Builds Evolution of a Land Cruiser: My 80's build thread (8 Viewers)

[jcardona1]

This weekend I tackled the part I was dreading the most, shock towers. Well driver's side at least because that's the one that has the least amount of room. Steering shaft is gonna be in the way, so out came the grinder. Cut a notch so I could fit some 2.5" 1/4" wall square tubing and welded it all around.

The shock tabs up top don't come welded so I finished those up.

I like the shape of the Barnes tower vs the RuffStuff tower because this one is flat with square corners. The RS tower has a curved back which makes a bit trickier to notch (as Booger did).

And here's where it will sit. Nothing was tacked in at this point, just resting against the frame.

Ended up taking about an inch off the bottom of the tower in order to clear the brake master cylinder and match the contour of the frame rails.

View from the engine bay. Sits right under the master cylinder.

About an inch clearance from the cylinder. Now that I have this one in place I can tackle the passenger side which should be much easier.

 

[Finnyfam60]

Looking good bro!

 

[BILT4ME]

It must be drier than a popcorn fart where you live! You have had bare metal exposed for WEEKS and no surface rust. I was working on a different car this weekend and cleaned off a gasket sealing surface, left for 2 hours and came back to surface rust. And I'm in the middle of the USA!

 

[warezdog]

It must be drier than a popcorn fart where you live! You have had bare metal exposed for WEEKS and no surface rust. I was working on a different car this weekend and cleaned off a gasket sealing surface, left for 2 hours and came back to surface rust. And I'm in the middle of the USA!

Cali is about to be reclaimed by the desert if they don't start getting some rain.

 

[4WheelUnderground]

I think we got about 5 inches in the last month. Which is a lot considering in the last 5 years we've gotten about 5 inches.

 

[Box Rocket]

Shock towers look great! Well done as usual.

 

[warezdog]

So when will you be "testing" your work?

 

[mistercrave]

Absolutely one of my favorite builds.

Well done.

 

[jcardona1]

Time to update this thread. I created a separate 3 link thread to keep it focused on the 3 link and also let it serve as a guide for users in the future. A lot of good info here: https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/the-4wheelunderground-3-link-thread.843392/

So I'll just copy/paste all my posts that had pictures here

How bout some more tech?! Thanks Booger for the words of encouragement. Like he said, Brian took all the guesswork and difficulty out of the equation. I think anybody with basic fab skills and decent tools can tackle this. And so far it's just been me by myself. Would be nice to have an extra set of hands sometimes.

So I finally have everything tacked in place except for the shocks. Still need a bit more measuring before I decide where those are going. There were a few little things that were preventing from going any further. One was the passenger side control arm mount. As mentioned, the bolt would interfere with the e locker motor as Brian only had a non-locked 80 for mock up. In fact, it's just that tiny little hump that sticks out. Otherwise it probably would have been fine. Brian was a great help as usual and quickly sent me a machined & threaded insert to replace the nut. All I had to do was drill out the hole a bit bigger and weld it in place.

And finally I could tack the bracket in and move forward. Note the long bolt that still needs to be trimmed down.

The next set of snags was with the steering. I wanted to reuse my y-link steering so I asked Billy for 1-ton inserts to go in his Hellfires. Well the inserts were too big for my GM 1-tons. What gives? But the taper seemed to work fine on my draglink TRE which is slightly deeper than a GM 1-ton. Not wanting to wait any longer I took a drive out to PartsMike in Auburn and picked up some their deeper taper draglink TREs (ES2027).

But this meant I would lose my y-link TRE, leaving me nowhere to put the draglink. And due to clearance issues, I believe a y-link is going to be the best option with the 4WU kit. Luckily RuffStuff just made a y-link adapter, big machined piece of chromoly that adapts to any TRE you want. This gives you more options. And luckily they're only a short drive away from PartsMike.

Here's RuffStuff's y-link adapter.

The beefier ES2027 tie rods with the taper to match Billy's inserts

Steering all connected. Because the new tie rods and y-link adapter are much longer than the single y-link TRE I had before, I had to shorten the overall tie rod by using new weld-in bungs.

Full turn

About as far as you can turn the wheel to the left before the Hellfire arm touches the panhard's heim joint

After that was done I started cycling and flexing and checking for clearances. I was surprised to find how much up travel is limited on the driver's side because the tie rod hits the pitman arm. You have a lot more up travel on the passenger side. Are there any flat pitman arms for these trucks?

I then set the bump stops. Just tacked in place in case I did screwed something up.

