DocJohnson

I have been kicking around the idea doing an SAS and have started noticing some wear on my IFS. So instead of rebuilding the IFS for $800 (doing labor myself) I decided to swap it. I found an axle for $300 out of an 82 pickup and a local scrap yard, the only axle I have found in the last 3 months in driving distance. I want to do the swap so I can lift the truck, it's cool, and I need to rebuild the whole front end anyway. BTW, it's a daily driver...

Some questions I have, I have 2" ball joint spacers on it now, but I am aiming for another 8" of lift, so my goal is between 8 and 10 inches final over stock. I will run hi steer setup but what spings do I need to source, preferably from the salvage yard. He will throw in the factory Toyota front springs for an extra $50 but I don't think they will get me the lift I want. Could I use them as the primary springs and add some leaves from something like an S10? I'm not looking for flex so much as lift. It's a daily driver that I put 4,000 miles in last year, most of which was back and forth to the deer lease. I ride my motorcycle every chance I can and any out of town trips we go in the wife's 17 grand Cherokee. My immediade concern is wether or not to get the springs with the axle or just the axle? Ill sort out the rear later. It should be relatively simple.

And this will be my first vehicle to lift but I have lifted ATVs and built, rebuilt a ton of trailers.

old87yota

Now, I am no expert on lifts, but 8 to 10 inches is pretty darn tall, especially for a daily driver.

Stock springs will not give you that height, even with helper springs. Stock springs are designed for stock height so I would not get the factory springs. Plus the stock springs are probably worn out by now.

The taller you lift a vehicle, the less stable it will be. Driveline angles would be a pretty large concern as well.

I will let others who know lifts for these trucks give you the specifics.

DocJohnson

After some more research I think you are right. It looks like an SAS in general adds 5.5 to 6 inches over stock which will be 4 over where I am now. I'm good with that. My current plan (subjest to change) is to get some 90 model f150 springs for the rear and if I need to use blocks or long shackles to match the front. I will use the yota rears on the front axle and if they say too much I may add some leaves from some S10 springs I have laying around.

First things first though, I tore the axle down last night and it has 4.37's. my truck is supposed to have 4.10s factory. I'm running 31 inch tires and my speedo is perfect according to GPS. This means that either I don't have 4.10s or someone changed the speedo gear in the trans.

I've done a ton of research on gearing vs tire size and I think I have settled on 4.56s and 35s. Everyone else seems to run 4.88s with 35s but according to ratio calculators 4.56s with 35s will keep the speedometer correct IF the truck currently has 4.10s with the 31s. My next step is to verify the current ratio in the truck.

I haven't searched yet (forgive the unpardonable sin) but is there a way to tell the ratio from the speedo gear in the tcase? I know the flange on the third should be painted and color coded but if it was swapped the paint could be wrong.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Are you asking of you can tell the ratio of your diffs from the speedo gear? If so no.
if you mean can you swap out speedo gears...not that I have heard or seen. I use a GPS for my speedometer...even though my 94 with 5.29's, a340H and 35's is pretty close.

building a hybrid spring pack- getting the 6" lift you are looking for with used springs in my opinion is gonna be a crap shoot. I totally respect do the budget build. Hence why I recycled axles, springs etc from my old 81 project.
by the time you hit the boneyard for various springs out of unknown history trucks and taking them apart and building your own spring packs you might end up upset. Because it looks good when you first put the weight of the truck on the springs but 30 days later the springs have settled a few inches and you are back to square one.
using the stock length 83 springs as your main leaf sounds good but trying to get thr arch you are looking for on a 35+ year old spring (it's probably already negatively arched because of sagging, especially drivers side) you are prone ly gonna see a broken main leaf sooner than later.

another thing to consider is that it is recommended not to re-use u bolts on your springs because they stretch.
you say you aren't worried about flex, you might look on Ebay and find a set of lift springs semi cheap. But the ride quality might be like riding in a backboard wagon.
I think you would be time, money and less frustration ahead sucking it up and using new springs.
I have using 12 year old trail gear 4" springs from my old truck on my 94 and they are working .

gearing: dunno where you came up with 4.88's for 35's but for 30 years of driving Toyotas and putting them together conventional wisdom had been
4.88's for 33's
5.29's for 35's
The difference between your stock gears and 4.56's with 35's would be not be worth the time, $$$ and effort to swap in my opinion
Run you VIN through 4crawlers decoder.
high probability you truck came stock with 4.37s
https://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ToyVIN.shtml

DocJohnson

My 88 axle code is for 4.10s per the firewall plate. The 82ish straight axle I acquired has 4.37s. I guess the only way for sure to tell is to pull the third and count teeth, then go from there. If it is in fact 4.10s I'm okay with how it handles the 31s. I strongly suspect it isn't stock though.

DocJohnson

I just verified the axle ratio. I jacked one rear tire up and spun it 20 times. The driveshaft spun 41 times. Accounting for the open differential, 41 driveshaft rotations decided by 10 axle rotations means 4.10 gears.

So, confirmed 4.10 gears, 31" tires and an accurate speedometer means this truck must have had factory 31's? Didn't know that was an option on the 4cyl 5 speeds..

DocJohnson

I have decided to run the IFS hubs and brakes. I understand that I need to use FJ rotors and the IFS calipers and either space the rotor or drill and tap the caliper.

My question is this though, will the IFS locking mechanism mesh with the axle splines or will that require some conversion parts?

DocJohnson

So, I got my the salvage yard where I used to work (3hours from where I live now) and scored a 4.10 e locker and the axle shafts. Wish I could have gotten the whole housing because it would make fitment a little easier. I also got a 4.56 third member from a v6 4 runner. My plan is to toss it in the front axle and get on with rebuilding it. I will get some 4.56s and swap into the E Locker for the rear. Of course I will need to either source a housing or modify mine. Still no springs at this time. Probably gonna go with f150 rears and move the Toyota rears to the front.