SWEET! Will this be the first time wheeling w/ a locker?
The thread of The Frank (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Springs505
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- Thread starter
- #142
Yep. I've never wheeled anything with a locker. I've been impressed by the 80 without it. Hopefully, the road manners will not suffer too much and it will get me to some new places.
The road manners will change a little but not to bad. Your truck will be WAY more capable! You will love how much better it will be off road.
My first truck w/ a locker was an 87 4runner. Stock height on 31's. it was a night and day difference! You're going to love it!
My first truck w/ a locker was an 87 4runner. Stock height on 31's. it was a night and day difference! You're going to love it!
The lunchbox locker really won't be super noticeable unless you really power through a corner on the pavement. I had one in my 87 4Runner and it was unnoticeable. It may affect the rear tire wear a bit if you do gas it hard in corners since the inside tire will try to rotate as fast as the outside. You'll appreciate it though. Especially on tutted trails like Eagle Rock.
- Thread starter
- #147
Thanks for the input, guys. I don't think its gonna be terrible on the road, but from what I can see, it's going to be a little less transparent on a full-time 4wd rig than on a part time rig. I'm getting things buttoned up now, and I will probably test drive this afternoon.
- Thread starter
- #148
Got the locker install all buttoned up. I put about 10 miles on the truck around the neighborhood and on powers, and I didn't get any bad behavior. I can feel it ratcheting when I go to pull in and out of my curved driveway and when parking, but no popping or anything major. I am happy so far and can't wait to get it onto the trail.
I also rebuilt my power steering pump and flushed the fluid. The rebuild only took about 45 minutes and I would definitely recommend going this route over replacing the pump, assuming that my rebuild holds up fine. I didn't take pictures of the whole process, but here is a shot of the pump during reassembly:
I also rebuilt my power steering pump and flushed the fluid. The rebuild only took about 45 minutes and I would definitely recommend going this route over replacing the pump, assuming that my rebuild holds up fine. I didn't take pictures of the whole process, but here is a shot of the pump during reassembly:
- Thread starter
- #149
I finished up my roof rack build and LED light install:
The roof rack is built from Conduit and Unistrut. The rear area of the rack has Unistrut cross members and is built strong/rigid so that I can strap gear, fuel cans, etc back there. The front half of the rack has minimal structure and is mostly there so that I have a place for lighting. I fabricated the gutter towers from .135 steel, and I'm pretty happy with how they ended up. I wouldn't mount a RTT to this, since the front half of the rack is not very strong, but I wouldn't hesitate to stand on the rear portion of the rack or to travel with 100+ pounds of gear back there.
The roof rack is built from Conduit and Unistrut. The rear area of the rack has Unistrut cross members and is built strong/rigid so that I can strap gear, fuel cans, etc back there. The front half of the rack has minimal structure and is mostly there so that I have a place for lighting. I fabricated the gutter towers from .135 steel, and I'm pretty happy with how they ended up. I wouldn't mount a RTT to this, since the front half of the rack is not very strong, but I wouldn't hesitate to stand on the rear portion of the rack or to travel with 100+ pounds of gear back there.
Fitzgerald
Hey! Where'd the mountians go?!?!?
Looks great man. Feels like a night run is in order.
- Thread starter
- #152
I have a blast wheeling at night. I'm just about always up for a night run!
Where did you think I was going to put the light bar?
Never know with you, you're a pretty creative guy. Especially since you have access to machines and CAD.
- Thread starter
- #155
Thanks, Leon.
My clicky birfs have been making me more and more nervous about the trip to Moab, so I think a proper front axle rebuild is in order:
Overhaul kit with koyo bearings from Cruiser outfitters
![IMAG0827[1].jpg](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' width='721' height='1280' viewBox%3D'0 0 721 1280'%2F%3E "IMAG0827[1].jpg")
Trail Gear ring gear armor
Some of you may remember my previous birfield removal shenanigans. The classic pipe trick just won't work to separate my inners from the birfs. I made a custom tool to press the inner off of the birfield:
When this didn't work, I used the same tool with my bottle jack. The jack mechanism started slipping after applying considerable pressure. I can't believe that this didn't get the stinkin thing apart.
