[michael brown]

I have made a couple different "build threads" for my little toyota truck as i started to bring it back to life and then give it new life as my fun play toy and part time driver. i had originally bought this truck back in early 2009 from a good freind of mine without a real plan to build it up. i just needed a good daily driver and figured one day maybe id build it. I drove the truck till july 2010 when the 3.0 engine died and i parked it till i figured out what i was gonna do with it. i had aquired a 96 4runner about a month before with a 3.4 and had intended on doing the 3.4 swap one day but when the 3.0 died i knew what i had to do.

here is the link to my 3.4 swap thread.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=941124&highlight=

after i got the engine swapped in it and got it back to daily driver status i started on the next step, the SAS. i drove the truck every day till the day i drove it into the shop to hack it apart.

build thread for my SAS (still kinda underway)
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=954518&highlight=


and that leads me to today. I have pretty much finished up the SAS and have been driving the truck every day back and forth to work. im currently getting the truck ready for its first 4wd trail ride at PLO for the Oct 15 charity trail ride.

i bought a winch and got my winch and wich bumper installed.

the winch bumper wasnt really built for the upright winch so it tucked up really close to the nose of the truck. so i had to cut apart my grill to get it to fit. i was kinda unhappy about doing this but it does give me more approach angle and it dont stick so far out infront of the truck to get smacked around as much. after driving the truck around and testing the winch it doesnt seem to interfear with the airflow enough to notice a difference

after i got the winch mounted i hooked it up and made sure i hooked up a batter disconnect switch. (ive seen bad things happen when you cant shut a winch off)

my first test run, loading up the bullet to trade it off for some cool parts that ill reveal later in this thread.

after getting my front drive shaft mounted up i had the sudden urge to climb onto anything i could find... i got the left front tire up ontop of another 36 inch goodyear military tire. the truck seems to flex pretty well.

here are some pics of the yota since i got my boggers mounted up.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/cholms18/Mobile%
20Uploads/IMG_1333.jpg

we almost rolled the yota when climbing on here. just as the left front tire came up on the tree the right front fell off in a hole and it almost went over. this got me to start thinking about an exo cage, which is in the future.

stay tuned for more updates. im gonna keep this build thread going for all my updates

 

[michael brown]

next up on my agenda was building a spare tire mount to hold both my 37 inch spare and my hi-lift jack. bed space is at a premium and since i have shock hoops running up into the bed of my truck i have to work around it.

mocking up the placement

getting the tube measured cut and welded up

got it painted up and bolted in... i think it looks pretty cool.

now when i have time i gotta figure out how to mount the hi-lift to the mount securely. got a few ideas, just gotta see which one works.

next up is side protection. i got a set of home made sliders from a freind of mine and decided to make them work till i got ready for the exo and then id decide if i wanna run them or build new ones.

initial mock up they stick out waaayyy too far lol.

got em welded up solid. tucked them as high as possible and close to the body to keep them outta the dirt but still protect the body.

as the truck sits right now i have 1 slider mounted and very little time before the PLO charity ride. so the next couple night is gonna be exciting. i still dont have a rear bumper because im in the process of trying to decide if i wanna bob the bed or not. i need the bed space but i also dont wanna get hung up on the bed all the time. so i feel like after this first ride ill know if i wanna bob the bed or not. ive got tons of things i wanna get done on this truck and im slowly pluckin away at it. eventually its gonna be a pretty nice truck i hope and i am having a blast building it.

 

[michael brown]

alrighty well i got some time in to work on my truck tonight. got the right side rock slider welded on, and got my CB hooked back up. also got the truck cleaned out and tool box loaded back up and ready for saturday. ive gotta figure out a better way to mount my hi-lift as well as mount a shovel and an ax in the bed...

i got a couple issues to work on with this truck. first of all i know saturday the power steering is goin to make me verry angry. it just doesnt like turning them 37 inch boggers with a locker up front. so thats soemthing i need to address soon. i have already talked to Dave at Davez offroad about getting the whole hydro assist kit for my truck and thats prolly gonna be the route im gonna take. my factory steering box is leaking outta the input shaft so im searching for a 86-88 power steering box to replace this one.

2nd thing im gonna figure out at this ride is if im gonna bob the bed or not, i really wanna bob the bed but i need all the space i can to get so im kinda torn. if i can get through this ride without bashing the bed up ill prolly just build a bumper and leave it alone.

im gonna figure out a hand control throttle to hook to my gear shift. i swear sometimes doin the clutch brake and throttle isnt fun with size 14 boots. i was gonna steal the cables off of an old mountain bike i had but they wasnt long enough so now i gotta find a place that sells like a 6ft cable so i can hook it up. i think the hand throttle will be good for a few things, like when it gets really technical and i need to keep the throttle above idle (the auto trans computer seems to act up when idling and a load is placed on it)... also when winching... i dont think i can get it done this week with my work schedule but ill get it done soon.

