Hate to tell ya, but they are all forged steel, weld away. My pitman, idler, and knuckles all have gussets welded to them.

 

Why would you hate to tell me? That is great news! I have to look around for the site I saw that stuff was cast on, but it was cautioning against welding anything on the steering unless you were a pro, as it required special heating and cooling (ie, heat up before welding, and ensure a very long, slow cool down time.)

 

Downey used to sell an idler and pitman arm gusset, that's what my truck has. What you described as far as the technique goes, sounds about right for welding cast parts(which I would never mess with unless I had to). I have seen a ton of 2x4 and 4x4 spindles that have been heavily modified and MIG welded. The gusset on my steering knuckle is because of this, and it's MIG welded as well:

 

Killer. Thats great news!

 

Usually, 500F or so would be fine for pre/post heat. If the part will fit in your oven, you're set.

1/2 hour per inch of thickness to get it all up to temp. Weld it, put it in the oven (same time) then turn the oven off with the door shut.

 

Well, I talked to a local guy today about machining a mega center link outta billet steel, which would solve a number of problems. He has a 2 hr min, at 55/hr, but he likes to quote jobs, rather than time, so, it could be a little less. or a little more. Hard to say. I'll get the quote, then see if it makes more sense to run heims on the center link, and make the link itself out of .250 wall DOM. Tie rods will be .250 DOM, just cause I have it, and already in near perfect lengths.

If thats the case, then I plan to run the FJ-80 ends on the Tie rods, and run my idler in double shear.

 

Sadly, neither my mother nor Natalie will let me put anything car related in either one of their ovens after I contaminated my old college apartment oven doing the gears and bearings in my front diff. The 90 weight pizza my brother and I cooked was the nastiest thing I've ever tasted in my whole life.

 

You could do the heim boots like balljoint boots. Sealed and packed full of grease!

The steering components on our trucks *look* forged as well. They have stamp marks on them.

 

The heims on my swaybar endlinks have been holding up much better than I thought. The are exposed and not oiled (letting the teflons do their job as oil/ grease would stick dust and grime on. They don't use too much salt here, but they still seem tight. Now, endlinks dont see the same amount of abuse as TREs but, these are big or expensive heims I have either.

 

i am new here...but what does IFS mean?

 

IFS = independant front suspension as opposed to SAS = Single Axle Swap

 

Independant front suspension.. SAS means solid axle swap or straight axle swap.. SFA means straight front axle..and a BJ followed by the word spacers usually mean ball joint spacers

 

OK so I was close on the SAS. lol.

Oh and while I am thinking about it, no one makes beefed up halfshafts/cv's for these things right? I'm gonna need to do those too when I redo the steering.

 

They do, but they cost upwards of a grand to get an entire unit. If you want inner joints, like porche CV style, they'll run anywhere from 100 ish (thats a guess, but basically whatever you could find at a junk yard) to around 500 for chromoly

 

.. and that just moves the weak point into the diff, which is much more difficult to repair on the trail.

 

One seldom-used acronym is DFA - Dependent Front Suspension. But the solid axle guys aren't really very comfortable with that.

 

That's a really good point. I would much rather replace a cv shaft than a diff.

 

Would Installing Moog Chasis parts be considered an upgrade compared to Japanese OEM Brand, I am thinking of changing these parts:
-Outter and Inner Tierods
-Idler Arm
-Pitman Arm

I called Northwest Offroad and they quoted me the mentioned compenents with the offroad brace for the idler arm just above $400 Bucks. I've read good things about Moog and the whole mentioned parts are about $280.

So what you thinks guys Japanese OEM or Moog? Safety and Reliability are my main concern.

 

No on the moog idler arm. NWOR sells a Moog idler? I don't think so. The NWOR idler arm brace fits the moog arm? I don't think so.

FA5040 Autozone Idler arm FTW. There is a reason why SDORI only supports that arm with their bronze bushings. FYI FA5040 will not show as an application for your 88. Just ask for the part number.

God things about the Moog? Not from here I don't think. And not from anyone running anything bigger then a 31 inch tire.

 

NWOR Sells Japanese OEM replacement parts and I did a price comparision Against NWOR and Moog. NWOR parts are more expensive but apparently they are better quality compared to Moog. I am trying to find out what would be the most reliable IFS steering setup due to the fact of the steering Rod recall. Apparently Toyota fixed the relay rod in making it stronger on the OEM replacement rod.