Thanks!
I went with the chro-mo rear axles just since I was going to have everything apart to do the pinion, bearings, seals. Plus that'll give me the stock axles as spares.
As fas as specs, here goes:
'89 22RE 5spd.
All Pro SAS 5" front, 6" rear springs, Walker Evans shocks
Johnny joint rear shackle hangers
315x75R16 MT/Rs on 16x10 ProComp wheels
Marlin front bumper, AllPro rear bumper (+ some reinforcements if you saw my earlier post)
M8000 winch
Front CV driveshaft lengthened for rear duty by Jesse @ hi-angle
+ all the goodies above not installed yet.
I've been working on it about 6 months now. It was in pretty good shape when I got it except some light front end damage from a fender bender. New hood, straightened front firewall, new grille + new custom front crossmember took care of that. It was bone stock, never touched (or put in 4WD I bet) which was what I was looking for.
Here's a couple more pics of some of the stuff I've been working on.
Here's how it looked when it just got home
Two full days working on the paint -- there was actually some pretty nice paint under all the oxidation. With the old damaged hood still
The old flimsy tweaked stock crossmember
The new 1/4" square tube crossmember being built
And ready to weld in with all the mounting points for the marlin bumper
Tons of cleaning and new shifter boots + SR5 gauges swap. Carpet will be going away and grey Line-X going in
The donor axle, maybe the nastiest looking, greasiest but basically solid axle I've seen. 3 coats of paint including orange, 24 years of dirt, grease, and grime. It's an '83 with the 3/4 lower gusset. I got sick of looking for an '84/85. If I bend it I would just have to get a Diamond housing ;-)
All new seals, bearings, rotors, chro-mo shafts, and marfields on a stand I built
Testing the flex to measure for the rear shock mounts. There's a block of wood between the frame and front spring to limit the front flex or it would have hit the ceiling. It seems to flex pretty well even with the brand new springs
The rear johnny joint shackle hangers doing their job
Built this upper shock mount that attaches to the stock tubular crossmember
The rear 14" travel shocks. The walker evans have 13 clicks of adjustment that make a huge difference so I think my setup will have enough damping for street duty. If not, I'll move the muffler forward and bring the upper mounting points outward. Seems good from the limited test driving I've done (and that's with no front shocks!) The rear axle will be pulled and cleaned up when I do the rear diff, seals, bearings, and shafts. There are 8 degree shims under the springs for now while I'm letting the springs settle and checking for vibes but I'll weld on new perches and remove those once everything is set and the angles are good
I've always built Jeeps and my '85 CJ-7 was pretty good so I'm learning Toyotas as I go and there's definitely some advantages and tradeoffs I'm finding but I think it's going to work pretty well. I'm drooling over all the gears I'm going to have with the double xfer case -- something I was never able to do with the SWB Jeep.
