When I knew I wanted to convert my Mitsu to five-lugs, I immediately called Max Fish over at Bio Kustumz in Hemet, California. I knew he had this whole five-lug conversion thing down to a science. It only took us about two hours to do this, and we didn't even need a new drive shaft. Once I hunted down the bolts I needed, I had this done in a snap. A Nissan Hardbody is almost as easy, the only difference is a few washers and a seal. The best thing about this conversion is a rear-disc brake kit was only a phone call away at Downey Off Road Manufacturing. That's the luxury of using Toyota Parts: they're easier and more convenient.
1. Here, you can see what...
1. Here, you can see what we had to work with: the stock Mitsubishi junk and '98 Toyota Tacoma hubs and rotors. Also in the picture is our Mitsubishi lowered spindle.
2. We were going to remove...
2. We were going to remove our caliper from our spindle by removing the two bolts.
3. Next, we removed the dust...
3. Next, we removed the dust cap, cotter pin, and removed the spindle castle nut to remove the stock hub and rotor.
4. We then removed the dust...
4. We then removed the dust shield.
5. Before placing the Tacoma...
5. Before placing the Tacoma hub assembly on, we placed a new rear seal on the Tacoma hub.
6. We used a rubber mallet...
6. We used a rubber mallet to put it into place, then made sure it went in straight and even.
7. We slid the Tacoma hub...
7. We slid the Tacoma hub assembly onto the dropped spindle. Yes, that's right. It slides right over with no modification necessary. Then, we utilized the Tacoma bearings and used the Mitsu keyed washer.
8. Next, we placed the Mitsu...
8. Next, we placed the Mitsu castle nut back on and used a new cotter pin.
9. After that, we used a Tacoma...
9. After that, we used a Tacoma dust cap to seal the grease. We made sure to grease everything thoroughly.
10. If you slide your Mitsu...
10. If you slide your Mitsu caliper into place, you'll notice that it will fit nicely once a spacer is put into place. For this part, you can go down to a machine shop. We measured the spacer at .465 inches. Besides a few new bolts, this is pretty much all you'll need for the front end.
11. I went down to Bio Kustumz...
11. I went down to Bio Kustumz and Max set me up on his lathe. I don't have a lot of experience on one of these, but I managed to get them done on my first try. You'll need to make four of these.
12.
13. Before finishing the front,...
13. Before finishing the front, I jumped on the back. I decided to use a '90 Toyota rear end out of the junk yard that I got from Cal Mini Truck Dismantlers in sunny SoCal. I unbolted the third member yoke from both the Mitsu rear end and the Toyota rear end. In this picture, we were taking the dust shield off of the Mitsubishi yoke. This gave us access to the holes to make marks on our Toyota yoke for the drilling.
14. Max has done several of...
14. Max has done several of these conversions before and has already made an adapter to center the two yokes together.
15. With the two yokes together,...
15. With the two yokes together, Max used a punch to mark our Toyota yoke. This was so that it will bolt on to our Mitsubishi drive shaft.