needs BETTER than the larger oem rad fyi)



Some items I bought........
http://www.ebay.com/itm/251649018720?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
http://www.ebay.com/itm/230813894417?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
http://www.ebay.com/itm/140636422546?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
http://www.ebay.com/itm/161163000451?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
http://www.ebay.com/itm/301277760295?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281335098418?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

BigBluePile

iTrader: (3)

I kinda wish I would have gone with the ford shock towers.

Are you not going to run the IFS spindles?

ZUK

iTrader: (1)

Thinking about the hub and rotor swap.....anyone have the part # handy?

edit-----think I found the info.....but something tells me to try the 2" aluminum spacers on each side and see if it spaces out right
http://www.barneymc.com/rtr_swap.htm (spoiler alert!! It did need the full 2" spacing to properly clear the tire to leafpack potential rub issue)

BigBluePile

iTrader: (3)

You might have to look thru Scuba's build thread, if you haven't yet, look pretty legit. If I was gonna do it again, I'd have gone that route I think

rattlewagon

Cant wait to see the axle under the taco! Sub'd!

Staceman1

Darn right ZUK!
I collect pieces and parts over time, then attack all at once.

I feel bad that you bought shock towers. Those we the SAME ONES you "gave" me years back when you helped me with my crossover steering swap.
I LOVED that "Y" arm you welded up for me.

There,
I told you I owe you favors higher up on this thread, I'm ready for payback!
I got eye protection, ear muffs, and a grinder to go at your frame.
You got my number!

ZUK

iTrader: (1)

Hey Stace----I appreciate the offer Whatever happened to that bad-ass truck with the Y-arm?

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Trekker has been fun but been working on it for 8 years.
It is an old truck with some inherent old truck issues. Not too much into rockcrawling the last couple of years.

I like the newer trucks that could serve as both a daily driver and weekend/expedition/able to camp out of truck.

Zuk's going to 9.5" Diffs is a great idea.

Staceman1

It's in Tucson. It went back to where I purchased it....

ZUK

iTrader: (1)

Cool. Maybe the guy will see this thread someday and post a pic of what's he's done to it.


So, a 4 1/2" cut-off wheel and a new 40 grit flapper wheel are just about to clean off this FJ60 front housing....all the brackets.

BigBluePile

iTrader: (3)