Red Wagon

How much did it cost you?

ToyoTech559

Usually find used e lockers for 300-500. Than however much you wanna spend to regear it. I rebuilt mine with all new bearings and 4.88 gears

Red Wagon

Same gears as a normal diff? Already have 5.29's.

BlazeN8

Yeah, the Toyota E-locker uses the same gears as normal diffs you would find in V6 diffs like 4Runners and Tacomas. I bought an e-locker third for my truck ($400 but with no electronics or motor) and installed it with a Downey Cable Locker. Installing this third requires modification to the housing (1986), notching for the shift fork mechanism, tapping for (2) new studs, and denting a spot to clear the ring gear.

I am now running 315/75/R16 BFG M/Ts now. Similar in size to 35s, see earlier post and photo. I need to check out the speedo and odometer for accuracy. Like I said the odometer said 85mpg the other day but it seemed unlikely. I was following Mantruck and he said he was doing about 75. I am running a single unmodified transfer case with the stock gears. I would like to one day go with a doubler.

Here are a few photos of the Center Mount diff sub-frame I mentioned. Sub-frame is on the left, hanging bracket is on the right. I need to paint and install.

ToyoTech559

sweet center mount set up.

dark_fairytales

x2 N8

BlazeN8

Here are a few photos I took of the subframe after I painted it.









The installation was super easy! The Pro Comp Stage II 4" Drop Bracket lift is configured to use the stock front cross member and a removable rear cross member. I know Trail Master does this as well. But, SkyJacker and Superlift use an intergrated cross member that would not allow my subframe. Anyway, I lifted the loaded subframe onto my floor jack and raised it into place. Then inserted (8) stock cross member bolts. The 2" square tube (1/4" wall thickness) is slightly narrower than the stock cross member so I shimmed the extra width with washers.

To install the CVs I had to configure the ride height so that the LCAs were parallel to the floor. This meant jacking up the front and loosening the Torsion Bar Adjusting Nut then lowering till the LCAs were flat. Other than that it just slid right in. The inner Barrel assembly cleared the studs with little effort. And lastly I pulled the hubs and installed the washer and c-clip to the axle.

Last weekend I drove the Runner to Johnson Valley for the Toys for Tots Race. I was with Team Psycho and was manning the pits. I didn't pre-run or wheel the runner as the gears are not broken in. I put about 40 miles on the front diff with locked hubs in 2WD. I put it in 4WD for about 5 miles up a mellow wash to get back to the road.

On the drive home (hubs unlocked / 2WD) I was on the 15 freeway doing about 70 up a grade when it felt like I was loosing power. Cruise control bogged down and it just felt sluggish. I pulled over and checked it over. No leaks, thats good! But, I put my hand on the rear diff and it was hot. Couldn't keep my hand on it for more than 2-3 seconds. Anyway, I continued on and it was mostly downhill from there so power was back. Tuesday I drained the break in gear oil and it looked good. It was still somewhat light in color and normal. There was minimal metal in the magnetic drain plug. Must have been the grade and a head wind as its behaving normal now.

Red Wagon

What about the angle of the front driveshaft? Did you have to change anything from the tcase?

What CV's did you use?

How much more travel will you get compared to when I place my order and do my install? Will I have binding issues without a diff drop?

If this works will you sell it as a kit?

BlazeN8

Good Questions! But most of this I covered earlier in the thread. Anyway see below in Italic Bold for a quick reply.

BlazeN8

Here are some pictures of the components installed.

ToyoTech559

that is awesome. looks like i need a bracket lift for my LT but wonder if i can do it with a 8 inch elocker for the front hehe

BlazeN8

An E-locker with an 8" Ring Gear would be the way to go! I was thinking maybe a custom center section to fit the third member into might be possible. Maybe Diamond axle housing could build something super narrow and then RCD could build CVs to plug into it. This sounds like some serious coin to me.

My second choice would be to get a Supra 8" rear assembly like my friend Arron over at Drift Motion is working on. Its on a back burner and I think the pilot light blew out over a year ago so not sure what is going on. I know he had an open diff and an LSD. He was needing the Supra stub axles set up to work with the T-100 CV bolt circle pattern. He was needing something like a wheel adaptor custom machined to get it to all fit. Then he was looking at a custom Porshe CV. Anyway again the price tag was becoming astronomical.

