FJC Long Travel Build: 3Link Rear w/ Coilovers, Camburg, and more

[FJLED]

I pulled the lefty out a couple weeks back and its awaiting shipment tomorrow. The Atlas plate came in this week and Dave went to work installing it.

The Marlin Seal gets tossed and you have to pull the coupler shaft off the transmission output. When I installed that coupler I scratched my head thinking this thing is going to be damn near impossible to get back off. Unforunately for Dave he was the one who had to pull it off.

A broken pair of channel locks, a couple of different attempts with the slide hammer (notice the welds on the body), and finally welding on a nut to use with the slide hammer and it came off. Inchworm couldn't give me a spec on how far that coupler needed to be installed when I put the one lefty in two years ago, so I'm wondering if I put it on too far. Just a heads up to those folks installing Lefty's hopefully Inchworm or Marlin has a more precise number in regards to how far the coupler needs to go over the output shaft (especially if you ever need to pull it back off).

This bearing needs to be pulled for the Atlas spud shaft.

Inside the tailhousing, bearing comes out this way.

Transmission tail shaft

Atlas spud

Tailhousing reinstalled

Adaptor plate mocked up

Not sure how fond I am of removing that bearing for the Atlas spud, but we'll see if it causes any issues in the long run. I know a few FJC folks have been running them for a few years now w/o issue.

That's where things currently stand. We'll be fitting up the NWF crawlbox, but are still awaiting delivery of the Atlas 2. Front Bypass shocks are still a few weeks out as well. New prototype CVs are being built..once we see how much travel they give us we'll make the call on what modifications to make to the fenders/engine bay on the front to obtain full travel.​

 

[Box Rocket]

Wow. Some serious stuff happening here. Don't even want to know the pricetag. Anxious to see more progress. Nice work.

 

[eli]

What a Beast . . . Someday I may need a stronger rear end and I have also considered after market CV's as well so thanks for laying the ground work on what and what doesn't work . . .

 

[Ramjet]

Very interesting. I do like your storage system. When you finish it, can you post up more pics of it. Thanks. Great FJC. Sick man, Sick.

 

[FJLED]

Wow. Some serious stuff happening here. Don't even want to know the pricetag. Anxious to see more progress. Nice work.

Thanks, its been a bit frustrating waiting on parts for the past 3 weeks. The Atlas 2 was ordered over two months ago and will hopefully ship late this week, new axles are supposed to ship tomorrow, and still don't know when the bypass shocks will show up. At least the axles will give us the opportunity to see if we need to chop away at the front fender wells to obtain more travel.

What a Beast . . . Someday I may need a stronger rear end and I have also considered after market CV's as well so thanks for laying the ground work on what and what doesn't work . . .

Happy to be able to share lessons learned from this build.

Very interesting. I do like your storage system. When you finish it, can you post up more pics of it. Thanks. Great FJC. Sick man, Sick.

I posted the storage system up awhile ago on here, but never posted the front half. It will need to be modified to accomodate the shock towers and also needs to be painted with a linex type material, but all in all this shows how its setup and functions.

Here is my work in progress. Hoping to have it finished up and linex'd by the end of the month. Then on to the front half where I removed the rear seats.

Pics from a test fit the other day.

Realized I never posted pictures of the front half. Still need to spray it with a black liner, but the FJs still going through other mods before I'll toss the storage box in there.

I'll need to modify the front half's base a bit since towers were cut into the body for rear coilovers. They should still sit under the front storage system though without having to make it any taller.

 

[FJLED]

After around a month waiting for misc parts to show up (well still waiting on my bypasses, chormoly links, and axles) its time for some more progress. Probably not much interesting for those focused solely on expedition travel, but thought I'd toss em up anyways.

 

[FJLED]

Floor will be chopped and the tunnel will be rebuilt to get it up within the frame rails rather than hanging 5" down like most folks are running them. Rather not kill groundclearance at breakover.

 

[Cody1771]

which underdrive unit is that? looks like a NWF Blackbox-i. that thing will have a crazy low gear ratio!

