Headliner looks fantastic Doug. I’ll have to pick your brain before I go about it.
How are you planning on setting up the rear belt retractors?
Builds Gen IV LS/NV4500 Swap
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Headliner looks fantastic Doug. I’ll have to pick your brain before I go about it.
How are you planning on setting up the rear belt retractors?
- Thread starter
- #122
Haven't thought about it too much yet. I'm not installing them now, just wanted to get the anchors in the pillar for later. I may end up running without a back seat for a while and the checkbook is crying due to all the other parts purchases so the seat belts are going to wait a bit.
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- #124
It's the SOR kit, the felt style material. I was happy with the product, it fit well for the most part. I had to trim the sleeve for the bows in the rear sections to get it to pull down correctly, but that wasn't too difficult.
- Thread starter
- #125
After the headliner I took a couple weeks off from this project to catch up on some other customer work and do some skiing while we had friends in town. Then it was on to the next big phase of this build...
Both axles are getting an upgrade. The rear is being replaced with an 80-series full floater, primarily for trail failure robustness and the disc brakes. The front is where things get interesting...
Yep, that's an 80-series high pinion front and we're going to the coils and radius arm setup. I was thinking of just doing a cut and turn but after driving the truck @bdyer12 built I got really interested in this swap and decided to try it out on my own truck. Lots more to come on this, but it's been pretty straightforward so far.
While the truck was in the air I couldn't resist rolling a set of 40's under it just to see how it looked.
There would be a lot of fender trimming required to get those to fit though, so back to Plan A. A couple hours with the air file and grinder and the leaf spring brackets are off.
The brackets which are going on to replace these are all 80-series parts. These are still somewhat available individually from Toyota but supply is dwindling. I may have gotten the last couple spring buckets in the country, unless inventories were replenished recently. The rear brackets for the radius arms weren't too hard to find but the panhard mount is now NLA. In the future, I may do this conversion using 70-series parts. I'm working up a plan to do a coil conversion on the Cummins R2.8 FJ40 I'm building for a client which will give me the chance to order a full 70 series front setup and compare to see how it might work in the 60 chassis. More to come on that when I get the parts in a month or two.
Both axles are getting an upgrade. The rear is being replaced with an 80-series full floater, primarily for trail failure robustness and the disc brakes. The front is where things get interesting...
Yep, that's an 80-series high pinion front and we're going to the coils and radius arm setup. I was thinking of just doing a cut and turn but after driving the truck @bdyer12 built I got really interested in this swap and decided to try it out on my own truck. Lots more to come on this, but it's been pretty straightforward so far.
While the truck was in the air I couldn't resist rolling a set of 40's under it just to see how it looked.
There would be a lot of fender trimming required to get those to fit though, so back to Plan A. A couple hours with the air file and grinder and the leaf spring brackets are off.
The brackets which are going on to replace these are all 80-series parts. These are still somewhat available individually from Toyota but supply is dwindling. I may have gotten the last couple spring buckets in the country, unless inventories were replenished recently. The rear brackets for the radius arms weren't too hard to find but the panhard mount is now NLA. In the future, I may do this conversion using 70-series parts. I'm working up a plan to do a coil conversion on the Cummins R2.8 FJ40 I'm building for a client which will give me the chance to order a full 70 series front setup and compare to see how it might work in the 60 chassis. More to come on that when I get the parts in a month or two.
After the headliner I took a couple weeks off from this project to catch up on some other customer work and do some skiing while we had friends in town. Then it was on to the next big phase of this build...
View attachment 1938540
Both axles are getting an upgrade. The rear is being replaced with an 80-series full floater, primarily for trail failure robustness and the disc brakes. The front is where things get interesting...
View attachment 1938554
Yep, that's an 80-series high pinion front and we're going to the coils and radius arm setup. I was thinking of just doing a cut and turn but after driving the truck @bdyer12 built I got really interested in this swap and decided to try it out on my own truck. Lots more to come on this, but it's been pretty straightforward so far.
While the truck was in the air I couldn't resist rolling a set of 40's under it just to see how it looked.
