educate me in SAS

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yotawheeler

yotawheeler

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Apr 13, 2006
Threads
104
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1,370
Location
Edmonton, AB/Vancouver Island, B.C.
first off im gunna say im a cruiser head and have never owned a mini truck....my sister wants me to do a SAS on her '88 V6 P/U because the ball joints are gone and she actualy does wheel it so the SAS would be benificial..i would say im about a :banana::banana::banana: mechanic, i pulled and replaced the engine in my FJ40, can do head gaskets that kinda stuff....also done a few knuckle re-builds but i have NO IDEA what this swap would entail...have a welder and some fab skills but no plasma cutter or O/A torch...but could maybe beg, borrow or steal one if i realy needed, the kicker is this would need to be done in 10 days or less in my spare time after i get home from high school....what kind of axle am i going to need? (year) do i have to do anything to the rear springs? truck will be left SUA. whats the deal with steering...will the drag link from the donor axle go straight into the IFS box? any help would be appreciated...gunna have to get on this pretty if its going to happen at all
 
Not that i'd really advocate this setup as i've installed 3 of them, but the parts list is reasonably complete and the instructions aren't half bad.

do yourself a favour though, move the steering box forward 1/5" and the front axle the same distance. it will help with shackle clearance at the body mount when you have to cut into the frame.

http://www.trail-gear.com/sas.html
 
Further to the last post;

yes, you'll need to lift the rear,

yes you should RENT a plasma cutter

Yes you should be prepared to spend an entire weekend on this starting from Friday evening right into Sunday evening.

get an 84 - 85 axle or better yet, get a FJ/BJ 60 axle (wider). Get it ready long before you even begin the cutting.

DO NOT SUA the front axle, the tie rod arms on the steering will crash into the front frame rails. You also shouldn't use the push pull on the sased axle.

Better spend lots of time reading long before you start cutting.

Pirate has a lot of good stickys on this subject.
 
so doing SOA is a must with the SAS swap then....ok, its not gunna get done this weekend, im not down for springen over a rig on a time limit. ill check pirate and that trail gear link, thanks
 
I'll give you my experience, it may help you out. Learn from it what you want.

I did mine in my driveway at home, but I don't have a welder at home, no place to plug one in. However, I have access to a fully equipped welding shop at school, in the same building where my office is. So, what I did was weld on all the front hanger stuff, drill the shackle tube holes, and weld in the shackle tubes in the shop. I did all this BEFORE I started removing the IFS stuff. It really wasn't a problem, and the truck was still drivable.

After I got all this done, I borrowed a set of torches from work, drove the truck home, put it up on the really tall stands I made, and started cutting stuff off in my driveway. No looking back now! I actually started cutting with my sawzall and cutoff wheels in my grinder, but that was NOT gonna work. You really need a torch. My buddy at FoxFab does SAS's all the time, and he actually prefers using his O/A torch for the cutting part, instead of his plasma.

After I got it off, I did all the grinding (ugh!), then bolted all the new stuff on. I also installed new springs in the rear. Once I got the truck back to driveable condition, I took it back to work and welded on the front shock hoops and a tab for the steering stabilizer(it drove pretty scary without them!).

Stuff I used:

* '85 front axle
* Homemade front hanger, very similar to the AllPro hanger.
* OME front and rear springs, shackles, bushings, u-bolts
* Sky Manufacturing steering arms and shock hoops
* Sky Manufacturing U-bolt flip plates (stiffened)
* Budbuilt tie-rod and draglink
* Bilstein 5100 shocks F&R

I also used a special draglink end from Sky Manuf that lets you connect directly to the stock IFS pitman arm. I left my steering box in the factory position, and I moved the front axle forward by 1.5". I had to get my front driveshaft lengthed by at local shop.

Truck drives very well now, the OME springs and Bilstein shocks are a great combo.
 
Doing the SOA is not an issue, the factory front axles are setup for this already.

Unless you want to use a FJ front axle. I don't recommend this, lot's of fabricating to do to get it SOA, plus it will be a lot wider, and the differential is very different. I don't think your driveshaft will bolt to it.
 
Cutting off the old suspension is the hardest part of the whole swap. Trail gear probably has the least expensive and most complete kit. They also ship for free! Several other companies like All Pro and Front Range have them too. Off Road solutions has a great coil over swap kit but its expensive.

