Builds Red Line Landcruisers " The Tale of Two 80's" Build

[RFB]

Instead of adding shims under the pinion head I decided to put the shims under the inner pinion race (most diffs are built this way, save for the 8” bread of Toyota gears). This means the shims for pinion depth push the pinion bearings apart ( by approximately .072”), doing this causes other issues I’ll go over shortly… These new Toyota gears (100 series) are 2 cut gears (face hobbed) which cause the pattern to show up very differently than traditional 5 cut gears (face milled).

If you setup diffs I found a great link that explains the movement of 2 cut gears that I have stashed in my notes…

http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1241317.jpg

2 cut gear’s pattern shows up slanted as opposed to the nice ellipses that 5 cut gears display. As mentioned above this is .072” of shim under the inner pinion race.

Drive side…

send me mine or ill come pick it up should be in your hood in a couple weeks.
Coast side…

Since I didn’t put the shims under the pinion head it created a problem with the solid pinion spacer, the solid spacer was hitting a register on the pinion shaft instead of seating against the inner pinion bearing. I wound up adding shims to both the bottom and the top of the spacer in order to finally reach the proper preload. The bad part is it took .127” (which is slightly more than 1/8”) of shim to get it to preload properly (5 in-lbs @ 150 ft-lbs of pinion nut torque)…

You can see the outer pinion bearing register the spacer was hitting in the center of the picture…

Aside from .127” being a lot of shims to wear out, I decided that I wanted a solid spacer that didn’t need any shim at all. At first I was going to have one made then found that the old 4 cylinder solid pinion spacer would be perfect so I ordered 2 and went to “turning”. Machined .289 off the bottom of the spacer which should leave about a 10 thou gap between the pinion shaft register and the spacer chamfer, the rest of the length was taken off the top of the spacer. Then took two quick sanding sessions (400 grit) on a granite block to get the 5 in-lbs of preload I was looking for…

Pinion bearing spacers (left to right) factory crush sleeve, V6 spacer along with .127”of shims, 4 cylinder spacer (machined; no shims needed), and factory 4 cylinder spacer.

Last mod will be to the factory oil baffle, I am going to open the ID so that it has almost the same gap as the stock crush sleeve.

Getting off of diffs for a minute made a new tie-rod (4130) with EMF GM 1 ton rod ends, they dwarf the factory size FJ80 rod ends… (And yes the old tie-rod is already sold…)

 

[Boing]

Caliper spacers on the knuckle ears are ground to a specific height; they are now marked (numbered with a punch) upon knuckle rebuild time all parts can be thrown in a basket for cleaning. Spacers have been sent off to be plated to help them deal with the elements (and mag chloride)…

Highsteer arms were machined deeper to accommodate the taller style knuckle plug. Coated the studs in anti-seize and torqued nuts (60 ft lbs) to align cone washers and to pull plug tight to the steering arm, wire wheeled the weld area and cleaned with acetone.

Plugs for the highsteer arms glued in without any knuckle shims, to make the knuckle fully shim’able…

Prepped high pinion "third" for paint (soda blasted then cleaned with acetone), hit it with 6 coats of “Steelit”… (I’ll post an “after” picture once the diff is complete…)

Spindle bolts (factory bottom), wound up going with the top flange head due to its grip length… (I wish ARP made a bolt with a shorter grip length!)

Finished spindle bolt…

Mockup with both gaskets, stone guard, and hub seal in place, bolt penetration into the knuckle is right on the money!

Found some potential companion flanges with similar bolt circles (1410 top and 1350 bottom). In CAD I have drawn up an adapter that will go from these to the factory Toyota flange register (awaiting machine work completion). Once this step is done I’ll finish final assembly on the front diff…

 

[cruisermatt]

cool stuff. All kinds of neat tricks.

 

[Jroc561]

One of the better build threads ive ever been through, not in how extravagant the build has been but in the detail and write up. A+ man, cant wait to see this progress even more

 

[Boing]

Front diff final

Ring gear bolts 71, red Loctite, new

Carrier bearing cap bolts 70, new

Lock tabs and retention bolts 10, blue Loctite, locking tab and bolt new

Pinion preload 6 in-lbs (without seal; with 7.5 in-lbs) @ 145 ft-lbs pinion nut torque, new pinion nut

Carrier bearing pre-load to 100 ft-lbs (with races and bores covered in anti-sieze)

Pinion bearing shim 72 thou

Backlash .007, average of every other tooth

Pinion flange 41204-35100 indexed 90* and drilled for a SAE pattern.

Third member was soda blasted, prepped with acetone, then shot with 6 coats of Steel-it black, then final assembly…

Since the third member is ready to go it’s time to start chipping away on the front axle housing, drove out the old knuckle races, and pulled the old axles seals.

After pulling the above hardware I took a look inside the housing and found it covered in grit and old 90 weight (no pic), couple cans of brake clean and a lot of compressed air later its ready to go.

