so what do think i should do if i want to keep 4wd?
Well it's true that you could use an American front axle and locate the driveline on the drivers side, which is how the W59 and the VF1A chain drive Taco transfercase would have it. So its really up to you I suppose. It's always been my preference to try to keep everything Toyota because I
Toyota. But some actually reasons to stay with the passengers side Toy front solid axle would be that it has better ground clearance, its lighter, the steering arms on a D44 are double ended and people never cut off the lower arms and I've only seen really funky crossover style arm modifications - so Im saying that Toy HySteer kits look nicer, um.. thats about it. Both can use Hy Pinion front diffs, both can run 4.88 or 5.29 gearing to match with your rear end if you choose to gear down for larger tires, lockers are available for both as well as axle upgrades. Its my opinion that a D44 has equal strength with a Toy 8" axle.
So if you want to go Passengers side drive line, which is what I did, here's what you would do:
- 3RZ > W59 Tacoma Bellhousing > W56 transmission > Gear Drive Toy tcase
Some notes:
- 1989-1995 W56 uses a forward shift style tcase just like your G54, so your shifters will nearly be in the same spot. The rods on the tcase are slightly shorter however, so you cant just simply bolt your G54 transfercase directly up to the late model W56. You would have to change the shift rods to the 89-95 shift rods in the transfercase.
- If you stay with the Gear Drive transfercase, then you are open to the entire World of Crawling with either Dual/Tripple Transfercases and aftermarket Lowrange Gear sets, like a 4.70:1. Who knows, maybe you might get into Crawling some day?
If you want to go Drivers side drive line, here's what you would do:
- 3RZ > W59 Tacoma Bellhousing AND transmission > Tacoma Chain Drive tcase
Some notes:
- The Tacoma chain drive tcase uses a stronger input than the 21-spline input you would use with the W56 transmission and transfercase setup.
- The Tacoma chain drive tcase allows "shiftable 4WD on the fly" up to 50mph where as the gear drive tcase must be below 5mph or so to engage 4WD.
- The Tacoma chain drive is slightly lighter.
- The shifter location for the chain drive tcase is a top shift style, so it will be back, maybe by about 5", so you will have to cut out a new hole in your cab to mount the tcase shifter back about 5" from where your stick tcase lever was.
to be honest im not all that hip on crawling, i just like bombin through the desert. so an sas kit isnt all that apealing except for the fact i can get about as much lift as i want.
Like the pictures toyhastu posted up, many people have built some awesome coil over setups that believe me will do very well and be very smooth at high speed bumps. Also, Solid Axles are lighter than IFS setups plus the weight is suspended between the tires, not on the frame. So their is less weight over the shocks, so less dampening and rebound is required. Do you see what Im saying? The weight of an IFS setup is bolted straight to the frame. So all that weight is above the suspension whereas the weight of a solid axle is below the springs. This probably has advantages and disadvantages, and that's why the tires of an IFS system move easier, less suspended weight on each tire. But the frame has alot more weight so a higher spring rate is needed and thus more dampening is required. Sometimes I think solid axles ride better than ifs..
You know the length of the two forward links depicts travel and axle movement during articulation. If they are too short, when one wheel goes up, the axle will yaw and loose its perpendicular arrangement with the vehicle. The wheel going up will move rearward and the wheel on the other side will be jammed down and forward. Those Montero arms look long enough, but I was just curious how they compare to some custom setup where you decided how long you want your links..
