1999 SAS Dana44 ARB 4Runner Build

[MStudt]

One other thing to keep in mind with leaf springs on a 3rd gen is the steering draglink and pitman arm having room between the leaf and the frame. On the older 4Runners and Trucks the frame curved up above the axle giving you more room. On the 3rd Gens the frame is straight across. That is why I had so many problems with my front leaf and the draglink making contact. If you do a coil over with a 4link this isn't a problem so you can have a much lower stance. I didn't realize how much this would be a problem when I started my build.

I do plan on doing a 3-link when I get to it. I already have just about everything needed for a 3-link left over from my jeep days. Fabricating mounts and brackets shouldn't cost that much. I just need to talk the inlaws into getting a CNC cutter. The goal is minimal up travel for more of a LCOG set-up.

 

[Mountain Fun]

I do plan on doing a 3-link when I get to it. I already have just about everything needed for a 3-link left over from my jeep days. Fabricating mounts and brackets shouldn't cost that much. I just need to talk the inlaws into getting a CNC cutter. The goal is minimal up travel for more of a LCOG set-up.

That's awesome. My friend is building a '67 FJ that way. Coil overs front and rear, highly modified 1 ton axles, on 40" tires but with a super low center of gravity and minimal upward but a crap load of downward travel.

I wish my truck wasn't so tall but nothing I can do about it now, I just have to drive it accordingly.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Scored big today. I found an ex Toyota master mechanic selling off some of his specialty tools. I might not need them for a while but it's always nice to have since nothing is more frustrating than being in the middle of a job and not having the right tool to finish the job.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Dual Cases on a 1999 4Runner

Well I decided to go ahead and install a crawler box in front of my chain driven transfer case. I went ahead and ordered the Trail Gear dual case adapter and dual case cross member for the switch. I wanted a lower crawl ration and it seems like a great way to reduce the angle on the front driveshaft.

 

[Mountain Fun]

It's pretty awesome to have good buddies. My buddy Frank has been wheeling his 89 4Runner hard for years and years so he has accumulated a ton of parts. When I told him I was going to install a crawler box he offered up 3 gear driven transfer cases he had for free. The doubler had broken gears in the rear case but had everything I needed in the front case including the 23 spline input gear. I broke them down and pulled the parts I needed.

The cases on his were wheeled pretty hard and had a lot of stress cracks in them but luckily he threw in another case that looked almost brand new.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Assembling the crawler box is pretty straight forward and easy. The only tool I had to run out and buy that I didn't already have is a large snap ring plier. I just bought the large set at Harbor Freight for like $16. Everything else went together great.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Well I took a couple of days off of work so I didn't have to rush with the install. I read a bunch of write ups on this install before starting it but this is my take on it. A bunch of the right ups said that you have to pull the rear crossmember and gas tank to stab it in, I didn't have to pull the tank, just the crossmember to make it a little easier to fit in. Some people also said the case had to be ground down and drilled out in a couple of spots, this must be for the Marlin Crawler adapter, I used the Trail Gear kit which fit together very easily with no grinding or drilling.

 

[Mountain Fun]

It's a tight squeeze getting my truck into my single car garage. I have to deflate my rear tires.

Here you can see how much room there is. When I measured it before the gap was like 10.5".

T case is out. It came out pretty easy. If you are going to pull your T case make sure to order the bushing that goes in the shift lever coupler. You can see all that black crap in the coupler, that's the old disintegrated bushing. I had to suck it out with a vacuum. You also have to remove that coupler on the Input shaft and it's a pain in the ass to get off. I read a post where they welded a washer and nut on the end an used a bold to drive it off, I tried this but my welds kept breaking loose, I have a small crappy welder. I ended up using a Toyota puller with a c clamp and my impactor to finally get it off.

 

[Mountain Fun]

You do need to pull off the rear part of transmission. I read a write up where they said you don't need to pull it off but you do with the Trail Gear adapter. The coupler diameter is larger than the bearing that in there so the bearing has to be removed. Make sure you have a pan under it when you pull (no one else mentioned this in there builds) because there is about a quart of transmission fluid in there, mine ended up all over my garage floor, lol.

