Right now my focuses are on mechatronics and digital manufacturing. My third focus will probably be a combination of dynamics of systems, composite structures, materials and their properties and a dash of manufacturing. What are you doing as a mechanical engineer?
I know mine doesn't really need a rebuild that bad but shes eating oil right now and I've already burned through two injectors so I figured if I'm replacing the timing belt anyways its not much more work to rebuild the motor since the motor will be mostly torn apart anyways. Plus I will be almost exclusively wheeling her so tuning her up a bit sounds like a good idea.
So you're sticking with Toyota running gear huh... out of curiosity why? The T100 is so wide that full sized axles fit under her like they were made to be there; plus the 1ton axles are stronger, more common, and easier to work on. The 5.29 gears should run great and supper slow with the dual cases. Did you get the dual cases from Marlin? I really want dual cases but I need other stuff first. I found that I had far more power with 5.13 gears and 37's than I expected... you should have even more power.
Some day I will swap out the front leafs for coilovers but I'm gonna run the leafs as long as they get the job done. Good luck on your build! I look forward to seeing it on the forum!
mechatronics is a good field. i took an advanced composites class in school and that was a very interesting field as well.
my focus in my BS was thermo/heat transfer and fluid dynamics with a minor in material science (hence the composites class). I work designing piping now. first four years of work were in remote power generation but now i work in the food and beverage industry designing sanitary stainless piping for liquid food and beverage processing with a specialty in breweries and distilleries. I like designing breweries because of the taste testing...lol
we do have in house automation and controls so i get to dabble in dynamic systems when we program systems which is fun.
I chose the toyota axles about 5 years ago before i ever got the T100. I had a set of fj60 axles i bought with uninstalled 5.29's and decided i wanted to widen them and make something really different. at first they were slated for a tacoma, then my first gen, then the 4runner i sold to Joe, now the T100. the front is a fj60 front with custom bobby long inners, IFS hubs and FROR brake setup to make it about 67.5" wide. the rear is a non elock fzj80 full float with a custom length axle for the short side to make it 67ish also. not built yet so no real numbers, just parts.
I went this direction because when i started collecting parts no one really used the toyota 9.5" diffs much outside of land cruiser circles and i thought they were really a good size for a toyota crawler. now others like booger have built similar axles for rigs and they have even been raced in KOH with success behind v8's with 37-40's.
I have done the Dana 60 and 14 bolt combo before and they never broke but they added immense unsprung weight and parts cost was significantly higher than the toyota stuff. also, i really like the 3rd member design vs the cast housings on the dana axles and the gear setup in the toyota stuff is way nicer than the dana stuff (no case spreader needed). also with only 37" tires the 9.5" housing can be made to have a lot better ground clearance than the dana 60 or 14 bolt axles.
cheapest or easiest route from scratch, no, but for me i already have most of it so it is my cheapest route, and at a similar strength to one tons without the extra weight and the cool factor from being all toyota.
trying to make the T100 toyota should have made in the first place...lol
or could be me just being a nerd and over engineering a simple axle swap and having too much time to dream.... you can be the judge...
as for the ratio, i was slightly worried the 5.29 would be too low for just 37's but like i said i already have them and if i dont like them on the freeway i can always find the parts for the R452 5th gear swap and go to a taller 5th for the freeway and still have the benefits of the lower gearing everywhere else. IIRC i calced the 5.29's and 37's to be around 2850 on the highway. i think 4.10 and 31's were around 2600 so with the R452 5th it would put me right about the 2600 mark.
I actually got the dual cases used from Keith on here for the first gen but never swapped them in. i think it is a marlin gear set but an inchworm dual adapter but not certain. i still need to go through them to verify everything is good but i will probably wait until i purchase the v6 adapter and triple shifter so i can keep the bench seat.
as soon as i get the truck back from the top end rebuild i will get some pictures and some pictures of the parts pile that has started.
