I thought I'd start up a build thread on my project that I've been tinkering on. My old 91 Tracker is getting beat up and tired so I decided to put my retired DD 94 Kick under the cutting wheel. This is my first time going into such depth building a rig and for sure my first time building a susp system. I'd like to hear what you  have for pointers in regards to what I'm doing right or wrong. I had some time over Xmas so I actually made a little progress.
I started by retiring my 94 Kick DD and adding a few parts from a Toy pickup that I bought and parted out, I kept the axles and t-case.
I'm planning to run 36 Iroks when done.

 

I rebuilt the Toy axles with 5.29 gears and Aussie lockers, all new bearings etc also. I added a high steer and IFS hubs and calipers with 98 Tacoma rotors to the front. This widens the front to Toy IFS width and upgrades the brakes as well. I had to add 1/4 inch spacers for my rims to clear the calipers. I also got my radius arm brackets welded on at an angle so that my arms will run inside the frame rails.

I then removed the IFS stuff from the front and got the axle set under it and started trying to figure out where it will fit best. It turns out that I need the steering box to be about 2.5 inches forward so the drag link will clear the tie rod. So I made up a plate and welded it to the frame then moved the box forward and remounted it using sleeves inside the frame and another plate on the outside of the frame.

I had to notch out the front cross member to do so.

I got my Kicker2 from OTT so I did some preliminary measurements to find out where it will sit under the truck and where the cross member will end up. Turns out it will be about 6" back from the stock one so I cut the stock member mounts off the frame and welded on my front link frame mounts. I then started fabbing up my links and susp using stock 4door rear coils. I ran into some clearance issues with my pan hard bar so had to settle on a short bar which I'm not totally happy with. I think the bumpsteer will be minimal as I got the angle very close to the drag link but with such a short panhard I'm afraid the the axle will move side to side when flexing a fair bit. I had to booty fab the cross member back up so I could drive the thing out to turn it around and start on the back. Dam small garage

Everything fits tight but nothing rubs or hits so far with the exception of the lower frame corners which I will trim back.

I decided to see what it would look like in sleeper mode, looks pretty stock to me, can you see the difference The back has about 2" lift on 235's in the last pic.

 Next up it was time to tear the rear apart and get the axle sized up. I am using an IFS width Toy axle for the rear.  Looks like my wheel base will be 101" with 21" under the frame and a flat belly. Stock wb is 97 with about 9 or 10" under the frame. It will probably settle a bit once the bumpers and cage go on as I think it looks a bit high right now. I started fabbing up the lower links and have them tacked in and I'm planning on trying to get the top link built this weekend then I'll pull the axle out and weld everything up as well as gusseting and such. I'll get more pics when I get the rear setup.

AWESOME work!

and good looking welds! keep it coming!!

Yes, nice looking project.

keep it coming!

-Eric

Looks great.  Let us know how well the shorter pan-hard bar works out. 

Thanks guys, it seems to be taking forever to get anywhere with this project.                              Well I got a chance to do some work on the back finally so I started by building the lower links by using the ends from the stock links as they have nice flexy rubber bushings in them then sleeving them with some 1.625 dom with .1875 wall, should be solid enough.
I then put together a center mount on the diff out of .250 plate and glued it on

I then set about building the upper link using the same tube with some 1.750 for the center tube that the creeper joint fits into. I went with the 18mm CJ as I wanted it to be as strong as possible. I decided to run my rear links off the factory mounts for now and if I decide I don't like it I will make a 4 link later.

Pics of it in place. I just need to build some spring cups but I'm not sure what springs I want to run yet. I'm thinking that Heep TJ 4.0l front coils should be pretty close to fitting the bill

  Really nice work biker! Looking good.