Anyone have any thoughts on pros and cons of doing am SAS on a first gen (IFS) 4runner vs finding an 84 or 85 that already has a solid front axle?

My 85 4runner was stolen a couple of year ago and never recovered. I still have an 87 SR5 in my driveway that needs a bunch of work (engine, brakes, wheels, paint, possibly tranny, basically everything...)

I'm debating going through the whole truck and SAS-ing it vs getting rid of it and looking for an 85 in better shape.

Any thoughts on pros/cons or either? Is there any advantage in getting an 85 with a factory SFA vs doing an SAS other than the work involved?

 

-The stock SFA will ride lower, providing a more stable ride.
-You're axles would be the same width with a stock SFA.

..that's about all I can think of apart from the labor involved.

 

The factory will also be push pull steering versus high steer. That's swappable tho.. SAS will move you forward a bit to allow better clearance. Once again you can do that to a factory one to. Alot of people do the SAS because they know exactly how they want there axle set up... But you can achieve the same stuff as a SASed truck with a factory SA.

 

Stock solif axle is better. The frame has a higher kick. To get a well performing setup takes the same amount of work besides removing the IFS subframe. Is it worth paying the premium for a stock solid axle vehicle? You decide.

 

is the '87 2wd, or is it ifs? because I think that the frames might be different(?), with the 2wd actually being more desireable for sas in some aspects... better research that, I don't know for sure.

the first question is maybe how far do you want to go, because if you are doing a hard core crawler, you are going to be seriously altering everything anyway, including spring mounts, steering box location, etc.

if hard core is the goal... Toyota 4wd front axle housings are weak sauce, so you'll be looking at an 80 series housing, or aftermarket housing, which further mitigates the advantage of an '85 4wd... want 37" tires? you'll probably have to do serious hacking to fender well area of the cab, or move the axle way up, which is what I did... no advantage to an '85 there.

 

I haven't examined the 2wd frame, so I cannot comment on that. For the 4x4s, with the 79-85, the frame is the only real advantage, everything else will be redone anyways...

 

"
Without a doubt, I will never buy a 4wd truck to start with again. Most 2wd's up here are much cleaner, have less rust, are owned by 80 year old men, and have much lower resale value. PERFECT!

The 2WD chassis is by far a much better building platform if you want to stay lower. If you plan on running a standard SAS kit with 35's or bigger, not really a problem then. But it is nearly impossible without reworking the frame rails to make an SAS 4WD chassis this low."
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/toyot...e-2wd-sas.html

 

a few people I have met that do some really good fab work have told me they would never convert another IFS frame to SA since they end up sitting up higher (with out frenching the front hanger into the frame), the route I will go if I ever get a 'newer' truck

One would prefer to use a 2WD frame.

 

my '86 was sas'd before I got it, but I haven't looked into what the frame originally was.. the front hanger is not frenched.

there are Toyota factory dimensional drawings on the 'net, with the measurements... one of the things that I recall seeing was that the 2wd frame box was an 1" shorter(top to bottom cross section), which would make it weaker than a 4wd frame, if that is indeed true, however it would also be lighter... that 1" or so is where you get the lower ride height(?)

 

Prior to '90, there were no 2wd 4Runners I know of. After that, 2wd and 4wd 'Runners shared the same chassis / frame, and that lead to the "Pre-Runner" trucks.

The IFS 4wd trucks and IFS 4Runners had the torsion bars attached to the upper control arms and the 2wd trucks had the torsion bars attached to the lower control arms. The 2wd 4Runners and "Pre-Runner" trucks had the torsion bars attached to the upper control arms like the 4wd did.

 

so the o.p.'s "87 4Runner 22RE SR5" is going to be ifs, and i'm off on a 2wd tangent, lol

thanks for the info.