Builds Fj40 Daily and Wheeler build (1 Viewer)

[White Stripe]

I am preparing to install a fj60 axle in the front of my 40. Ordered up U-bolts and some brackets. My current setup is a 40 housing with 60 knuckles and steering arms. I also have saginaw power steering. I still have the 40 tie rod but put sleeves on the 60 arms to fit the 40 tre's. The relay rod is an old one from downey I think. I am going to install the 4plus housing spacer to make the 60 housing 2 5/8" wider because I want the additional stability, and I really think with 35's or larger it just looks right on a 40 having the extra width. Plus not rolling the truck will save the nice sheet metal and paint. My question right now is in regards to steering. I don't want to spend 500bucks on the steering right now because I still have to install a rear axle and I might do a link suspension and an extra 500 would kill that project.
Do I use a FJ60 tie rod and ends and just sleeve it to make up for the width? If so what can I use for a relay rod and rod ends to go to the saginaw?
Or do I use the 40 steering I have now and just sleeve that and my current relay rod?

 

[shawnfj40]

My 2 cents is this, if your driving it on the road then you should get the right length rods. If it is a trail rig then cut and sleave away. I think you should be able to use 60 parts with all but the relay TRE and drag link should be from a 60.

 

[yotafj]

If you did the gm steering conversion redline landcruisers has them but if you are going to go that wide why not use the fj80 axles and get the factory elockers from a 96 then you have the coil set up on the rear axle and just need longer links if that's the way your building if I read it the right way

 

[White Stripe]

If you did the gm steering conversion redline landcruisers has them but if you are going to go that wide why not use the fj80 axles and get the factory elockers from a 96 then you have the coil set up on the rear axle and just need longer links if that's the way your building if I read it the right way

Basically Im trying just to get the axles in and the steering good enough to get me down the road.(while still making it safe) I may use a fj80 axle in the rear but not sure yet. I wan't to use the front fj60 axle because I can use a lot of upgraded parts from my 40 axle, and it will be stronger in the end because of the bigger differential. If I get a rear 80 I will probably venture away from an elocker because many people have reported it doesn't do well for rock crawling unless I get it for really cheap.

 

[White Stripe]

My 2 cents is this, if your driving it on the road then you should get the right length rods. If it is a trail rig then cut and sleave away. I think you should be able to use 60 parts with all but the relay TRE and drag link should be from a 60.

I feel pretty confident about safety of sleeving the tie rods for street use. If I do I will basically sleeve the whole tie rod with drilled holes to weld all along the sleeve and basically make as if it was all one piece.

 

[Howard705]

I have welded steering parts. Over-engineer it. How much do you trust your welding? Everything is welded including piping with 1000s# pressure etc.

 

[yotafj]

I miss understood your post I did do this on my dad's cj5 awhile ago I cut the tie rod in half and slid a 1/4" Dom tube over it. With both ends loose I hooked it up and got it where I needed it and tack welded the ends and pulled it back apart to weld, had it a little shorter so it still had the adjuster on both ends so you can still adjust steering and for the cross over it was the same. The Dom tube I got was a little undersized so I used a sanding disk to sand the rod down till it would slide in with a little resistance so it wasn't sloppy. Instead of plug welds I used a 1/4" cutting disc and came down off the rod ends a foot and cut half way through the pipe into the tie rod and used 7018 to weld it back together then fliped it over came down a little from my foot mark and did the same thing. Plug welds can break over time full pin welds are best but to much heat will distort things I chose to weld it in 7018 cause its a stronger weld for what I needed and faster to do with what I had. So I say do it it's easy and we do drive it on the street and can still take it to get alignments done and never had a problem.

 

[Chris Wilcox]

Could you explain the 4plus housing spacer. As far as I know the stock 60 housing will interfere with the leaf springs up front. Are you using custom axle shafts?

 

[lcwizard]

I prefer using the 60 rod end set minus the one at the pitman. It involves a custom drag link and relay rod. The drag link ends up about 46 5/8"
tapped 23mm left and right for the 60 series ends. I use the GM 1 ton at the saginaw. It has the highest articutalion. It's an ES2027. To have enough meat on the pitman after reaming for the larger rod end you should use the early Wagoneer pitman arm rather than the CJ5/7 arm that Advance Adapters sells. It's an inch longer and has a 1" drop built, both pluses. Luke at 4x4 labs used to keep those in stock and reamed for
the GM end. If you go this route you'll need a relay rod , about 25", tapped 21mm at the lower end for the 60 series rod end and tapped 7/8
at the top for the GM piece. All these parts are considerably stronger than the stock 40 parts.


