Hello all, I just recently bought a 1990 4runner with a 3.0 V6. I have been told by a buddy of mine that I should do a solid axle swap on it and I was just wondering what the positives and negatives are.

 

Ask your buddy why it's a good idea.

 

Do you go wheeling a lot? Plan to run over a 35" tire with lockers? do some reading and find out if its right for you and what youll be using the truck for. The IFS is very capable for every day use.

 

X2

Expensive mod for a cool factor.

 

My 88 IFS was worn. To replace all the bushings would have been a chore. I had a solid axle I was kinda saving. The SAS was an easy choice.

 

I had my 4runner stock for a little while, eventually decided i wanted to lift the truck to run bigger tires. Went with a 4" ifs lift and land crusier coils out back and hated how it rode, it was downright sketchy with those rear coils.

After that i decided to straight axle it and i actually preferred how it rode over the ifs lifted pile of garbage i had under there. It was still somewhat sketchy when wheeling until i cut off all the rear suspension and swapped leaf springs in there.

There are a lot of little tips/suggestions i could give if you decide to build your runner.

With that said, i think the best modification i have done to my 4runner is the dual cases, that was worth every penny, but at the same time, so was the lockers, and the sas and everything else.

 

I was bored one day, SAC'd it....meh...

 

One day..it seemed like it was a few days

You bought a 4Runner with what some would consider to be toyota's worst idea when it comes to an engine.

My recommendation to you is before you consider suspension work, make sure that your 3.0 V6 is up to snuff before you dump cash into something your friend told you to do.

 

X2. Or swap it to something better

 

Which part? The SAC part or the everything else part??


Also, the 3.0 is a totally solid motor......for a boat anchor.

 

Well its gonna be my daily driver. So I think I might just keep the coils. But yeah the 3.0 is the worst motor Toyota put in. Its actually getting torn apart right now because it has a dead cylinder(#3). I might just put a solid axle in the back and run coils in the front

 

Yeah.... mmmm.... it already has a solid axle in rear.

 

Muddpigg is correct.
take a peak at the back axle, did you mean convert the rear coil/link suspension to leafs?

Front suspension on it is torsion bar...

edit- so what was your buddy's response when you asked him why you should SAS or SAC your 4Runner?

 

"Muddpigg is correct.
take a peak at the back axle, did you mean convert the rear coil/link suspension to leafs?

Front suspension on it is torsion bar...

edit- so what was your buddy's response when you asked him why you should SAS or SAC your 4Runner?"


I might keep the coils in the back because I don't offroad a lot. I just wanna know if its worth putting the leafs in if I am gonna be driving on the highway pretty much everyday.

 

If your not going to off road a lot why do a SAS??
Why change anything suspension wise?

 

For the Mall crawler look

 

I've searched some stuff and I might actually put coilovers instead of leafs. Being my daily driver I don't want to put a lot of money into a cool setup if I am only going to offroading occasionally

 

Coils = control arms = $$$$$ to install? Stick with leaf springs. Just sayin.

 

if you are only going off road occasionally why do you feel the urge to SAS?
You can set up the IFS to wheel comfortably and still retain great road manners.

Who is going to do the swap for you? A poorly done swap can kill any reasonable road manners your truck may have now.

 

I have a friend who owns a shop that I might have do it. I would do it myself but I dont know how to weld. Dropzone, the reason is that I want to be able to run 33s and I want a small lift like a 2" or 3" lift and ive read that the IFS lifts are crap. That's why I am thinking about doing a SAS