DomOfTheDead's 1996 FZJ80 build

Finally time for some diff work. Loaded up the parts cannon and started blasting. Pulled the rear stock 3rd member (pictured), tried to pull the lock rite out of the carrier but it was reluctant and I left it in. Dropped it off at Slee for 4.88 set up w solid spacer and a Yukon Grizzly locker.


Why another auto locker? Because if you know me, you understand. Why not 5.29s? It was recommended to me by some very respectable opinions, that with to my "spirited" driving style and love of big knobby tires, to stick with a 4.88 r&p due to issues with weak teeth on the 5.29 gears in the 8" high pinion front axle. Additionally, I have 10% underdrive in the tcase, so that puts me at 5.29 in high range and a decent overall reduction with 3.3:1 in low range, 45:1 total crawl ratio

Power washed my drive shafts, before and after, you can hardly tell haha




u joints have 15k, the scraping on the rear shaft is paint and not gouges but I wonder if I should have Englewood Bill re-tube that one, your thoughts?


As a front axle locker solution and with budget in mind, I thought swapping an factory e locked axle would be the most economical option. And after I easily persuaded my friend @jps8460 in trade for his spare diff and housing, I had one.

In hindsight, the ease of the level of persuasion and that he referred to it as an equivalent to an unpleasant body part, I should have taken it as a red flag. I'm a little demoralized after I realized the amount of crap attached to the front axle and the project progress is slow.

cleaning up the front housing

I got this mini truck drain plug skid from ballistic fab with the intention of modifying it but it didn't go well. A tiny bump in my press made it fit worse, I don't like the overhang and the amount of material I need to remove from the skid to make it work so scraping this idea



Pulled the drain plug on the axle under the truck and bit of dense grey molasses slowly descended. I guess it was in need of a diff service

Gnarly work brother! But keep at it

Allen

DomOfTheDead said:

Finally time for some diff work. Loaded up the parts cannon and started blasting. Pulled the rear stock 3rd member (pictured), tried to pull the lock rite out of the carrier but it was reluctant and I left it in. Dropped it off at Slee for 4.88 set up w solid spacer and a Yukon Grizzly locker.


Why another auto locker? Because if you know me, you understand. Why not 5.29s? It was recommended to me by some very respectable opinions, that with to my "spirited" driving style and love of big knobby tires, to stick with a 4.88 r&p due to issues with weak teeth on the 5.29 gears in the 8" high pinion front axle. Additionally, I have 10% underdrive in the tcase, so that puts me at 5.29 in high range and a decent overall reduction with 3.3:1 in low range, 45:1 total crawl ratio

Power washed my drive shafts, before and after, you can hardly tell haha




u joints have 15k, the scraping on the rear shaft is paint and not gouges but I wonder if I should have Englewood Bill re-tube that one, your thoughts?


As a front axle locker solution and with budget in mind, I thought swapping an factory e locked axle would be the most economical option. And after I easily persuaded my friend @jps8460 in trade for his spare diff and housing, I had one.

In hindsight, the ease of the level of persuasion and that he referred to it as an equivalent to an unpleasant body part, I should have taken it as a red flag. I'm a little demoralized after I realized the amount of crap attached to the front axle and the project progress is slow.

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I’d at least have Bill balance that driveshaft. After taking some hits I’m sure that thing doesn’t spin true anymore haha. Cool work on the front e-locker! You’ll get it across the finish line even if it takes some time.

Huge thanks to @MonPetiteShoe for help and motivation this past weekend. Rear axle is mostly back together and got a good start on front axle teardown



I picked up the rear diff from Slee last week and got it installed on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately revealing that I had twisted splines on one of my rear shafts

wow nice catch on the splines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Prep on the locked front housing for welding


trimmed down the Ballistic fab drain plug skid because it just didn't sit right, then made my own radius arm mount sister brackets. What an unholy nightmare it was making these. All the same 3.5"x10" plate but each tube position is different, making fitment a challenge





welded up, not the most beautiful welds but good enough



there was supposed to be a center section bash plate from Ruff stuff to be welded on in addition to these other plates, but I ordered it 5 weeks ago and it still hasn't shipped. Moving on without it.

Paint it black


with help again from @MonPetiteShoe, we got the housing swapped out, 3rd member set, arms bolted back up with springs and shocks seated

DomOfTheDead said:

there was supposed to be a center section bash plate from Ruff stuff to be welded on in addition to these other plates, but I ordered it 5 weeks ago and it still hasn't shipped. Moving on without it.

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Might be waiting a lot longer.... Unfortunately Ruffstuff has had a real shit year.... I'm not real familiar with all the workings, but they've been sold and the new owner is trying his best to get stuff back in stock to fulfill back orders..... Hopefully you get your part soon.

Hopefully they have their stuff together by the fall when i need to order a few things for my axle housing i bought...

Notyourmomslx450 said:

Might be waiting a lot longer.... Unfortunately Ruffstuff has had a real shit year.... I'm not real familiar with all the workings, but they've been sold and the new owner is trying his best to get stuff back in stock to fulfill back orders..... Hopefully you get your part soon.

Hopefully they have their stuff together by the fall when i need to order a few things for my axle housing i bought...

Click to expand...

I saw a disclaimer when I ordered that they were potentially 4 weeks behind with shipping, depending on what was ordered, but at the time, I was experiencing delays in my own project (issues with daily driver repairs, the Yukon Grizzly locker needed special carrier bearings, fabbing the axle brace plates sucked, ect) so I thought that waiting a bit longer wouldn't hurt. But I need to start racking up the break in miles asap and can live without a bash plate

Front axle outer reassembly
ARP steering knuckle and hub studs front front range off road, bearing gaskets and seals kit from Cruiserteq



Got 2 of those expensive black and orange boxes



working on r & p break in miles now

I noticed right before I parked the truck to do the gears, it was running unusually warm so I ordered aisin fan clutch, water pump and tstat.



fan clutch is noticeably bigger than the old one, also turns out that the truck was just low on coolant. Running fine now!

Hang onto your early-style clutch. They are considered to grab oil the strongest due to the internal construction. You can also see a difference in the fins and the new one has the thermostat on a riveted plate vs. the thermostat clocked into the housing on the older. Bigger fins makes for more responsive heat sensitivity. These clutches have the thermostat to open and close the internal passages for silicone oil.
Your new clutch may not work as well out of the box.
In either clutch you will have better cooling and better AC with higher CST silicone oil. Plenty of threads on Mud.
The other modification lowers opening temperature. We have a hot and dry summer climate. Our heat and trail use mean we rely more n fan than airflow from movement.
I am very happy with colder slow-AC with the LandTank modded clutch I recently invested in. Randy at Preecision Cruiser in CO springs also sells them. That said, turns out my oil-modded early-style clutch was stronger than the newer "blue" Aisin I took off the LongCruiser.
CRITICAL to all this is intact foam on all 4 front faces of the radiator. Likely you have that handled and I'm happy to explain and link to the Amazon foam I used.