Fun shots down the barrel…

Installed studs and hardware to setup knuckles (97) on the housing (91), with no shims and the arms I have it comes in at 8.8 lbs of knuckle drag on both sides (with cryo’ed trunnion bearings and races).

After several hours I installed my other drilled third to check clearances of the EMF 1 ton tie-rod ends. Also mocked up the pan-hard with Johnny joint on the axle end (along with machined spacers) everything fits nicely thus far….

Tie-rod gets closest to the diff when turned left on the steering stops (pictured), clears the bottom of the diff by 10 thou’ish, which will do…

Started cleanup up of my front hubs (91), bead blasted, prepped with acetone, pressed out setup races, cleaned out inside of hub.

 

[Boing]

Pressed in the hub races with some lite lithium grease, then pressed in the lug studs with oil, rubbed the hubs with acetone, and taped them up. This took a very long time, I used the most beat hubs available since I wasn’t sure if this idea would pan out… (may or may not have been the move)

4 coats of (black) Steel-It later and baking in the heat this is the result, the tape pile is an inch and half high… (I am curious to see how this paint holds up!)

Had the stone guard zinc plated, bolted it down for full mockup on my axle… One thing to note the spindles had to be tapped in with a dead blow, both sides fit very snug into the knuckle. Vast majority of Toyota knuckles I have pulled apart (FJ40, FJ55, FJ60, Mini truck, etc.; which are all the same) the spindle can be pulled out by hand or it falls out once unbolted.

Next up are the front hub spacers, (think solid pinion spacer) it’s a spacer between two tapered roller bearings that rely on torque (and overall length) to set the preload for the assembly. This style of spacer makes any assembly with two opposing tapered roller bearings significantly stronger to axial shock loading (severe duty) while maintaining correct preload.

Left hand front (.)

30+3+5.5+11.5 = 50 (thou): 1 thou of endplay @ 50 ft lbs. of torque on the spindle nut.
30+3+5.5+10.5 = 49 (thou): 0 endplay @ 50 ft lbs. of torque on the spindle nut.
30+3+3.5+11.5 = 48 (thou): 1 thou of preload @ 50 ft lbs. of torque on the spindle nut.
5lbs of spring tension drag measured in the way the FSM mentions.

Right Hand front (..)

30+3+3+10 = 46 (thou): 1 thou of endplay @ 50 ft lbs. of torque on the spindle nut.
30+5+10 = 45 (thou): 0 endplay @ 50 ft lbs. of torque on the spindle nut.
30+3+5.5+5.5 = 44 (thou): 1 thou of preload @ 50 ft lbs. of torque on the spindle nut.
5lbs of spring tension drag measured in the way the FSM mentions.

To find the correct preload you have to start with endplay and work your way down, this is a repetitive process, however it doesn’t take that long (figured out both sides in less than a day).

Once the proper shim thickness was found I rubbed the spacers down with Acetone, then dripped in red Loctite 120* apart. I then put the spacers back on the spindles and torqued up the spindle nut to allow it to dry (overnight). (Like the above pictures that show the assembly without hubs.) This picture shows the hubs fully packed with grease (heavy lithium grease), the spacers can only go in from the back of the hub and the lip you are seeing is what the outer hub bearings sits against (along with the spindle).

Final mockup: bolted the caliper down to check all measurements, happy to say everything landed as expected! Although this is the first time for me to assemble all the parts onto my axle, we already have it working on Justin’s 80, albeit with changes he wanted to run…

Viewing the Zinc plated stone guard from the back of the rotor; this should help keep the hardware and hub clean for long term use.

Final mockup for the hubs and knuckles is complete; I have pulled the bolts that affix the hub to the rotor. Dropped the bolts off at the machinist to have them cross drilled (through the exposed thread) for safety wire as a mechanical lock. Final assembly on the hubs should be very soon!

 

[RLMS]

Looking good brother! Keep trucking.

Justin

 

[Boing]

Took the summer off from working on the 80, and now I am finishing up some home projects. This small update will catch things up to what is current…



Rotor bolts are cross drilled for safety wire, this is just for nut retention not maintaining torque. Due to the way the 80 hubs are made the rotor bolt is stuck under the wheel mounting surface (can’t be ejected), the nut on the other hand could cause a lot of damage if it were to come off (also there is no way for it to be ejected from the assembly).

Final assembly on the wheel hub, serrated flange head nuts are all set at the same angle, have Loctite applied, and the bolts are torqued to 55 ft lbs..

Made a mistake on the high steer arms when painting them, I used a knuckle shim to keep paint off of the bearing area. The surrounding paint built higher than the thickness of the shim which threw off pre-load on the knuckles. (I have since bead blasted the arms again.) The bearing surface on the knuckle is much wider than the shim itself, with the paint building higher than the shim it made the preload a lot lower than expected (5’ish lbs of preload). In the picture you can see the secondary mark on the high steer arms this area had raised the arm in relation to the shim thickness. (Pre-load now is at 11 lbs of draw, I wanted it a little higher than stock.)

