1999 SAS Dana44 ARB 4Runner Build

[Mountain Fun]

Took the truck to my work so I could use the forklift to test out my steering again and suspension.

I did discover that I'm still having an issue with the pitman arm hitting the leaf spring when it comes all the way up. It barely touches but my concern is on the trail it might hit harder and break either the pitman arm or the steering box which would be a pretty catastrophic break on the trail. I'm going to order another pitman arm with less drop. I might even try a flat pitman arm if I have enough clearance under the frame.

I'm going to rely on the guys at Sky Manufacturing to make me a new pitman arm. Since I'm using a Dana 44 high steer conversion the pitman arm needs to be machined to a larger diameter than a stock Toyota arm. These are some of the pitman arms they offer. I'm going with either the flat arm or the slightly dropped arm.

 

[HighMiles]

That is truly amazing...

 

[daniresch]

I was going to recommend sky's offroad, but i see you already found them. I'm running sky's 3/4 drop pitman arm, or as you put it "slightly dropped". These arms are quality work.

Keep in mind the 3/4 drop and flat arms are also a little shorter in length by about 1/2inch. This is great for anyone trying to push the axle forward a little more, or gain clearance.

 

[csp]

Do you get more flex when lifting the passenger front?

I would have expected more flex than it seems to be getting, but maybe that's because of the pitman arm issue.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Do you get more flex when lifting the passenger front?

I would have expected more flex than it seems to be getting, but maybe that's because of the pitman arm issue.

I wasn't really pushing it too the limit where the rear tire lifts off, once I fix the steering problems and get the front driveshaft fixed I will take it back to work and flex it to its limits just to see what it can do.

 

[Mountain Fun]

I ordered trail gears long spline front driveshaft kit. It seems like the best value for the dollar. I bought it from 4wheelparts for like $250 plus another $75 or so to get it built and balanced by our local driveshaft shop. My wife really wanted to help so I let her pull it out of the truck. She didn't quite get that you don't want to let it come apart since it's balanced but it's being rebuilt anyway so who cares, ha ha.

I wanted to show the difference between the full compression to full expansion of the stock driveshaft vs. the trail gear long spline. It's pretty incredible the difference. Hopefully I will have the new one built tomorrow.

 

[Mountain Fun]

I got the driveshaft made today. We are lucky that we have a great driveline shop right here in Colorado Springs. They made my driveshaft and balanced it in about 3 hours and only charged $70. The trail gear long spline kit cost me about $250 from 4wheelparts. I kept waiting for it to go on sale again (last year it went on sale for like $175) but I finally got tired of waiting. The only real negative I see about the Trail Gear kit is there is no way to grease the splines without actually removing the driveshaft. I made sure to make some marks in the welds so I can line it back up again. The trail gear long spline kit did balance too, a big plus since a lot of the long spline kits won't balance.

This is the shaft at full compression, about 27.5". The picture makes it look like it's like 30", must have been the angle I took the photo at.

This is the shaft at full stretch, I need it to be able to handle up to 35" but it stretched to over 38" so I'm pretty stoked because that gives it plenty of spline even at my 35".

 

[Mountain Fun]

I installed the driveshaft back in the truck tonight and I'm super happy. It has 2.5" of compression and 7.5" of extension. The other thing I really like is the joint and splines are protected by thick tubing. Hopefully if a rock hits it hard the driveshaft will be a more protected. The first picture is the new Trail Gear driveshaft, the second picture is the factory driveshaft.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Well Sky Manufacturing came through again with an awesome chromoly pitman arm. It has less drop and is a little shorter than the stock pitman arm. This should fix my problem of the leaf spring hitting the pitman arm that I posted about earlier. I will take it to work and lift it up with the forklift to see if I still have a problem but it looks perfect.

 

[csp]

How steep is your draglink angle with that new pitman arm?

 

[misties]

You gonna drive this SAS'd rig on the highway/streets? How is it?

 

[Mountain Fun]

How steep is your draglink angle with that new pitman arm?

I'm not sure of the exact angle but it looks like about a 4" drop from side to side. I took a picture for you so you could see. I'm pretty happy with the outcome but I still need to test it to make sure it's not going to hit at full compression. The bump stop should hit before the drag link hits.

 

[Mountain Fun]

You gonna drive this SAS'd rig on the highway/streets? How is it?

It's drives awesome. I have had it cruising down the interstate at 80 mph with no problems at all. No speed wobbles or anything like that. It was a little scary before I put the sway bar back on but that was just because of excessive body roll around corners.

 

[csp]

That's not too bad of an angle. There's always some things that can't be ideal or are a bit of a compromise on a build like this.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Took the truck to test out the steering by lifting it up with the forklift. It worked fine when I lifted the front but when I lifted the back end the steering still hit the spring clamp....grrrr.

This is when I noticed the draglink is still hitting the leaf spring clamp. The bump stop is hitting and slightly compressed but not quite enough. I decided the best way to resolve this is to build a little bump stop plate.

 

[Mountain Fun]

I had these bump stop extenders that I never used so I decided they would work once I cut them down to about 3/4" tall.

This is the before:

This is after I cut them down:

Welding them in was a real pain in the ass. There was no good way to get in there with the welder so the welds aren't pretty but they will hold.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Finally got the truck to a point where I felt comfortable taking it on some challenging trails and seeing what it can do and it didn't disappoint me. Everything worked together perfectly, the lockers engaged and disengaged, steering didn't hit, and overall did awesome. The height gave some advantages but also some disadvantages, I just need to learn how to compensate for being a little top heavy.

One advantage of a taller when, when it dropped off the ledge my spare just barely touched. What a rush.

 

[csp]

When you built your bumpstop extensions did you take into account that the bumpstop is going to compress after it makes contact? Your photo of the bumpstop just shows initial contact. That type of bumpstop can compress 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch after making contact.

 

[Mountain Fun]

When you built your bumpstop extensions did you take into account that the bumpstop is going to compress after it makes contact? Your photo of the bumpstop just shows initial contact. That type of bumpstop can compress 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch after making contact.

Yeah I was pretty careful when measuring but I figured I can always cut them off and redo them if needed. I didn't want to limit my upward movement anymore than needed. When you look at the picture when I lifted the rear with the forklift the bump stop compressed about a half inch when the draglink hit. This is why I decided to make the bump stops 3/4 inch to start. It seemed like a good compromise because it didn't hit at all when I was wheeling. I don't mind if the drag link rubs a little, I just wanted to avoid dropping off a ledge and having the spring slam into the pitman arm and breaking something.

 

[Bijan]

I remember seeing your truck at the big meet at the outlet mall last year. SICK build, and sick truck. Inspirational.