Hilux front axle, steering, diff mods/rebuild

[hosehustler]

Decided it was high time to do some front axle mods, especially since I finally got a set of longfield 30 spline super axles and CV's, the std Toyota CV's are fine on a std hilux but once you run lockers, big tyres and repower, they become a problem with a total of 4 blown CV's (and that was being careful ), this will mean the end of trail replacement
Here's a pic and a link to the longfield site.
http://www.longfieldsuperaxles.com/
The longfields are now available from SNR 4wd here in NZ which has made them a little cheaper.


I thought while I had evething in bits i'd build some diff armour as the front diff is very pront to damage while playing on the rocks, nothing was available off the shelf so I made some out of some 4mm plate.
Th axle housings are also prone to cracking around the diff housing on the long side (due to more leverage) so I also added some TG trussing to help strengthen that area.
The diff bung is always the first area to hit on the rocks and mine had seen better days they can also gets knocked loose causing loss of oil and diff damage, so I ground it off totally, welded the hole closed and smoothed the area, no more worries about the diff bung, oil will be changed by removing the 2 bottom diff studs, will be a little slower thats all.

Diamond in the rough


Done a bit more welding and grinding


Ta.....da...some more welding, grinding and no more diff bung......oh and I bought *BLING*paint


I'm also rebuilding a diff with trail creeper 5:29 ring and pinions, and changing the steering from the flipped arm set up to hi-steer, and doing a U-bolt flip to the front, will post more pics of that when I start putting it back together.

[hosehustler]

A bit more progress today.
Got the axle housing bolted in with the U-bolt flip done, new kingpin bearing, new wiper seals, and rock rings bolted up.
Also have fitted the hi-steer arms, awaiting arrival of heavy duty TG drag link and tie rod which will now both be above the springs and out of harms way a bit more
Will need to do the R&P in the diff head before I can finish it off, looking like Saturday morning for that job
here's a shot of the front end.

[muddy_munke]

MMMMM diff armour .
Will be interesting to see how you will get on with your steering. With my rears in the front, with highsteer, when I put the draglink in it fouled on the springs. The highsteer arms weren't high enough. I had to remove both my overload springs to reduce the thickness of the pack to get the draglink to sit where it needed to be. This meant I lost alot of height in the front as the spings sit WAY flater without the overloads. Was very annoyed but its still trial and error and I havent had it out of the garage to see if its too soft in the front yet or not.
So yeah, will be good to see how you get on Tim. Keep us posted.
Looking good though.
Cheers Daniel

[Shane]

Do you need to streighten the diff after that much welding?
Is there much scale on inside of diff,would you weld diff pumpkin protection on with diff still in vehicle?

Looks good,you going on trip easter weekend?


My work mate has just brought a soild axle surf(std),he wants to do a small lift so he can fit bigger wheels(probley 31'/32's),dont know much about them my self.when you do the falcon springs in back,back springs in front set up,is that quite a big job.Surf owner works in parts so getting springs/etc shouldnt be to hard,only basic mechanical knowledge.
I did try the search fuction didnt have much luck.

Cheers Shane

[H2OLOVA]

Spring swap is fairly straight forward. If the guy can use a grinder, a drill and a welder hes in

[hosehustler]

Do you need to streighten the diff after that much welding?
Is there much scale on inside of diff,would you weld diff pumpkin protection on with diff still in vehicle?

Looks good,you going on trip easter weekend?


My work mate has just brought a soild axle surf(std),he wants to do a small lift so he can fit bigger wheels(probley 31'/32's),dont know much about them my self.when you do the falcon springs in back,back springs in front set up,is that quite a big job.Surf owner works in parts so getting springs/etc shouldnt be to hard,only basic mechanical knowledge.
I did try the search fuction didnt have much luck.

Cheers Shane

There wasn't a huge amont of welding to the housing, the armour is all welded up seperately and attached later when it was all ground and pretty, I did keep stopping to the it cool down when attaching armour and trussing, also left the housing sitting in the sun for hours heating up, don't know the temp but it was extremely hot to pick up ,
no straightening required an no scaling at all on the inside, had some splatter to clean out though as I was welding inside the diff.
Falcon springs in the rear is relatively straight forward, I was still pretty green when Mike H and I did mine, I would have no hesitation to do it myself, but if your doing the coon's its as good time to do wide axle, and disc brake conversion
Rear springs in the front requires little work if you intend staying with the original steering setup, but most change to the crossover steering which allows for maximum flex and superb steering, where as the push/pull type steering causes big problems on lifted hilux's

[hosehustler]

Made some further progress, finally finished rebuilding the diff with all new bearing, seals, and a set of 5:29 trial creeper r&p's all installed
Many thanks to Rick at 4wd accessories who taught me how to set up a diff, something I had always wanted to learn
Also got TG drag link, tie rod, and 80 series ball joints from SNR, all in and set to go, may have to do a slight alteration to the sump though , when I get it back on it's wheels i'll flex it up on Rick's ramp and see if the drag link's gonna hit
here's a pic with the hi-steer installed



Tomorrow will be, install the longs and finish the rebuild of the front end to get it on all fours, then bumpstops, and hopefully Thursday i'll sort out a steering damper all set for hitting the trail this weekend

Oh and put this on as well

[ToySurf]

You need a 7mgte sump and oil pump. But you'll need to modify the pump to make it fit thats what i did.

[monaro427]

is the 7mgte sump mid mount or rear sump as that's the one i have and that was from the 7mgte( turbo one right), have to mod the oil pick up sorry for the thread jack there tim

[hosehustler]

Completed


Total list of parts used;

Longfield 30 spline axles & CV's
Completely rebuilt diff with brand new 5:29 trail creeper gear set
SNR Hi steer arms
TG front u-bolt fip kit
TG heavy duty tie rod
TG heavy duty draglink
4x 80 series ball joints
Diff Armour (hand made)
TG Axle Trussing
Inner CV seals
Wheel bearings
Kingpin bearings
Wiper seal kits
TG Rock rings
Brake pads
Diff oil
*bling* paint
My hours.......many

I sourced as many of the parts trade as I could and all parts are available right here off the shelf in godzone which is absolutely a huge plus for all you yota owners, if you are even contemplating doing this sort of work....now is the time....get into it, the exchange rate won't be better, you'll get a rock solid front end and if you put the hours into it yourself like I have it owes me a grand total of $2700.00, if I had tried to do all that work 2 yrs ago that price woulv'e been at least double...and that's a fact.
Many thanks to 4wd accessories, and SNR 4x4.
Tim

[Jafa]

Looks fawken good Tim glad to help you out with kiwi friendly prices, thats the whole idea of SNR4x4
Youll have to come up to Mt Olympus when we get dates sorted, and give it a thrash! I'll be keen to take heaps of photo's of it doin its thang!

[hosehustler]

Looks fawken good Tim glad to help you out with kiwi friendly prices, thats the whole idea of SNR4x4
Youll have to come up to Mt Olympus when we get dates sorted, and give it a thrash! I'll be keen to take heaps of photo's of it doin its thang!

CheersTrev,
got the rear diff kit today thanks, and I'll be back at Mt Olympus (was there a couple of years ago)......as long as you bugga's don't go at Easter