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The 4xFordYota Franken-Fine Axles!

4x4toyotatyler

Yellow Skull
ST4x4
Joined
Feb 14, 2021
Member Number
3483
Messages
337
Hey yalls! (I am really from Cali, but felt like I should use the language of the forum-people on here)

I am gonna be building a unique set of axles (think of Unique, the drag queen stow shopper from Glee) for my 94 4Runner, Kermit. We just launched the build plan today on the SnailTrail 4x4 Podcast. So check it out there. My goal is to highlight how all of this is going together while I am doing it.... but more likely than not I will get way too lazy and forget to take pictures, or I will remember that I made this thread and post up the pictures and build progression in 3 years (when I finish it).

Disclaimer.... I have zero clue of what I am doing... this all just sounded good so I am going to make it work! Why you ask???? My overly clever and well thought out and rehearsed reply to that would be, "Why not?"

Second disclaimer... Spidertrax refuses to make selectable hubs, and the TG 99-04 unit bearings are the same oem Ford design that had overheating issues and blew bearings. So, since I want selectable hubs, I am changing up all of the outers of the build plan to 05+ SD Unit bearing compatibility. Final build deets below!

The "Plan" (really just a bad acid trip while crumpling my driver side in old sluice...)
Front Paperweight
  • Diamond Housing (3/8x3.5") (71.875 WMS, 9.5" center section offset)
  • Tundra 10.5" Eaton elocker third members with 5.29 Yukon Gearsets
  • custom chromolly (or as the cool kids say, "chromos!") shafts to go from 36 toyota to 1550, to SD 35spline outers from Branik
  • Reid Super Kingpin knuckles, bronze bushing
  • Timken 05+ SD 8x170 Unit bearings
  • Ballistic Fabrication d60 kingpin double sheer arms
  • Busted Knuckle lightweight brake kit (wilwood dynalite calipers, 1.25" rotors, bracket)
  • Mile Marker d60 35 spline selectable hubs (lifetime warranties!!)

Rear Paperweight
  • Diamond Housing (same as above) (72.75 WMS)
  • same third member as the front bicep curler
  • Custom RCV 300m 36 to 35 spline shafts (found a super legit drug dealer on the corner for these)
  • Timken 05+ SD 8x170 unit bearings
  • Busted Knuckle 05+ SD Weld cups
  • same Busted Knuckle brake kit as above
  • Wilwood electronic actuated single piston parking brake calipers
  • Thought for a brief second about doing selectable hubs on the rear..... because, why not? And then realized that I have asshole friends that would unlock them on me at the worst times.

Final track width of 87-89"

Along with all of this, I will also be doing a 3link in the front on pre-tuned radflo 14" 2.0 coil overs. And a rear 3link with 12" coilovers. All the suspension setup will be from 4Wheel Underground, incorporating their new under bed coilover mounting system. Goal is to end up with a 22.5-23" belly height, and 110-115" wheelbase

Now, thanks to the lovely douche canoes of irate4x4, I am also chopping off the entire frame from the firewall forward, rebuilding it with 2x3x.120 sqaure tube. Will move the front axle forward about 2-3", which will help clear the steering, articulation on the 87.5 track width, and 42-44" tires in the future if I want.

Fun things to mcguyver that come to mind... extending the steering box to accomodate 45 degrees of steering, stretching the wheelbase to fit 42s, and how to install a white claw and fireball dispenser... All while keeping it enclosed cab, AC, tinted windows, and street legal in Cali so I can park on Jeeps at the mall and lounge under an umbrella on the nearest beach.
 
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Started getting parts in! So far I have:

2 Drop out thirds
2 Eaton e lockers for Tundra 10.5" thirds
2 10.5" master install kits
2 Yokes
2 Rear RCV 36spline toyota to 35 spline dana shafts (all wms will be based on these)
2 10.5" 5.29 gearsets
2 10.5" Diamond builder housings - 3.5" x 3/8wall tubes

Ordered and on the way:
FJ80/105 steering box
MM Hubs
all the Busted Knuckle stuff

Still need to order:
35 spline front outers (1550s)
Front custom axles (branik, ECGS, spidertrax, etc)
Wilwood electronic parking brake calipers for rear
Rear drive flanges


I also had my rear v6 8" third member out today, so I took a comparison pic for the gram.... it really is amazing what 2.5" will do for a guy. These Tundra third members are the entire reason I wanted to do this stupid project, and seeing one of the drop outs sitting next to the 8", all I can think is of how many more rocks I am going to hit now.

