ADH8796 4runner Build

[ADH8796]

When that nasty Eaton E-locker breaks and you order an ARB I will hook you up!

:rockon:

Yeah this one is really old back before when it was actually called a Detroit electric locker. I guess later on they become eaton e-lockers. I'm thinking it should hold up just fine but in the case that it doesn't I'll take you up on that ARB deal.

This guy did a similar setup:

97 4Runner - cruiser radius arm SAS - Pirate4x4.Com : 4x4 and Off-Road Forum

Yeah I had seen his build a couple years ago and wasn't impressed with the amount of flex he got out of it. But looking at it now I can see several limiting factors his setup has that mine will not.

 

[ADH8796]

This is the stock ford radius arm I will be modifying


These arms are pretty short and mount to a simple bushing that allows for flex. I plan to lengthen them using some DOM tube and run Ballistic joints. Lengthening the arms and adding ballistic joints will greatly improve the amount of flex I can get out of this system. Pictures below show what I plan to do to lengthen the arms.

 

[SCRunner12]

You mentioned you're doing leafs but then why do you have ORI's on the list? For the back? Looks to be a sweet build and one for all of us at home guys with like you said "little knowledge and tools" to get ideas from.

 

[ADH8796]

Alright I guess it's time I actually update this. Over the past couple months I've been thinking more and more about what route I wanted to go when SASing my 4runner. It seems everyone is pretty wrapped up with either using leaf springs (because they are easy) or 3 link (because it's far superior offroad).

After many hours of searching and reading I finally made a decision. I'm NOT going to use leafs because I won't be able to keep it as low as I want and still run high steer (although it would be considerably easy to setup). I also decided I'm NOT going to run a 3 link setup. I made this decision because I'll be doing this swap in my garage with very basic tools and very little knowledge on setting up a 3 link to make it work correctly. I considered the all pro 3 link setup but most who have traveled down that road have had far more trouble than I cared to experience.

With all that being said I've decided to run a modified ford radius arm setup. It will be very simple to setup and will net me plenty of flex off road while also offering me better road manners than a 3 link setup. I've started to collect parts and hope to start the swap at the end of September or the beginning of October.

You mentioned you're doing leafs but then why do you have ORI's on the list? For the back? Looks to be a sweet build and one for all of us at home guys with like you said "little knowledge and tools" to get ideas from.

Read through the above again. I think you must have miss read something.

 

[SCRunner12]

Read through the above again. I think you must have miss read something.

Got ya. It was super late and I was reading on my phone. Nice, glad you aren't going with leafs afterall. I've heard great things from Jerry at BAMF about the ORI's. Saw them in action a bit at the last mod day and I'm very impressed. He is taking them out on his first run today so I'll post his impressions on here if you want.

 

[ADH8796]

Got ya. It was super late and I was reading on my phone. Nice, glad you aren't going with leafs afterall. I've heard great things from Jerry at BAMF about the ORI's. Saw them in action a bit at the last mod day and I'm very impressed. He is taking them out on his first run today so I'll post his impressions on here if you want.

Yeah that'd be great. I have a feeling I'll be very happy with them.

 

[ADH8796]

Few more things showed up yesterday.

12" ORI's


And Coilover upper mounts


The rest of my parts should be here end of next week.

 

[ADH8796]

SAS pics

Ballistic 3.0 joint

For my radius arms I used 2" .250 wall DOM. It's definetly overkill for my rig but I can almost guaranty I'll never bend it. In this pic all I've done is cut down the original radius arm and made a large cut on each side of the DOM so I could slide it over the original radius arm peace.

Trac bar brackets from ruff stuff

Ballistic heavy duty brackets for the 3.0 ballistic joints and lower coilovers mounts pre cut for dana 44

GM 1 ton steering ends

And a better view of the DOM slid over the end of the radius arm.

 

[ADH8796]

Welding up and plating the radius arms

Finished product without bushings installed

ARB and 5.38's installed. As some of you may remember this axle came with a Detroit electic locker that I planned to run. Well a few days before I planned to begin the swap we went to setup the gears and found out the carrier was for 3.73 and down. Sucked but I didn't have much for options so I ordered what I wanted an ARB and a new SOLID diff cover.

This is essentially what I called day 1 pill it in the garage get a couple measurements and get to cutting.

 

[ADH8796]

Helpful hint when doing my SAS I chose to make a small cut behind the peace still attached to the frame and then with an air hammer and correct bit you can make pretty quick work of getting the frame cleaned up.

This was officially the end of day one.

 

[ADH8796]

I ordered my steering joints but didn't realize they were both wring until it was too late so I had to fab them both.

 

[ADH8796]

Frame plates and shock towers tacked in place. The shock towers didn't fit the frame rails at all. But a little trimming cheer and there along the bottom and it all worked just fine.

Had to notch out the drivers side tower to fit the steering shaft.

Steering boxe mocked up

To brace the the radius arm mounts I used some 2x2 square tube I had laying around.

 

[ADH8796]

Didn't get any pics of the process but I don't have a tube bender and even if I did I don't think it would have bent the 2" .250 very we'll. So we figured we would have to cut a couple relief cuts in the tube to get the bend we needed. We made 3 cuts on one side and two on the other and even yet we still had to drive a tacoma up on top of the tube to get it to bend.

Here you can see the bend we added

The lower mounts were a little taller than I wanted so I marked, cut and re drilled them.

Steering clearance.

Tie rod clearance of oil pan at full bump

Trac bar angle at ride height.

 

[ADH8796]

This was a huge pain in the ass and took a large amount of time to do it correctly but I didn't really have a choice on my deadline. Being that this part is so extremely important I wanted it to be done correctly but it would been great no to have to waste all the fab time on something that should have been plug and play.

 

[ADH8796]

Trac bar cut and tacked, trac bar mounts tacked in and a pic of trac bar angle at ride height.

Had to cut and re-plate the front crossmember to clear the radius arms.

Welded up the relief cuts in the radius arm and smoothed everything out.

Now I really don't think this was necessary but It was good for my peace of mind. I took some old tube cut it in half and molded it to the radius arm then welded it up for extra strength. Like I said I don't think this was needed but at least with this done I'll never worry about it being a potential weak link.

Cut a couple peaches to help brace the lower mounts.

Welded in the bungs

Chopped the crossmember for driveshaft clearance.

And then I spent the next 6-8hrs welding everything in solid. It's hard to stay focused after a while.

Wasn't sure what I was going to do with the brake lines but it turned out a hole drilled through the tower and a clip on the back side worked perfect to secure everything in place.

 

[ADH8796]

 

[ADH8796]

Frame height ended up at 21 7/8" and I'm now runner LC80 coils in the rear instead of OME 891's.

I started this build on Friday the 4th at 9:30am and finished the build on Friday the 11th at 7:30pm. Packed up my stuff and headed to Superlift ORV in Hot Springs, AR 400 mile round trip for the Souther Cruiser Crawl and had a blast. Ran a lot of very technical trails and was still able to drive home at 75mph with ease.

 

[downpour11]

Came out great! How's it drive?

Edit just saw your last post. Looks great man!

 

[4Running Daily]

Do mine next!

 

[mcaz5]

That is the perfect stance. I love it.