SOA Musings... (1 Viewer)

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62 fronts are shorter than 40 springs. Are you outboarding the front axle?

Yes, I am outboarding the springs on the front for the axle.
I was going to dismantle the 62 fronts and use the pieces as add-a-leaves in case they are needed.
 
Just a word of caution on "outboarding" the front springs - check your wheel backspacing and the proposed new location of your springs and make sure the tires and wheels you have now (or plan to add) will not contact the springs when the steering is all the way over to either side. This was one reason I elected not to outboard my springs. I used the FJ60 axle with a 4plus extender sleeve, which also took care of issues on the left side spring perch. I'm running 315/75R16 Toyo's on 16X10 wheels.

The extended 60 axle with 62 springs all the way around is one of my all time favorite mods!
SAM_0745.jpg
 
I used the FJ60 axle with a 4plus extender sleeve, which also took care of issues on the left side spring perch. I'm running 315/75R16 Toyo's on 16X10 wheels.

Do you have any close ups of this ?
 
Run the 62 rears flipped up front and then do the XJ rear springs flipped in the rear unless you don't want to do a lot of cutting. Took the XJ spring idea from Bustanutley. It requires 4 rear springs to make a pair as you add 2 leafs to the pack when you build them. I'll be installing them hopefully this month when I finally go SOA.

B
 
If you set up the front with the 62 springs, it will easier to change the rear to longer springs when you decide to go with wider axle back there after you crack a few spacers. I love the 60 rears on all four corners on mine
 
Tigerstripe40, here are a few pics of my extended FJ60 front axle. You can just barely see the sleeve on the right side, it has a slightly large OD than the stock housing.
IMG_1592.jpg
IMG_1590.jpg
 
Make sure you do a write up of those rear springs. I'd love to see how you set them up.


Run the 62 rears flipped up front and then do the XJ rear springs flipped in the rear unless you don't want to do a lot of cutting. Took the XJ spring idea from Bustanutley. It requires 4 rear springs to make a pair as you add 2 leafs to the pack when you build them. I'll be installing them hopefully this month when I finally go SOA.

B
 
Tigerstripe40, here are a few pics of my extended FJ60 front axle. You can just barely see the sleeve on the right side, it has a slightly large OD than the stock housing.

Thanks for posting those pictures. Are there sleeves on both sides of the frame?

If I see that correctly, the sleeve is essentially doing the exact same thing as out boarding the spring perches, just accomplished in a little bit different way.
 
Sleeve is only on the right side, and you need to get a custom inner axle built. It's true that the sleeve does the same thing as out-boarding the springs on a 40 by allowing you to slide the axle to the left and keep the right side spring perch in it's stock location. If you need room to turn big wheels with more than 3.5" of backspacing out-boarding alone may not relieve the problem, it just moves the problem.

So if a guy went into this exercise without much thought and a stock 60 axle, and depending on how far out you moved the springs and what wheels you're running, the out-boarded springs could net you less room to turn big tires. Or said another way, no gain for your effort except a wider stance.
 
Sleeve is only on the right side, and you need to get a custom inner axle built. It's true that the sleeve does the same thing as out-boarding the springs on a 40 by allowing you to slide the axle to the left and keep the right side spring perch in it's stock location. If you need room to turn big wheels with more than 3.5" of backspacing out-boarding alone may not relieve the problem, it just moves the problem.

So if a guy went into this exercise without much thought and a stock 60 axle, and depending on how far out you moved the springs and what wheels you're running, the out-boarded springs could net you less room to turn big tires. Or said another way, no gain for your effort except a wider stance.

Ahh. OK. I see it now.
Extended the short side a bit.

Did the sleeve align everything or did you need to have that all installed and aligned with an alignment bar, jig, etc ?
 
You got it.

It's a press fit and 'self-aligns'. The sleeve fits into the machined end of the axle where the knuckle ball goes, and is machined to receive the knuckle ball. Basically, the process is a glorified C&T. Total added length on the short side is about 2 5/8".
 
I am going to set up the steering knuckles for the FJ60 housing shortly.

I have a spare set of wide pattern knuckles which I am going to setup on the axle housing with my histeer.

Since the shims that came on the knuckles were rusted to hell I wasn't able to reuse those. When I put the FJ60 knuckles on my '40 I just guessed... In any case, I am going to set it up correctly and I am going to borrow the knuckle alignment tool from a 'mudder.

I don't have a spare set of bottom caps for my knuckles, and I don't want to pull the bottom caps from my currently driveable 40 to set this up. I still have a set of stock FJ60 steering arms.
Can I use those on the bottom of the knuckle in place of the cap? I do have extra cone washers etc so I can bolt them up. I can't just go out and measure them as teh parts are in a box that I don't have access to right now.
 
If I am reading your question correctly, you don't use the steering arm or lower caps to get your measurements with the factory SST knuckle centering tool, so that won't be an issue.

There are several threads on 'mud that cover the process.

Remember, the centering process is just that, and after you go through the centering process you also have to deal with knuckle/trunion bearing preload. That's where it's important to add or subtract equal amounts from the top and bottom shims to maintain the proper relationship and get the sorrect pre-load.
 
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Just for clarification - The centering process is specific to the parts you are actually have. The process is for determining the shims for a specific axle housing and the knuckles that ride on each end. Determining the required amount of shims for one axle, then putting knuckle on another axle won't work.
 
Just for clarification - The centering process is specific to the parts you are actually have. The process is for determining the shims for a specific axle housing and the knuckles that ride on each end. Determining the required amount of shims for one axle, then putting knuckle on another axle won't work.

Right.
I am going to be using my spare wide pattern knuckles on the FJ60 housing I will be using. When I pull the FJ40 housing apart, I am going to use the bottom caps from that housing. I just wanted to get a jump on the game to get everything put together more quickly. Since I am going to be doing the soa in my car port, where a 22' catalina sail boat usuall lives, I need to get the truck rolling ASAP so I don't leave the sail boat in the street for a week...
 
That's the problem with being a Risk Manager, I just naturally want to be sure I cover everything - hey, shouldn't the boat be in the water?? :)
 
That's the problem with being a Risk Manager, I just naturally want to be sure I cover everything - hey, shouldn't the boat be in the water?? :)

Yup, and if it were my boat, it would be in a slip at the GSL harbor. But it's not mine and the owner doesn't wanna pay slip fees.

That said, sailing is done for the season.
 
Bumpity bump...

I have a question about the spring hanger alignment.
I'd like to make sure that the hangers are exactly parallel.
I know that with the SAS kits for Minitrucks, they have the spring hangers on a truss that spans the rig, but I've not seen anything like that for a 'Cruiser.

The pin holes on the spring hangers are 18mm (I drilled them out for the bolts I will be using as spring pins). I was thinking that I could get a piece of threaded rod in 18mm and then use that as an alignment jig. The shackle hangers are 5/8" hold in the bushings, so that shouldn't be quite so hard to find.

Thoughts?
 
I have seen a guy use a broom handle to align the rear spring hangers, so using allthread or a dowel rod should allow you to square everything up. As in everything else measure, remeasure, tack amd remeasure again.
 

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