Topic: Message #1104540

[SqWADoosh]

26. TRD ELocker for Rear
27. IFS width rear axle swap (1995 4Runner shafts + 88 housing)
28. Re-gear rear differential to 5.29 (Nitro 5.29 gears via East Coast Gear Supply)
29. Cryo treat 5.29 R&P, side gears, and bearings (Performance Cryogenics)

Worked with HeliPilot and Zippo on my axle overhauls this weekend. We ended up putting in 2 very long days on Saturday and Sunday. In the end our goal of getting the new rear axle built and put in as well as my front was not to be. We did get the rear fully modified, assembled, and bolted into place with the newly built zippo Elocker diff installed. It was a very long and ardous weekend and I can't thank Nate and Jason enough for their help. They are the best friends a guy can have.


















Me and Nate convoyed from his house down to Jason's on Saturday morning bright and early. We got stuck into it right away with Jason building the diff while me and Nate worked on the axle housing modifications needed for the 3rd locker to fit. We found out pretty quickly that there was a lot more work involved than we had initially thought. Jason had to fab quite a few custom specialty tools to assemble the diff and we had a hard time drilling the new holes in the housing straight and true. This caused a lot of re-work which really slowed us down. Getting frustrated with his current press after breaking it, Jason decided it was time to get a new press as well. After Nate ran to Harbor Freight and picked up the new press it definitely made things a whole lot easier in the pressing department.





















The numerous attempts at getting the studs to line up straight caused the need to weld, flap wheel, power wash, and dry with the torch quite a few times. We sure were lucky that Jason had all those at our disposal or the long weekend would have been an even longer one.











Pulling out my current axle and putting in the new one was done with the always sketchy double hi-lift method. Followed by laying the ass end down on the springs while I finished painting the new axle and the boys went to go get lunch. Jason had to go to a prior commitment around 2 o'clock on Sunday so me and Nate put in the new axle and bolted it up. We then found that the parking brake cables I had purchased would not work without some major modifications so as of right now I am without a parking brake. Me and Nate then bled the brakes and he had to run as well. I set about filling up the new 3rd with oil and putting on the finishing touches. About an hour after Nate left Jason got back and I told him that on my test drive I heard a terrible scraping and I was pretty upset  as I thought it was the differential scraping against the housing (I thought that we hadn't clearanced it enough during our modifications). It turned out that it was the backing plate on the new axle's drum brakes was rubbing against the cover plate of the brakes as the truck drove. That was a huge relief as it was a 10 minute fix rather than the massive undertaking the alternative would have been. I also told Jason that during my test drive I had almost no brakes and that my foot was going to the floor before any braking happened. So me and him set about bleeding the brakes again as well as the proportioning valve. They got a little better but are still only working on the last 1/4 of down travel of the pedal. Jason told me that this is due to the much larger brake cylinders in the much larger drum brakes of my new axle. My poor little 85 brake master cylinder can't keep up causing the pedal issue. So I have an FJ80 1" master that Nate gave me a while back that I will need to put in to solve the issue. I had already planned on doing this upgrade as well as the dual diaphragm brake booster. It has just now been bumped up on the totem pole. So I gingerly drove her home with no problems. I had to give it a little touch up paint this afternoon as we scraped a bit off bolting it up. The end result looks great and I can't wait to put it into action.




Once again huge thanks to Nate and Jason for all their hard work this weekend. You guys are the real deal.