Front Range full floating rear anybody?

[sleepydad]

You don't have to buy everything separate.. Marlin Crawler does a good job of sourcing all these parts (OEM) and putting them together to sell as kits. Brian (front range offroad) can do the same for a good price.

I bought my brakes from Marlin and everything else (seals, gaskets, bearings, studs, etc) from Brian.

Here's what you need and everything is for a early model 4runner/pickup ('79 to '83 I believe)

Solid Axle Wheel Hubs (buy from a junk yard, will be cheaper. Then have sand blasted)
Solid Axle Spindles (same as hubs)
Wheel Bearing Kit
Wheel Bearing Nut Kit (nuts, washers, and star)
Hub Seals
Knuckle to Spindle Gaskets
Hub to Body Gaskets
Backing plate eliminator/backing center plate set
Hub Studs
Wheel Studs
Rotor to Hub bolts w/ lock washers (4 total)
Whatever brake setup you go with

The only thing I'm assure about is what you will need for the manual locking hubs as I went with drive flanges.

I think that's everything. Like I said, go through Low Range Offroad's tutorial videos (click) on how to rebuild one of these and you will get a good idea of what you're looking at.

So I requested that front range cancel my order. will make sure tomorrow but after considering everything I just can't see running this setup on the road.

as per front range site "All products sold and manufactured by Front Range Off-Road Fabrication are for off-road use only."

so totally my fault I was thinking I could use this setup on the road and it seems to be intended for off road only by custom rigs that are never drive on the road or get flat towed to the trail. I'm really bummed because it looks really easy to setup after I watched the vids and studied the FSM for those years. I guess I can understand why all the custom rock crawl buggies like these parts.

 

[ajordan1975]

Almost every company states that their stuff is for off road only.
It can be run on the road without issue.

 

[amalik]

I'd recommend talking to those who have the same setup as the one you desire; and ask how often they take it on-road.

 

[pauldub]

I flat tow my 2000 4Runner. I went with a Remco disconnect after looking seriously at the full floater with manual hubs and I was put off by loosing ABS and possibly the speedo, along with the e-brake challenges. With the drotors, they've addressed the e-brake but it does widen the rear track. They still don't have an ABS solution. I considered having axles made that would accomodate the tone rings but it was just getting more and more expensive and I couldn't easily determine if there would be interference issues between the rings and something else. I've had the Remco for 6 months now and am quite pleased with it. I don't use their shift linkage to engage or disengage it, I just slide under and do it by hand. That also allows me to line up the driveshaft in the orientation that it was balanced for. The biggest challenge I had was finding someone experienced with Remco and also willing to modify my driveshaft.

 

[marmot]

I have the FROR full floating rear with disc's. I bought it as a fully assembled "chunk" ready to install. I did some custom things to retain the ABS and kept the e-brake at the wheels. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm the only one in the country that went to the extra effort to retain ABS after installing that kit.

Overall, I like the kit. I had to get a little creative with e-brake cable routing, but it works. The e-brake action could be a little stronger, but it can still stop the vehicle. I bought my FROR kit in 2011, which was before they included a few things, such as the ARP hub studs. The axle shafts seem super strong, so the next weak link would be the hub studs. I only have stock Toyota hub studs in my older version of this kit. I didn't shear them off from off-roading with 33's and a supercharger, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is close to the limit for the stock hub studs.

One thing I love about it is it completely changes the method of how the axle is sealed, so I've never had a leak of gear lube after installing this kit. I remember how I had repeated issues with gear lube getting into the brake drums, which was a problem I hated.

I didn't try to regain ABS for years after I installed the kit. In the case of my SR5, automatic transmission, 3.4L V6, came with ABS, the rear wheel speed sensors are on the rear axle next to the "inner" seal for the axle. Note that I know someone that had a 4 cylinder base model of 3rd gen 4Runner with manual transmission. The speed sensor for their speedometer was at the transmission. So that may vary for some people.

I did have an annoying issue with the speedometer for years. Every time after starting the engine, the speedometer wouldn't budge until after I moved and then stopped at least once, and then got above 30 mph. Then the speedo would ignore the lack of signal from the rear axle and operate normally from the front wheel speed sensors. Otherwise, the speedo just sat at zero. This was an issue in times such as when I briefly stopped on the side of a highway, restarted the engine, and forgot to stop at least once after moving a bit. The speedo would just sit at 0 while I'm driving down the highway until I stop and start moving again. That was just annoying. That was only fixed by my custom installing the wheel speed sensors on the rear axles again.

I agree that the ABS functionality by Toyota on the 2000 4Runner is relatively poor because when it notices a wheel start to lock up, it just pulsed the ABS for a set amount of time regardless of whether all 4 tires are on concrete and you just drove over an expansion joint. That's dumb. It's not actually looking real-time at what's going on with the wheel speed sensors during that time.

Due to the diameter of the new rear axle, the wheel speed sensor has nothing to mount onto. The wheel speed sensor's inner diameter is actually larger than the axle, so you only need to fill that gap. After I debated about different ways to do this, I eventually chose a 0.5" thick chunk of Viton rubber, which I specifically chose due to its resistance to deteriorating with synthetic gear lube. I used a hole saw to cut out a ring of rubber that fits very tight between the wheel speed sensor and the axle. It took multiple attempts for me to get the dimensions right. And it still took a long time for me to cram it on there, but it's so tight that it's going anywhere. I lined them up with the sensors and it works. This falls in the category of a custom solution that isn't realistic for FROR to offer as a public solution for regaining ABS. A disadvantage is I can't just pull the rear axle out through the center of the hub anymore, but that axle is so strong that I seriously doubt the axle would ever break on my vehicle. So I'm not bothered by the fact that I have to remove the 4 nuts that hold the entire "chunk" against the axle tube before I can remove the axle shafts, for whatever reason.

