Front Solid Axle Swap

[JimL]

I've got trouble at my Independant Front what with knackered clicking CV joints and rotten boots. A fair bit of money needs to be spent and thats why I'm thinkin of the solid axle swop! Reading yotatech it seems its in the region of 3 to 4 grand €'s or maybe £2000 sterling.

Now I'm keeping this surf or I'm not. I could go and get a working BJ40 for under a grand with its live axles and class looks and spend many more restoring it or I could stick with the plush surf when you compare it to the BJ, and commit to it. I'm hooked on this stuff and spend every night reading here.

Right so IFS is great and if all you have is 33's or lower then its all you need, and I only have 265/70's short of making the surf a track machine the solid axle is the be-and-end-all in mod terms at the front end. Thats why I'm thinkin of not spendin 5 yrs maintaining the IFS by when the SASwop might seem tempting.

What this thread is about is me lookin for info and advice on the job and the axle options in UK and obviously Ireland. Theres tons of good advice on US boards but they dont relate to these markets. What I'm thinking is:
what hilux pickup front axles suit and what ones dont, I've an eye on an '86 axle
what landcruiser front axles might suit also or do they all

rant if you know anything at all knowledge is power

[Elvz]

Jim, fitting a solid axle isn't going to be cheaper or less hassle than rebuilding the IFS. Most Land Cruiser axles have a wider track than Hilux ones so you'd need to fit the matching rear axle too, which would mean hacking all the original suspension brackets off and fitting ones to suit a Surf chassis. You'd also need a set of modified steering components and probably a new idler arm because the Surf/Hilux ones are not strong enough to cope with the increased leverage of a wider axle.

Hilux pickup and Land Cruiser diffs rarely have exactly the same ratios as Surf ones because the Surf is a passenger car and the cruisers and hiluxes have diffs from Toyotas commercial range so you'd have to find the matching rear diff to any axle you wanted to use and rebuilding and reinstalling diffs is expensive unless you can do it all yourself.

[Espi]

Sas

I had my 89 4runner swaped last spring. I would definately recomend it if you want the reliability & strength. As far as a doner front axle, mine came from a 1985 Toyota trucK. Out here in the Los Angeles, CA. USA area there is a place called ALL PRO, they sell the kit with everything you need minus the fron axle. Check it out.

allprooffroad.com

Later,
Pablo Espinosa
Sherman Oaks, CA. USA

[TonyN]

Jim, I'm doing mine soon, it realy quite easy, watch this space.

[AndyLala]

All depends what you want to do.

SAS swaps are popular in the States, and elsewhere...

Another option to confuse the choices... might be to stay independant up front, just to increase the travel.

http://www.chaosfab.com/gen2caddy.html

You'll need new wings and the half shafts from a T-100... Similar effort to a SAS... but you won't need to swap your front diff...

AndyL

[SmurfX]

Go the SAS all the way! It's quite a big job here in Australia because officer plod requires massive amounts of engineering approval etc to make it pass through our Licesning Department. I'll be SASing my Surf in the next few months, and including the fitting of front and rear lockers it will set me about around AUD$7000 or approx £3000.