My SOA laundry list (1 Viewer)

[dieselcruiserhead]

PS Cut and turn is not that hard espeically if you worked in a steel shop. Again check the link it talks aobut it with some good illustrations. I went just inwards of the factory weld with my grinder at about just under 1/4" deep and it did the trick perfectly. It only took me an extra hour to do the cut and turn anyway...

Also I have had both hi steer setups, Marlin and Luke 4x4 labs. Both are great again. Luke has the 1 ton rods, but Marlin's works great. Again All Pro same as what Mace said, almost identical to Marlins, they are fine but their business practices are very 'pirate4x4.com' to me which blows IMO...


PPS BK cruiser, great analogy...

good, cheap, and quick...

pick two....

 

[Darkrealms]

Thanks for the reply's I will try to read that link tonight dieselcruiserhead about the cut and turn. Unfortunately I no longer work at a shop so I'll be farming out my metal work. Thats why Cruiser Parts is doing it. Like I had said, I wasn't trying to be cheap, I just was under the impression that there wasn't the "need" to cut and turn for the kind of lift I was looking for.
cruiseroutfit I'll send you another pm, not sure what was up with that one.
2badfjs thanks for the link, I'll try to check that one out tonight too.
Mace thanks, but I was still being told by the shop that it wasn't worth it for what I wanted. I'm gonna read more up on it.
Guess I'm not very good at searching sometimes.

This is definately a learning expirience and I'm hoping to do it right and get a good review for future SOAers out of it.

Thanks for the help!
Brian

 

[TOY350]

Brian,

I would strongly recommend the cut and turn unless you are doing an engine/tranny swap that gets you a longer front driveline. I don't have any problems with tracking or wandering that I can tell, but if mine was cut and turned maybe it would track even better, I don't know. But the big problem that I noticed is that there will be binding on the U-joints if you don't get the pinion tilted up some. When we first did my SOA I still had the stock power train and although the setup worked, it was just a matter of time before I destroyed something in the driveline if I wheeled it too hard. Now it's not an issue because my front driveline is the same lenght as my rear. When we did 82-SOA-60's SOA with a high pinion 80 front housing he couldn't wheel it because the angles where too severe and caused binding in the driveway. He also has a V8 and auto tranny making his front driveline nice and long which resolved the binding issue.

So I would say that a cut and turn is required for a 60 going SOA with the stock powertrain.

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

cool... you don't need to do it but if you have minor fab skills as you do you can do it yourself easily enough. Again, first break down the axles completely so they are just the knuckle balls. You will want a front axle rebuild kit from cruiseroutfit or whomever about $100 shipped.. Then, cut just inwards of the factor weld using your grinder to no more than 1/4. That will break the inner and outer housings apart (which are only held together at the factory weld at the end of the housing). Then use a big pipe or a highlift handle or whatever and rotate the axle housing to desired position, pinion pointed towards T case or just below it (if you anticipate spring settling). And rotate caster angle so the steering arms are about 4-5 degrees (using angle finder) increased, so tips of steering arms are farther away from floor. And voila. Then take the whole shebang, the axle, spring perches etc to the welder... You will also want to think about how to mount shocks to the axle housing, I used old 40 series shock mounts welded to the top of the housing. With the Ford towers 14" travel are perfect. Here is are a few pics... 62 front axle (almost identical to a FJ60 axle) under my FJ55...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

first set of photos are of the axle one I had it all stripped up. I took many many measurements of caster etc because I wanted to get it right...


These next ones are...
1) The axle broken down again...
2) How I ground. As this was only my 2nd cut and turn, again I ground way too deep. Because this was at the end of the axle luckily it is not a place where there will be any warping with too much heat, so I layed down two layers of good thick beads to bring the welds/metal back up the stock height. Again you'd be surprized how thin the outer housing is and it should only take one good thick stong bead. But because you worked at a welding shop I imagine you are fine to do it...

3) And other photo of grinding too deep...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

next round of photos...

The housing once it was all welded up. welds with the new perches (also from Proffitts but Mopar ones might be available to you locally), the shock tabs on the top of the housing, and note the little welds I welded to the bottom of the housing to keep the u bolts in place when tightened...

And some finished photos...

hope it all helps. Really not that hard if you have fab skills...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

finsihed photos. Welds are actually all very good clean welds throughout the whole axle. All with my little 110 machine, some welding experience, and using flux and a wire wheel of course...

