Ok Im posting this in hard core because more than just the fj60 guys use the split case. I will be plugging Kurt from Cruiser Outfitters because without his help in tracking down parts I never would have finished this project and well I just really like the guy. (No its not a man crush even tho he is a hotty lol.)
I am a terrible speller and even worse with grammar so please bear with me. I almost didn't do this write up because it makes me look like an illiterate moron but I think the info in it is worth posting so here goes.
I wanted to instal this gear set up in a typical garage setting. This means no fancy mill work or tig welding. Just a peanut grinder with aluminum wheel and map gas torch. It is a little ghetto but it works. The only specialty tool was a shop press to press off and on new gears and bearings. I did punch through the case grinding the clearances out for the gear set. Instead of tig welding to fix the hole I used aluminum brazing rod and a map gas torch for plumbing. While not quite hot enough I was able to get it to hold. I would strongly suggest if going this route to use an oxy acetylene set up instead so you can properly heat the case.
One huge complaint in this is that for 1,500 bucks I truly believe that AA should have included a full gasket kit if not a full on rebuild kit. I am saying this up front because you cannot put the case back together without the gaskets and lets face it your going to have to replace most of the seals and bearing in the process. If you try and cheap o out on this you will regret it. I lucked out and did some trade work with kurt for a full rebuild kit and want to stress this up front. You will need to rebuild your case almost 99% of the time and this is not the place to skimp.
AA states that split cases in my year fj60 will work. Well this is where I ran into problem #1. These gears will only work with 38mm split cases. Early fj60's have a 34mm split case so altho the years in AA description fit they will not work without getting a 38mm case.
Kurt helped me source a 38mm case from a fj62. It was vacuum shift so he also got me a 34mm case and transmission to steal parts off of. This was nice because I was able to mount the transmission to my table and test fit all the parts while grinding and rebuilding the case! It also let me have minimal down time because the cruiser is my daily driver.
I tore down the 34mm case and stole the manual shift from it to replace the vacuum shift stuff on the 38mm case Kurt got me off an fj62.
This is the stuff off the 34mm case I kept to install on the 38mm case for the manual shift. It a straight forward switch and only involves drilling and taping the the 38mm case in 1 place.
Ok in this picture I have the 38mm front half of case installed on the tranny and you can see where I drilled and taped the case for the detent ball and plug. There is already a casting in the case for this so its virtually impossible to screw up. If you want better details on this conversion there are several write up on Ih8 that go over this.
Next I installed the new gears into the front half of the case to start test fitting the grind for the new gears in the back half of the case.
Don't forget to grab the oil slinger off your old gear set and instal it on your AA gear. I used the one off my 34mm case because it was in better shape than the one in my doner 38mm.
Also in the process of doing this im installing all new oil seals so this thing wont be BP oil spill in progress...
The next pic shows the new high low gears installed and in place to start grinding the back case to get it all to fit.
More pics of what I had to grind.
In grinding I punched through the case in 1 place. I just c clamped some steel in there to keep brazing rod from falling through the hole. I built up a good pile of it in the rib then reground the inside to make sure everything still cleared. If I were to do this again I would not use map gas. Its not quite hot enough and if I didn't braze all the time as a commercial plumber I probably would not have gotten this technique to work. Oxy acetylene would have been a much better choice.
I then put the 38mm case together without the new gaskets to make sure everything spun freely. No need to ruin the new gaskets for something your going to just pull apart again. They didn't quite fit yet so I had to grind a tad bit in a few more places. The nice thing was that because the case is aluminum and the gears are steel you could see exactly where they needed a little more clearencing by small scratches on the softer case.
Next up was remove the existing 34mm case in my 60 and install the newly rebuilt 38mm case. Its a lot easier to get to the shifters and what not through the removable transmission tunnel. I actually cut a hole in my carpet when I had to replace my clutch and because it makes such easy acess to that area just left it out.
Now install the 38mm front half of case with the new unused gasket.
About this time I realized my garage floor looked like a transfer case bone yard and my camera died after that pic...
The rest of the install is straight forward. Use new gaskets you wont regret it. Its a lot easier than the make your own seal with silicone and a heck of a lot cleaner. Not that clean is an issue with my 60. Its a rusty oil pit. I sourced my gaskets and rebuild kit through Kurt at Cruiser Outfitters. I figured AA already had enough of my money and well I was a little irritated that they didn't come with that stuff already. I would rather throw my money in Kurts direction anyhow.
