Well, I see the light at the end of the (very expensive) tunnel. I decided to SAS my 88 because basically everything on the IFS was wore out and I was tired of replacing parts. To top it off, I hit something driving down the road and something broke in the front end. Driving it back to the house I couldn't get over 30 mph without what appeared to be death wobble.To the shop it went but instead of a wrench, I picked up the torch. This was in October of 2018. I scratched up an axle and paid too much for it. I quickly realized that I didn't know as much about the SAS as I needed to. I started getting some parts in and in in December of 2018 my wife surprised me with some of the best news I ever got. Yep, I spawned a mini me.. the Toyota went on hold. Somewhere around May of 2020 I loaded up all the axle parts and carried it to a local 4x4 shop and dropped it off. That list included the following: complete axle housing, open 4:10 diff (it got welded up, its going in the rear), 4:10 Toyota elocker, a rebuild kit (can't remember which one but it was supposed to have everything in it) high steer crossover kit, and the IFS hubs. It turns out that an E Locker takes quite a bit of persuasion to fit in a front axle, but it will fit. I went yesterday to pick the completed axle up.
Before I go any further, this will not be a trail rig. This will not be a daily driver. This will be a hunting/ cow pasture ride and it will likely end up at the mud park but wont really see too much action. I let the younger folks go play and tear stuff up. I just like to know that if I need to get across a pasture in the middle of winter I can lock it up, point it that way and go. sometimes cows get down in some of the worst places and I've had to wade through all kinds of nastiness to get to them. I know most folks on here are more about rock crawling than mud riding and that's cool. Please don't rake me over the coals and tell me that my build is stupid. It's my build... That and there aren't a lot of mountains in East Texas.
I ordered 4" lift springs for the front and then decided to go with the rears up front because it doesn't need to be that tall. I am using the rear spring hangers and mounts on the front as well. The mount will be welded under the frame instead of a hole drilled through the frame and longer shackles used. I built the front hanger because it wasn't too difficult and I didn't like the looks of any of the kits I saw online. That and I have all kinds of steel laying around.. The holes sit 3" lower than they would on the other weld on kits. This should offset the rear shackles sitting under the frame and keep the camber close to where it needs to be. I can use pinion adjustment shims to adjust camber if need be.
Out back, I have set of f150 springs that I think will have enough arch in them to level the truck out, and it will move the axle back 5". If the rear isn't tall enough to level it I can throw a block in to level it up. If its too tall, well, I haven't got that far yet. The springs came with the shackles and the way they are designed, it will be simple to build some weld-on hangers. The welded 4:10 is going back in the rear. At some point if I find a 4:10 elocker rear end I will swap the whole thing.
Because flex isn't so high on the list, I plan to start with a set of shocks that fit the rear of a Chevy 1500 for the front end. They have 10 inches of travel and are only $70 a pair. If they don't work I'm not out much, and I know the guys at the parts house well enough that they will swap them out for me.
I'll add some pics once I figure out how to..
Before I go any further, this will not be a trail rig. This will not be a daily driver. This will be a hunting/ cow pasture ride and it will likely end up at the mud park but wont really see too much action. I let the younger folks go play and tear stuff up. I just like to know that if I need to get across a pasture in the middle of winter I can lock it up, point it that way and go. sometimes cows get down in some of the worst places and I've had to wade through all kinds of nastiness to get to them. I know most folks on here are more about rock crawling than mud riding and that's cool. Please don't rake me over the coals and tell me that my build is stupid. It's my build... That and there aren't a lot of mountains in East Texas.
I ordered 4" lift springs for the front and then decided to go with the rears up front because it doesn't need to be that tall. I am using the rear spring hangers and mounts on the front as well. The mount will be welded under the frame instead of a hole drilled through the frame and longer shackles used. I built the front hanger because it wasn't too difficult and I didn't like the looks of any of the kits I saw online. That and I have all kinds of steel laying around.. The holes sit 3" lower than they would on the other weld on kits. This should offset the rear shackles sitting under the frame and keep the camber close to where it needs to be. I can use pinion adjustment shims to adjust camber if need be.
Out back, I have set of f150 springs that I think will have enough arch in them to level the truck out, and it will move the axle back 5". If the rear isn't tall enough to level it I can throw a block in to level it up. If its too tall, well, I haven't got that far yet. The springs came with the shackles and the way they are designed, it will be simple to build some weld-on hangers. The welded 4:10 is going back in the rear. At some point if I find a 4:10 elocker rear end I will swap the whole thing.
Because flex isn't so high on the list, I plan to start with a set of shocks that fit the rear of a Chevy 1500 for the front end. They have 10 inches of travel and are only $70 a pair. If they don't work I'm not out much, and I know the guys at the parts house well enough that they will swap them out for me.
I'll add some pics once I figure out how to..