And started playing around a bit with a tire mounted

 

[jcardona1]

Update time! Lots of things happened even thought it doesn't look like much in pics. After my last update I had several discussions with Brian about the panhard bracket touching the Hellfire arms. I was fine with it but Brian wasn't happy. So what does he do? He drives up to my house to check it out in person. I'll repeat that. BRIAN DROVE FROM HALFWAY ACROSS THE STATE TO HELP ME OUT. I was surprised he even suggested it and I didn't think it was necessary but I'm glad he was able to come up. Talk about customer service! This was a good chance for Brian to see what the interference was so he could make the changes in the kits going forward. The only thing we could think of is a slight difference in the new generation of Hellfire arms that threw off Brian's templates.

Brian took the panhard bracket and modified it, pushing it in and back. He also shortened the panhard about an inch by, putting in a new welded bung.

Here's the panhard bracket in its new position.

Here it is at full turn. No touching at all. We shaved a bit of the Hellfire arm to let it slide under the heim but at full turn it still doesn't even touch.

For full steer, we let the knuckles hit the lower shock mounts. Turned out to be nearly perfect as the knuckles are almost maxed out at this point.

Even though his job was done Brian decided to stick around and help me cycle the suspension, find out the true location for the towers and check for clearance. We started off by re-squaring the axle and setting caster at about 6º for the estimated ride height.

The angle finder was set on the flat surface of the knuckles as seen here

I then tacked the shock towers to the outside of the frame just to cycle everything with shocks in place. This is full stuff and full droop. Not too bad eh?!

Lots of down travel

Can't thank Brian enough for helping me out. I said it before and I'll say it again, this guy goes above and beyond to make sure his kit works to its fullest potential.

The next day I cut off the shock towers after measuring where they should go. I redid the air bumps by notching them into the frame. I was a little hesitant about this but I'm glad I did it. Much cleaner install. One thing is cutting brackets off the frame. It's entirely different cutting INTO the frame.

And I finally fixed the brake line I cut a few weeks ago while grinding. Had to make 3 flares and use several fittings to fix this. Don't make the same mistake I did. Now I can finally proceed with the towers. Once I have those in it will be home stretch and time to do all the finish welding!

 

[jcardona1]

Time for an update! Sorry for the lack of activity. I made a stupid mistake which cost me over a week of downtime as I waited for new parts to arrive. I ended up making the shock towers too short. So short that I was losing about 2" of up travel. I couldn't live with that so I ordered a new set. My mistake was that I measured and marked the cuts while I had the towers tacked onto the outside of the frame. It didn't occur to me that after making the cuts and moving them INTO the frame, the shock travel had now changed. Lesson learned!

Here's the old photo showing where I had them mounted for mock up and cutting. No bueno.

After the new towers arrived I knew what I had to do. Make a template of the frame's contour then transfer that to the tower. The driver's side will be the guide for setting the height of the towers. To set the height I tested the axle at the most extreme angles in order to find the interference. This turned out to be driver's side fully stuffed, passenger side fully drooped and the wheel turned all the way left.

And here's why. In this scenario this is the absolute maximum up travel you can achieve before the tie rod hits the pitman arm. Note that this already puts a 37" well beyond your factory sheet metal, both inner and outer fenders.

Not much to worry about on the passenger side when fully flexed out

All the steering clears and neatly tucks in between the panhard bracket

Also note that if you straighten the steering wheel the tie rod drops, leaving more room between the pitman arm.

Using the template I made for the frame's contour I carefully trimmed the towers. I was playing it safe this time. Ended up making a series to two cuts as to not make them too short again!

The height of the towers was set so that the shock is fully compressed and the shock's bump stop stops movement just before the tie rod hits the pitman arm. At this point I'll be also slightly compressing the air bumps.

And lowered back down to ride height, you can see the final angle of the towers and coilovers. I'll have about 5" of shock showing at ride height which is the number that gives Brian the warm n fuzzies. Here you can see the tower matches the contour of the frame exactly. I had to clearance just a bit around the motor mount.

Final steps will be to duplicate this for the passenger side. Put the steering shaft back in and notch the driver's side tower then FINISH WELD EVERYTHING

 

[jcardona1]

Updates are starting to have some substance now! Finished cutting and tacking in the passenger side tower. Now I can finally do some REAL testing and clearance checks. This one has some pics you guys have been waiting for.

