Builds Cruisermatt's FJ62 Build-up (4 Viewers)

[cruisermatt]

Rolled the rig out onto the street so I could check the caster on flat surface (driveway has 4* slope).

I think I’m going to move the rear axle back an inch, it’s in the same position wheel-base wise as stock but it just looks a bit off to me. The perches are drilled for multiple positions so it’s just a matter of undoing U-bolts.

 

[orion]

Looks great.

I agree with moving the axle back, assuming that doesn't make it rub as the springs compress (?)...

Keep up the good work.

- Brian

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

I agree it looks too forward. One inch back would probably center it better in the well.
Truck looks really freaking nice. Congrats. Been fun to watch. I dig seeing all the photos not that half of the verbiage makes much sense to me.

 

[cruisermatt]

Looks great.

I agree with moving the axle back, assuming that doesn't make it rub as the springs compress (?)...

Keep up the good work.

- Brian

Thanks Brian. It shouldn’t rub any worse then it already did before, which I think was fixed by the SOA anyways.

 

[cruisermatt]

I agree it looks too forward. One inch back would probably center it better in the well.
Truck looks really freaking nice. Congrats. Been fun to watch. I dig seeing all the photos not that half of the verbiage makes much sense to me.

Like I said, measurement wise it’s in the right spot, I think it just looks weird because of the lift and picture angles. I can’t seem to get a good picture of this thing without it looking out of proportion or leaning weirdly.

It’s sitting dead level right now, I hope it doesn’t squat too much with a full tank of gas, I still have to add batteries, fluids, radiator (and me driving!) etc, to the front so hopefully it stays balanced front and rear.
Thanks for following along

 

[White Stripe]

I thought I read somewhere you were intending on using the 4plus housing spacers on each side of your front housing to make it fj80 width-which would be pretty easy to do-especially if you are using heims for steering.

I wasn’t planning on it. Maybe one day.

 

[cruisermatt]

We'll see. It really does drive fine as it is now with 2" spacers up front and 80 rear. The only reason to do it would be to get rid of the spacers which is a lot of work and custom axle shafts for little gain IMO. Spacers aren't really the devil's spawn that a lot of members on this forum would like you to believe for whatever reason. I do have a set of 80 alloy wheels (1" less backspace) to install, so that's an inch on both sides. That's probably about as wide as I want to go. I don't like how 60's look with really wide track width. Not arguing against the performance, I just prefer the more classic look.

 

[White Stripe]

We'll see. It really does drive fine as it is now with 2" spacers up front and 80 rear. The only reason to do it would be to get rid of the spacers which is a lot of work and custom axle shafts for little gain IMO. Spacers aren't really the devil's spawn that a lot of members on this forum would like you to believe for whatever reason. I do have a set of 80 alloy wheels (1" less backspace) to install, so that's an inch on both sides. That's probably about as wide as I want to go. I don't like how 60's look with really wide track width. Not arguing against the performance, I just prefer the more classic look.

If u are doing a cut n turn already it's not much work to widen the housing at all but if your not doing a cut n turn I agree it's a lot of work. I agree spacers aren't the devil. Chromoly axle shafts would run u about 350 for the pair from trail gear. Then u would need chromoly 30 spline birfields of your choice to go with em. I went with trail gear axle shaft and rcv bird. I love having a wide rig personally, its been so awesome in the technical stuff. But if your not doing a cut n turn this is a lot of additional work.

 

[cruisermatt]

If u are doing a cut n turn already it's not much work to widen the housing at all but if your not doing a cut n turn I agree it's a lot of work. I agree spacers aren't the devil. Chromoly axle shafts would run u about 350 for the pair from trail gear. Then u would need chromoly 30 spline birfields of your choice to go with em. I went with trail gear axle shaft and rcv bird. I love having a wide rig personally, its been so awesome in the technical stuff. But if your not doing a cut n turn this is a lot of additional work.

Yeah, I’m not doing a cut and turn currently. The FJ62 has the pinion tilted up a bit more then 60 axles.
I’m lying under the truck figuring out a transmission crossmember right now, maybe a few years from now I’ll cut/turn the front, widen it, and tilt the pinion up and run a short DC shaft and a fixed mid-shaft mounted to a full belly skid. I just don’t have it in me to do that massive project right now.

 

[White Stripe]

Yeah, I’m not doing a cut and turn currently. The FJ62 has the pinion tilted up a bit more then 60 axles.
I’m lying under the truck figuring out a transmission crossmember right now, maybe a few years from now I’ll cut/turn the front, widen it, and tilt the pinion up and run a short DC shaft and a fixed mid-shaft mounted to a full belly skid. I just don’t have it in me to do that massive project right now.

Cool. I think your rig will work very well and be a ton of fun. Yeah if your not doing a cut n turn, thats a lot of work widen the housing in addition to the already ton of work you have yet to do.

 

[cruisermatt]

Cool. I think your rig will work very well and be a ton of fun. Yeah if your not doing a cut n turn, thats a lot of work widen the housing in addition to the already ton of work you have yet to do.

Yeah, in case anyone forgot there’s still a 350hp LS that’s sitting between the frame rails with nothing hooked up to it yet.

 

[FJ60Cam]

Yeah, in case anyone forgot there’s still a 350hp LS that’s sitting between the frame rails with nothing hooked up to it yet.

I may have missed it... manual, auto? What’re the plans?

 

[cruisermatt]

I may have missed it... manual, auto? What’re the plans?

I’m re-useing the Dodge NV4500/203/splitcase that I’ve ran behind my 3FE for past two years.