Last little problem I encountered was the depth of the taper on the passenger side tie-rod arm wasn’t deep enough. Opened the major diameter to .768” which caused the tie rod end to sit down another 64th , I didn’t take a picture of this as it’s not that interesting, however it does allow the steering stops to be turned in as far as possible before the tie-rod contacts the differential (left steering lock).

After measuring ram stroke and knuckle swing, machined the high steer arm where I thought it should land.

 

[Corbet]

I didn't see it anywhere but do you plan to gusset the front axle balls?

 

[cruisermatt]

I love that wheel bearing spacer. I bet that will make a huge difference in wheel bearing lifespan with big tires.

 

[Boing]

I didn't see it anywhere but do you plan to gusset the front axle balls?

Yes last year Justin came up with a gussets for the top and the bottom of the knuckle ball (in line with the trunnions) , out of 3/8" plate. His knuckles camber was starting to move around, these plates have stopped it for the time being. (We like to put down highway speed slab mileage, boogey down dirt roads, and wheel rocky trails with a 5500 lbs. truck on 37s.)

Case and point we left Colorado Springs one morning hit Wheeler lake trail (ate lunch at the top), then shot down south and hit Grizzly lake trail (ate dinner at the top) then drove back home to Colorado Springs. (All on a Saturday)

I love that wheel bearing spacer. I bet that will make a huge difference in wheel bearing lifespan with big tires.

Yeah it should help maintain preload against extreme abuse, strengthen the spindle snout, and it makes assembly extremely quick (slide the hub on and torque the spindle nut to 50 ft lbs and install the lock)... Also once you have endplay in the hub assembly you know the cup and/or cone is ready to be replaced... This trades extreme longevity for maximum strength, I still think we will get multiple years of service out of the hub bearings, but in an extremely abusive environment on 37s...

 

[Corbet]

Once done with the front axle build do you plan to offer a “kit” for us to duplicate the end result?

 

[Boing]

Once done with the front axle build do you plan to offer a “kit” for us to duplicate the end result?

We have always done this kind of one off "stuff" at the shop for customers, having said that if there is enough interest we can throw together a kit.

 

[cruisermatt]

Yeah it should help maintain preload against extreme abuse, strengthen the spindle snout, and it makes assembly extremely quick (slide the hub on and torque the spindle nut to 50 ft lbs and install the lock)... Also once you have endplay in the hub assembly you know the cup or cone is ready to be replaced... This trades extreme longevity for maximum strength, I still think we will get multiple years of service out of the hub bearings, but in an extremely abusive environment on 37s...

Have you measured a lot of wheel bearings to see how consistent the heights are?

 

[Boing]

I haven't measured a bunch of wheel bearings, and mine are most likely half a thou undersized do to finishing work, but I setup for 1 thou of preload (instead of my preferred 2 thou). To that end I would doubt the hubs (cast) are machined all the same.

In setting up the bigger brakes (rotor to caliper throat alignment) I did notice that my older spindles (280k miles) showed 10-15 thou of wear at the spindle shoulder (when compared to new spindles), where the inner hub bearing rides (causing the hub to move in board). This is probably caused from lack of preload/maintenance.

 

[RLMS]

Jay has been working on his 80 for awhile now, I have lacked posting updated on mine. I will say that I have been testing the brakes for some time, They are lovely!
A shameless pic of our brakes going on my rig for the first time.

Justin

 

[GCRad1]

Makes me want to work on my rig some more! And some more and more and more!!!!!

 

[Boing]

Machined test assembly all tolerance is final and fitment is as desired with knuckle shim in place and highsteer arm torqued…

Mocked up for welding, gussets (plate) and tube are all 4130, it’s all been bead blasted and rubbed with acetone prior to welding.

High steer arm all welded up (ERS70S-2 filler), welded in short runs over the course of two days.

Ram mounting tabs are being mocked out of cardboard, I am trying to keep the ram as tight to the axle as possible, in order to support the most clearance possible at full suspension bump.

I converted the cardboard templates that I hand cut, into CAD (proper) and cut out some mockup tabs from quarter inch (front tab pictured). After two rounds of tabs I achieved the fitment I was after, at this point I wanted the final tabs milled out of quarter inch 4130 (rear tab pictured).

 

[ThomasMore66]

Whoa!

 

[RFB]

Machined test assembly all tolerance is final and fitment is as desired with knuckle shim in place and highsteer arm torqued…

Mocked up for welding, gussets (plate) and tube are all 4130, it’s all been bead blasted and rubbed with acetone prior to welding.

High steer arm all welded up (ERS70S-2 filler), welded in short runs over the course of two days.

Ram mounting tabs are being mocked out of cardboard, I am trying to keep the ram as tight to the axle as possible, in order to support the most clearance possible at full suspension bump.

I converted the cardboard templates that I hand cut, into CAD (proper) and cut out some mockup tabs from quarter inch (front tab pictured). After two rounds of tabs I achieved the fitment I was after, at this point I wanted the final tabs milled out of quarter inch 4130 (rear tab pictured).

Looks sick man