looking to put leafs under my fj80...

[asuddendeath]

Its nice of you guys trying to save him from ****ing a nice truck up.
If you just want to bog skip the body lift and buy a $30 sawzll from harbor freight.
You can fit big tires no problem

 

[Box Rocket]

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

 

[Mark W]

Six shooters will only fit a mini truck axle. What is your custom 9.5 front made out of? What kind of knuckle balls are on the end of it? The only true high-steer knuckles that fit 80 knuckle balls are Hellfire at about $1100 a pop.

Six shooters will not fit '80 knuckle balls, but they will fit all the earlier Cruiser axles.

Mark...

 

[glasiys]

So are you welding mini truck knuckle balls to a 9.5 housing to run 6 shooters? Is that even possible?

63s up front are a no go. Run some 52” chevys or yj springs or mini truck rears or maybe 60 series fronts. Lots of options but 63s are not a good front choice. 63s are great for rear. 1/2 ton pack and french your hangers or you’re gonna end up with stupid amount of lift for your size tires.

If you’re gonna go stupid cheap on the 3 link then just don’t even bother. Might as well run factory radius arms and drop brackets.

i was thinking they sold the 6 shooters for the bigger housing as well knowing they arnt ill have to rethink. that my budget for the 3 link was 450 just becuse someone elde did a build fot that much id have to find it, its somewhere here on ih8mud.

 

[glasiys]

but reallly with all said im going to admint id be better off doing my own 3 link or finding a kit that would fit. ad for now with the 8in axle thats under im going to lift it 2n to 3in. untill have have my 9.5in axle set up for 3 links

 

[Mark W]

BTW, what "9.5 inch" axle are you trying to use? You do realize that there are no 9.5 inch diff front Cruiser axles that are as wide as the '80 axles, yes? And that the low pinion 9.5 inch diff will not fit with the'80 series steering linkages. And that the '80 birfields are stronger than the smaller ones of the earlier Cruiser axles? And that the brakes are superior?

I really am not sure why you are trying to reinvent the wheel and thinking that you will save a single penny in doing so. You will not.
You have a 3FE under the hood. You really do not want anything larger than 35 inch tires unless you are going to regear and/or hotrod the motor (and there is not a lot of "hotrod" that most can do to this engine). Even that will be pushing it if you are really gonna play in the mud. You can put together a 3 inch lift for lunch money by watching for used stuff that is always floating around and put some 35 inch tires on it and go play.

I see hacked up FJ80s too often. Guys get them cheap and figure "why not". I bite my tongue when these guys want to brag about them and show them off. I avoid thinly veiled suggestions to "go wheeling sometime" because I don't want to have to deal with getting them off the trail when the break. I am offered "screaming deals" fairly often too. I usually pass on them even as parts cars.

An '80 is not an 1990 S10 blazer or Ford Ranger pickup or Jeep Cherokee. It is not a rolling POS where ANYTHING you do to it is an improvement. Don't go into owning one with that outlook.

Am I correct in my impression (from your profile and keyboard style) that you are 18? If so, no offense intended, but if you are 18, you simply have not had time in life yet to gain a lot of fabricating experience. No matter how smart you are or what you aptitude is, it takes experience to create skill. And knowledge. You are gonna want that before undertaking the sort of modifications you keep talking about here. Along with that, I have to assume that you do not have a lot of hours behind the wheel of an '80, on or off road, to learn just what they can and can not do at various levels of modification.

We've all been there. (I still remember my attempt to install full elliptical springs under the front of an FJ55! That abortion never got past the "cut the frame up and weld s*** on" stage before I started to see the flaws in my plan LOL)

Start small. Learn what your rig can do stock and mildly modified before you hack it to pieces with poorly considered modifications.

Mark...

 

[glasiys]

you could always flip the radius arms for cheap.

thats a pretty good idea i always did like how low to the ground they sat

 

[glasiys]

BTW, what "9.5 inch" axle are you trying to use? You do realize that there are no 9.5 inch diff front Cruiser axles that are as wide as the '80 axles, yes? And that the low pinion 9.5 inch diff will not fit with the'80 series steering linkages. And that the '80 birfields are stronger than the smaller ones of the earlier Cruiser axles? And that the brakes are superior?

I really am not sure why you are trying to reinvent the wheel and thinking that you will save a single penny in doing so. You will not.
You have a 3FE under the hood. You really do not want anything larger than 35 inch tires unless you are going to regear and/or hotrod the motor (and there is not a lot of "hotrod" that most can do to this engine). Even that will be pushing it if you are really gonna play in the mud. You can put together a 3 inch lift for lunch money by watching for used stuff that is always floating around and put some 35 inch tires on it and go play.

