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The Roach

1K views 4 replies 1 participant last post by  RallyRoach 
#1 · (Edited)
The Roach: project build-up

I've been putting off posting this build here until I have some actual results photos to share. Basically, started with one very well worn 1984 4runner bought in September 2006. According to the previous owner, it was used "to go mudding". Right...

The start:

Now:


Anyway, I'll post pix and play-by-play in the next post, but here's the list of work we've completed since I parked it in December. I did most of the grunt work and alot of the fabrication & assembly, while my bro took care of the most of the MIG welding and all the TIG:

-Rears up front, homemade boomerang shackles (a little too long)
-5" lift used Alcans in rear, 3 leaves taken out, probably 3.5" lift now
-armoured front housing (not by us), Trail Gear Ball Gussets, knuckles rebuilt, Marlin Crawler seals
-89 vintage rear housing with Trail Gear diff armour
-5.29 gears, e-locker in front, Detroit Lockright in back
-30-spline Longfields, Bobby's hub gears
-approx Y2K vintage All-Pro Hi-steer setup, IFS box on Trail Gear mount
-misc Ford Truck shocks in front (stock shock tower), ProComp ES1000 in back, 16" travel, not the best shock angle either
-Trail Gear doubler, 2.28/2.28 setup, Marlin speedo extension
-All-Pro XXX crosmember, skid and e-brake
-Rear driveshaft: .250 wall Sch.40 pipe, stock U-joints reused, stock slip joint, final runout was .038", does not vibrate
-Front Square driveshaft, 2.25" hitch tube over 2", stock double cardan and u-joint reused
-37" Krawlers (blue not red), on ProComp rims
-Fender Flares to keep me legal

...And a whole lot of frame rust patching. We basically plated the sides and bottom of the whole frame from the spring hangers back with 1/8 and 3/16. This is Nova Scotia after all, we got SALT.

Still to do:
-Bumpers front and rear
-sliders
-winch
-CB
-Paint
-Soft Top (old Kayline, not canback...)

RallyRoach
 
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#2 ·
Phase 1: Suspension

We started by swapping the front springs out due to a busted leaf. As you can see this left us kind of high in the nose



Little did we know that the front drivehsaft slip was siezed solid, so we had to find a way to get the front axle forward enough to install the springs. we had redrilled the leaves, but later swapped it back to the correct, more forward holes once the hi=steer was in.

Rear springs were next. We took the hangers off an old rear frame 1/2, same guy we bought all the gears, tires and axles off of. Frame was off a Californian truck driven to here, then sold, and is now in the process of being tubed out, linked and 60'd. We had the springs installed, then I got bored and started poking at soft spots. So we started fixing the frame.



You can see my rust issues here too. We only had to rebuild 1 body mount tho



Once the frame was solid again, we hung the springs, and put the gears in the rear. I can say from experience now that getting wheel bearings off a rear axle is the hardest fukking thing I have ever done...




Shackle angle turned out alright. Mounted the rear shocks in the standard A. I wanted to cut a whole in the bed and put them thru, but got talked out of it. I still may in the future. I made a new crossmember to mount them out of 1 3/4 Sch40 and called it done.

 
#3 ·
Phase 2: Front Axle

Axle is out of an 83. It was already armored, so I decided to use it instead of rebuilding my stocker. My bro TIG'd on the ball gussets with only a little grinding to get them to fit right.




Next we setup the front e-locker as the 5.29s had to come off the full case Detroit (my bro called that). Took our time and came up with a real good pattern I think for used gears.



With that done, my bro clearanced the front housing and drilled the new stud holes...


...while I rebuilt the knuckles. For the record, we found that the tool we built to tighten the bearings on the diff (small side), also work perfect to tighten down the spindle nuts.

 
#4 · (Edited)
Front end Cont'd:

We cleaned off the front frame next, mounted the IFS box as far forward as we could without cutting the body mount off. That anti-dive bar bracket is a bitch to get off...




We extended the steering shaft a bit with some 1" ID tube


Then hung the springs with 1 extra leaf added back in after taking 3 out originally. Slipped in the Longs, slapped on the knuckles, and hung the whole mess under the truck


 
#5 ·
Doubler:

The Trail Gear doubler went together without too much hassle. Stupid interlock pins... We mounted it on the crossmemeber, mocked it up, trimmed and welded it in solid.






My bro built the rear driveshaft. That took a whole lot of finagling and playing with heat on the TIG to get to where we were happy with the runout.


While I did the easy job of the front square shaft


I did some little work for a week while my bro was away on vacation, like mounting the new front fenders, flares, patching the holes in the floor, installing tires, and flexing it off the front stoop


Took it for an inpesction, passed with no probems, after we pointed out the ebrake on the transfer case to the mechanic. Then we wired up the e-locker, installed the stereo and that's about where it sits. Had it out for a run yesterday with the local Jeepers. It all worked well, except the stock cable broke on the e-brake (brake holds real good tho).



Short (well, 9 min...) vid too:
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=5026827859642325435&hl=en-CA

Sliders are getting installed this week, with rear bumper next (see vid for why), then front bumper, winch, soft top and paint.

Questions, comments, flames, bring it on. We have very few Toyotas built to any degree here other than buggies, so any input or suggestion I'd love to hear.
 
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