duggy's build thread: 1998 Land Cruiser #SAS100

[LEX]

Beast mode. Looks awesome.

 

[marshal]

are you just going to roll non-ABS/ATRAC? or have you come up with a solution to go forward?

I've been tossing around the idea of going with late model ford 1 ton axles with tone rings in all 4 corners so i don't have a christmas tree

 

[krice118]

@marshal well the 98 does not have ATRAC so that solves that issue

 

[duggy]

are you just going to roll non-ABS/ATRAC? or have you come up with a solution to go forward?

I've been tossing around the idea of going with late model ford 1 ton axles with tone rings in all 4 corners so i don't have a christmas tree

Going the non-ABS route. The "problem" I have is that I bought non-ABS axles so the fronts are pretty easy to resolve; just buy ABS knuckles but the rear has the ABS sensor embedded into the axle housing itself so I will 86 the ABS system by pulling the fuse. In actuality, it's not a problem in my eyes because I wanted to do away with the ABS system when I initially first purchased my 100.

 

[duggy]

This popped up on my Facebook feed today which made me chuckle a bit. 1 year ago today, I went to Toyota Jamboree in Gilmer, TX which is the very same event I was aiming to finish the SAS for this year. At this point in the SAS100's life, it was a very sad Cruiser. It had dents all over and leaks, squeaks, and other types of odd noises going on in the front end. It has come a long way in 1 year after being Monstalined and SAS'ed.

 

[1toy]

This popped up on my Facebook feed today which made me chuckle a bit. 1 year ago today, I went to Toyota Jamboree in Gilmer, TX which is the very same event I was aiming to finish the SAS for this year. At this point in the SAS100's life, it was a very sad Cruiser. It had dents all over and leaks, squeaks, and other types of odd noises going on in the front end. It has come a long way in 1 year after being Monstalined and SAS'ed.

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View attachment 1252390

Looks totally different. Hope you will be back to Gilmer for Jamboree this year. I will be there again.

 

[duggy]

I finally got access to a forklift to test out the flex and check for clearances. Houston FJ Cruisers was holding a wrench day so I attended their wrench day and had one of the guys lift up the tires. I have never done this before so we made sure to strap the forks on the fork lift so it wouldn't slide out (juuust in case). I have do to some minor clearancing of the Bump It Offroad rear bumper as the tire stuffs into the rear wheel well but the front is almost perfect. There was one area that I had to clearance as the axle articulates the ORI strut will hit one of the brackets which I took care of last night.

You can see in this picture that I got the spare tire mounted along with the trasharoo. Since I have the adjustable tire carrier from BIOR I had Mike send me another bracket that I could weld my own plate with the 6x5.5 lug pattern and mount the tire up. I have a BFG Krawler Blue label on there right now and that sucker is heavy! The swing out and shock still handles the weight well so I am confident it will do the job. I also had to move the tire carrier to the right of the truck a bit as I have a 3 jerry can holder which I needed to room for. I also added just a tad of angle into the tire carrier for looks. I'll get some better pictures posted up.

 

[duggy]

I had some issues with a stiff steering wheel. If you are ever in your wheel well, look at how the steering shaft comes out of your steering column and the angle it nose dives to the steering rack. Since I was changing the angle of the steering shaft tremendously, the u-joints in the stock shaft did not like it. I added another u-joint from an FZJ80 and cut down the stock shaft and welded it back together. When I was cutting the stock shaft, I was pleasantly surprised that it was solid rod. Good on Toyota for always over-engineering these vehicles.

 

[duggy]

As the SAS100 sits, the front is much higher than the rear even on 864 springs and 1" aluminum spacer. Since most shops were out of town for Cruise Moab this weekend, I was scrambling to get some 5" OME 2423 springs in stock. Good thing John Teckley @ TRDParts4U got me ordered on the OME 5" Comp springs. They should arrive by Tuesday and level out this stance nicely.

During the week, I made up some new rear lower control arms with Johnny Joints and 2" .250 wall tubing to push the axle back 2". I also made some rear upper control arms since the others I made were just a tad bit short. I adjusted the pinion angle and everything is just about right. I also had to move the sliders back .75" as the front tires were hitting it when I turn to full lock. I will hammer in the pinch weld just in case I stuff in the front tire in the wheel well and need to turn.