Even with the new rebuild kit there are no shims to adjust preload and what not. Its my only complaint about my rebuild kit by the way. The rest of the kit was more than excellent and had every bearing and seal I needed plus quite a few I didn't. With the lack of preload shims in the kit I just reused what was there and hoped to hell that it would all be within tolerance. I lucked out and everything fit ok as far as I can tell.
I was supposed to take it out wheeling over the weekend but as life sometimes throws curves I was not able to. I did put about 200 miles of street driving and about 10 of dirt road though. With that my only concerns now are the gears are loud. They have gotten better after the first 200 miles and as they break in more Im guessing they will get better. Still there is no way they will ever be as quiet as stock.
Im digging the 10% under drive around town. It really helps move the 33" tires and 3.73 gears. Almost like she was stock. I really dislike my top speed though. With my 4 speed tranny it puts me at 3,000 RPM at 60MPH. Im thinking an h55 5 speed trans is in order some time in the future if Im going to keep daily driving this thing. The little bit of playing I got to do on the dirt roads feels great in high range 1st gear. I can fly down the fire roads no problem. Low range first gear is a bit low for fire road cruising but 3rd and 4th are great for rutted out roads you don't want to crawl. Low range 1st and 2nd gear is awesome compared to the stock set up!!!!! Its perfect for all but the most technical crawling situations. Im going to give it a bit because its expensive and im cheap but I might still opt for a 2 to 1 marlin duel case as well. With that set up I could do fire roads and sand dunes in the 2 to 1 set up. Crawl most stuff in the 4 to 1 set up and hit the super technical boulder fields and so forth in the 8 to 1 gear set.
All in all Im pleased with this purchase. It is totally something most people could do in their shop if they are patient and don't mind a little ghetto fab and aluminum shavings lol. I think the gears are perfect for a daily driver or expedition rig set up. If your doing competition level level rock crawling you'll still want a duel case set up. As is I could run 90% of the trails in Moab now and have no complaints other than the top speed of 60 MPH at 3000 RPM with the not so stellar 4 speed transmission.
I am a terrible speller and even worse with grammar so please bear with me. I almost didn't do this write up because it makes me look like an illiterate moron but I think the info in it is worth posting so here goes.
I wanted to instal this gear set up in a typical garage setting. This means no fancy mill work or tig welding. Just a peanut grinder with aluminum wheel and map gas torch. It is a little ghetto but it works. The only specialty tool was a shop press to press off and on new gears and bearings. I did punch through the case grinding the clearances out for the gear set. Instead of tig welding to fix the hole I used aluminum brazing rod and a map gas torch for plumbing. While not quite hot enough I was able to get it to hold. I would strongly suggest if going this route to use an oxy acetylene set up instead so you can properly heat the case.
One huge complaint in this is that for 1,500 bucks I truly believe that AA should have included a full gasket kit if not a full on rebuild kit. I am saying this up front because you cannot put the case back together without the gaskets and lets face it your going to have to replace most of the seals and bearing in the process. If you try and cheap o out on this you will regret it. I lucked out and did some trade work with kurt for a full rebuild kit and want to stress this up front. You will need to rebuild your case almost 99% of the time and this is not the place to skimp.
AA states that split cases in my year fj60 will work. Well this is where I ran into problem #1. These gears will only work with 38mm split cases. Early fj60's have a 34mm split case so altho the years in AA description fit they will not work without getting a 38mm case.
Kurt helped me source a 38mm case from a fj62. It was vacuum shift so he also got me a 34mm case and transmission to steal parts off of. This was nice because I was able to mount the transmission to my table and test fit all the parts while grinding and rebuilding the case! It also let me have minimal down time because the cruiser is my daily driver.
I tore down the 34mm case and stole the manual shift from it to replace the vacuum shift stuff on the 38mm case Kurt got me off an fj62.
This is the stuff off the 34mm case I kept to install on the 38mm case for the manual shift. It a straight forward switch and only involves drilling and taping the the 38mm case in 1 place.
