You must be looking at the wrong kit. The Tacoma solid axle swap kit puts the hangers on the bottom of the frame. These frames are nothing like the 86-95 frames where it's easy to put the shackle hanger through the frame. The only good solution is trail-gear's tacoma frenched hanger kit but I couldn't use that because I wanted to move the axle farther forward than their kit is made for.

 

More pics.

In this first one I'm loaded down with all the old IFS, the front bumper, fab gear, etc. The rear was sagging a little bit.






Unloaded


These two were right after we finished the front and right before we started on the rear.

 

looks so sick!!great job!!

 

Gonna be an unstoppable beast when you get that front d/s and your 38's

 

Thanks guys! Just ordered a set of ford shock towers. They should fit nicely in there.

 

Sorry about that. I thought I was looking at the tacoma kit, but musta not been.

Truck looks good tho.

 

Got the truck aligned today. I knew it looked funky. I thought I set the toe at 1/8" in but the tech said it was toed out. I think my "floating" Tacoma rotors threw off the measurements some. After the alignment I got it up to 70 with no death wobble and a lot less wandering. The only vibe present is from my rear drive shaft due to a worn slip yoke. The vibe was present before the swap, though.





And before anyone says anything, I have a full tank of gas. My gauge is broken.

 

Good job, looks like its ready to bash some rocks and trees. Maybe even run down some woodland creatures....lol.

 

Thanks. I appreciate that. I can't wait to get it on the trails next weekend!


On another note: It looks like I went from a leaky piece of crap rack and pinion to a leaky less crappy gear box. It's leaking from the sector shaft. I will get with rock auto soon and see what they will do. These boxes aren't exactly plentiful so if they don't have another one to ship me ASAP I'll have them send me the sector shaft seal and tackle that myself. I've been told these boxes are a lot easier to rebuild than a Toyota box and that they don't need lots of special tools.
We'll see.
No ETA on my tracking info for the shock towers from low range, but I'm expecting them Monday or tuesday.
This Friday or Saturday I'll pick up some square tube for the front driveshaft. I'm going cheap until I can afford a Woody or High Angle. Looks like Sunday I should be able to get the driveshaft done, install the half moon plates and felts behind the knuckle (yes, they're not on right now), get the steering stops and knuckle gussets done. Would be great if I could get the shocks done Sunday also, but I'm not stressing it.
I've got 1 week until a trip to K2. Going to be tight but I'll make it happen.

 

DAMN!!!! Nice work man!

 

Finally got the shocks mounted up today.
I was given a free pair of 12" Bilstein 5125's by a good friend. They ended up being too short. Another friend of mine had a pair of 14's that were too long for his truck. We ended up doing a straight trade and we're both happy.

I drove home 20 miles on the freeway and man, the truck drove like a brand new truck again! It was awesome! I'm fully in love with this truck all over again!

The ford shock towers were perfect. No cutting the inner fenders. There is about a 5* difference in the angle of the shocks because the steering box was in the way but, that's no biggie. It won't be too hard to get the box out if/ when that ever needs to happen. I'll simply need to turn the steering shaft 90* to get at the lock-nut from above. It's all good!









This coming week I have a couple last minute things I need to do to get the truck ready for K2.
I need 1 more birfield snap ring, drive shaft hardware for the front, hardware for the halfmoons on the back of the axle, and hopefully get some front bumpstops. I've got the material for the front bumpstops but I don't have any actual bumps.
Other than that, this thing is almost 100% again!

 

Looks great!

Are the LEO's going to hassle you for having so much tire outside the wheel well/fender?

 

No, it's not an issue here. I don't even need mud flaps.

 

That thing looks great!! Always loved that bodystyle sas'd, How do you like your front brake setup so far??

 

Does your tie rod hit the pitman arm on full bump?

 

Thanks! Brakes work great! No better or worse than before.

Nope. It's nowhere close.

 

Cant wait to see some trail footage,

 

Over the past few days I had a few things left to button up before this coming weekend at K2.
I got the bumpstops, knuckle felts and wipers, steering stops, driveshaft, and birfield snap rings installed.
It's basically 100% now.
No close up pics but here are a few others from yesterday and today.



Full width probs.



Worked on getting Andy's 4Runner done tonight. His cab chop is almost done (but ready for the trail) and the hydro assist fully installed.




I'll try to get some pics up over the weekend.

 

did you get your front d/s yet?

 

Yeah, I typed that in the last post.
How else would I have been able to climb that tire?