Thanks rattlewagon. I'm sure you're right. I'm on my way out to yank the axle as I type this.

 

Nice work on steering box install, and hi-steer, its looking good! Look forward to seeing the front axel back in and all finished up!

 

Thanks Ed. Got the axle out today but had to shut down for the day to get ready for work. Hope to get back on it in the morn

 

Pic of the axle out and my redneck engineering to get it out.

 

Sweet!!!keep the pics comin

 

Thanks feller. I've made a lil more progress this week but have been slacking with updates. Got a busy weekend coming up but hopefully can be back at it next week.

 

Great work. Definitely need more pics!!

 

Couple more pics for ya.

I started tearing down the axle this week. I've only got so far as to get the knuckles off.
I went to the in law's yesterday and snagged the ifs knuckles off my parts truck. Everybody keeps saying the cone washers are a pain to get out and I thought they were crazy cuz I haven't been having any trouble with them.....Til I got to the passenger side on my parts truck lol. I bet I fought getting the lockout off for close to an hour. And I broke 3 of the studs off when I took the nuts off so those should be fun to replace. Oh well, if it was easy everybody would do it haha. Today I'm picking up rotors for a 97 tacoma so hopefully I'll have most off the parts to swap the ifs hubs on. That's all for now.

 

Yea do yourself a favor and use a big brass punch on them cone washers for the lockouts as well as the steering arms,you just smack the head of the stud and it doesn't destroy the stud but jars the crud loose to get the washers to break free.if you need any help on the axle I took pretty good pics on my SAS build.great work,I'll be interested in what hubs and brakes you use.

 

By the way great job on mounting your steering box,glad I didn't have to mess with that on mine,also on the inner axle seals scuba made a nifty I stall tool out ta PVC on his SAS thread.

 

Thats a good tip. I ended up using a ball pein hammer on the cast part of the hub(not the lockout part) and smacked it with a 2 lb hammer. Seemed to work well enough. If i remember correctly others have used 97 tacoma rotors with ifs calipers so that's the plan at this point.

 

Also to break the cone washers loose, I loosen the nut on the stud and take another nut and screw it flush with the stud. It gives it more support and protects the stud from mushrooming.

 

Nice updates. Are you going to swap in an IFS rearend too, or you already running one, can't remember. Look forward to your progress!

 

Thanks Terry. Another good tip!

 

Already got the ifs rearend in it. Need to go thru it also. At the very least it needs a pinion seal. Thinking I'm gonna weld up the third member since I've got a spare from the original rearend that way I don't have much downtime if the welded one were to fail.

 

Only thing is if the welded one fails it might destroy your axle housing,but will probably be fine.

 

Couple photo updates. Progress has been slow lately but I have the front axle out and stripped down. Been collecting a few parts to put it back together slowly but surely.

Here's the axle stripped down and painted.
And last weekend we took dad's figure 8 car to the iowa state fair for their annual fair race. He ended up winning the whole thing! Very proud of him.

 

Nice work on the front axel, its looking good! That's cool a out your dad winning the race, looks like a lot of fun!

 

Thanks Ed. I'm hoping to make some progress this weekend. Ya, my old man is a crazy old fart lol.

 

That is great your dad is still active in racing. My front axle rebuild days are coming. Leaking like a sieve.