 

[FJLED]

You are correct - NWF Blackbox-i. Liked some of the design features of it over the Atlas 4 underdrive and its supposed to run quiter than the Atlas 4. I'll give it a shot and see how it works out. I'll end up with a 1:1, 2.27:1, 3.8:1, 10.3:1

I really wanted to go with the blackbox + StaK3 case for the bad ar$$ factor alone. The ratios would have been more fine tuned to my liking (not sure how useful a 10.3 is...rather have something around the 5-6:1 range which you could get with the StaK3 before the huge step up), but I'm sure I wouldn't have been competent enough to get the true value out of that setup (almost too many ratio options to deal with, another lever to confound me, its one loud case which seems to be hit or miss mfg wise, and its another 50lbs heavier than the Atlas 2). Hence why I went the trusted Atlas2 route which will hopefully be as quite as the Marlin Lefty case I had in there. I'm sure the blackbox will add noise, but hopefully not as bad as the Atlas 4 sounds.

 

[Cody1771]

awsome!! been waiting to see someone use this. really instrested on how it works out. once you get it on the trail any chance of a full review? honestly i cant imagine needing that many gears on your t-case but im still intrested! the atlas 2 is an amazing case. the original blackbox was pretty quiet. NWF makes a wicked product but make sure you let us know how it works out. i think its considerably quiter than say building a NP203 rangbox for a double.

 

[Cody1771]

oh yeah. SUBSCRIBED loving this build

 

[01tundra]

Very nice! I'll be using this thread for reference when I start building my other half's FJ in the near future.

There's no way I'd take a Stak over an Atlas.......hell......those no way I'd take a Stak period.

I have several friends with Staks and they've had nothing but problems out of those heavy boat anchors. I've had two different Atlas' in my Tundra (oringinal 2-speed and now a 4-speed) for a combined 75k miles and have never had a single issue with them.

My original Atlas 2-speed + Inchworm crawl box was pretty noisy when coasting. The 4-speed Atlas is a lot quiter, but you still get a little noise translated through the twin sticks, nothing terrible though.

If you look at the Atlas install booklet you'll see a little picture of my Tundra from years ago on the top of the page in the Tacoma/Tundra section .

Anyways.......Atlas for the WIN!

 

[Cody1771]

just for anyone who is intrested the crawlbox he used is called the Blackbox-i and is made by North West Fab here on Vancouver island. they have a great line and teh Blackbox is not just for the atlas, they make it for a full line of transfer cases and even have another blackbox that will bolt on to any round bolt patter transfer case.

http://www.northwestfab.com/blackbox-i.html

they also make double kits.

 

[FJLED]

Very nice! I'll be using this thread for reference when I start building my other half's FJ in the near future.

There's no way I'd take a Stak over an Atlas.......hell......those no way I'd take a Stak period.

I have several friends with Staks and they've had nothing but problems out of those heavy boat anchors. I've had two different Atlas' in my Tundra (oringinal 2-speed and now a 4-speed) for a combined 75k miles and have never had a single issue with them.

My original Atlas 2-speed + Inchworm crawl box was pretty noisy when coasting. The 4-speed Atlas is a lot quiter, but you still get a little noise translated through the twin sticks, nothing terrible though.

If you look at the Atlas install booklet you'll see a little picture of my Tundra from years ago on the top of the page in the Tacoma/Tundra section .

Anyways.......Atlas for the WIN!

A boat anchor is definitely a good way to describe the StaK cases, as you've highlighted there are some significant quality issues with some of their setups. Atlas has a much better quality service overall.

Only reasons I didn't go with the Atlas 4 was, noise (rode in another FJ with one and the underdrive unit was quite loud), availability...they only started producing them a month ago which means they are quite backed up, and the only other reason is cause I wanted to see more of them on the road and hear feedback on the new units...I know of a couple that had issues when they were reworking them in 2010, but haven't seen problems with the new ones that are coming out now.

Since there seemed to be positive feedback around the NWF product I figured I'd give it a go. Hopefully it lives up the expectations.

 

[FJLED]