Also did some measurements... the ring gear on the 10.5 is about 1.85" thick compared to just over 1" on the 8" third member next to it. The shafts on the tundra axle are 1.47" and 36 spline... compared to a dana 70 @ 1.5" and 35 spline. If only Toyota would make this axle as a full float and 6 lug...

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Got In some housings today! Gonna paint them neon pink

I have most everything to setup the rear axle minus brakes. Will get to that in 3 months
 

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reserved for pictures of my 50/50 fireball and screwball mixing machine

Rear axle stuff photo dump
 

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reserved for shenanigans

More photo dumps
 

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reserved for the otter pops

And pics!
 

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reserved for watermelon white claws..... seriously though, those taste like jolly ranchers

Front axle stuffs
 

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metaphorical barrier (think of this post as my stone cold steve austin body guard to keep the 4xfan girls from attacking because I have such great mental vomitting sessions)

final stats:
front track width - 87.25"
rear track width - 89.25"
steering degrees - 45
belly height - 23.5"
Flex front and rear on a forklift - 43"
Wheelbase - 107.5"

I am sitting 2.5" lower, and 15" wider with an extra 400lbs in unsprung weight.
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Final update...

Been down on the Rubicon 3-4x, went to trail hero and did the first half of milts mile twice, first half of long range, mobbed through the sand, did the new rtf granite loop on the con, Barrett Lake twice (did all the hard lines), big bear, and a couple of other easier trips...

Axles are working out phenomenally. I still have a little bit of tuning to do in the rear coilovers, but the axles have been great. I haven't hooked up the wilwood electric parking brakes yet, but I don't see those impacting anything functionally on the axles. Definitely learning how to drive again being 16" wider, and 2" less ground clearance at the pumpkins... but I'm able to do way more than before and I don't feel like I'm binding up the drivetrain and always at risk of snapping it anymore.

If I did it again, would I do the same thing with the axles? Yes absolutely. Unless some crazy technology changes in the future, I will be building these axles for all my future rigs. Once it becomes a trailer queen (I get tired of maintaining it for road driving), I'll swap the front hubs for the branik direct drive stub shafts.

Thanks for following along! Its been fun learning more about axles and different parts and possibilities. Hopefully we opened some eyes on a fun way to make use of fucking huge drop out thirds :) I even got a mild head nod from slawson when comparing these to the axles he ran in 13-14. I'll take that as a win haha

Go to page 14 for more pics in action
 
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Dramaqueenz
Are
:homer:
Really not sure where in the troll hell this came from:spam: type postings R lame!
 
Dramaqueenz
Are
:homer:
Really not sure where in the troll hell this came from:spam: type postings R lame!

You jelly bro??

Update: Got the 2nd third member, weld on cups for the rear, 1 out of 4 unit bearings, and housings are ordered! Updated the 2nd shit show post with shiny pictures
 
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10.5" diffs are badass for sure.

What's your overall rig going to be? 42s, and... ? Are you running tons of power? What's the weight?

What kind of wheeling? Are you a full throttle everywhere kind of driver?

I mean, ain't no kill like overkill. And you'll never kill the diffs.
 
10.5" diffs are badass for sure.

What's your overall rig going to be? 42s, and... ? Are you running tons of power? What's the weight?

What kind of wheeling? Are you a full throttle everywhere kind of driver?

I mean, ain't no kill like overkill. And you'll never kill the diffs.

Final goal for this axle/suspension rebuild is:
- 94 4runner, 3.4 swapped, dual cased (2.28/4.7) 230:1, street legal in cali (finishing up the referee right now), 3linked front on 14" coilovers, cantilevered rear (ya right... we will see how that plays out), 42s, able to drive from Sacramento to Johnson Valley, do Sledgehammer and drive home... or to Sand Hallow and drive home... or to Fordyce and drive home without worries... mainly because trailers are for boats and jetskis, not cars.

