Recycled 4x4 Parts - Digging For Gold

When it comes to interior stuff and seats, the junkyard can be a crap shoot. Some cars will have perfect seats hiding under seat covers put on by cautious previous owners, others will have junk under horrible flower seat covers that have rotted from open windows in the rain. At the very least you may find some change when you pull the seat covers, run 'em through the wash a few times, and save yourself the $50-$100 for new ones.

Toyota Land Cruiser FJ-80s have pretty brawny axles, and some are full-floating rears with factory locking differentials. These can be an upgrade over stock FJ-40 axles since they are a bit wider, but their full-floater design is a bonus over the earlier C-clip style axle, and they're already set up for a flexible coil-spring suspension conversion. Remember that the diff is offset to the passenger side, so although it won't work on most Toyota mini-trucks, if you're not a purist you could swap a set of these under an older Jeep or Land Rover as an upgrade.

All the veteran junkyard guys we know have a secret for when they find a part but don't have the money to take it home that day...specifically, hiding it in another vehicle till you can get back to buy it. We found these aluminum rims hiding in an old work van, which goes to show that you should take a glance in every vehicle, 'cause you never know where the treasures lie.

In the engine category there are many gems at the junkyard. Accessory drive brackets are valuable especially if you are starting with a crate engine or new long-block. Plus everything from starters to alternators, distributors, and power-steering pumps have a core charge if you're looking at rebuilt units, and those core units are plentiful at junkyards. Just research what the core charge is and don't pay more than half that for the junkyard version. Also find out what is needed to qualify a core, as some shops can be strict on damaged units.

If there is one Holy Grail at the junkyard it's a front Dana 60, but for every 10,000 Dana 60s out there, there is one Dana 61, and that redheaded stepchild is more a sippy cup than Holy Grail. The front Dana 61 was available in some '89-'91 Dodge diesel trucks, and was specially made to run 3.07 gears with a standard Dana 60 4.10 carrier. In order to run lower gears you'll need to either get the rare Dana 61 tall carrier found in some rear Dana 61s or the soon-to-be-released Dana 61 Detroit Locker (both are available through Randy's Ring & Pinion)...

...To identify the front 61 (middle) note that it will have Dodge shock mounts like the bottom housing (top is a GM), and rather than having a 60F on the front webbing it will have a 61F cast in the rear of the housing to the lower right of the pinion. However, look out for the Dana 70 in the rear of these trucks running 3.07 gears as they are really unique and cannot fit any other gearsets, so steer clear.

When going to crossover steering in a solid-axle Chevy or Toyota truck you'll want a different steering box. If it's a Chevy look for the same era two-wheel-drive version, and for Toyota the best bet is a steering box from an IFS truck of the same make.

Here is a 3/4-, 1-ton rear axle that most folks regard as junk. These Eaton rearends (though obsolete since '72) used to be found under Chevy and GMC trucks. What we like is that you can pull the center differential out, remove the rear cover, spin the housing around, and drop it in on the opposite side, and you'll have a big full-floating offset rear axle, great for you Land Cruiser, Rover, and early Jeep guys with offset transfer cases. Plus many of these came with Detroit Lockers and 4.11, 4.57, 5.14, and some rare 3.90 gears. Replacement parts are getting harder to find, but most yards sees these as obsolete so they go cheap.