I see hacked up FJ80s too often. Guys get them cheap and figure "why not". I bite my tongue when these guys want to brag about them and show them off. I avoid thinly veiled suggestions to "go wheeling sometime" because I don't want to have to deal with getting them off the trail when the break. I am offered "screaming deals" fairly often too. I usually pass on them even as parts cars.

An '80 is not an 1990 S10 blazer or Ford Ranger pickup or Jeep Cherokee. It is not a rolling POS where ANYTHING you do to it is an improvement. Don't go into owning one with that outlook.

Am I correct in my impression (from your profile and keyboard style) that you are 18? If so, no offense intended, but if you are 18, you simply have not had time in life yet to gain a lot of fabricating experience. No matter how smart you are or what you aptitude is, it takes experience to create skill. And knowledge. You are gonna want that before undertaking the sort of modifications you keep talking about here. Along with that, I have to assume that you do not have a lot of hours behind the wheel of an '80, on or off road, to learn just what they can and can not do at various levels of modification.

We've all been there. (I still remember my attempt to install full elliptical springs under the front of an FJ55! That abortion never got past the "cut the frame up and weld s*** on" stage before I started to see the flaws in my plan LOL)

Start small. Learn what your rig can do stock and mildly modified before you hack it to pieces with poorly considered modifications.

Mark...

thanks for the advice, the 9,5in is a fj80 rear cut and notched it does msuere out for the wheel with, the resson id like to go this route ive heard that the 8in stock axle can be weak is some forms i want a bomb proof axle undeer it but id like to keep it toyota. my frount axle is allso going to need berfeild seals and stearing shafts pretty soon.. when i got the 9.5in axle housing i also go a full rear with it 2 complete thirds and lots of other parts. the 9.5in cutted and axle was more a on top of the deal thing winch im very very thankfull for what i got. i understand i would need to adress the stearing im building this form the housing up

 

[scottryana]

What are steering shafts in an axle? Birfields? This whole thread has me confused. Please just start a build thread. Do whatever it is you think you’re planning and take a lot of photos. Someone has to be the first to do it. Oh and I heard you can do an LS swap in a weekend if you need more power.

thanks for the advice, the 9,5in is a fj80 rear cut and notched it does msuere out for the wheel with, the resson id like to go this route ive heard that the 8in stock axle can be weak is some forms i want a bomb proof axle undeer it but id like to keep it toyota. my frount axle is allso going to need berfeild seals and stearing shafts pretty soon.. when i got the 9.5in axle housing i also go a full rear with it 2 complete thirds and lots of other parts. the 9.5in cutted and axle was more a on top of the deal thing winch im very very thankfull for what i got. i understand i would need to adress the stearing im building this form the housing up

 

[glasiys]

What are steering shafts in an axle? Birfields? This whole thread has me confused. Please just start a build thread. Do whatever it is you think you’re planning and take a lot of photos. Someone has to be the first to do it. Oh and I heard you can do an LS swap in a weekend if you need more power.

will do some of my spellings not the best but after whatevyone has said im going 3 link with the 9.5in frount axle ill be sure to make build thread

 

[Cruiserdrew]

I think you're about to ruin an 80, which is too bad because an 80 is a super flexible platform that will let you explore the outdoors for cheap, and learn about offroading in the process. 10 years from now you'll hate yourself for ruining a truck that could have been a lifetime wheeler.

There is no reason to prioritize a 9.5 in the front. Just because you "got a good deal" on someone else's problem, doesn't mean it's advisable. In fact it's silly. Seriously, a hack job hybrid front axle will be far worse than a good working stock 8 inch reverse cut. And remember the bit about the need for the part time kit in the transfer case. And a 3 link on the road can be sketchy unless it's executed perfectly.

If you want "bulletproof" build up a Dana 60 king pin with all the high strength parts.

Stock 80s have been just about everywhere you can go. Rubicon, Death Valley, Hammers, Moab/Southern Utah, Baja, Alaska, everywhere. My personal 80 has been most of those places (and back, lol) on the STOCK axle parts. Don't drive like an idiot and that front end will do a good job. Of course it's possible to break, but then so is anything else, especially if you build it yourself without a previous build or two.

Keep your first round of modifications to a minimum. Coil spring lift, decent tires, do all the "deferred" maintenance items and go have fun. But if you pull out the cutting torch, your truck will never move again.

 

[Lumpskie]

@glasiys

I agree with @Cruiserdrew . I still don't understand why you need an upgraded front axle in the first place. My bet is that you'll be able to wheel almost any trail in western Washington with 2-3 inches of lift and 315s on there. The stock front axle would be fine. If you find that you want 37s, some bump stop adjustment and flare trimming will let you run them on the stock front axle without issue. There are a number of 80s in your area running 40s on the stock front axle... I haven't seen anything indicating that they are breaking them.