Have all of the tools ready to go to save you trips to the parts store . A welder, angle grinder, pitman arm puller, hole saw bit, are all necessary. Air tools and a plasma cutter are a plus. I used a sawsall and grinder to cut off the old suspension and ittook a whole day so if you don't have a plasma cutter available I'd rent one.

I have never regreted doing this swap and has been the best mod I ever did to my truck.
 
I'm not sure why you'd want SUA? All the solid axle pickups were SOA from the factory, and are designed to work that way. No to mention SOA is far superior to SUA..
 
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Curse said:
I'm not sure why you'd want SUA? All the solid axle pickups were SOA from the factory, and are designed to work that way. No to mention SOA is far superior to SUA..
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i know the SOA is far superior...having only worked on my cruiser i had assumed that they p/u's were SUA from factory and i didnt want to do the cut and turn and all the work that you have to do on with a cruiser axle. it wont be getting a cruiser axle, theres enough cruisers around here i would keep an extra kicking around instead of putting it under my sisters truck. thanks for the help guys, lots of reading to do before i start cutting...plus ill have my sisters truck around for about a week so i can poke around and have a look at what im getting into before i dive in

can i use the stock drag link and tie rod from the old axle in this swap?

KLF you said you moved your front axle forward...compared to what? where it was on the donor truck or....?
 
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i would prefer not to use a kit mostly because they seem pretty pricy and i think i could get the parts togather myself without too much trouble, and fab up everything else i need
 
A lot of experienced guys on pirate used to think that but have since changed their minds now that the price has come down so much in the past few years. They say the effort of piecing together everything isn't worth it anymore. There's not much money to be saved.

By the way, if you haven't already, check out the new thread where I have a link to my build up and the costs.
 
robinhood4x4 said:
A lot of experienced guys on pirate used to think that but have since changed their minds now that the price has come down so much in the past few years. They say the effort of piecing together everything isn't worth it anymore. There's not much money to be saved.
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I agree. When I converted my truck 7 years ago I spent about $2000.00 on parts because nobody really had a complete kit to do it. If your gonna piece everything together be sure to factor shipping costs.

The kits are the way to go. A couple of mouse clicks and it shows up at your door a few days later. Time is money too!!
 
I used a combination of Trail Gear and Marlin Crawler parts when I did my SAS. I used an axle from an '85 pickup. Rebuilding that 21 year old (at the time) junk yard axle was probably the biggest pain in the ass about the whole process. Have that finished before you start cutting the truck up.

Second biggest trouble is drilling the shackle hole through the frame.

Cutting the IFS off is easy. Welding the new spring hanger on is easy. Bolting on hi-steer, leaf springs, and the axle is easy. Even welding the shock mounts is no big deal.

I did mine over the course of a month or two, just 'cause I didn't need to get it done quickly. Before I even cut the IFS off I welded on the new spring hanger and drilled and installed the shackle tubes into the frame. It's driveable this way, so it's that much less work you have to do once you cut the front end off and the truck is out of service.
 
As everyone has already mentioned the biggest pains in the ass are the torching of the IFS and rebuilding the front axle, the rest is all easy no brainer work. If you have the tools or the means to do it you should be set.

I would check out the Project Research and Build Up board on Marlin Crawler:

http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?board=14.0


There are literally hundreds of SAS of all types of toyota mini trucks on there from 70s 2wds to 2000+ tundras and tacomas. All the information you need is on there. As for sourcing your own "kit" I think the money saved by creating your own is going to end up being minor. I recommend the Marlin Crawler kit myself as I have several friends that run it and couldnt be happier. All Pro also offers a reputable kit. Frankly I would avoid Trail Gear because I don't buy cheap chinese garbage, but if you are into saving $100 bucks to sacrifice quality then go with them.

I would do SOA, make sure you get the frame plates for the IFS box to reinforce the frame (full front frame plates is the wisest idea), invest in a high steer kit, try and get a straight axle truck front driveline as it can easily be converted into a square front shaft (IFS shaft is a pain in the ass to make a driveline out of). 79-85 are the years with solid axles, 84-85 are the strongest axle, they came from the factory with trusses already in place.

Again, read a few threads on the MC board and you will get a great idea of how other people have done it, what worked, and what didnt. Good luck and be sure to take a lot of pictures! I want to see a build up :beer:
 
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