1999 SAS Dana44 ARB 4Runner Build

[Mountain Fun]

The Sky adapter is great but it will only work with a 1ton master. The push rod extender is designed for a master that has a hole in the main cylinder. The 1/2 ton doesn't have that hole, just a dimple which make the rod too long.

I mounted the adapter up to the booster and test fitted everything.

I bench bled out the master. This is a must or you won't be able to get all the air out. There are two common methods for doing this. You either use tubes that run from the master back to the reservoir. Or you can plug the holes and just keep cycling till all the bubbles are gone. I used the plugs since that is what my master came with.

Master all mounted. You can see the T100 front brake line I used here. I had to grind down the mount a little to make it fit but I'm pretty happy with the clean look.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Because I used the entire front brake line out of the T100 it didn't require any cutting or flaring. Just a little bending to make it fit and ended up with a nice clean look. For the rear I bent it around and cut off the excess that ran to the ABS unit. I only needed to make one flare but the problem is the Autozone flaring kit is a big piece of shit. I practiced with the lines I had removes from the front brake set. I tried both the metric and standard flaring tools from autozone and the line would continuously push out of tool. If I used the smaller hole it would slightly crush the line. The problem was I only had about 2 inches of line to spare for the rear so if I screwed up the flare twice I was done. I was considering just buying a longer preflared line and just bending it to fit when my buddy told me he had a professional flaring tool I could borrow. His tool was awesome, perfect flare on the very first try. If you can get your hands on one of these it will definitely make your life a lot easier.

Rear line done. I added a winwood proportioning valve so I can fine tune the rear brakes once done.

The master is all in. I also bought Sky's adapter fittings so I could use the Toyota 10m brake line ends. The rear larger reservoir master port is for the front brakes and the smaller reservoir front port. I researched this and the reasoning is that the front brakes require more fluid and you want them to engage first when you hit the brake pedal. It made sense to me so that's how I hooked them up.

This is it all finished up with the fuel evap canister back in. I removed it to make it easier to fit the lines.

Overall I'm happy with it. The truck stops considerably better and the pedal is firm. The only thing I'm not really happy about is it take quite a bit of force on the brake pedal. I think this is because it's a 1ton master with 1 5/16" bore. If I was running a Dana rear axle too this would probably be fine but it's too much fluid for the Toyota rear. I'm going to try a Chevy 1/2 ton master with a 1 1/8" bore. I will have to either make the adapter plate out of 1/2" steel or I found one made by WFO concepts for $42. Toyota to Chevy Master Cylinder Adapter | Brakes, Disc Brakes | WFOConcepts.com

 

[Mountain Fun]

I forgot one critical part when swapping in the T100 booster, the check valve. I noticed a loud hissing coming from the brake booster when I turned the engine off, the brake pedal was also really hard. At first I thought I got a bad booster from upullandpay but after looking at some parts schematics I realized on the newer boosters the check valve is built onto the booster but on the 94 and 95 T100 it's a separate part inline with the booster. I ran back to upullandpay and found it on the truck I got the booster from. I had to modify it a little but it works like a charm.

The pedal is still a little firm so I'm going to try a 1 1/8 bore master cylinder. After researching masters I found a 1984 Dodge W250 uses the same style as the Chevy 1ton but has the 1 1/8 bore instead of the 1 5/16. The Raybestos part number is 10-1775. Advance Auto parts sells it for $20.

This is the check valve installed.

 

[ajordan1975]

How's she stopping now?

 

[Mauzer]

Love the build, not sure how I've missed it...just curious, is there a reason you kept the 2" body lift?

 

[kolelt]

Really cool build. You know, I've seen a 4runner with a toyota SAS. And just the other day at the local swap meet. I saw 1st gen Tacoma with a toyota axle also.

 

[Mountain Fun]

How's she stopping now?

It stops a lot better. If I really stomp on the break pedal I can lock up the tires but it does require a lot of force. I'm in the process of installing a 1 1/8 master cylinder to ease up on pedal pressure required. I will post what I find out about that.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Love the build, not sure how I've missed it...just curious, is there a reason you kept the 2" body lift?

I left the body lift on because I had already ordered my front and rear bumpers to go with the 2" body lift. If I could do it over again I would definitely pull the body lift off, I wish I had. It's pretty tall and top heavy and definitely has a high clinch factor when on an off camber trail.

 

[Mauzer]

Gotcha, I thought maybe you were thinking ahead to the crawlbox etc and not wanting to cut/massage your tunnel. (no homo)

 

[BrianSD_42]

Amazing SAS build!

 

[Mountain Fun]

Update on my brakes. I decided to pull the 1 ton master and installed a 1 1/8 bore master cylinder out of a Dodge W250 (part #10-1775). It was almost the exact same master cylinder but did require me to open up the mounting holes slightly to make them a little wider. Other than that it was a perfect fit. The brake pedal feel is much better an a little softer.

After I opened up the holes.

While I had the truck in the garage I decided to go ahead and replace the wheel bearings and hubs.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Swing out spare tire carrier for an Addicted Offroad Bumper

I decided I wanted to build a swing out spare tire carrier to go on my addicted offroad bumper. The only concerns I had is that my bumper is welded to my frame and my rear shackle hanger is welded to the bumper so screwing up my bumper would really suck bad. Since the bumper side are right against where the rear hatch opens, the only option besides cutting through the end of the bumper was to make is mount on the outside of the bumper. When Scott at addicted makes a tire carrier for a customer he custom makes the bumper wider to make room for the hinge and the latch, I didn't have that option. These were the rough schematics I made. The steel cost me about $50 and the hinge from 4xinnovations cost me $100 (this hinge is totally worth the money, ball bearing, sealed, and 1/4 inch thick steel).