 

[boofaz]

Your cruiser is a Beast! So much fun following your build! Did you ever sell your Slee skids? If not I'd be interested. Can't wait to see some videos of this thing off road!

 

[Rigger]

That thing is wild! I love it!

 

[TexasTundra]

So did you make it out to Jambo? If so, how did it do?

 

[duggy]

I did make it out to Jambo but had some issues with the brackets that hold the radius arms bending when flexing out the front axle. I brought it back to camp and started working on it to get it straightened out but decided to park it for the weekend. I hopped into other's cars to help spot folks down the trail instead and actually enjoyed doing so.

I have been pretty frustrated with the vendor that sold these brackets and the way they do business. They actually sent me the wrong brackets to mount the radius arms onto the axle. New brackets would be 2.5 weeks out so they told me to make these work for the trip. I won't be purchasing from them again as this is not the only issue I have had with them.

The plan now is to beef these puppies up and gusset. I have learned my lesson and am not letting this happen to me again. All in all, Jambo was a great weekend and it was awesome meeting new friends. Here are some pics.

On the trial before it broke

Our camp spot. One thing I would have to say is how cool it was that everybody hopped in to help during this time. We had folks on the hunt for a welder, generator and tools including proper floor jacks and jack stands were sourced immediately. It was really awsome to see because I was stressing out how I would get the car home.

I brought a grinder, flap discs, cut off wheels, grinding discs which actually helped another guy of ours who broke down with a broken bracket on his FabTech 6" FJC lift.

 

[TexasTundra]

Man that's unfortunate. At least it looked awesome before it broke.

 

[duggy]

No worries. I learned my lesson to go with my gut and not trust others when they say to "make it work". i Plan to use the same arms I have but to wrap them around the axle and gusset them on both sides.

 

[txlonghorn]

Man that's a bummer. I really feel for you because I know you were looking forward to finally stretching its legs. I'd like to hear more about it in person.

 

[SS100]

Sorry to hear that amigo.
It happens... It will be fixed and working properly very soon I'm sure.

 

[duggy]

This is actually the trail that I broke on. The axle flex out great here but the torsional forces of the ears on the bracket did not like it and bent.

 

[TXLX100]

Looking good. I saw you out there but didn't get a chance to come look at the truck. Next year!

 

[GregLCA]

Life has been throwing some major curve balls at me lately. I live in Houston, Texas and there have been some torrential downpours as of late. It's been deemed the "Tax Day Floods" here in Houston where our Bayous are swelling up and could not take the high amounts of water being poured down.

During this project, a few things I found that helped me keep pushing on was to always have good music playing in the background, put on a cool car channel such as Velocity on your TV, and keep your garage floor clean. The last part is important because I walk into the garage and see a complete mess, I get discouraged about everything else that I have left to do. The last part also saved my ass as I just cleaned up the garage floor 2 days before the Tax Day Floods hit us in Houston. The floor was almost spotless and no tools (mechanical, electrical or pneumatic) were left on the floor, along with any bolts that I tend to leave strewn around.

The 100 was not damaged as it was sitting on jackstands, my 80 and Raptor were fine also since they sit up really high. I got about 8" of water inside of the garage and about 2" inside of my house. It's mostly all over now, and insurance will cover it, but man what a huge pain in the behind.

Back to business, I finally got all of the parts to finish up the front radius and caster arms. I painted them and installed them.
View attachment 1247849
View attachment 1247850

I charged up the shocks last night to 100lbs on the lower chamber and around 150lbs on the upper chamber. It looks like I may need some more in the upper as I need to raise it up for my panhard to fit. Some more fiddling with the air pressures is required, but ORIs instructions make it REALLY easy to adjust and setup.

View attachment 1247852

Their no-loss air chuck is required for filling high pressures through a schrader valve.
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Would love to hear some real-world feedback on those ORIs....

I have a set on my long-term build but haven't had a chance to drive on them yet. I was considering adding the small reservoirs as well since my truck is going to be a heavy sucker!

-G