View attachment 1938552
There would be a lot of fender trimming required to get those to fit though, so back to Plan A. A couple hours with the air file and grinder and the leaf spring brackets are off.
View attachment 1938553
The brackets which are going on to replace these are all 80-series parts. These are still somewhat available individually from Toyota but supply is dwindling. I may have gotten the last couple spring buckets in the country, unless inventories were replenished recently. The rear brackets for the radius arms weren't too hard to find but the panhard mount is now NLA. In the future, I may do this conversion using 70-series parts. I'm working up a plan to do a coil conversion on the Cummins R2.8 FJ40 I'm building for a client which will give me the chance to order a full 70 series front setup and compare to see how it might work in the 60 chassis. More to come on that when I get the parts in a month or two.
Awesome! I’d love to do this to my truck someday. I’ll be following with great interest. I’ve been fascinated by the idea of coils on a 60 ever since I saw the Project X2 build. Your truck is going to be badass (even more so)!
-Ed
Hojack
♠️Project Snowball❄️
Builds are so much cooler when a lift is involved. I had our forklift but it’s just not quite the same.
This must be what patience looks like.
Very nice.
Do you think using the felt headliner made for less wrinkles than the vinyl? Or did you still do a fair amount of heat>stretch>smooth?
I always look forward to the updates on this truck.
Sweet truck !
Maybe I missed it but what trough out bearing did you end up using to compensate the travel space for the slave ? Also what slave are you using ?
I had a McLeod that worked well, just can’t remember much as it has been a few years since I put this package together, and planning to do the same combo on another project !
Maybe I missed it but what trough out bearing did you end up using to compensate the travel space for the slave ? Also what slave are you using ?
I had a McLeod that worked well, just can’t remember much as it has been a few years since I put this package together, and planning to do the same combo on another project !
- Thread starter
- #130
With the felt headliner there's no heat involved. It's just stretch/smooth and clip it at the pinch welds. I think the vinyl might be trickier to work with because of that heat/stretch element but I haven't done one yet so can't say for sure.
- Thread starter
- #131
The throwout bearing comes with the kit and all the clutch bits came from Advanced. I think it was a Centerforce branded clutch but I forget exactly what arrived in the box. The slave cylinder is from Wilwood, p/n 260-1333. I'm not sure what you're asking about the travel space, maybe try to clarify?
- Thread starter
- #132
I skipped a few steps earlier which are important to this job... layout. Before tearing the truck apart I took measurements of the axle locations, ride height, etc. so that I know where I'm starting from and where I want things to end up. One element I wanted to change was the position of the axle in the front wheel well. The stock 60 setup tends to rub at the front as the wheel goes into bump, this is because the leaf spring is forcing the axle to travel forward (unless you run a shackle reversal). To maximize tire clearance I've chosen to center the 80 axle in the wheel well in bump. This means it will pull rearward in droop as the arms swing in their arc, during my many clearance checks in this build all has seemed to work out nicely with this approach.
So with the 60 frame stripped layout begins. First step was to position the axle fore/aft based on the measurements mentioned above. I don't have pics of this step but it's pretty straightforward work with a plumb bob using marks on the inner fenders and the floor. After that we need to center the axle in the chassis left to right. The easiest way I found was using the spring centers...
The axle moves side to side as the panhard rod swings so we do this at ride height to optimize the geometry at the normal ride conditions. Using the lift I can set the body at the exact ride height and the axle just sits on the tires. With the axle in place, then it's time to do first mockups of the radius arms and spring buckets. A lot of things are happening at once here...
The bucket fore/aft position is influenced by the angle of the spring, which is a resultant of the caster angle of the whole axle. I started this project with stock radius arms and was debating whether I should use those or go with caster correcting aftermarket arms (obviously stock arms are much cheaper). The caster angle is heavily influenced by the height of the rear mount back on the frame rail. Moving the mount down tilts the axle backwards and helps give a good caster angle, but at the expense of ground clearance. A "tall" bracket which will lower the pivot point will be reacting against very large axle/suspension forces and therefore must be really beefy. Moving the mount up right on the bottom of the rail allows a very small and stiff bracket with high clearance but means the caster angle goes to hell. I use this truck pretty hard out on our Colorado trails so I decided to optimize for ground clearance and mounted the rear point as high as I could. These are stock 80-series rear brackets modified by cutting off the upper gusset tack welded in for our mockup purposes.
