Builds Bean! The Adventure Continues (1987 FJ60) (2 Viewers)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Everything’s painted! Well, I still need to clean up the knuckle balls a little bit.

Next is removing the diff and adding the locker 🤫

After that, it all goes back together!

27AD1253-F080-4D94-ABEC-984DDC75153C.jpeg
 
Knuckles cleaned up with a fine scotch-brite pad and painted:

2F9CCE29-A434-40E1-A7A8-5C5A030BBDCE.jpeg


41CA04A9-C100-4E2B-92A2-017F30F4C2D6.jpeg



I have been using and really liking Eastwoods Internal Frame coating. It is meant for inside the frame, but works well on frame and suspension components. On some things I top coat it with VHT or Rustoleum.
It applies super thin and dries very hard. You can put it right over surface rust, although I prefer to get all that crap off!

The knuckle balls are coated with a very thin coat. It will probably wipe off from the felts eventually.
 
Last edited:
I added some metal tech caster correction plates to the axle. These were the ones that Torfab recommends for the appropriate final caster. I think they are the ones for a 4” lift? Even though my lift will only be around 2”, this will give me the right caster number.
What do you think your final caster number will be with plates?
 
What do you think your final caster number will be with plates?

That’s a great question… Not quite sure.

The geometry of this kit is very close to a stock 80 series, but with stock 80 springs this kit gives the 60 series a 2ish inch lift. This has to do with weight differences as well as the placement of the spring towers. This means the caster is going to be lower than the stock 80 series by a few degrees.

When we were designing this kit at Torfab we used castor correction bushings on the test rig (Tor’s truck). I think that got it to stock-ish caster which is about 1-2 degrees IIRC.

I think with the plates I’ll get a few more degrees. I plan on measuring when the conversion is done. I’ll keep you updated.
I think 3 degrees would probably be good with the larger tires.
Torfab told me that these plates are what they use on their swaps because they seem to drive the best. I’m assuming they have tried different plate angles to find the right match.
 
That’s a great question… Not quite sure.

The geometry of this kit is very close to a stock 80 series, but with stock 80 springs this kit gives the 60 series a 2ish inch lift. This has to do with weight differences as well as the placement of the spring towers. This means the caster is going to be lower than the stock 80 series by a few degrees.

When we were designing this kit at Torfab we used castor correction bushings on the test rig (Tor’s truck). I think that got it to stock-ish caster which is about 1-2 degrees IIRC.

I think with the plates I’ll get a few more degrees. I plan on measuring when the conversion is done. I’ll keep you updated.
I think 3 degrees would probably be good with the larger tires.
Torfab told me that these plates are what they use on their swaps because they seem to drive the best. I’m assuming they have tried different plate angles to find the right match.
Great write up. I believe on the 80 series are somewhere at 3 degrees. I can't recall.
I took measurements before the swap and it does look like a 2"ish lift with stock springs. During the upcoming months I will be doing testing with diffrent radius arms.
 
New brake lines bent up. I’m going to reuse the Tee off my 60 series axle, so I left them a little long and will flare them when I decommission the old axle.

I’m pretty happy with them. I made a few scratches through the coating so I’ll probably give them a light coat of the internal frame coating to keep them rust-free for at least a while.

61774187-F776-45CC-A0FF-FEEDCA629B3E.jpeg


A02860B0-FB26-445B-A9F4-E6F0A43AD479.jpeg


CDB5213F-1F86-4BAC-810C-1F71B8B46944.jpeg


4BA66513-8A6F-4CDC-B12B-6E832A114A81.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Been sick this last week with a bad head cold / sinus infection which is a bummer because I had to cancel on the diff re-gear session I had planned.
This might set me back a few weeks. Learning how to set up diffs was the last thing I needed to get the front axle all buttoned up.

In other news, I took @cruisermatt ‘s advice and got a new tie-rod tube. After he had mentioned it, I just couldn’t stop thinking about those old rusty stripped-out threads failing and causing a serious (potentially dangerous) situation.
I went with an aftermarket (Joint-Fuji) one for about 1/2 the price of OEM. It seems to be an exact replica. I’m sure the quality is similar as well.

6D240CEA-4E98-439B-9E46-F5A6CC8879A0.jpeg


I hope to be feeling better soon and getting back to it!
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom