I see what you mean, but their keyed steering for mini knuckles are exactly the same and I haven't heard of anyone having issues. FROR makes solid products, I'm sure if they did have issues on their mini knuckles they wouldn't transfer that design to the fj80 outers.

Yes, top shift cases were made from 79-83, but according to Marlin, they have "noisy style gears" (I don't know how noisy they are, I've never compared the two). The later top shift cases also had larger hardware and a bearing retainer clip, so I think that would make it more desirable vs the earlier style top shift cases.

that's good data, thanks.

that's good to know, thanks.

Had nothing but issues with my TG dual case (started day 1), bought it all new through them and had more down time then drive in the 1.5 yrs I had it. Sold off the new case they sent my to replace the one that I had, went with Atlas...

When shopping for axle housings I contacted FROR and took them a few wks to reply to a question and when I replied and wanted to order I never heard back from them, after read a number of reviews about FROR taken months, months, and months longer then quoted and when there was an issue FROR taken even longer to fix said (no personal exp just what I read but them not even returning my email...), I went with RuffStuff Specialties. I found they offered what I wanted and went that route, had a couple of issues with the housings I ordered, RuffStuff stood behind there product and took care of said very fast, super happy i went with RuffStuff (the housings r top notch).

FYI I have the section of tcase from the chain case laying around with no plans to use.

Thanks for the feedback.

I picked up an FJ80 axle over the weekend so i'm now committed to passenger drop. What atlas did you go with, and what trans did you mate it to?

I put myself on the waiting list for hellfire knuckles. I'm not opposed to FROR's solution, but i like the hellfire preload solution (no shims) and six studs spaced way apart should be plenty strong enough for this rig.

There's a guy on the Marlin forum selling new HF knucks $100 over MSRP for anyone that doesn't want to wait

HellFire FJ80 Histeer Knuckle Kit..NEW---FZJ80 Front Axle..HP/open4.10/ABS..comp

Thanks for the heads up. Ruff stuff quoted a 2 month lead time which i'm good with.

Atlas 2 4 speed and mated to 2wd TT A340E found behind the Aristo 2jzgte

That sucks to hear trail gear quality is still suspect for tcases. If i can find a good junkyard case ($300) + MC31 adapter ($400) + 4.7 gear set ($549) i'm at $1300. For a 2 speed atlas its $3k, 4 speed $4k+, plus an output shaft on the trans. Leaning towards a single 4.7 case.

Appreciate the quick reply. I'm trying hard to justify the cost to go this route.

U sound like me when I went with TG, but IMO that little 4 banger case just wasn't built to handle what peeps r throwing at it and in the long run the atlas will pay off (I know u can find any number of people saying differently, hell thats why I went that route, but after my experience I would never recommend going that way if u want long term reliability). If It wasn't for my OCD with leaking fluids I would have been out in the middle of nowhere when the case failed.

Check out northwestfab on Instagram, he is coming out with a new low gear dual case thing. Haven’t looked too much into it but it looks like it’s going to be a better version of dual cases and also maybe a bit more affordable.