Manual Hub Conversion on a 3rd gen

Jamacee

Jamacee

New member
SO I got curious today. I know Downey used to make a conversion but it was pricey. I went to go look at it and learned today that Downey Offroad went out of business in 09.

Does anyone else offer a conversion? I just got to thinking about my gas mileage today and was thinking about how much I could free up the drag if I was running manual hubs.

Naturally I would love to have a diamond axle up front but I am far from that place. I predominately use my 4runner as a daily driver but have plans to build it into a nice expo rig. I like the SAS for it's strength and still have the ability to use mostly OEM products in it. I am however not sure how well you could tune the suspension on one to match the drivability of the IFS. I don't see myself doing any crazy rock crawling but would like to know I could run the 33's and weed out as many weak points as I could.

I am imagining that even doing a manual hub conversion (if there was still such a product) could potentially be just as pricey as going SAS.

So this question is mostly to get others thoughts and open a discussion. It is not my intention to open a pis..sing...match though. It's not like I want to know if plate bumpers are better than tube bumpers or vice versa. :vader:
 
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I have all the parts to do the conversion for mine waiting for me to make time. The donor was a 4cyl Tacoma. There is no kit that I know of at this time, so if you can find said donor it will have the parts you need. I found a write up somewhere, let me see if I can dig it up.
I'll be doing a write up when I do mine, but it may be a while.
 
Here's one to get you started. Not a ton of info but it will give you the basic idea.
Do a search for 3rd gen manual hub conversion there and it will come up with a bunch of pages you can dig through to find most of the info. I'll keep looking later when I have more time.
manual hub conversion - TTORA Forum
 
Sweet Thanks John. Who knows you may have something figured out fby the time I have all my acorns saved and we drive out to visit family in the Springs. Planning on saving up enough for A.O.R. armor and perhaps a locker / lift / tires (285's most likely).

The hub thing would definitely be something I would want to consider after t/t Scotty about how he beats ya off the line EVERYTIME in his rig. :trophy::jk:

Obviously I am just dreamin and scheming but just from what I have seen here even if one were not to go SAS these rigs are plenty capable to handled all but the more heinous trails with minimal lift and tire. I just would like to limit the wear on the front end and free up the friction and get some better MPG's if I can.
 
Nice of Scotty to tell you how he bullies me. I truly believe that there is more drag to the front end than most people think. When his junk was still 2wd, he said it hauled ass.
All of these builds start with "dreamin and scheming" unless you have an unlimited bank roll (I don't) You can easily invest time to find the parts and really save cash if you can do most/ all of it yourself.
Try using this CL tool. It's great and you can search all over any state.
States

Will you ever recoup the investment on this mod? I doubt it. It really depends on what you get the parts for and how much you can do yourself. I got lucky since we are SAS'ing a Tacoma right now and the owner GAVE me his front end. :D
I found a donor on CL not too long ago, but got beat out on the parts just as I was getting ready to go get them by a guy who wanted the whole truck so they ARE out there. If you're serious about doing it, keep your eye on CL and junkyards.
I personally like this mod and will get it done as time allows. By the time I get done playing with other people's toys, it's really hard to get motivated to work on mine. I did get some 1.5" wheel spacers on yesterday though.:bravo:
 
I am betting that most people would see would see a 2-3mpg difference with the manual hub swap. My 4runner got 23mpg hwy with the 3.4L and auto.

Same 4runner with 4wd gets 19 hwy. The only difference is the added Tcase, diff, driveshaft and CVs. Everything else is identical.
 
I also think that if you keep the IFS and plan to wheel then the conversion is important because from what I have read the CV's don't necessarily hold up well and can even get into the front diff. With the hub conversion you can drive the rig home from the trail instead of having to change everything out there. much like the 1st Gen birfs I expect I will get fast at changing them and don't know of an aftermarket CV that is stronger and a drop in. Then there is always the SAS that has a hub on each end. I am currently collecting parts. for my next build.
 
The only con I can see to the swap is when you do break a CV it's actually harder to change out as you now have to mess with taking the hub off. Big deal? Not really, but it does add another step to the process.
 
Big John said:
The only con I can see to the swap is when you do break a CV it's actually harder to change out as you now have to mess with taking the hub off. Big deal? Not really, but it does add another step to the process.
Click to expand...

Good point. Like you said it isn't really hard, just a little time consuming with several opportunities to lose some small parts.

FWIW, I noticed a bit of an increase in mileage after I went to manual hubs...maybe 1-2 mpg. Because it was so minor I am not sure it can be attributed to the decreased resistance or a change in my driving style.
 
Bighead2001 said:
Good point. Like you said it isn't really hard, just a little time consuming with several opportunities to lose some small parts.

FWIW, I noticed a bit of an increase in mileage after I went to manual hubs...maybe 1-2 mpg. Because it was so minor I am not sure it can be attributed to the decreased resistance or a change in my driving style.
Click to expand...
When you did yours did you keep the ABS? I know that if you keep the ABS you have to swap the spacer on the taco stuff with the abs stuff from your rig. I'm told, this is the hardest part of the swap. I guess the press work is a real PITA. Any info you can provide would be helpful as there is not a lot of detailed info out there that I could find.
 
I've got the donors diff as well so I'll be swapping the tube out and getting rid of the vacuum weak point as well.
I still need to collect a few parts since while I'm in there I want to change ball joints and whatever seals and such so I don't have to go in there again unless I break it. Hard to break at the mall though so I should be good to go for a while.
 
Big John said:
When you did yours did you keep the ABS? I know that if you keep the ABS you have to swap the spacer on the taco stuff with the abs stuff from your rig. I'm told, this is the hardest part of the swap. I guess the press work is a real PITA. Any info you can provide would be helpful as there is not a lot of detailed info out there that I could find.
Click to expand...

I do still have the ABS and from what I heard it was a PITA. I took the easy way out and bought the front end from Steve at Sonoran Steel when he did the SAC on his old 1999 4Runner. Wish I could help you out.
 
runrunner said:
Read this build thread. Look at page 2 and specifically at post #46 on page 5. He did the conversion but basically said it wasnt worth it.

Xcmountain80's 2002 4Runner build - Page 5 - Expedition Portal Forum
Click to expand...
He actually said... "Well looking back as w all do from time to time I think instead of switching to manual hubs I might have just straight axled the 4Runner. For what I paid for parts and labor I might have come out ahead with the SAS and still had a locker or manual hubs".
An SAS on a third gen is not cheap. Even if a person can't do any of the conversion himself, it's still a quarter of the cost of an SAS. Hard to justify SAS if you rarely wheel.
For this mod to be worth while, you need to find the parts at a good price (looked to me like he bought a bunch of new(er) stuff), and you should be able to do everything but the press work yourself or it truly will not be worth it IMO.
I have the parts and the ability so I'll do it. Some time between now and 2016:lmao:
 
Big John said:
He actually said... "Well looking back as w all do from time to time I think instead of switching to manual hubs I might have just straight axled the 4Runner. For what I paid for parts and labor I might have come out ahead with the SAS and still had a locker or manual hubs".
Click to expand...

Yea, but he also said this on thread #46:

"Sonoran Steel's site has all the details. But in short you will need all components less the center chunk from a base model 4wd tacoma. You can reuse your spindles and something else forgot the tech. name. No I notice no difference or increased economy. Well if I had to do it over I would just skip the hubs and go with an ARB to tell you the truth. Almost the same money."

Not trying to beat it up, but I know his thread pretty well. Its probably my favorite build thread/4runner out there.
 
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