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just about finished my solid axle swap using a bundera front end on my 1993 4runner and thought i would post up some pics and a bit of a 'how to' on the conversion. when i originally started looking at doing the conversion there was very little info i could find. a lot of people seemed to be doing leaf-sprung fronts but i couldn't find much info at all on front coil conversions for 4 runners, or any other hilux's for that matter. i'll add to this thread as i find the time, the conversion is already done, so you'll all have to bear with me a little as i'm a busy man playing with the newly flexible 4runner and it may take awhile to get all the pics n stuff up here!
I would also like to say a HUGE thank you to my mate Jon. Most of the time i say the word 'I' in this thread, it will actually mean 'WE'. i dunno what his user name is on here, but without his tremendous help, support, technical knowledge, tolerance of my crap, and other notable attributes, the 4runner would still be rolling on IFS, if it was running at all! So thanks alot mate, i owe you a slab or 5
Last edited by nathanshnoz on Mon Jul 27, 2009 6:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ok, so prior to this conversion i had already done a 22RE engine conversion, as the 22r originally in the 4runner was seized. so a new engine had to be found. I killed the first 22RE (had done 330,000k's) in a matter of weeks. Snapped the conrod in the 2nd cylinder. appears that the bearings on the conrod bracket (sorry if that's not the 'proper' name) to the crankshaft had been worn for some time and the heavy work i was using it for killed it :(
i had already purchased a Toyota Bundera to do the front end conversion with, and now, needing to put another engine in anyways, seemed like a perfect time to get started!
OK, so below are a couple of pics after removal of the engine, please take note of the rather gay IFS front end
Now is a pic of the 1985 Toyota Bundera chassis i used. I purchased the entire vehicle, and wrecked out what i didn't need. I removed engine, gearbox, body mounts etc and using my old mans handy tractor, removed the shell off the bundy, leaving only the goodies make sure you keep the ENTIRE steering setup though, as it will be needed for 4runner
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Last edited by nathanshnoz on Mon Jul 27, 2009 6:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
SIMMO84 wrote: Good stuff keep them coming. Is the bundera front axle the same width as the ifs rear axle?
to be honest i'm not sure since i never checked! the rear in my 4runner is coil sprung, i never measured to see if the axle out of the rear of the 4runner was similar to the front of the bundy, i just chucked it in
next on the to-do list was to remove all the old IFS front end. you will need axle stands to put the vehicle on whilst you do this. By the time you have unbolted everything, it should look something like these pics below. I had to cut some of the bolts as they has been there since 1993 and were a bit rusty etc. the soft drink cans are on the ends of the brake lines so i didn't get brake fluid all over myself, or the shed. a can of blue spray paint was used to mark which mounts had to be cut off the chassis...as you can see....there are a lot of them
the next part is the most pain-staking, frustrating, and annoying of the whole job. Say hello to Mr 9 inch grinder and his baby brother, the 4 inch grinder. All those mounts have to come off, it's basically every single mount on the front chassis rails forward of the gearbox cross member except for the engine mounts (you'd want to double check before you start cutting that your not cutting something you will need). I spend hours on end under the 4runner, cutting and grinding away. You'll get sparks burning your arms every few seconds, finding the tiny gaps in your clothing and jumping inside, twice they even lit my beard on fire! (BUY A FULL FACE MASK!) After about a week of after-work episodes in the shed, you should have it looking like this below. I wanted to give up so many times during this part it's not even funny, but it's all worth it in the end, so hang in there! Be very careful not to hit the chassis rails with a CUTTING disk on, grinding is ok, if you don't take too much off, but cut a hole in the chassis rails and when it comes time to engineer it you'll get a big ugly X and have to plate the crap out of the chassis rails to get a pass, i know its tedious and slow, but be damn careful!
yeah, your right, no one else helped out....... thanks shnoz
oh and to answer the diff width question the bundy diff is shorter, but if you use the ifs nuckles, hubs, disc's, brakes etc it will make it as wide as the surf/4runner rear. just by looking i say its around 2-3 maybe 4 inch's difference.
jaykabir6489 wrote:yeah, your right, no one else helped out....... thanks shnoz
oh and to answer the diff width question the bundy diff is shorter, but if you use the ifs nuckles, hubs, disc's, brakes etc it will make it as wide as the surf/4runner rear. just by looking i say its around 2-3 maybe 4 inch's difference.
i didn't say no one else helped........you helped too jay
next job is to remove the coil mounts, shock mounts, radius arm mounts and steering box off the Bundera chassis. unfortunately i don't have any pics from doing this, but the easiest way is to cut a larger section out of the chassis, and put it in the vice and work from there. A 4 inch grinder and a couple of good chisels will help, but it can be a bit awkward as some of the welds are hard to get at and you want to salvage as much of the mount as possible. Don't worry about the panhard mount, as you will need to make a custom one as the chassis on the 4runner is wider than the bundera. once you have cut the mounts off, place them on a hard,flat surface, such as a concrete floor, and smash them with a hammer to get them as flush/straight on the mounting side as possible
now you need to cut 2 small plates of steel out of some scrap stuff (any bits of bundera chassis rail will do nicely) as you need to plate across the back of the engine mount so the shock tower will have a more stable place to be welded onto.