 

[Mountain Fun]

For my tire mount my buddy had an old twisted axle that I cut the end off. With a little grinding is slid right into the end of a 2x2 1/8" thick square tube.

I am using 3x3 1/4" thick angle steel for the mounts to the bumper. Drilling the 1" hole through the one was a huge pain in the ass since I don't have a drill press. Luckily I found some large drill bits on craigslist pretty cheap.

I made a T-handle out of a 3/4" grade 8 bolt and a 6" long solid 1" steel rod.

On the other side I welded my hinge to the 3x3 steel.

 

[Mountain Fun]

I spent a lot of time test fitting and measuring to make sure my mounts and drill holes would all line up before welding in the hinge cylinder. I was really worried I would screw up and either ruin the hinge or have to drill another 3x3.

I know my weld was a little sloppy but I cleaned it up with the grinder.

I initially planned on making the tire mount straight up and down but after I started I decided I wanted it to be slightly angled, I just thought it would look better. I had to angle the upright bar at the top and then shorten slightly my top bar and did some more test fitting.

When I was happy with it I welded it all together.

I didn't account for the hinge thickness and gap between the hinge bracken and the center cylinder so the carrier was sitting at an angle when mounted. I fixed this by welding a 3/4" thick piece of 3x3x1/4" square tubing to the mounting surface. I actually like the look of this better, to me it looks cleaner.

 

[Mountain Fun]

I got it powder coated satin black. I also made a mount on the center the tire mount where I can put my license plate.

Here is a pic of the 4xinnovation hinge. Well worth the $100. It also has a locking pin that locks the carrier in place when it's open.

The last thing I did was mount a backup camera on the license plate mount and installed a double din radio so I can see whats behind me since the tire blocks most of the back window.

 

[aboogie973]

I wanted to talk a little bit about cost of doing an SAS on a 3rd Gen 4Runner. I read a lot of crap online about guys doing an SAS anywhere from $600 to $2000. This is total bullshit, there is no way you can do this and still have a drivable safe truck. If you do the work yourself you are going to spend between $5000 to $8000 depending on how much you junkyard your parts. If you hire a shop to perform your install add about another $2500 to $4000 depending on the complexity of your install. I decided to buy new parts for everything except the front axle housing.

This is a brief breakdown of some of my cost:
Front SAS kit from Sky Manufacturing: $3000
Rear leaf kit and shock hoop: $800
Crossmember with powder coat: $500
Addicted Offroad bumper package: $1600
Powder coat for bumpers: $500
Rear driveshaft: $120
Front long spine driveshaft: $500
Front Axle used: $450
Front Axle parts: $250
5 37" tires and wheels: $2500
Rear spare tire carrier: $200
Welding wire and supplies: $100
Grinding pads and cutoff wheels: $150
Gear lube, oil, powersteering and brake fluid: $200
Misc expenses: $250
Parts shipping cost: $600
Rear ARB airlocker new on craigslist: $600

I'm sure I forgot some things but this will give you a pretty good idea that's not a cheap date.

Thanks for the write up. I was doing a lot of research, because I wanted to do the SAS conversation on my 97 and was having no luck for a straight up answer. My question with the SAS kit, how long did it take to get the parts shipped to you? Thanks

 

[aboogie973]

My first potentially big mistake! I measured the Cherokee Chief Dana44 as 60" WMS (wheel mount surface) but I was measuring from rotor to rotor, not WMS to WMS. The Chief Dana is about 3" wider than the Wagoneer Dana. Not only would the front axle be 3" wider than the rear but none of my high steer parts would fit this axle. This could have been a huge problem but luckily a good buddy of mine had a Wagoneer Dana44 axle that had been sitting for like 20 years that he sold me for $150. It took about a days work to swap everything over and brake down and reassemble the axle shafts but it all worked out in the end. I have to thank Josh for helping me out of this one.

What year Wagoneer did you purchase? Thanks


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[Mountain Fun]

Sorry for slow responses, haven't checked on or updated the post in a while. I got most of the parts pretty quick, like a few weeks but this several years ago before COVID and all the steel shortages caused by the tariffs. The Waggy axle was from an 80s Wagoneer, not sure of the exact year.

 

[Mountain Fun]

I got the green light from my wife to do some more upgrades. I decided to go full width with one ton axles and 40" tires. I did some research and the only axles that would work with the 32" spring width from the Waggy axle was either a 1978-79 Ford F250 or F350 axle combo. I searched and searched but wasn't able to find F350 Dana 60 front and rear so I had to settle for 1978 F20 axles which is a Dana 60 rear and a Dana 44HD High Pinion Front axle. I located a set but it was 5 hours away so I hooked up a trailer to my wife's Rav4 and went an got them. They may not look like much but older axles are getting very rare so I was super excited to get them.

 

[Mountain Fun]

First step is to totally break down the axles. On an old junk yard axle everything needs to be stripped down and replaced. All the seals, bearings, and years of grime and mud. Once I break them down I will take them to the Differential Man to have the ARB's and 5:38 gears installed. I leave that to the experts, I know too many guys who thought they could install gears themselves only to end up spending twice the money to fix where they screwed up.