Another disadvantage is when I bought the kit, it used 1980 Toyota Supra rear calipers with the e-brake lever built-in. The problem is those basically don't exist anymore. It's not obvious on their web page what they use now for calipers. Or do they just not offer the e-brake possibility anymore? I'm assuming he has figured out an alternative caliper, but that's a guess. I've looked into what happens if I need to get these calipers replaced or rebuilt sometime. The only option is to get the same one's sent somewhere and re-built because no one stocks these calipers anymore.

 

[jkeith.w]

[MENTION=165429]marmot[/MENTION] that is great info! ABS looks easy, and the supra calipers seem simple enough also - wonder why they aren't more commonly used?

 

[pauldub]

The Supra calipers simply are no longer available. You can go with FROR d-rotor kit for a lot more money. If you don't go with the d-rotor kit, you have no e-brake.

 

[sleepydad]

I'd recommend talking to those who have the same setup as the one you desire; and ask how often they take it on-road.

yes that was the purpose of this post?

 

[sleepydad]

[MENTION=165429]marmot[/MENTION] thank you. how many miles have you put on the kit?

I did try pulling my rear ABS sensors out and driving around with them taped up. I still have the fronts. the spedo still worked ok but the ABS light was on. I only did it for a day so... long term not sure if I would see what you described.

I know this sounds a little strange but I kind of wish they had something where you could just keep the existing drum brakes and get the floating axle. I hate the drum brakes but they do work ok and have a working ebrake.

agree their site is pretty vague on all kinds of details. when I called them they were to busy to talk on the phone. when I emailed they did respond but then never replied back to any of my questions. so... frustrating for me.

it's law that you need to have working brakes and an ebrake. ABS is only required on vehicles manufactured after 2013. state rules might vary?

it looks like to me if I got the kit assembled, with locking hub and Drotor it would run $2760+shipping

then I still have to build out the 2x Drotor and it's not clear but it looks like you have to purchase everything from toyota to build out the Drotor because it's just a backing plate and has none of the necessary parts.

so to me once everything is said and done it's probably going to run me $3300 to get a legal setup.

 

[sleepydad]

[MENTION=135134]pauldub[/MENTION] what did you get from remco?

when I go to their web page I get "This Account has been suspended" "Contact your hosting provider for more information."

HA they forgot to pay the bills?

 

[pauldub]

Try remcodsc.com

I didn't buy anything direct from Superior, I had a conglomeration of new and used parts that a driveshaft shop assembled for me. Not many driveshaft shops want to deal with the remco disconnect, especially for a 4Runner with the double cardan on the front end of the driveshaft.

 

[marmot]

[MENTION=165429]marmot[/MENTION] thank you. how many miles have you put on the kit?

I don't drive it a whole lot anymore. About 20,000 miles are on the rear. I didn't notice any play or concerns when I dug into it a couple months ago.

 

[Rockdawg84]

I'm considering the full rear floating kit. would like to flat tow, mostly. planning on using the OEM axle housing.

if you have purchased and installed the kit?

yes 2 years ago

did you get parts from them or source your own parts?
had my own parts

do you think the kit works well?
Absolutely!!

it's reliable and will provide many miles trouble free or it's going to need maintenance regularly?

I haven't opened mine since I installed it and it is great

how many miles do you have on your kit?

aprox 30-50K

thanks in advanced

I know this is an old thread and you probably have moved away from even thinking about this conversion but I thought I would add my two cents. I love this kit. And you will never need to worry about daily driving it. I modified the FF adapters and used Montero rear disks with mustang gt rear calipers so I could hook up the E-brake.

For me the Speedo issue is annoying but not that much. once I get over 25 mph or so it comes on and works great.

As for the lack of ABS it bugs me that the light is on, and 95% of the time it never matters while driving, as I live in AZ and we never have bad weather except when the pavement melts. LOL. Several times in the rain the rear end has locked up and I have had to rely on skill from the distant past before ABS existed to control the truck. If your primary reason to do the conversion is to make flat towing easier I don't know if the cost and work are worth it but if you want to have a super strong rear end that keeps the rear tires form having runout and having the brakes work better then the only thing better would be to put a full diamond axle under the rig with D-Rotors.

 

[sleepydad]

I know this is an old thread and you probably have moved away from even thinking about this conversion but I thought I would add my two cents. I love this kit. And you will never need to worry about daily driving it. I modified the FF adapters and used Montero rear disks with mustang gt rear calipers so I could hook up the E-brake.

I need to sort my engine before I do anything else on my rig. yes this winter I’m going to start looking at a full floating rear again. I love the rear disk brakes based on your Ford Mustang calipers, works great.

I need to call front range and figure things out, if I remember they were still using those 1960’s vintage celica calipers you had to remove and hold upside down to bleed. That entire fixation on those old calipers gave me pause.

That and I’m out right now driving this hunk of junk around. It’s pretty nice to road trip in. We are in canon CO today doing some zip line stuff before heading home.

<a href="https://imgur.com/uIOGLNQ"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/uIOGLNQl.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>

 

[hounddogman]

That and I’m out right now driving this hunk of junk around. It’s pretty nice to road trip in. We are in canon CO today doing some zip line stuff before heading home.

<a href="https://imgur.com/uIOGLNQ"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/uIOGLNQl.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>

For lunch today , you need to go to Big Burger World on south 9th street.