shackle reversal and outboarding ?'s

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mookie

mookie

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i'm about to put a fj62 front axle and power steering box in my pig and was wondering if anyone has any pics of how they went about outboarding the spring hangers? also i am planning to do a shackle reversal while i'm at it....any pics? and did it help your pigs road manners any? for the time being i'm just going to put wheel spacers on my rear axle to equal the fj62 front, so i was wondering if it will cause any funny handling to have the front leaf springs outboarded and the rears not?
 
if you wait until after next summer, i can tell ya;) got the stuff all ready to go, going with 60 axles front and rear. if you search, you can find some stuff, but not a detailed step by step type thing. enough to help you through some ideas tho.
 
not a better idea to move the spring mounts on the diff? leave the chassie standard?
 
well that was my original plan but then i realized that all the extra length is on the long side of the axle and the leaf spring perch on the short side is in the same place on both axles- up against the diff with no way to move it inwards anymore...
 
outboard is more stable and in stock local it would almost be on top of the diff. you can get a wheel spacer and longer axle shaft from bobby long instead of outboarding springs, but that limits trail fixes.
 
Have outboard with shackle reversal setup on my piggy. Happy to share any pics or measurements you may want. There are some pics in my sig (they are a tad old as the wiring has all been re-done and some mechanical not related to the suspension)

Slightly different setup with a D44 though.... concept may be similar. I didnt do the work but my buddy did and can ask him questions you may have

Handling...
I drive it roughtly 4 hrs to the Rubicon and back without any funky handling. Drives straight. Bilsteins (sp?) worked wonders for body roll and helped my on-road manners quit a bit

EDIT: Very interested on how your build works out. I have been thinking to use a 60 axle in the front with the Tundra rear currently in the rig. Not sure how that would work with my current setup but like the idea of using out of box and all toyota parts.
 
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mookie said:
well that was my original plan but then i realized that all the extra length is on the long side of the axle and the leaf spring perch on the short side is in the same place on both axles- up against the diff with no way to move it inwards anymore...
Click to expand...

that would be a pretty good reason not to do it that way then :D
 
search "pigster" in this section and you will see pics on page 2 of outboarded spring hangers for 60 series axles
 
Just do it like this and you will have nothing to worry about.:D

DSC00870.JPG
 
mookie said:
i guess my main ? at this point is whether or not to do the shackle reversal? i am embarrassed to say this but my pig does not see any offroad use (i've got a trail only 40)....so i really just want to do whichever will help it to handle best on the road.
Click to expand...

I have a SR on mine using 60 rear springs and cut & turn axles to increase camber. Cruises at 75mph straight as can be with 'little finger' control.
 
well i've finally made some progress on this project....no thanks to UPS for losing my add-a-leafs and delaying me for 2 months. also big props and thanks to man-a-fre for finally just sending some replacements while UPS drug their heels on the lost shipment investigation.

so here's a recap of what i've done so-far.....completely rebuilt and cleaned up the FJ62 front axle, changed it to a 3.73 3rd to match the rear end. i decided to re-use my stock-leaf springs but put on add-a-leafs in to get a little arch back into them. i did decide to go with the shackle reversal, we'll see how it goes. i decided to go with all new spring perches and mounts, got them from Dan at ruffstuff, they are the beef, very nice quality! hopefully the combination of wider leaf-spring stance, wider axle, shackle reversal, anti-sway bar and matching power steering box and linkage will greatly improve my piggy's road manners. my camber is off by about 5 degrees so i may put some shims in to correct that till the springs flatten out again. eventually i want to put a 60 series rear axle in but for now i'm just going to put some 1.5" wheel spacers on back there.
 
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oh, a little more about Dan's brackets.....they are made for a 60 series spring which uses the same diameter spring pin (18mm) but is about 1/8" wider, so i used a 1/8" washer on the FJ55 leaf spring ends....later on if i want to i can use aftermarket 60 springs hopefully pretty easily
 
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i guess no-one give a sh*t about this oh well.....:flipoff2:

i made a nice discovery while mounting up my FJ62 steering box and linkage....the 60 series use the exact same steering u-joint as 55's at the firewall which just let me basically unbolt the lower part of the 55 shaft and bolt the lower half of the 62 shaft on.....also all of this Fj62 steering stuff fits almost like it was made to go on here, the slip shaft is the perfect length and the drag link bar only had to be adjusted about 2", the pitman arm clears the bottom of the frame just right too.....sweet!
 
yeah, the Scout box is on it's way to CarmMontana....my pig is a street queen so i don't think i need the extra torque that the scout box offers, plus the 60 box and linkage is just a perfect fit with my new axle. oh and i have eliminated all heep (pitman arm and tre) parts off of my pig this way too. and thanks for the offer, i would very much like to come get your old junk, more than anything i want to see your badass pig in person. when i get this baby back on the road i'll pm you and drive it up there.

thanks again!
 
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Mookie,

this thread is awesome. I'm going to be doing the same thing with my FJ55 (swap for FJ60 front axle, to get disc brakes and power steering). I will prolly be picking your brain in the near future when I get my parts!

Lee
 
ditto, i have been watching this thread intently and even a few others for "outboarding" (anyone interested in this should seach that) the hangers. seems reasonably straight forward.



a little offtopic but...... can you pull the spring packs apart and rearrange them so the "helper" springs are ontop of the main spring?? (the reason i ask is to keep the SOA as low as possible)
 
well i've gotten sidetracked with working on another project but i FINALLY got finished with everything (i also reworked my fuel tank breather system with FJ60 stuff, rewired a couple of things, and put add-a-leafs in the rear spring packs to match the front) and drove my Pig to work today. What a freaking difference! i am so happy, it feels SO stable and good on the road now. compared to the scout box the 60 series p.s. box turns so much slower which i am sure would suck balls off road but it feels just right for the street. i can't wait to put a 60 series axle in the rear and outboard it to match. unfortunately it will prolly be 2 or 3 years before i get a break/opening in my shop from working on the rockcrawlers again to do it lol.
 
You dont need to outboard the rear springs... you dont have to deal with the pumpkin, just weld the perches on at FJ55 width

I have F&R FJ60 axles under my FJ55 and drive it as a DD with 36' Swamper Radials, I did NOT do a SR (we all have opinions?) it'll run the freeway and passes at full speed with just a finger for streering input, in fact it drives much nicer than my FJ62

I just got another set of FJ60 axles to do the exact same thing to my FJ40 ;)

Oh, and BTW my FJ62 has a shackle reversal
 
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