I followed Cassidy's lead on using the 7.5 diff for financial concerns as well as parts availability. I had a couple of 7.5 diffs sitting around and getting more is easy; heck salvage yards can't even give them away! Modification to the housing to accept the stub axle is easy. The first time I took everything apart and took it to a machine shop to have the housing milled .225. The second time I had the assembly apart for re-gearing, but this time I used an angle grinder. If your not wanting to disassemble I'd just unbolt the axle tube, plug the hole with a wet rag and go at it with an angle grinder. Take off about 1/4" Then take the snap ring off the stub axle and check for clearances; its not that critical to be precise. When its clears put the snap ring back on and pop the stub axle back on.

If you look at the 7.5" and the 8" ring gear side by side 1/2" on a diameter is nothing! I run the 7.5" with a Detroit Truetrack LSD with Mustang power and its held up since 1998. I'd think a ARB Air Locker would be just as nice as an E-locker. To me its a budget solution and a simple solution as parts are available. But, my custom length inner CV axle shaft was a price issue at $600.

I think cutting a stock shaft and then to sleeve it is a possible alternative? However, I saw on Cassidy's thread the CVs he sleeved twisted up like a candy cane! On another note, I was watching Truck You on TV the other day and they were installing a LT kit on a full size Dodge "the Ram Runner" and the LT kit MFG supplied a sleeve to lengthen the stock axle? I had always been told sleeving an axle doesn't work. Then again seeing is believing and my friend had sleeved CVs for years on a Full sized Chevy! I am going to look into having custom machined sleeves made with a thick wall and propper I.D. s and holes notched for plug welding. Maybe this could be the price solution?

BlazeN8

A group of SoCal locals are going for a day run at Pilot Rock tomorrow, Sunday Dec. 23rd. Meeting at the McDonalds at 10AM, Its off the 15 freeway and 138. Cell Phone number to contact me is on the Blazeland.us website.

ToyoTech559

i been keeping an eye out for a 7.5 IFS Diff with 4.88 and ARB. a few years back i found a few old post selling what i wanted for 500$... where was i back than lol

BlazeN8

Seems to me they should be out there! Think of how many dudes build their IFS rig only to pull the plug and go SAS.

ToyoTech559

that is what im hoping for haha

BlazeN8

Today I was checking out some tire fitment ideas on the 4Runner and my 1985. The 1985s tires are getting worn out and old. One of the rear tires is so old its developing deep cracks. In some of the cracks you can see the steel belt. I am also wanting to step up to 35s on the truck so I tried them out. Then I was thinking it would be cool to mount some 35s on my original factory mags. It looked good and really sucked in the track width being a 7" rim with a deep backspace. I think its a 4-1/2" backspace but I'll have to measure. The clearances looked good.

1985

4Runner on SR-5 Rim

BlazeN8

While I was swapping tires around I had the 4 Runner siting on my old shop rollers that I also used for smog dyno before the 5.29 gears. I'm thinking of selling these rollers. If someone had a monster crawler and needed to stuff it into their toy hauler these would be handy. Tires are 255/70/R15 That's close to the same diameter as what came stock 235/75/R15 just wider. The rim is a 15 x 8 so it needs a wider tire. Rim backspace is 4"

4Runner on Rollers

BlazeN8

I installed a new Idler Arm Brace this afternoon. You can read about it on this thread-
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f37/...l#post52016171

I also started a build thread about my other rigs, it can be found here-
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f198...thread-263221/

BlazeN8

I finally did some work on the 4 Runner's rear suspension. Due to budget constraints and lack of ambition as well as just plain lazyness, I decided to delay Long Travel rear leaf springs. I ran across some easy to bolt in SkyJacker 4" Lift leaf springs super cheap on craigslist. They were brand new, they never installed them and sold his 4 Runner. His loss my gain! Part number for these is TR40S. I am needing a total of 6"of lift so I supplemented the springs with some shackles and lift blocks.

I removed the existing spring pack, a factory leaf with Deaver Mini-pack replacing the overload, the 3.5" lift blocks, and the 8" shackles. I set everything coming out next to that which is going in for comparison. Going in are 1-1/2" lift blocks I had from a previous build. The new shackles are ones I made from factory hardware with new 1/4" x 2" HRS side plates cut to length. They are 6" eye to eye. I decided not to build the tubular ones like before as the shorter length is acceptable length for flat stock, I hope!