My clicky birfs have been making me more and more nervous about the trip to Moab, so I think a proper front axle rebuild is in order:
Overhaul kit with koyo bearings from Cruiser outfitters
Trail Gear ring gear armor
Some of you may remember my previous birfield removal shenanigans. The classic pipe trick just won't work to separate my inners from the birfs. I made a custom tool to press the inner off of the birfield:
When this didn't work, I used the same tool with my bottle jack. The jack mechanism started slipping after applying considerable pressure. I can't believe that this didn't get the stinkin thing apart.
- Thread starter
- #157
It turns out all I needed was my trusty angle grinder:
Even after cutting the race apart and removing the inner with the star still attached, I couldn't remove the star from the inner...More cutting.
The star (top edge in pic) was mauled from all of the attempts to bang this thing apart. I think the PO used the wrong type of c clip to hold this in. This thing was never going to come apart in the usual fashion. Unfortunately, the drivers side seems to be the same way. The birfields have wear on both sides of the bearing surfaces, so I think that they had already been swapped from side to side before I got the truck.
The splines have some marring from my attempts to separate and from other stuff the PO must have done. Fortunately, the portion of the splines that transfer torque to the birf are straight and in good condition. I'm going to file the distorted parts and reuse the inner shafts. Nitro replacement birfields are on the way.
Even after cutting the race apart and removing the inner with the star still attached, I couldn't remove the star from the inner...More cutting.
The star (top edge in pic) was mauled from all of the attempts to bang this thing apart. I think the PO used the wrong type of c clip to hold this in. This thing was never going to come apart in the usual fashion. Unfortunately, the drivers side seems to be the same way. The birfields have wear on both sides of the bearing surfaces, so I think that they had already been swapped from side to side before I got the truck.
The splines have some marring from my attempts to separate and from other stuff the PO must have done. Fortunately, the portion of the splines that transfer torque to the birf are straight and in good condition. I'm going to file the distorted parts and reuse the inner shafts. Nitro replacement birfields are on the way.
- Thread starter
- #158
Bret, I was thinking about doing the martack, but I did buy new c clips. I have been trying to decide if there is any disadvantage to doing this, and so far, I can't think of any.
For anyone who doesn't know...Martack is a tack weld placed near the end of the interior splines on the inner axle. The tack weld stops the inner axle from sliding too far into the differential, and makes it unnecessary to use the c clip inside the birfield. The big advantage is that if you break a birfield on the trail, you can replace or remove it with less trouble.
- Thread starter
- #160
The axle rebuild is all done. This was a messy job. Plan on 6 tubes of moly grease, 1 tub of wheel bearing grease, 4 rolls of paper towels...you get the idea: messy. A few shots and a tech tip:
Both of my birf's ended up being stuck on the inner axles. The right side had a larger c-clip installed and was never going to come out. The left side had only about 1/3 of the c-clip in the groove. Needless to say, the PO or his mechanic kinda screwed me. New Nitro Birfield, below. I knocked the ABS tone ring off with a brass drift, since it's not needed on a FJ80, and I wasn't sure if it would interfere with anything:
New bearings and seal installed on the hub. A seal puller would be helpful to remove the old seal here and on the axle housing. I hammered the old bearing races out with a brass drift, cleaned things up, and installed the new parts:
Tech tip...After removing the wheel bearing races, you can turn them into a tool to install new races by cutting a slit in each of them with a die grinder. That way, they will slide in and out of the hub freely and you can hit the old races with a hammer to dirve the new races in without marring them:
I'm glad this is done, and everything seems good(No clicking!! ) in my road testing so far. I'm calling this a 
job.
Both of my birf's ended up being stuck on the inner axles. The right side had a larger c-clip installed and was never going to come out. The left side had only about 1/3 of the c-clip in the groove. Needless to say, the PO or his mechanic kinda screwed me. New Nitro Birfield, below. I knocked the ABS tone ring off with a brass drift, since it's not needed on a FJ80, and I wasn't sure if it would interfere with anything:
New bearings and seal installed on the hub. A seal puller would be helpful to remove the old seal here and on the axle housing. I hammered the old bearing races out with a brass drift, cleaned things up, and installed the new parts:
Tech tip...After removing the wheel bearing races, you can turn them into a tool to install new races by cutting a slit in each of them with a die grinder. That way, they will slide in and out of the hub freely and you can hit the old races with a hammer to dirve the new races in without marring them:
I'm glad this is done, and everything seems good(
No clicking!! ) in my road testing so far. I'm calling this a job.
