Just some generic water tight plugs i picked up from autozone.

 

Was able to use the factory grommet for the power and fuel level unit wires. Which was good cause in the beginning i wasn't sure i would get through the floor without drilling a hole which i really did not want to do. In the rear of the frame through one of the factory cut outs i was able to send a fish tape up through and up the the frame and managed to get it out the other end. Taped my wire too it and pulled them right back through the frame and came out right next to my gas tank.

For now this is my fill, not really a fan of it on looks and the functionality aspect. It does have a slight grade too it which forces fuel to get trapped at the 90 bend and then the air forced out of the tank when filling must go through the 1/4" vent which takes forever and drastically restricts how fast im able to fill the tank. In the futur i plan on cutting a hole in the rear quater panel directly in line and above the fill on the tank and just using a filler neck and cap from a jeep

 

Something else i finally did after years of putting it off. The short shifter on my tacoma trans would always hit the twin sticks if they were in low and i tried to go in reverse. So i would have to pull the stick back to high go in reverse if needed then put it back in neutral so i could go back into Low. I took the sticks off the Tcase and put it in vise. Cut 1.250" out of it then welded it back grinded the weld down and featherd the bend back into it with a soft pack.

 

With the tank in and wired up and took it for a test drive yesterday i could instantly hear a difference in it how it ran just at idle. It no longer was struggling to stay running at idle from the injectors just having too much volume of fuel behind them. The exhaust no longer smells nearly as rich and no more black sut or occasional smoke from fuel. Idles better, revs are better and have more of a snap to it. Huge difference, Very happy i finally did the swap.

 

Decided to take care of axle swap in the rear with winter coming to a end. But first i will take care of the front. This is a complete fj80 factory elocker front axle. I will take this third member out and modify my stock 84 front axle housing to accept it I dont wanna use this complete axle strictly cause of the width. When i do the rear axle im thinking it will be closer to factory late 80's IFS width anyways. So the front and rear will still match by going this route

 

Using the Hp third member gasket it gave me a template on where i needed to grind in order for it to atleast fit into my housing. The paper was just to help catch the pile of shavings and save cleaning down the road.
The inside needed to be slightly modified as well. The carried bolt was hitting inside the housing. I dropped it in and pulled probly a dozen times. The grease was to help me identify points of contact. I did end up grinding through the housing very very slightly. No big deal small patch.

The patch is just 2x1/4" flat bar. I did a light trace for size then heated it red hot in vice and then bent and slightly formed it to match the inverted curve of the housing. OInce i was happy with the bend i did some light grinding on edges to help the fit. Before welding i did put some Jb weld over the whole. Once cured i did some light sanding on it then proceeded with patch.I spent a total of 45mins welding the piece in. Made very certain not to overheat the area from welding. Every half inch of welding i let it sit for about 10mins with fan on it. Once welded featherd it in with a soft pack disk then more Jb weld as a filler. Sanded that down then done and ready for paint.

 

 

In white is where the housing needed clearence. In red is holes that need to be drilled and taped. The corner hole above the straight edge on right and below i needed to weld just a little bit to add metal then fade it to the mounting surface. They were very slightly off the original mounting surface. The threads are M8 x 1.25 pitch, 17/64 drill bit was used

 

 

Light sand blasting and quick wipe down with acetone then some paint. On my frame i used por-15 which is great but gery time consuming on proper prep and a little more expensive. I've had great results with rust-oleum brush on so that's what the axle got.

 

While that paint was curing i went through these used 3inch trail gear springs i picked up. I would like to lower the runner overall slightly. So i picked up a low profile front spring hanger as well. The leaf springs i pulled apart, put new pads between the leafs and a light coating of greas all over to help them resettle with out making a bunch of racket

 

Axle hub gasket and grille clips part# just for future reference

 

Nothing big but while housing was empty I did get rid of the factory studs that hold diff in place. I wasn't spending $45 on bolts and nuts for the "diff studd eliminator kit" from trail-gear. They have good products but I just think 85% of what they sell is ridiculously over priced. Went to hardware store picked up button head stainless steel bolts for $20 M8 x 1.25 is the thread for them.

The holes i drilled while diff was in place. Removed the locker actuator to make room for the drill on the studs. To keep the center dead on and holes straight guy off FB said he had used 5/16 brake line as a sleeve on the dif holes and then drilled. I had 5/16 stainless fuel line which fit perfectly. Cut a 3inch piece then had to slightly drill out the i.d of it to accommodate the 17/64 drill bit.

 

Nice update, did the same on my front axle with an 80 locker.
trailgear should be cheaper considering they steal so many other ideas from smaller vendors. I try to avoid them when I can.
Just a suggestion, make sure you have 10.8 bolts for the diff. Regular 8.8 rating is probably not recommended for the diff bolts. 10.8 should be closest to an SAE grade 8 bolt strength.

 

Nice!, once I decided to go this route I was suprised how many people how i found had already done the hp locker swap. I've had the high pinion open diff in it for couple years now. Had to take a break, was putting axle together this morning. For whatever reason the short shaft does not wanna go all the way home. Spent 45mins just on the passenger side with no success. Usually it's the driver side that fights me which slid right in this time.

 

Finally got it, pulled the actuator off and looked inside housing. Stuck a screwdriver in and picked up just a little and fell right into place. Apparently the locker side of these are not tapered at the splines so it doesn't align itself into place as easily.

 

Pulled this bolt out and brought it to a friend who had a countersink bit.

Threads are M8x1.25 pitch

Not a hair to spare here on room between the leaf pack

 

Cut the old trail gear front bracket off. This low profile hanger raises the mounting for the front of the leaf spring 1inch which will help bring bring my ride height down just a little.
The springs I'm using are already worn in pretty good so setting the shackle angle I just kind of winged so to say. I brought the bracket forward past vertical to about 6-7°. I wanted more forward for the bracket placement but didn't want to cause of the angle. I tacked it in place then set the weight back on springs. Which gave me about 25° angle with 5inch shackles. Felt that was good enough welded it out.
Welded the front sides completely and the tabs torwards the middle you see. Then did a 2pass the width of the frame on the backside of bracket as well. I didnt want to go overboard with welding to keep it a bit easier to cut off for whatever reason in longterm future. Once welded, cleaned up a 2 coats of paint

 

 

While axle was out i did clean these up and gave them some paint as well. The tie rod ends i figured might as well replace while everything is out. Trail gear has them for $30 a piece, went on Rockauto and picked up four AcDelco's instead for $18 each.