The 42s are going to require moving the front axle forward more and rotating the steering box (not too big of a deal), but the rear will have to get tubbed... So my great ability to be lazy is questioning whether the 40 hours of labor is going to be worth it for 2" of rolling radius.

Also, laziness is going to determine the rear cantilever too... I will most likely end up putting an antiwrap on the rear leafspring setup for now until I know the front 3link is dialed in, then tackle the rear... Will need to put in an f150 gas tank between the frame rails and relocate my battery(s) in order to do a 4link of any kind.
 
You should axe the waste of bandwidth in the first barrage of posts here....
Build something :beer:
 
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You should axe the waste of bandwidth in the first barrage of posts here....
Build something :beer:
Tell some companies to get parts in and then i can start spending my time painting everything neon pink rather than sitting here dreaming of turning my unit bearing into a fireball dispenser.
 
Any progress on these things?????
Sort of!

Nitro went to shit when Daystar bought them (can't get my orders correct, mis shipped some things, double charging me, etc etc... fucking nightmare). So I have stopped working with them now. Gonna be picking up Yukon for my gearsets now. And TrailGear for the Unit Bearings.

Brian over at Diamond Axle broke a couple of CNC laser pew pews, so I still haven't gotten the housings. That is the main thing holding up the project right now.

I did talk with RCV and Wilwood while out at KoH and decided 100% on doing 35 spline custom RCVs for the front rather than going up to 40 spline. I also decided I will be doing the double spidertrax rotors so that I can run the Wilwood electric actuated parking brake calipers on the rear axle.

And I finally disassembled the 2nd Tundra third member and took some measurements and comparison pictures to Dana 70 and Yota 8" stuff. Updated a post near the top with that info.
 
Excited for this one. I've heard you talking about building these axles on the podcast but, never realized you made a build thread for them 😂 I'll be putting a Trail Gear Rock Assault Tacoma width housing and 3 linking the front of my 92 4Runner here soon so I'll be watching this.
 
Should have done 9" 3rds and 6.50s to give those tcases a slight chance to live :flipoff2:

Why not just get the 35 spline arb side gears?
 
I’m curious to see 50* steering work on a steering box. Most guys use full hydro to get that angle.

The longer the pitman arm the better
 
I’m curious to see 50* steering work on a steering box. Most guys use full hydro to get that angle.

The longer the pitman arm the better
Fuck the steering box, custom lenght pitman isn't the end of the world. I'd like to see it on a factory frame. Likely going to have chop the front of the frame back by the firewall to make that happen.

Interested to see this come together though.
 
Fuck the steering box, custom lenght pitman isn't the end of the world. I'd like to see it on a factory frame. Likely going to have chop the front of the frame back by the firewall to make that happen.

Interested to see this come together though.
I agree 100%. I meant your going to need a super long pitman just to be able to get 50*. Once you have 50* then you need to move 1000 things to even use 50*
 
He at least went pretty wide. But ya, 42s and 50* isn't happening. Pitman arm throw can be easily corrected by moving the pivot closer to the BJ.

Id be looking at a manual box and servo at that point. I also hate ifs boxes for assist.
 
I agree 100%. I meant your going to need a super long pitman just to be able to get 50*. Once you have 50* then you need to move 1000 things to even use 50*
Yaaaaaaa I don't think I will be able to get 50* out of them since I will be staying on the IFS box. I am going to try my best to get to 42* on 40" tires and then limit the steering from there. I believe that RCVs also cannot go more than a certain amount, so those will be a limit point as well.
 
Excited for this one. I've heard you talking about building these axles on the podcast but, never realized you made a build thread for them 😂 I'll be putting a Trail Gear Rock Assault Tacoma width housing and 3 linking the front of my 92 4Runner here soon so I'll be watching this.
Nice. That should work out well. Are you doing custom brackets and links or sourcing from someone in particular?
 
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