Well after experiencing some technical difficulties on the trail today, I think now may be a good time to finally SAS. So while waiting for the repair estimate, I'm trying to figure out my options and cost for it... i'll be making some phone calls tomorrow!!


Before..


After..

OUCH!

Cmon....you have to tell us how that happened! Looks like you gernaded a ball joint and everything went downhill from there.

yup, thats exactly what happened. lower ball joint went and pulled the CV apart. cut the side wall on the tire as well. now thats all i could really see before we moved it and thats when the wheel flopped out now its sitting on the frame so its hard to see whats going on. i'm hoping it looks worse than it is. i'll find out tomorrow. if everythings all bent to ***** i might as well cut it all out and do it right! waiting on the repair estimate...

***** thing is that i knew that ball joint was bad and shouldn't wheel it... its an expensive lesson i really didn't need to learn! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

How did you know the ball joint was going bad?

I still don't think it's worth the huge cost of considering a SAS. You're probably looking at $500-1000 of repair versus at least $5000 for a SAS that's anywhere good enough quality to even consider doing it. After seeing a few of my friends do a SAS, I know that a SAS will cost much more than originally dreamed about and they usually take extra time and effort to work out bugs so they work right. So if this is your daily driver, a SAS is even less advisable.

$5k? The Trail Gear SAS kit is only $1099. A front axle is $200 at the most. Thats $1300 in parts. Maybe another $200 or so in grease, oil, and consumables and he's at $1500.

If he can fab up brackets and what not, he can save a lot more money.

thats what i'm thinking.. this may just cost me $1500 to repair so why not throw a proper axle under it.. SAS should be around 2 grand but its gonna take some time to get everything together is all. still gathering some info here..

I'd say double what you expect to pay, it always cost more than you think. Don't forget little things like misc nuts and bolts, shipping costs, beer and food for your friends who help, grinding wheels, extra axle housing because you find out yours is bent, etc.

Eventually you'll want to either go all pro links in the rear or leaf springs and that's another $700. Your stock links won't hold up too long with the extra lift you'll need to match the front.

I have $700 in drive shafts alone because I wanted to be able to drive in 4wd faster than 20 mph. To do that you have to pay attention to your driveshaft type and angles. You'll need to go with a CV type front driveshaft but since they can't accommodate the angles needed for articulation you'll need to upgrade to a high pinion diff (or dual transfer cases, but that's a can of worms since you have an auto). At that point you might as well pony up for a locker too.

See where I'm going with this? It costs a lot more than you think it will.

On the other hand, considering you've destroyed your IFS, I do think it's time you upgrade. If you decide to do it, I'll be glad to help you out if you have questions.

Still, how did you know the lower ball joint was going bad?

My point about the cost is it will cost more than you think. Do your research before you start a SAS. Do you just want a solid axle in front, or is the goal that you actually want to go off-roading with it on some very tough trails? You'll need gears to match the rear and maybe a front locker (less cost to only install the gears once). Which front axle you choose will determine if your stock transfer case will even work. Or maybe you want lower gears so you want a different transfer case or a dual transfer case, then you might want to save some money and only buy one custom driveshaft and do it all at once.

Since you have the un-flexy torsion bars on your 2nd gen 4Runner, I can understand your desire to have a better front end and do a SAS.

Depending on what kind of trails you want to do, unless you want to get good at replacing U-joints or birfields, you better look into durable axles and joints. It doesn't look like you're doing this for the purpose of improving flex and off-road capability on really tough trails, so yeah, maybe a lower cost SAS is reasonable for your goals. My cost info comes from seeing several people do SAS's for the purpose of doing very difficult trails. Of course they go with much larger tires too.

If you wanted more flex as well, you might consider a coil-over SAS kit, such as the one at http://www.offroadsolutions.com/products/suspension.htm#tacoma_coilover_systems
But I'm just assuming that that kit might work on a 2nd gen 4Runner, which I don't know. [Edit: I see they have a similar kit specifically for other older years of 4Runners.]

There's a Toyota SAS cost thread here:
http://www.4x4wire.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=976104

From what I've seen, it's difficult to keep vehicles reasonably low and do a lift for a SAS. The best-designed SAS I've seen that's still reasonable low is: http://www.houlster.com/amigo/SAS/

I'm going to guess that he had the truck on jackstands and found some play by wiggling up and down on the wheel. Probably had some uneven tire wear on the outsides of the tire as well.