So with the rear point set, we move back to the spring buckets. In the earlier pic you can see a stack of steel shoved in to adjust the axle caster angle. With the stock arms and my high rear mount point I measured approximately 5 degrees negative caster at ride height which is definitely no bueno. I pulled the front bolts on the radius arms and tilted the axle up with the steel stack to get to approximately 5 degrees positive. As you can see from the stack, it's a big change. Once the caster angle is set, the spring angle follows (the tube shows that visually, it is perpendicular to the spring seat) and that sets the approximate location of the bucket.
With all that done, we do some clearance checks. The main concern is up travel and in my application there's a clear limiter...
That's the pumpkin resting on the bottom of the AC compressor bracket. This is with the passenger wheel in bump and the driver's side left at ride height. In this condition, there's about 3.5" between the axle tube and the frame rail. With the axle at it's max travel we go back to the spring buckets - I checked the 80-series bump stops that will be installed and the axle will hit those well before the axle hits the AC compressor so I know we can limit the travel so this won't occur out in the real world.
At this point I was satisfied with the axle location, clearances, and general location of the spring buckets. I knew I needed to address the caster so it was time to order some more parts.
So with the 60 frame stripped layout begins. First step was to position the axle fore/aft based on the measurements mentioned above. I don't have pics of this step but it's pretty straightforward work with a plumb bob using marks on the inner fenders and the floor. After that we need to center the axle in the chassis left to right. The easiest way I found was using the spring centers...
The axle moves side to side as the panhard rod swings so we do this at ride height to optimize the geometry at the normal ride conditions. Using the lift I can set the body at the exact ride height and the axle just sits on the tires. With the axle in place, then it's time to do first mockups of the radius arms and spring buckets. A lot of things are happening at once here...
The bucket fore/aft position is influenced by the angle of the spring, which is a resultant of the caster angle of the whole axle. I started this project with stock radius arms and was debating whether I should use those or go with caster correcting aftermarket arms (obviously stock arms are much cheaper). The caster angle is heavily influenced by the height of the rear mount back on the frame rail. Moving the mount down tilts the axle backwards and helps give a good caster angle, but at the expense of ground clearance. A "tall" bracket which will lower the pivot point will be reacting against very large axle/suspension forces and therefore must be really beefy. Moving the mount up right on the bottom of the rail allows a very small and stiff bracket with high clearance but means the caster angle goes to hell. I use this truck pretty hard out on our Colorado trails so I decided to optimize for ground clearance and mounted the rear point as high as I could. These are stock 80-series rear brackets modified by cutting off the upper gusset tack welded in for our mockup purposes.
So with the rear point set, we move back to the spring buckets. In the earlier pic you can see a stack of steel shoved in to adjust the axle caster angle. With the stock arms and my high rear mount point I measured approximately 5 degrees negative caster at ride height which is definitely no bueno. I pulled the front bolts on the radius arms and tilted the axle up with the steel stack to get to approximately 5 degrees positive. As you can see from the stack, it's a big change. Once the caster angle is set, the spring angle follows (the tube shows that visually, it is perpendicular to the spring seat) and that sets the approximate location of the bucket.
With all that done, we do some clearance checks. The main concern is up travel and in my application there's a clear limiter...
That's the pumpkin resting on the bottom of the AC compressor bracket. This is with the passenger wheel in bump and the driver's side left at ride height. In this condition, there's about 3.5" between the axle tube and the frame rail. With the axle at it's max travel we go back to the spring buckets - I checked the 80-series bump stops that will be installed and the axle will hit those well before the axle hits the AC compressor so I know we can limit the travel so this won't occur out in the real world.
At this point I was satisfied with the axle location, clearances, and general location of the spring buckets. I knew I needed to address the caster so it was time to order some more parts.
Thanks for the reply,
Thanks for the reply. It makes sense using the AA kit as everything was pieced together by them. I purchased a custom south bend clutch (at that time) as I didnt have luck with the AA clutch. The issue was a void space from the trowout bearing while the slave was engaging. McLeod had a bearing that solved this issue, I just I can’t remember what the part number was and my curiosity to learn what did you use !