Seems like you are solving a problem that doesn't exist. Just give your rig some maintenance and run it.

For now, start your build thread and show everyone what you are starting with. Tell us who you are planning on wheeling with and what kind of terrain you intend to wheel on. If there are maintenance issues, tell the Mud community about those as well. There are folks on here with a lot of experience. Let their experience work for you.

 

[glasiys]

there are some pretty hard trails here theycan just be hard to find... ive had lots of wheelers before but for my fj, oreginly i wanted to do 3 links, and having a spare axle to weld everything on would make it a lot more easy, also i could keep it drivalbe while i did that, my friend really suggested that i do leafs and did give some valid points, but with what ive heard form you huys im 100% going 3 link, my plans are to wheel this fj pretty hard im not going to destory it but it work (bodys not clean) be put to work for sure, ive allso heard that the 8in stokc frount axle and tend to be a bit weak, im picking up hellfire knuckles hopefully next week.

 

[Lumpskie]

there are some pretty hard trails here theycan just be hard to find... ive had lots of wheelers before but for my fj, oreginly i wanted to do 3 links, and having a spare axle to weld everything on would make it a lot more easy, also i could keep it drivalbe while i did that, my friend really suggested that i do leafs and did give some valid points, but with what ive heard form you huys im 100% going 3 link, my plans are to wheel this fj pretty hard im not going to destory it but it work (bodys not clean) be put to work for sure, ive allso heard that the 8in stokc frount axle and tend to be a bit weak, im picking up hellfire knuckles hopefully next week.

I understand that you heard that the front axle is a weak point. But I also understand that I know of at least 3 rigs, on 40s, in your area that wheeled all over the place on the stock axle. I'm just saying, why not try it before going with something that may very well be weaker and worse?

Here are some examples.

Builds - The start of a never ending build, new 80 owner

Any updates or some wheelin pics?

forum.ih8mud.com

Northwesttaco's 80 series crawler slammed on 4d's and BS

Looks like you got a new camera too. Nice pics!

forum.ih8mud.com

Builds - 97 on 40s Expo Build

Well, please change your signature to "I also 3-link 80s without regard for math or engineering" Never said that haha. I’m just willing to admit like with everything there is always room for improvement.

forum.ih8mud.com

80 series with 40" tires

Basic human nature... bigger is better. I have found some 80 series rigs with 40" tires. I just had to post..... Wrench ...

projectfj4door.blogspot.com

 

[glasiys]

I understand that you heard that the front axle is a weak point. But I also understand that I know of at least 3 rigs, on 40s, in your area that wheeled all over the place on the stock axle. I'm just saying, why not try it before going with something that may very well be weaker and worse?

Here are some examples.

Builds - The start of a never ending build, new 80 owner

Any updates or some wheelin pics?

forum.ih8mud.com

Northwesttaco's 80 series crawler slammed on 4d's and BS

Looks like you got a new camera too. Nice pics!

forum.ih8mud.com

Builds - 97 on 40s Expo Build

Well, please change your signature to "I also 3-link 80s without regard for math or engineering" Never said that haha. I’m just willing to admit like with everything there is always room for improvement.

forum.ih8mud.com

80 series with 40" tires

Basic human nature... bigger is better. I have found some 80 series rigs with 40" tires. I just had to post..... Wrench ...

projectfj4door.blogspot.com

i understand that the stock axle is pretty stong even with bigger tires but, sence i havea axle out of the truck, i feel it would be more easy tom have the brackets welded on and eveything done needed while its out, also ican have my rig running while im setting up eveything. ill be getting a locker for sure, another resson is ive seen caster drop plates/ correction plates but most of them just lat out look kind of weak and if i can do a 3 link for 450 min id take that over the caster plates, or droped arms that would cost a lot more then 450. i will be wheeling this hard

 

[TYM4FUN]

Wait, you want to only spend $450 but now you are getting Hellfire Knuckes??

 

[TYM4FUN]

This whole thread has been interesting since it popped up. Some more critical thinking is needed here on your part for your project to be successful.

Edited for positivity.

 

[glasiys]

Wait, you want to only spend $450 but now you are getting Hellfire Knuckes??

im spending 450 on the links, i found a deteiled build with a fj80 that was their cost to do a 3 link. the knucles were aready in my budget

 

[satchel]

No way man. This thing is going the distance and I cannot way to see the results!!!!

 

[glasiys]

im not going to lie my idea about the leafs wasnt the best i just had a few friends sugggested it to me.. i see if can find the link for the build