after that, it's time to start 'jigging up' the front end. roll it under there and start lining up all your mounts. you'll need to measure your wheelbase from the center of the rear hubs to the center of the front hubs to ensure the front end is sitting in the right spot. we chose to pull it forward around an inch and a half. much farther forward than that and it will look pretty weird from side on. attach the radius arm mounts to the radius arms and lift them up to the chassis rails. IMPORTANT NOTE: You will need to make drop boxes for the radius arm mounts. if you do not the radius arms will not clear the chassis rails very much and a moderate amount of upwards travel could easily result in hitting the chassis rails. i did not do this at the time and now i have to go back and remove the mounts and weld them on lower :( pics below will help show problem. otherwise measure wheelbase a couple more times to be sure and then you can tack weld on the shock/spring and radius mounts (after you have made a drop box for the radius arms, i don't have pics of one made up as i haven't done it yet)
DON'T DO THIS
OR IT WILL RESULT IN THIS
you definitely need to make a bracket/box to drop those radius arm mounts down a fair way so you get more clearance from the chassis rails.
a good mate with good welding skills and a good welder are now required to weld it all up nice and strong. once you have done that you can chuck in the coils n shocks and she is ready to sit on the ground once again, now with 4 corner coils!
i decided to take a break from the front end and put 80 series coils and 100 series shocks in the rear. this raised it about 2 1/2 inches. i also removed the rear sway bar
next job on the list is to mount the steering box. you will need to use the bundera one as the arm swings the opposite way to the 4runner/surf one due to the IFS vs Solid Axle. If you try and use the 4runner steering box it will just hit everything
you will need to do some measuring to make sure it is in the right spot, we managed to re-use 2 original bolt holes, and moved one of the brackets too which left us with 3 bolts (out of 4) holding the steering box on. going back and drilling another bolt hole in is on my list of things still needing to be done at a future time.
after you mount the steering box, you will need to mix and match the steering shafts from the bundera and the 4runner to create a terrible monster! but at least, if you measure it right, it will work the way we cut and welded it, is technically not 'engineerable' or 'roadworthy' lol
once you have the steering sorted, use some RHS and make up a panhard mount just under the steering box
Last edited by nathanshnoz on Mon Jul 27, 2009 9:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
not a bad write up goin on here shnoz.
keen to see how ya go writing the rest of it up and getting those mounts off and some drop boxes on.
woulda been handy to do them first time round but i guess after they are done everythin should be pretty right.
i'll chuck my name down on the builders list as well, i may have done fuck all but i was there to drink beer and stir up shit.
and i stopped ya from cuttin up them castor plates
love this pic, goes to show good time being had, and great ones to come.
btw. is the panhard bracket finished? it will break off real soon if you leave it like that. have a look at an 80series setup to see what im talking about.
yeah i know what you mean its not finished completely yet. going to run a support rod from the new bracket to the inside of the other chassis rail for extra support. hoping to get it done this week sometime
possibly y ur on my driveway right now.....
we've been over 100 times how its guna break off.
its getting braced with sum thick walled tube from the rhs to the other side chassis rail as shnoz said.
Nice work mate
I used the IFS box when I did mine and I'm pretty sure Dougster did in his aswell I just remounted it forward a little and used a steering shaft extension but this just goes to show that theres more than one one to do it
Looks like you guys are having a good time doing it
I drooled at Hales' buildup pics for ages before getting mine done, and his help was/is appreciated.
One thing Bubs did was to plate the chassis where the steering box is as the mount for the panhard is near the same place and could/can crack the chassis.
He also raised the mounts a little for the spring/shock tower to run 80 series front shocks and factory 78/79 series cruiser front coils (thanks to Hales).
What castor angle did you guys set it up with ??
Is it just the pic or is your drag link bent ??
Also the line from the drag link and the mount points for the panhard need to be parallel to avoid bump steer.
A pic to show what I mean...
HTH
91' Hilux Surf with the usual mods & a few different ones ....
Coil SAS by www.budscustoms.com.au
the drag link has a slight bend....apparently bundys all do coz evry one ive seen has been bent slightly.
might be the picture angle but the panhard and the draglink r pretty much spot on....(from where i was sitting)....
castor we are still playing with, was guna run plates but no1 makes em, gota remount the radius arm mounts on drop boxes to roll it back as its too far forward atm.
all little bugs that ya run into doin this shit.....annoying but in the end its a good result to see ya hard work pay off
as mentioned above, a support rod needs to be made from the new panhard mount to the chassis rail. We used a rod with about 4mm wall thickness which should give it some good support. we have since done this, but i will post the pics of that up farther down, as i want to try and keep this thread in order of when we did things.
Yes the drag link is bent, this is the 4th bundera our 'little group' of mates have owned/modified and every single one was bent like that. Will probably straighten it at some point. Angle of camera makes it look worse than it is, as jon said, draglink and mount points for panhard are pretty much parallel.
hales231271 - looks like you used the original bundera panhard mount and modified it slightly?
once we had all the steering hooked up, re-bent and connected power steering hoses (used all the old 4runner power steering stuff, except steering box obviously) which worked like a charm.
the exciting part now is putting the new engine in and getting her rolling!
ok, finally got a chance to test out the flex. rear is bloody awesome! front drops pretty good but doesn't push up that great. think it has to do with the radius arm angle, which will be fixed soon so hopefully will be all good. so the only pics i have added is rear flex. will post up some of front flex as soon as i can work out why it won't travel up very well.
Good stuff keep them coming. Is the bundera front axle the same width as the ifs rear axle?
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Im obsessed by this thread now.