Ok in this picture I have the 38mm front half of case installed on the tranny and you can see where I drilled and taped the case for the detent ball and plug. There is already a casting in the case for this so its virtually impossible to screw up. If you want better details on this conversion there are several write up on Ih8 that go over this.
Next I installed the new gears into the front half of the case to start test fitting the grind for the new gears in the back half of the case.
Don't forget to grab the oil slinger off your old gear set and instal it on your AA gear. I used the one off my 34mm case because it was in better shape than the one in my doner 38mm.
Also in the process of doing this im installing all new oil seals so this thing wont be BP oil spill in progress...
The next pic shows the new high low gears installed and in place to start grinding the back case to get it all to fit.
More pics of what I had to grind.
In grinding I punched through the case in 1 place. I just c clamped some steel in there to keep brazing rod from falling through the hole. I built up a good pile of it in the rib then reground the inside to make sure everything still cleared. If I were to do this again I would not use map gas. Its not quite hot enough and if I didn't braze all the time as a commercial plumber I probably would not have gotten this technique to work. Oxy acetylene would have been a much better choice.
I then put the 38mm case together without the new gaskets to make sure everything spun freely. No need to ruin the new gaskets for something your going to just pull apart again. They didn't quite fit yet so I had to grind a tad bit in a few more places. The nice thing was that because the case is aluminum and the gears are steel you could see exactly where they needed a little more clearencing by small scratches on the softer case.
Next up was remove the existing 34mm case in my 60 and install the newly rebuilt 38mm case. Its a lot easier to get to the shifters and what not through the removable transmission tunnel. I actually cut a hole in my carpet when I had to replace my clutch and because it makes such easy acess to that area just left it out.
Now install the 38mm front half of case with the new unused gasket.
About this time I realized my garage floor looked like a transfer case bone yard and my camera died after that pic...
The rest of the install is straight forward. Use new gaskets you wont regret it. Its a lot easier than the make your own seal with silicone and a heck of a lot cleaner. Not that clean is an issue with my 60. Its a rusty oil pit. I sourced my gaskets and rebuild kit through Kurt at Cruiser Outfitters. I figured AA already had enough of my money and well I was a little irritated that they didn't come with that stuff already. I would rather throw my money in Kurts direction anyhow.
Even with the new rebuild kit there are no shims to adjust preload and what not. Its my only complaint about my rebuild kit by the way. The rest of the kit was more than excellent and had every bearing and seal I needed plus quite a few I didn't. With the lack of preload shims in the kit I just reused what was there and hoped to hell that it would all be within tolerance. I lucked out and everything fit ok as far as I can tell.
I was supposed to take it out wheeling over the weekend but as life sometimes throws curves I was not able to. I did put about 200 miles of street driving and about 10 of dirt road though. With that my only concerns now are the gears are loud. They have gotten better after the first 200 miles and as they break in more Im guessing they will get better. Still there is no way they will ever be as quiet as stock.
Im digging the 10% under drive around town. It really helps move the 33" tires and 3.73 gears. Almost like she was stock. I really dislike my top speed though. With my 4 speed tranny it puts me at 3,000 RPM at 60MPH. Im thinking an h55 5 speed trans is in order some time in the future if Im going to keep daily driving this thing. The little bit of playing I got to do on the dirt roads feels great in high range 1st gear. I can fly down the fire roads no problem. Low range first gear is a bit low for fire road cruising but 3rd and 4th are great for rutted out roads you don't want to crawl. Low range 1st and 2nd gear is awesome compared to the stock set up!!!!! Its perfect for all but the most technical crawling situations. Im going to give it a bit because its expensive and im cheap but I might still opt for a 2 to 1 marlin duel case as well. With that set up I could do fire roads and sand dunes in the 2 to 1 set up. Crawl most stuff in the 4 to 1 set up and hit the super technical boulder fields and so forth in the 8 to 1 gear set.
All in all Im pleased with this purchase. It is totally something most people could do in their shop if they are patient and don't mind a little ghetto fab and aluminum shavings lol. I think the gears are perfect for a daily driver or expedition rig set up. If your doing competition level level rock crawling you'll still want a duel case set up. As is I could run 90% of the trails in Moab now and have no complaints other than the top speed of 60 MPH at 3000 RPM with the not so stellar 4 speed transmission.
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