Builds 86 Xtra Cab Build (4Wheelunderground 3 link front, 4 link rear and 3.4 swap) (6 Viewers)

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And this is what I did. The housing is painted with Rust-Oleum hammered gray. Almost looks galvanized. I painted with a brush and added hardener. I like it. No doubt it's a Toyota axle.
I'm still not done with the logo. Almost. The red and white lines look really crooked in the pic. Must be the light and curves of the housing. Weird.

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And this is what I did. The housing is painted with Rust-Oleum hammered gray. Almost looks galvanized. I painted with a brush and added hardener. I like it. No doubt it's a Toyota axle.
I'm still not done with the logo. Almost. The red and white lines look really crooked in the pic. Must be the light and curves of the housing. Weird.

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Love it! Big fan of that rustoleum that gave you the galvanized look.
 
Today I put the finishing touches on my Toyota logo. I don't know how long it will hold up but I really like the look. I also measured the axle center and marked it. For setting my panhard bar.

I cleaned and painted a bunch of the parts. I should be able to start putting it together soon.

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I had to cut 3/4" off both rod ends to maximize space. I still have full thread engagement.

I just bought a generic 1 1/4" tubing clamp, made a bracket and welded it on.

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Great Idea cutting the ends off the rods ends !!
 
I'm not sure why but I don't get notifications of new posts or updates. I have be watching this thread from the start but I always have to go look for it 🤷‍♂️

Nice work thanks for posting
 
That inch and a half made it fit in the room I had.
I'm trying to get a longer ram to fit on my reg to get back some missing turning angle. this trick well help me with the packaging.
 
Today I setup the driver side knuckle and started test fitting the 2010- up 4Runner brakes.

Sky's Off Road bracket comes with no instructions but it does say machining 3mm from the caliper is necessary. So here's what I found out so far on the install.

The spindle fits to the knuckle with a gasket like normal. Usually the backing plate or the backing plate eliminator goes on next, followed by the seal.

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The backing plate eliminator isn't needed. The seal doesn't fit in it's place so I can only guess that the bracket goes on the spindle.

EDIT: The backing plate eliminator IS needed with the 2010 - up 4Runner 14WA calipers!! It will center them over the rotors without having to grind the caliper ears. (Using this particular bracket)

I prefer to keep the seal so I tried putting it on after the bracket. I had to trim back the sealing surface of my hub by .125" in the lathe because the seal sits out further in this location.

ANOTHER EDIT: Cutting this surface back makes the hub thinner where the inner wheel bearing is so consider this before you decide on using the outer seal or not.

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Stuck the hub on and the seal is no longer pushed up on the hub.

Next was the rotor so I could test fit the caliper.

It definitely needs to be adjusted outward. Caliper and rotor contacting at the outside edge.

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Here's my dilemma. I can center the rotor in the caliper two ways.

I put the backing plate eliminator between the spindle and bracket and it centers it. However, the bracket no longer locates on the flange of the spindle since the eliminator plate is there. I would think Sky's would say to do so if it was ok.

If doing this is somehow risky all I can do is mill 3mm off the inside edge of the caliper mounting ears.

Comments welcome.

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Here's my dilemma. I can center the rotor in the caliper two ways.

I put the backing plate eliminator between the spindle and bracket and it centers it. However, the bracket no longer locates on the flange of the spindle since the eliminator plate is there. I would think Sky's would say to do so if it was ok.

I would also have to trim the seal surface on the hub back a little more. That's not really a problem.

If doing this is somehow risky all I can do is mill 3mm off the inside edge of the caliper mounting ears.

Comments welcome.

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I would think that the clamping force is what holds it.
If the backing plate eliminator and bracket have the same size center bore you could tack weld then together.
Milling down the bracket seem more of a risk to me ?
 
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I didn't even think of welding them. 🤔

I just went out and looked. That's what I'm going to do Broski. I'd rather have a bolt on part. Especially when I have to change it. It might not actually need to be welded but, It will make me feel better if I do. :rolleyes:

I'll save this information for a later project. Maybe I'll make a thicker bracket so the spacer is built in and mill the caliper mounting surface.

Thanks for getting my wheels turning.
 
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That paint looks pretty good. First time I've ever seen the "hammered" paint... I'll have to look into that for an upcoming paint project.

The hardener sounds promising. Any idea how much extra durability it adds? I just did a bunch of painting with armorcoat brush paint... sameish as rustoleum/tremclad as far as I know... nice paint. I shoulda added a hardener. Oh well, can always hit it with a 3rd coat, lol
 
Epic build! Just found it, loving it.
 
The way that I see it that bracket either needed to be thicker and have the mounting ear area milled down, or it needs a spacer between it and the spindle.

Altering a wear part, like a caliper, should always be the very, very, very last option.

20-odd years ago I spent two years designing brake parts like this bracket and I gotta say that I'm disappointed. I thought Sky did a better job than this. He sure used to try to do a better job. As these things go, this is a simple part and he missed.
 
@toyotaboy80 this is the first time I've used this paint so not sure about the durability yet. I have added hardener to regular gloss Rust oleum and Valspar implement enamel with good results.

@ntsqd There are only two places selling these brackets that I know of and both are basically the same. There is definitely room for improvement. I'll stick my T100 brake setup back on if this doesn't work out.
 

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