So I have wrenched for a long time on various things. I have always "wheeled" IFS rigs, that have been my daily drivers, so my experience has been pretty much limited to thinking along the lines of " I hafta drive this home, and to work on Monday. Nothing hardcore for me. I have never gone thru a Toyota SFA before. I did however pick up a cheap '85 front housing recently that I am hoping to use on my upcoming build (all wheeler this time). I have so damn many questions first, and some of them may seem redundant to many here, but I don't know any better at this point.
First things first. This "axle" consists of an '85 housing with booger welded armor and a hack truss sorta half ass welded upon it, knuckles, stock steering, including an old school crossover arm welded onto the passenger arm, and stock birfs and inner axles, and stock hubs. The guy stole the trunnion caps, spindles and third. Really not that terrible, since its a great excuse to buy upgrade parts.
My goals initially for this truck are some 35-36 inch Truxs or Iroks. I have an e-locker to put in the axle. I'm gonna cut everything off the housing and start fresh, including spring perches since I want links. I wanna get a lot of this right on the first try, and only need to build this axle once. I know there will be things I miss.
Here are a few questions that I have, ;
Trussing a front axle; Is a top truss enough for most people? Is it advised, or is stock pretty ok?
Knuckle ball gussets; Are they needed? Who's stuff is good (...I know this is Marlin..)?
Trunnions; Stock? I like the 25mm upgrade idea more than the TG eliminators, and if I hafta spend money on stock parts I'm already halfway there or more.
Spindles; Now I'm really getting confused, Do I need Chromo Spindles? I have seen what appear to be stock replacements, and the TG Chromo's, will regular spindles be enough? Or is this in the same vein as the trunnions, just a few dollars more since I hafta buy them anyways. I also have IFS hubs that I plan to use in this build, if that makes any difference.
Since I don't have the original lower shims and trunnion caps, What is the best way to align the knuckles when I start putting it together ( am I gonna need the $500 dollar tool?
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I'm sure there's more...