While it was out I went ahead and pounded in the new seal.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Getting closer every minute.

I went ahead and test fitted them while it was out of the truck just to make sure before I'm laying on my back under the truck. The went together easily but the alignment pins to take a little force to fully seat.

Where the screwdriver lays is where I'm going to cut the hole for the second shifter.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Hole is cut, I'm hoping this will work without having to bend the shifter too much. I bought a hurst shifter boot on Amazon for $10 that I'm going to mount upside down in the hole to close it off.

I lengthened the wiring on the t case by 10" to make sure they would fit. Take care here, the wires aren't color coded, they are all the same color so I did one wire at a time to keep from getting them mixed up.

The crawl box is in. I also test fitted the other t case and it stabs in without a problem.

 

[Loud Runner]

Currently gathering parts for my SAS. Your rig is quite the inspiration.. Nice work. Thanks for documenting the journey and sharing!

 

[Mountain Fun]

Currently gathering parts for my SAS. Your rig is quite the inspiration.. Nice work. Thanks for documenting the journey and sharing!

Thanks a lot, I appreciate it. This is truly my dream truck. I just wanted to put this together to help other people when they are doing their mods, information helps when you are taking on any custom mod.

 

[Loud Runner]

Thanks a lot, I appreciate it. This is truly my dream truck. I just wanted to put this together to help other people when they are doing their mods, information helps when you are taking on any custom mod.

Guaranteed, I will definitely be referring back to this thread along the way!

 

[Mountain Fun]

Well it all is in and has about an inch to spare. Dropped off the driveshafts to get redone and the skid plate to get powder coated.

I noticed when I test fit the t case in that it was so tight there was no way to get the bolts back in the crossmember so I put one bolt in ahead of a time. The one side will only have one bolt but that's plenty.

The only potential problem I might have is the CV for the rear driveshaft hitting the skid plate for the gas tank. Nothing a couple of wacks with a big ass hammer won't fix.

 

[Mountain Fun]

This is the bushing for the shifter I was talking about. Definitely make sure you order one, mine was completely disintegrated.

Besides the low crawl gear deduction from dual transfer cases the other main reason I did it was to reduce the angle on the front driveshaft. I'm using a straight driveshaft (no cv) so I didn't want to cut and rotate the diff up. This is the before and after, a huge difference.

 

[Mountain Fun]

I couldn't be happier. All of the Trail Gear parts fit together perfectly. The final part was installing the Trail Gear crossmember (skid plate). I was a little worried because I had the Trail Gear single t case crossmember before with the mount welded to the frame, but the new double t case crossmember fit perfectly. It did take a little pounding and prying to get the T case mounts to line up with the holes but once those were done it fit together great.

Mine is a '99 with the J shift T-case and it's tight. I think if you have a 2000 and up with the motor shifted T case you might have to do some mods to the tanks crossmember to make it fit. I think I have .5" to .25" clearance in some places.

 

[Mountain Fun]

The shift levers were kind of a pain in the ass to get bent correctly. I could have spent more time cutting and rewelding them but to be honest I didn't really care that much as long as they worked...and I still had the one cup holder. Those little spring clips for the shifters are a pain. It took me, my wife, and four screwdrivers to get the rear T case shift clip in.

I used a hurst shifter boot (mounted upside down) to close the hole. It worked perfectly.

 

[Mountain Fun]

I finished it up with a shift boot from a XTerra that I found at UPulllandPay. I'm pretty happy with the overall outcome. I still need to cut off my rear axle perches and reweld them get the rear driveline angle right. It's about 10 degrees off right now.

 

[Dropzone]

<a href="http://s124.photobucket.com/user/Robert_Harris32/media/Transfer%20case/DSC08712.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p31/Robert_Harris32/Transfer%20case/DSC08712.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo DSC08712.jpg"/></a>

Do you need to have the bolts coming down from the top? seems like if you reversed them to would eliminate some rock anchors...
bend one of those bolts and it will need to be ground off.