Here's full droop on passenger side with shocks installed

With full stuff on driver's side

Full droop on both sides. I swear you could fit 16" coilovers on these things for ridiculous down travel

Now lets test with the tires on

With my trimming the tire can fully stuff no problems. But you can't turn the wheel left because of how the axle moved forward. I will need to cut more out of the front part of the fenders. I'm going for maximum travel and don't mind cutting sheet metal. Those that aren't willing to do so will need to lower the shock towers accordingly.

I couldn't even turn the wheel here. All this will need to go

Now the wheel turned all the way right

No issues with the sheet metal

But here's a problem. Tire touches the springs about 1/2" before hitting the steering stop. I think what I'll do is slightly modify the towers so they angle in towards the engine bay just a bit more.

And driver's side tire mounted

Turned all the way left

And similar issue on this side with the spring. This is actually full turn, touching the steering stops. I was able to move the spring over enough to get it fully turned.

Till next time

 

[jcardona1]

Jose, what does the caster do at full compression and full droop?

Here you go. Estimated ride height:

Full compression

Full droop

 

[jcardona1]

Ok I'm back with another update. So I last left off with the tire rubbing the springs at full stuff/full turn. No matter how much I tried angling back the towers it would always rub. Not satisfied I cut the towers off yet again and pushed them forward, in a more upright vertical position.

Angling the coilovers back too far with the Barnes tower simply will not work. So here they are after re-shaping them and lowering them about 1". You'll notice I had to slightly straddle the air bump. This is why I didn't put them here in the first place.

The other reason I didn't want them too vertical is because of the air cleaner on the passenger side. I may have to notch the whole air box like Booger did. I'll deal with that hurdle when I put it all back together.

Finally! No rubbing at full stuff/full turn. Driver's side

Passenger side all clear

Still plenty of up travel even though I lowered the towers 1"

At ride height. Coilovers sure are sexy

And you can rest assured the towers are FINAL because this mofo is fully welded with a 1/4" thick gusset on the side and notched for the steering shaft.

Made the notch a bit wider this time as I had the u-joints to clear

 

[jcardona1]

Back from Grand Prix weekend, time to get back to welding. Since I was in socal I had my buddy stop by G&J Aircraft in Ontario to pick up the custom brake lines I ordered. Looked around at the aftermarket extended brake lines and couldn't find the size I needed. I wanted them quite long since I'll be bypassing all the OEM soft lines and connecting straight from the frame hard lines to the caliper, routing them along the lower links.

Highly recommend G&J. They don't have an online store but can make whatever you want and ship. http://gandjaircraft.net/ These purtty little things were about $30 each. 52" length and stainless braid with an orange sheath to match the coilovers.

Also got the housing all finished up complete with armor, brace and truss. Poor man's RuffStuff housing!

And also added the RuffStuff knuckle gussets

 

[jcardona1]

I CAN SEE THE LIGHT. All welding is done. Only thing left to do is route the brake lines and do all the final painting. I want to get everything painted before final assembly so I don't have to take it apart again. This weekend I started painting the links and added the limit straps. I also recharged the shocks and air bumps since I dumped all the nitrogen out for mock up.

If all goes as planned I should be able to go on a test drive soon. Unfortunately is month-end in the finance world so I'll be working long hours this week. Once it's road worthy I'll need to get the front drive shaft extended then focus on the part-time spool.

Ended up not liking this orange color. Wanted a metallic orange and this was all I could find. So I'll redo this to just a plain orange like the springs.

Limit straps installed with the new brake lines attached.

Waiting on these little clamps to finish the brake line routing

 

[jcardona1]

IT'S DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It only took me 3 months. I wonder how fast I could have gotten done if I didn't have a day job. While it's done and sitting on its own weight I still haven't driven it. Have a few small tasks before it goes on a test drive:


- Bleed the master cylinder and all brakes since I drained it dry when I cut the line by accident
- Reset caster and tighten all links
- Notch the air cleaner to clear the shock towers

Overall I'm really happy how it turned out. The truck look stupid ridiculous - in a good way. The colors really pop once I get the wheels repainted it should look pretty sharp.

Painted the nasty exhaust pipe with VHT high heat paint and finally painted the inner fender which was looking gross as well.

Brake line routing. The tab near the panhard is for the limit straps.

Color used here is Rustoleum metallic "Black Night" for a little bit of bling

Links and knuckles painted in bright orange

And finally at its new stance! This is with about 1/2" of preload on the springs. I like this ride height. Now to see if I can match the rear to this height.

Time for a beer. I'm exhausted after this weekend

 

[sanscruiser]

Toyota needs to give you a job! Awesome stuff.

 

[bulhas]

your build was posted to brobible today

 

[ssyork]

Looks sharp! Excited to see the trail test flex shots!