Rockymtnreaper
Colorado.Cruiser
Friendly bump to update this 
- Thread starter
- #135
Friendly bump to update this
Many thanks for the reminder... on it.
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- #136
Okay, back to the action...
With the aforementioned caster issues I decided to go with aftermarket arms. A few conversations with Dave @Delta VS and these bad boys showed up on the doorstep. These are the arms spec'ed for a 6" lift 80-series which deliver approximately 10 degrees of caster change. The change in bushing location and therefore caster angle is pretty clear in this side by side view with stock arms...
So to recap - the rear point is located already and tacked on the frame rail. The arms now set the caster angle which then translates to the spring angle. Once again I set the chassis at ride height and projected the spring angle upward to the frame rail to locate the spring bucket. We want the spring vertical at the nominal ride position because it will bend some as the axle travels up and down. With the Delta arms in place and the spring buckets positioned to allow a vertical spring at ride height I welded the spring buckets to the frame.
With the aforementioned caster issues I decided to go with aftermarket arms. A few conversations with Dave @Delta VS and these bad boys showed up on the doorstep. These are the arms spec'ed for a 6" lift 80-series which deliver approximately 10 degrees of caster change. The change in bushing location and therefore caster angle is pretty clear in this side by side view with stock arms...
So to recap - the rear point is located already and tacked on the frame rail. The arms now set the caster angle which then translates to the spring angle. Once again I set the chassis at ride height and projected the spring angle upward to the frame rail to locate the spring bucket. We want the spring vertical at the nominal ride position because it will bend some as the axle travels up and down. With the Delta arms in place and the spring buckets positioned to allow a vertical spring at ride height I welded the spring buckets to the frame.
- Thread starter
- #137
So with the axle and springs located was time to look at steering. The 80-series steering box is tight to the spring bucket and has a pretty nice integration where the panhard mount lands right in the middle of the box. I wanted to replicate that as much as possible but with the 60-series frame you've got some challenges with clearance to the inner diagonal brace to deal with.
In my build, I chose to retain the 60-series box I already had and use an 80-series pitman arm. Some will choose an 80-series box (a little better boost curve) which has the same bolt pattern but a larger body. I positioned my box so that I can later switch to the 80-series box if I want, the tightest clearance is on the inside to the reservoir on the power steering pump. If you stay with the 2F or use the eRod (or similar) accessory drive you won't to worry about this area and could possibly move the box back a bit.
After a few iterations, I settled on this location for the box. You can see it's approximately 1" forward of the spring bucket which is pretty similar to the 80-series location. Moving the box farther forward helps in some of the bolt locations but is a little worse for steering geometry.
The bolts go through the frame with sleeves welded in for support. The forward two bolts end up just inside the diagonal frame brace, I trimmed it back a bit to get wrench access for tightening the botls. The intermediate shaft is from an 80-series and I was able to use it as-is with no modifications. The U-joint at the box input is from Borgeson adapting from the 60-box to the 80-series shaft.
In my build, I chose to retain the 60-series box I already had and use an 80-series pitman arm. Some will choose an 80-series box (a little better boost curve) which has the same bolt pattern but a larger body. I positioned my box so that I can later switch to the 80-series box if I want, the tightest clearance is on the inside to the reservoir on the power steering pump. If you stay with the 2F or use the eRod (or similar) accessory drive you won't to worry about this area and could possibly move the box back a bit.
After a few iterations, I settled on this location for the box. You can see it's approximately 1" forward of the spring bucket which is pretty similar to the 80-series location. Moving the box farther forward helps in some of the bolt locations but is a little worse for steering geometry.
The bolts go through the frame with sleeves welded in for support. The forward two bolts end up just inside the diagonal frame brace, I trimmed it back a bit to get wrench access for tightening the botls. The intermediate shaft is from an 80-series and I was able to use it as-is with no modifications. The U-joint at the box input is from Borgeson adapting from the 60-box to the 80-series shaft.
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Nice job.
Excited to see this in action in a week or two. Great work Doug.
