AJ started the process with a famous quote "are you sure you want to do this?"  Didn't come all this way for nuthing!  AJ has done a gazillion swaps so many things went according to plan and every part I hauled up got used. The BDS leafs were a perfect choice.  The front driveshaft conversion went as scheduled.  Add-ons like the powersteering fluid cooler did not slow us down.  We did have some setbacks that we had to over come, some were easy, others were nerve racking.  Here are several of the things we needed to deal with.

 

• Steering Box.  The first issue we ran into was the front drivers side cab spacer for my 3" body lift.  It was right next to the hydraulic assist ports on the steering box.  This was a simple fix as we dumped the spacer and used a section of 3x2" square tube and was on to the step.  Having the BL helped in several instances as it gave us more room to work with.  Would've had to do alot more cutting to make room for the steering box and shock hoops.
  
   

• AJ's 2nd famous quote: "Where is your draglink?" uuuhhhhhh uuummmmhh, still in my garage back home
  
   

• Steering Shaft.  Removing the boot plate for the steering shaft at the firewall was problematic as the automatic transmission linkage transversed the plate and there weren't any disconnects.  I ended up sniping the plate to disconnect it- since we were gonna cut it up some anyway, it was the easiest.  You can see the specifics on my steering page.
  
   

• Memory.   Besides #2 above, we accidentally forgot to unplug the front diff ADD before the last cut and when the old IFS stuff fell off it ended up stripping all the wires out of the harness.  Lucky for me the 4 LO wiring harness was made with the exact same wires, so I just soldered them in permanently.  An alternative to the unit from Browns is to extract the ADD unit from the stock front diff and keep it plugged into the harness.
  
   

• Custom Hoses.  The powersteering hoses needed some creativity to get done.  AJ fabbed up a set and the high pressure line was butt ugly, but worked like a charm.  New hoses are in the works. To facilitate this step, Earls makes an adapter that converts the 16mm port on the PS pump to AN-6 fitting (Earls part # 9919DFJERL)
  
   

• Brakeline Bending.  The brakelines needed to be persuaded into position at both axles. We ran outta time while I was up there, but addressed this as soon as I got home as we just hodgepodged it over the weekend.  Luckily Toyota left plenty of tube to work with.  I rerouted the lines and fabbed up some new brackets.  The braided stainless lines worked perfect and transitioned from the metric Toyota end to the Chevy banjo bolt.  It turned out that I did not need to use 2 lines for the rear axle, I simply fabbed extension brackets on the axle and the frame and repositioned the lines. 2 hose lengths was just too much extra hose to deal with
  
   

• River City Differentials SUCKS!!!! Did I mention that River City Differentials SUCKS!!!!??  The short version- they hosed me BIG TIME; the long version the friggin pricks hosed me BIG TIME.  In brief- made an appointment a month ahead of time to have my rear end regeared on a Sat morning.  The 3rd member only (an easy 3 hour job at most) and they said no problem they could get it done.  A week before the swap I called to confirm that they had the gears and master bearing set to do the job, and was told it was AOK. We had the 3rd dropped off at their shop first thing in the morning while we got other stuff done.  At around 330PM AJ got a call and said that they needed to talk with me.  Called 'em up and they said that they did not have the time to get to it and that it would be done on Monday!!!!  WTF????  We both raised hell and got alot of BS.  AJ's 3rd famous quote: "Dude, put the crack pipe down!"  We finally asked for my 3rd back.  Here is what I got back.  How is that for service!?  I got rescued by one of the NorCal TTORA crew who was running the same setup as me, but his rig was down for engine work.  We swapped 3rds and I got my "parts" rebuilt at a different shop for him.  Thanks Andy for offering up your parts and thanks to Mike for running them up to me!
  
   

• Luck.  It was a good thing I decided to do the swap as we found that I had a bad rear wheel bearing when we pulled the axles to remove the 3rd.  Got it replaced when I got home.  Does this mean a rear axle swap should be in the works??? (see "brakes" below)  Glad I found out here and not on the trail.
  
   

• The oil pan. Wanting a HySteer setup meant that I was gonna have oil pan issues.  Ran it with out modification for a while after putting in big ole bumpstops.  I Still managed to find a way to smack it with the tie rod and the draglink found it with heavy front passenger side compression.  Here is the page with pics.  The TR will still hit, but it is a sideways glance instead of a full on smack and the DL is  clear.  The ultimate fix is to use the entire oil pan assemblies from a Landcruiser.
  
   

• Redneck Ram.  I did not have much room to mount the hydro-assist ram.  Given my oil pan issues it certainly was not going to fit up above the TR.  I fabbed up an A frame bracket and a bolt on TR mount.  I used NorCal TTORA crew member Dick's idea for designing the bolt on TR mount.  My ram has since developed a slow leak.  Gonna get WTOR to swap it out for a new one for me
  
   

• Speedometer offset. I was hoping that the gearing decreases would be cancelled by the tire increases, but no.  With 35" tires and the stock Tundra 3.9:1 ran about 10% over the given MPH reading.  With 4.88s and the 35's, it is now 10% under!  I plan on wiring in a Dakota Digital unit to correct the reading.  Have the unit, but need an afternoon.
  
   

• Seat belt retraction.  Despite the rumors, I can personally testify to the fact that doing a SAS does nothing to fix this problem.  Flaccid seat belts suck.
  
   

• Brakes.  My calipers were rubbing on the knuckles, so I was not getting 100% brake effort.  I ground down the area and it helped greatly, but there is still room for improvement.  I'm still debating if the Tun master cylinder has enough capacity to push the big single piston GM calipers.  I may just end up going to a stock knuckle/caliper/rotor setup to see if I have better luck in terms of clearance.  On the rear axle, the E brake cable is sitting even lower than before since the housing rotated some with the new rear shackle set up. I could do a full floater conversion and that would give me disk brakes, but for the $$ I could just get a 9".  Still debating.
  
   

• Time.  Remodeling your house and doing a SAS are mutually exclusive activities. If you value your sanity, don't do these at the same time.  It's the little things that will kill you, like lack of sleep, no food, and a pissed off wife.
  
   

• No end.  Thats right, no end in site.  Something will always need to be worked on.