So here we are. I picked up a couple of unlocked 80 axles (thanks again, Travis! You were awesome to buy from), and will be freshening them up over the fall and winter with fab work slated for spring.
Main purpose and motivation.
Ditch the LBJs while using as many Toyota parts as possible, and retaining as much of the road manners as possible. There are LBJ options, but all are compromises in one way or another, and fully bulletproofing the whole mess under there would easily cost as much as this SAS will but I’d still be stuck with IFS with all it’s glorious 8" of travel. To wit, another reason for the SAS is a reduction in head toss. It’s unreal how much more there is than anything I experienced in my 80. The overarching theme here is being realistic with the hardware my use of the truck dictates. I have a light foot and don’t push my luck on obstacles, so I don’t need tons, I don’t need chromo shafts, I don’t need an RTI queen, ect. Truthfully, I’m good with what I have now if it weren’t for being terrified of popping an LBJ on the trail. Or on the road, because that happens a lot, too.
I’m not entirely sure which way I’m going to go with this, but I have time to mull things over. I’ve got a pretty good 15,000 foot view right now so I’m not going to bury you in the minutiae, but a good bit of thought, measuring, and reading has gone into the options I have. Now that I have the axles on hand, I can really dive into the logistics of this build.
Possibilities are:
1) Finding a semi floater 9.5” rear and welding the balls to that.
2) Flipping and widening the front to match the 66” rear tree axle.
3) Flipping the tree t-case for passenger drop and just widening the front.
All of the above have advantages and drawbacks which will be weighed against each other as the planning phase continues.
I’m conflicted on the rear. I’m already geared and locked, but it is just a semi-floater 8.4” axle, so I’m thinking, since I have the rear…
If I end up using the rear, I’d need to swap to a 100 t-case and because the input shaft is different than the tree, I’d need a Cruiser transmission as well.
Steering will be either a 4R/pickup gear or an 80 series gear.
Links.
I’m leaning towards using a radius arm setup because I really liked how my 80 behaved both on and off the trail and two radius arm brackets would be a hell of a lot less work and math than a three link. Going back to using OEM parts when able, the radius arms have proven themselves around the world in the roughest environments for the past 30 years, so why try to reinvent it?
So there you have it in an extremely abridged nutshell. There’s not going to be much movement on this project for a while. In the mean time, feel free to tell me what you’d do differently and why I should do it your way.
Main purpose and motivation.
Ditch the LBJs while using as many Toyota parts as possible, and retaining as much of the road manners as possible. There are LBJ options, but all are compromises in one way or another, and fully bulletproofing the whole mess under there would easily cost as much as this SAS will but I’d still be stuck with IFS with all it’s glorious 8" of travel. To wit, another reason for the SAS is a reduction in head toss. It’s unreal how much more there is than anything I experienced in my 80. The overarching theme here is being realistic with the hardware my use of the truck dictates. I have a light foot and don’t push my luck on obstacles, so I don’t need tons, I don’t need chromo shafts, I don’t need an RTI queen, ect. Truthfully, I’m good with what I have now if it weren’t for being terrified of popping an LBJ on the trail. Or on the road, because that happens a lot, too.
I’m not entirely sure which way I’m going to go with this, but I have time to mull things over. I’ve got a pretty good 15,000 foot view right now so I’m not going to bury you in the minutiae, but a good bit of thought, measuring, and reading has gone into the options I have. Now that I have the axles on hand, I can really dive into the logistics of this build.
Possibilities are:
1) Finding a semi floater 9.5” rear and welding the balls to that.
2) Flipping and widening the front to match the 66” rear tree axle.
3) Flipping the tree t-case for passenger drop and just widening the front.
All of the above have advantages and drawbacks which will be weighed against each other as the planning phase continues.
I’m conflicted on the rear. I’m already geared and locked, but it is just a semi-floater 8.4” axle, so I’m thinking, since I have the rear…
If I end up using the rear, I’d need to swap to a 100 t-case and because the input shaft is different than the tree, I’d need a Cruiser transmission as well. Steering will be either a 4R/pickup gear or an 80 series gear.
Links.
I’m leaning towards using a radius arm setup because I really liked how my 80 behaved both on and off the trail and two radius arm brackets would be a hell of a lot less work and math than a three link. Going back to using OEM parts when able, the radius arms have proven themselves around the world in the roughest environments for the past 30 years, so why try to reinvent it?
So there you have it in an extremely abridged nutshell. There’s not going to be much movement on this project for a while. In the mean time, feel free to tell me what you’d do differently and why I should do it your way.