Chris, here's the sleeve. You need to have a short side axle made to 19 3/4" . Lengthening the short side allows you to mount the axle to use the stock perch position at the diff

<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp36/lcwizard/axle extension/P8141450.jpg" border="0" alt="extension welded with shock pins photo P8141450.jpg"/></a>

 

[White Stripe]

I prefer using the 60 rod end set minus the one at the pitman. It involves a custom drag link and relay rod. The drag link ends up about 46 5/8"
tapped 23mm left and right for the 60 series ends. I use the GM 1 ton at the saginaw. It has the highest articutalion. It's an ES2027. To have enough meat on the pitman after reaming for the larger rod end you should use the early Wagoneer pitman arm rather than the CJ5/7 arm that Advance Adapters sells. It's an inch longer and has a 1" drop built, both pluses. Luke at 4x4 labs used to keep those in stock and reamed for
the GM end. If you go this route you'll need a relay rod , about 25", tapped 21mm at the lower end for the 60 series rod end and tapped 7/8
at the top for the GM piece. All these parts are considerably stronger than the stock 40 parts.


Chris, here's the sleeve. You need to have a short side axle made to 19 3/4" . Lengthening the short side allows you to mount the axle to use the stock perch position at the diff

<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp36/lcwizard/axle extension/P8141450.jpg" border="0" alt="extension welded with shock pins photo P8141450.jpg"/></a>

That helps a lot. Thank you. I am sourcing some of those parts now. Tomorrow I am going to start work on the axle. Looks like trail gear has a inner short side axle they stock that is 19 and 7/16". Is that close enough? I guess its for one of their axle housings they make the rock assault they call it. If I did that I would lose about a 1/4" of axle inserted through the carrier. Or should I just have somebody make one to the specs you stated above?

 

[White Stripe]

I worked on the front axle tonight. Spent some time cutting off brackets with a plasma cutter. Also spent some time measuring and looking at steering parts. It looks like I will use a mixture of fj80 and fj60 tie rod ends. And make my own tie rods. This will remain a sua suspension up front. So far I have spent 100bucks on the housing, 200 on heavy duty tie rods with fj60 and fj80 tre's, and another 150 on spring perches and a u-bolt flip kit. Still waiting on delivery for most of it. As soon as I get the parts in the mail everything should go fast. The factory spring perches will remain for a bit because they give excellent reference points for measuring stuff before I start welding stuff on. Only other expenses are an inner axle, and driveshaft work. Wow it adds up fast even trying to use used parts and me doing the labor! If I did rcv's or longfields the price would really shoot up!

 

[ErikinSC]

Sorry - I got nothing to help. I bought a complete 60 axle to have the parts swapped over into my 40.... My earlier thread was misleading. Besides, @lextechautomotive is doing to swap over for me.

 

[White Stripe]

So I cut off my first birfield bell today to insert the extension. I ended up cutting way too deep and cut into the bell a lot. So I put a v-groove in it so that when I weld all back together it will get into that part I cut into. After I got extension in a put the bell back on and did some measuring for new spring perches. Turns out the short side perch is in the right place! I still have to cut it off to do a cut n turn to set my caster for the shackle reversal but this will make measurements a little easier. For steering stuff Im still waiting for delivery. I ordered fj80 relay rod ends and a fj80 reamer to ream the saginaw arm, and I got some 1/4" tubing with weld in bungs. Anyone interested in purchasing my old fj40 saginaw tie rod set up or 40 housing? Its going on craigs soon. I can't wait to get this installed The extra width is going to be way better than the spacers I have.

 

[yotafj]

Where you located?

 

[White Stripe]

Im in Denver

 

[yotafj]

Little far to go get

 

[yotafj]

How are you setting the degrees with it out of the rig? Or are you following your old axle set up been trying to do mine with out it set up in the rig. Looking good how much wider will it be

 

[White Stripe]

It will be about 5 1/2" inches wider. I am staying sua but doing reverse shackle without the front drop bracket. I will put the axlle perches on the springs, set the housing on top, get my pinion angle I want, tack weld, then use a magnetic angle finder on the birfield housings and dial that in with the springs on jack stands and get the caster I want. I don't think you can do it out of the vehicle since you have to be pretty precise. 1/8" rotation equals 5 degrees caster. More than 1 degree off side to side can cause handling issues.

 

[White Stripe]

So I got more stuff for the axle in the mail. Im doing a u-bolt flip using gm plates. They are very beefy. I also bought a reamer for reaming out my pitman arm for a fj80 relay rod end-this seemed the best route to go for me.

Before I dropped the axle and springs out I aired up the tires and measured initial ride height. Then I dropped the axle and started measuring for the shackle reversal.

This is incredible! Finally I am not going to have the stupid shackles hanging down in front smashing into rocks everywhere! This took a lot longer than I thought it would. In retrospect I wish I had just trashed the old shackle hangers and bought new ones. Even with a plasma cutter, air hammer, and cut off wheels it was hard to save the one nearest the saginaw box. I was able to save it-but I wish I had just ordered new ones. I bolted my axle back into place temporarily and rolled my rig back into the cold. Next is making shackles and dialing in the ride height. Then I will start fitting the new housing into the suspension.

 

[White Stripe]

Shackle reversal is pretty much done. At first I moved the shackle mount in 3" to get a better angle-that was way way too much. Set it to 3/4" inward and it seems just right. Its just tacked in right now. I still have to make some shackles and will sell these I think. Then its time to put the new axle in. Also I will be flipping the front springs for a little bit more wheelbase and better looks hopefully too. I immediately noticed a difference in ride so far just hitting a few good bumps-like night and day difference, partially due to the new shackle angle too.