I'm just buttoning up an SM420/Dana18 swap to FJ60. We used the 3 speed bell housing, AA pilot bearing (the stock one is too short), Classic cruiser's bearing retainer index ring (which Warden's said I didn't really need), Warden's machined down sleeve for the clutch T.O. bearing to slide on, 10.5" Centerforce clutch disc for GM car, the stock '85 pressure plate and t.o. bearing, and the Novak SM420 to D18 adapter. One interesting part of the swap was the driveshafts I picked up and installed today. Spicer 1310 U joints on the t.case end and Toy L.C. u joints on the pig end. Cool. The driveshafts grew in the swap (yokes not so far appart) with 30.25" front shaft and a 43" rear driveshaft. Perfect fit. Long slip splines. The rear output on the D18 is offset like the Toy output. It doesn't hang as low though. With a pretty much stock angle of the drivetrain the t.case only hangs about an inch below the line of the frame rails. It's very close to being straight back to the rr pig. Maybe 1/2" off- not enough to worry about. The reason we went with the D18 was the 2.46 low gears, upgradable to several lower geared sets. Oh yes, and Jeep parts are SO MUCH cheaper than any Toyota parts, even without the gold plating. 8<) As it is now he'll have 62:1 final drive with 3.70 pigs. We installed SOA, lockers and 35's last year. Respectable. The thing that amazes me is how much smaller the cast iron SM420/D18 combo is than the huge aluminum monstrosity of the Toy 4spd./split t.case combo.
I'll be doing a writeup for 4x4wire.com shortly with pics. the title? "Out with the new and in with the old". Makes sense to me.
regards, as always, jefe