Engine is an L33 all-aluminum 5.3 with LS6 799 heads and intake.

Read back a few pages, but motor is currently installed for good, attached to transmission, with a SBC aluminum bellhousing, LS flywheel, SBC clutch, and Toyota 2F fork and throwout bearing between them.

Just finished up making new transmission crossmember mounts. Transmission crossmember had to move forwards about 2-3”. I had previously just tacked it to the frame during mock-up.

 

[NookShneer]

You could go with 4Runner/mini hubs. And get the spacing without messing with the housing and shafts.

Stock 60 hubs mounted to the rotor on the upper left, mini truck hubs on the bottom right nets you almost 1.5” should even up pretty close with the 80 rear axle.

Get them turned down and you can run Tundra rotors and calipers with the FROR Tacoma brake brackets.

We'll see. It really does drive fine as it is now with 2" spacers up front and 80 rear. The only reason to do it would be to get rid of the spacers which is a lot of work and custom axle shafts for little gain IMO. Spacers aren't really the devil's spawn that a lot of members on this forum would like you to believe for whatever reason. I do have a set of 80 alloy wheels (1" less backspace) to install, so that's an inch on both sides. That's probably about as wide as I want to go. I don't like how 60's look with really wide track width. Not arguing against the performance, I just prefer the more classic look.

 

[cruisermatt]

You could go with 4Runner/mini hubs. And get the spacing without messing with the housing and shafts.

Stock 60 hubs mounted to the rotor on the upper left, mini truck hubs on the bottom right nets you almost 1.5” should even up pretty close with the 80 rear axle.

Get them turned down and you can run Tundra rotors and calipers with the FROR Tacoma brake brackets.

I’m very familiar with the mini truck hub modification.
However I am presently content with my brake performance with TLC calipers, and I am sure I will like it even more with the hydroboost.

However, on the topic I picked up a sweet tool yesterday so I can down wheel hubs myself

 

[cruisermatt]

@White Stripe
Something I failed to mention when we were discussing widening axles is that deleting wheel spacers with the deep backspace Toyota wheels I like to run would result in some wonky handling due to poor scrub radius. I suggest you do some reading on it.
While it might not show up in something like a shorter wheelbase FJ40 that won’t see as high of a speed, in a long wheelbase 60 (especially with newfound horsepower) that is more likely to be driven at higher speeds this can cause some weird handling and tracking issues.

 

[White Stripe]

@White Stripe
Something I failed to mention when we were discussing widening axles is that deleting wheel spacers with the deep backspace Toyota wheels I like to run would result in some wonky handling due to poor scrub radius. I suggest you do some reading on it.
While it might not show up in something like a shorter wheelbase FJ40 that won’t see as high of a speed, in a long wheelbase 60 (especially with newfound horsepower) that is more likely to be driven at higher speeds this can cause some weird handling and tracking issues.

Good point. Some suspensions seem to not care as much from the different stuff Ive driven, and others seems to have some handling issues when scrub radius is thrown off from what Ive experienced. If you have a lot of scrub offroad it can be tough on steering components and ball joints/trunion bearings. I thought about widening my front axle more and going with a less offset wheel to improve my scrub radius on my rig but keep the nice wide stance, but I may not always live in a area with good wheeling around or just may end up not go wheeling as much and may want to go with a narrower track width to focus more on street manners and just cruising down the highway, so I just live with the scrub and have a mega cooler setup for the steering. I do get some bump steer because of it. Ram assist would fix that. For now, the stability offroad is awesome. I don't really know your ultimate goals with your rig, but if your focusing mostly on offroad, I sure like wide track width personally(within reason). Have you thought about adding some ports on your box to do ram assist someday? Probably a pain now its all together.

 

[cruisermatt]

Good point. Some suspensions seem to not care as much from the different stuff Ive driven, and others seems to have some handling issues when scrub radius is thrown off from what Ive experienced. If you have a lot of scrub offroad it can be tough on steering components and ball joints/trunion bearings. I thought about widening my front axle more and going with a less offset wheel to improve my scrub radius on my rig but keep the nice wide stance, but I may not always live in a area with good wheeling around or just may end up not go wheeling as much and may want to go with a narrower track width to focus more on street manners and just cruising down the highway, so I just live with the scrub and have a mega cooler setup for the steering. I do get some bump steer because of it. Ram assist would fix that. For now, the stability offroad is awesome. I don't really know your ultimate goals with your rig, but if your focusing mostly on offroad, I sure like wide track width personally(within reason). Have you thought about adding some ports on your box to do ram assist someday? Probably a pain now its all together.

I’m glad you brought up the ultimate goal for the truck, and to be perfectly honest I’d really like to pretty much retire it from serious wheeling, I’m building the suspension the way I am because I only wanted a few more inches of lift and I don’t like how the taller SUA lift kits ride. Way too stiff. I feel that the harder and harder trails I want to run are going to just destroy the body and glass on this truck, so I’m
going to stop with those because it’s not too late to make this sheetmetal nice again. This was also a big motivator for the V8, if I was going to make it more of a trail rig I would have probably just left the 3FE alone. It worked really well off-road except for hill climbs.
As to your ram assist question this was also my logic in not adding hydro assist, while I like the more assist you get with the GM steering pumps the ram assist numbs it too much in my opinion. It is pretty awesome off-road though. I have driven hydro assist and full hydro trucks on and off-road.

 

[cruisermatt]

Foggy teaser pic...

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Cut the ends off those eh?