 

[calfj60]

Why does noboby use the giant tubing cutter?? That was what they used when they did my cut and turna nd looked easy enough...plus it cuts slow so you never go to deep

 

[chicago]

What do you guyz mean by "Cut too deep"? I thought the idea was to cut the ends completely off to rotate the housing to different angle. Am I way off?

Chicago

 

[calfj60]

My understanding is that the knuckles are pressed into teh axle hopusinga nd then welded together...You want to just cut through the housing an dno all the way through,,,Once you cut the housing then you can turn the knuckles where you want them...

 

[SCJO06]

yeah....I thought the same too.

 

[Mace]

Knuckles are a press fit into the housing by about 3" or so.

Andre, that is a most excellent use of a warn hub

And BTW, I always have used a 4" tubing cutter. The only reason that some prefer the grinder method is because it leaves a very nice gap to be filled in with weld.

It is amazing what a 110V weder can do..

 

[Darkrealms]

?no cutty turny back?

Thanks dieselcruiserhead for the photos, the description, and the link.
I have a new question. . .
There isn't anything about cutting and turning the back axle? I guess that would make sense but I just always assumed you cut and turn both. . .

I will talk to John about it tomorrow.


Another wrench to throw in I've got a little over 201k on my engine/tranny and I figure about another 50k and I'll probably do a swap. Something newer, a 350 or maybe a newer diesel, anyway would that mean recutting and turning the axle for that tranny swap as well?

 

[Mace]

Rear axle has no caster to the wheels, so just by rotating the pinion at the Tcase will do you well as long as you use a CV joint on the Tcase end.

And yes, a new drivetrain can require a new cut N turn..

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

yes that is correct. You grind the outer housing no more than 1/4" deep. Leave the inner housing in tact. You DO NOT cut the whole knuckle off... The inner housing and knuckle are all one piece that Toyta slides into the outer housing from the factory, sets the caster (same technique described here) and then welds together at that outer weld. Basically you are grinding so the weld does not hold them together any more. If you wanted to, as this stage, you could pull the whole inner knuckle out of the axle housing but the point is to basically rotate it to the caster angle of your choice. So... say the axle is set so it has 0 degrees of pinion angle stock, and +2 degrees of caster (arms lifted off the ground = + caster). Then you grind off spring perches and clean up axle. Then you point pinion towards t-case. Say that takes 10 degrees. So your pinion angle is 10 degrees. Because your caster previously was +2, and you want +4 with 10 degrees of pinion, you will have to rotate knuckles 12 degrees total. Then, with the pinion at 10 degrees, you add perches so they are at whatever angle the springs are at (usually 0).

I hope all this makes sense.. Maybe this should be a new thread... I dunno. The pipe cutter works very well and correct, it is much harder to go "too far". It still amazes me how thin the axle housing is... But grinder does work well...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

if you look at this photo, inside the cavity that I ground, you can see a line where the inner axle and outer axle meet.

 

[Darkrealms]

Ok, guys got it back and here are some of the details for now.

4wheelparts.com
TRXUS M/T 35X12.50 R15 731.96
Rock Crusher PCW51-5883R2.75 227.96
Mount/Balance/Ship 0
4x4labs.com
High Steer Arms 300
Perches 37
Shipping 19.99
man-a-fre.com
Poly Bushing 36
U-Bolt Kit 49
Shipping 11.91
precisionbrakes.com
SS Brake Lines 123
Cruiser Parts - GP, OR
SOA (all) 600

TOTAL SO FAR 2136.82

And remember almost $1000 of that was in tires and wheels.

Now on to some hight pictures (sorry about the width but I wanted to put them side by side):
Based on the fender wells it looks like about 6" in the front and 6.5" in the rear for SOA on stock origional springs.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

That is actually awesome man. Good job!!

Did you buy 5 tires and wheels or did you only get 4?

 

[Darkrealms]

GLTHFJ60 I got 4 tires, I have a fairly nice 33 on a rim that I've been using as a "donut" spare incase I need it.


I still need to cut and turn, my caster is about -5 right now, I'm gonna bring it to +.5-.7. The guy that did it isn't comfortable with cut and turns so he just got the right camber for the drive line and I'll just lift it up take everything off and fix the caster angle.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

What did you get from cruiser parts that equated to $600?