solid axle swap

[dannyboy77]

hi all i have been in Hibernation over the winter woken up now ha! After breaking my 4th front diff in 3 years look what I managed to find lying around! Lots more work for me then over the next few months! Had a look at a few of the SAS conversions posted on here but may need a bit of help in the steering section i.e. websites for custom made bits to go from the surf box to the existing steering linkage and is there a science to getting the ride height right or is trail and error? Going to stay with leaf spring as want it for off roading articulation purposes.

Should be interesting little project just need to prefab shock mounts, front and back shackle mounts etc, lateral support bar mounts and the steering linkage bit. Any help / comments welcome

Nick can you post the websites for the custom made steering bit you talked about, thanks

[BigBobE]

stormy posted a link on matts site to custom lift shackles...

[yoshie]

Keep us updated please Danny, pity you weren't closer I would drop round and drink coffee and watch.

[dannyboy77]

stormy posted a link on matts site to custom lift shackles...

i have seen the post on here regarding the SAS and there are a few on yodatech, could you post stormy link on here as the more research is better!

Keep us updated please Danny, pity you weren't closer I would drop round and drink coffee and watch.

will do! wont actually start the conversion till im ready as need to prefab a few things etc then i will blitz it??? as dont want the truck off the road for ages while i faff about! thanks for the support! i have the neighbours to do that! ha!

[BigBobE]

Lift shackles

[yoshie]

Lift shackles

Lift Shackles are the devils spawn

[BUSHWHACKER]

Lift Shackles are the devils spawn

Yup, the lazy way to lift a leaf sprung truck.

[BigBobE]

sorry i completely read the first post wrong :P

[TonyN]

Yup, the lazy way to lift a leaf sprung truck.

You say that, but deep arched lift Leaf springs are as hard as **** and barely articulate.

A combination of mild lift springs, mildly extended shackles and lower spring mounts are the best way.

Better than Lift blocks by a long way!!

[dannyboy77]

Hi all the ruf ass mechanic is back working in the street again didn’t have access to a workshop or anything this time! good job the weather was nice over the weekend!

Luckily for me I managed to get the front of the hilux pick up as the guy was breaking it so I could cut off the front of the chassis and get the original hangers. I have to cut the top off and welded back a flat piece as it wouldn’t fit to the underside of the surf





Here is the hilux pick front part of the chassis welded the surf, I managed to get a piece of 10mm bar on top the pick up chassis and weld it to the underside of the surf chassis plus at the sides




Out with the old







Slight precision ha found the angle of the chassis rail 15o and made a template to stick on the chassis and then core drill out, the external size of the bushes are 30mm so managed to get a 30mm internal dia pipe and core drill a 35mm hole on the angle to make the pipe fit though square to the front chassis hanger. Managed to get it squareish! The hanger is 150mm c/c from top to bottom bolt I think the standard hanger is 100mm so that’s a 2” lift and as well as the front being 2” lower should give the 2” lift at the front as if you lift one end it will only be ½ the height of the extension. I reckon I will need to lift the back up but it was always going to be hard to get he ride height the same so coiler spacers it is I think






On with the new








This next bit isnt my doing I was told from animal 69 so he should take the credit for this or wherever he sourced it from ha! You need 30mm spacers as you can see from the pic below to pack out the hilux pickup wheel hub but there is a nifty way of not using a spacer and using the surf brake callipers getting vented disc bakes in the process  you get the landcruiser front brake discs as they have the same top hat measurement as the hilux pickup brake discs. The surf is about 80mm and the hilux pick up is about 40mm you can see from the picture. Unfortunately the holes that are in the landcruiser brake disc arent the same spacing as the surf so you have to drill 6 holes into landcruiser brake disc to screw the surf wheel bearing holder thing onto.

The downside to this method is you have to mount the brakes on the outside of the steering knuckle.













shuld have the wheels on this week and will have the steering on over the weekend. have to get shocks from america going to get 12.5" ranchos so wont be finished for a few more weeks yet.

[Balllsy]

Great work Danny, it's coming along nicely

[yoshie]

Nice Danny well done pal. Keep the pictures coming.

[dannyboy77]

Hi all the ruf ass mechanic is back working in the street again! didn’t have access to a workshop or anything this time! good job the weather was nice over the weekend!

Luckily for me I managed to get the front of the hilux pick up as the guy was breaking it so I could cut off the front of the chassis and get the original hangers. I have to cut the top off and welded back a flat piece as it wouldn’t fit to the underside of the surf






Here is the hilux pick front part of the chassis welded the surf, I managed to get a piece of 10mm bar on top the pick up chassis and weld it to the underside of the surf chassis plus at the sides





Out with the old








Slight precision ha found the angle of the chassis rail 15o and made a template to stick on the chassis and then core drill out, the external size of the bushes are 30mm so managed to get a 30mm internal dia pipe and core drill a 35mm hole on the angle to make the pipe fit though square to the front chassis hanger. Managed to get it squareish! The hanger is 150mm c/c from top to bottom bolt I think the standard hanger is 100mm so that’s a 2” lift and as well as the front being 2” lower should give the 2” lift at the front as if you lift one end it will only be ½ the height of the extension. I reckon I will need to lift the back up but it was always going to be hard to get he ride height the same so coiler spacers it is I think





This next bit isnt my doing I was told from animal 69 so he should take the credit for this or wherever he sourced it from ha! You need 30mm spacers as you can see from the pic below to pack out the hilux pickup wheel hub but there is a nifty way of not using a spacer and using the surf brake callipers getting vented disc bakes in the process! you get landcruiser front brake discs

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pagid-Fron...item43af442a72

as they have the same top hat measurement as the hilux pickup brake discs. The surf is about 80mm and the hilux pick up is about 40mm you can see from the picture. Unfortunately the holes that are in the landcruiser brake disc arent the same spacing as the surf so you have to drill 6 holes into landcruiser brake disc to screw the surf wheel bearing holder thing onto.

The downside to this method is you have to mount the brakes on the outside of the steering knuckle.














Here is the full assembly of the brake disc and steering knuckle, as you can see there is about 5mm off centre difference from the centre of the brake, you could skim 5mm off the brake ears but im going to leave it.





So on with the new





Now to put the diff on and the CVs and the steering knuckle assembly! All new bearings and seals!











Next is the steering link to from the axle to the power steering! Will post more pics when it is done! Wheels onto tonight will see how it sits!!

[dannyboy77]

its fcukin massif! going to reduce the shackles to 110mm from 150mm see how it sits then! dont really want to lift the back up another 2" and put on 35" far to big and top heavy! ha

[dannyboy77]

going to reduce the shackles by 50mm hopefully theat should mean i only need a 1" lift on the back ha! and silly me put the leafs on the wroung way round but it is nice and wobbly for off roading but should probably change them around as they were meant to be