 

[michael brown]

alrighty, i have some stuff to update, some gripes, and some questions. i hauled the yota down to the trails to see what it would do. i figured out on the first trail that i need to get hydro assist steering soon and also i need to look into a Tcase doubler kit, even with the v6 and 5.29s its just not slow enough. also pushed a tire off the rim on the first trail. ive got pics and videos coming as soon as some of them show up.

pic coming outta Vnotch

pic coming up "stump hill"

video of me comin up stump hill


overall the truck held together well. i gotta trim the fenders some more to clear the tires at full stuffage but thats about it. i also smoked the clutch tryin to get up on some culverts but thats just cause i dont have low enough low gear to get the beast moving.

i got the truck off the trailer the next day and washed it up. using my trusty trackhoe to stand it on end to look for anything broken our bent and to get the underside spotless..

after standing it up like this and bein out on the trails saturday i doubt im gonna bob the bed.. just gonna build a stout bumper for it and cut the lower portion of the fenders/roll pan off to raise the bumper up higher.

i got time to take the boggers off today and check out the front end... ofcourse my right front wheel bearings was loose again.. i donno wtf im doing wrong there. also im about sick and tired of my IFS swap brakes. they seem to be binding up and dragging, i think this is why i was losing some power out on the trails.

i had to grind the crap outta these calipers just to fit my wheels... im currently doing some research on what else i can do to figure these brakes out. im also looking at doin a rear disc brake swap too. i need more stopping power.

so basically im happy with the truck overall, although i still have some research to do and much much more building to do... stay tuned

 

[michael brown]

ok so i got a short update and im VERY confused and annoyed with this truck. so i pulled the boggers off, re packed the right front wheel bearings and fooled with the brakes up front brakes. i checked out all the front end and stuff while i was there, and then bolted the military treads. then went to the back and re adjusted the brakes and threw the military treads on there...

i took the truck for a test drive and about .5 miles down the road the truck went into uncontrolable death wobble... i almost didnt make it back to the shop, i had to keep it under about 15mph or it would start shaking the truck apart.

i went back to the shop and jacked the truck up to see if something was loose, only thing i could think of was the 4 nuts on the knuckles so i tourqed them down to 80FT-lbs and then checked the U-bolts and they was kinda loose so i tourqed them to 110FT-lbs and went for a test drive, same exact thing. so i got back in the shop and spun the tires, didnt see any knots or where the tread may have been seperated so i donno wtf happened.

i know i drove the truck saturday after the trail ride about 3 miles down a paved road with the 37 inch boggers with no death wobble at all at speeds up to 55-60mph so i donno what the difference is. tomorrow im gonna swap the boggers back up front and drive it down the road to see if its the tires or the truck, i hope its the tires cause i donno wtf it could be otherwise

 

[TOYOTAPARTS]

U bolts should only be 80 lbs you will crush the tube. Check for worn shackle bushings in the frame.

 

[michael brown]

Aight.... I'll back the torque off some... The shackle bushings should be good lol they are basically brand new....

 

[michael brown]

ok so i donno wtf is going on with these military tires, but its really making me mad. ok so here it goes, yesterday i swapped my buddies 35x12.5 KM2s on 15x10 wheels with 3.75 backspacing. i only swapped his front 2 onto the front of my truck, and drove it down the road and found no death wobble or anything. so i came back and swapped the front 2 military tires back on the truck, and had the horrible death wobble at the same spot on the road.

next i swapped the 2 front boggers i had onto the truck and tested it, everything was fine. so i took off the rear cut military tires and swapped on the front military tires on the rear, and left the front boggers on there, no death wobble and no bouncing in the rear. so i was really confused, and decided to put the rear cut boggers up front, maybe that would cure the wobble.

WWWWRRROOONNNGG... seems that no matter which way i put them military tires on my truck i get horrible death wobble.... im stumped, so im gonna take the tires to my buddy at a tire shop and run them on his tire machine and see if some how they are all bad or what is going on, and right now im looking for some streetable tires so i can continue driving this truck on the road...

yes i did actually drive my truck with boggers up front and military tires out back lol

a pic of me and my buddy josh wrenching on our SAS mini trucks, sure is fun workin on these things.

i hope i can figure out this issue with my tires soon cause i dont need a set back, next on upgrades for my truck is a low geared tcase so i can get better out on the trail. yall have fun

 

[michael brown]

i have been doing some thinking, i need to get some low gears in this truck cause a 52to1 crawl ratio just aint gonna cut it.. im planning on just swapping in a 4cyl tcase with 4.7 gears in it. but i was thinking... i have a 85 toyota with a 5speed and a gear driven tcase and i was wondering if i could swap in that trans into my truck. ive been lookin in the yota bible but its kinda confusing... i know i got a 3.4 in the truck so that makes everything more difficult. i figured if i could swap that trans and tcase in without much difficulty i could get the low gears cheaper... im gonna keep on researching and checking on that... maybe its a good idea or maybe im just hoping for a cheap way out lol...

oh and im still huntin around for the cause of my death wobble... i think ive got it nailed down to too little pre load on the trunion bearings... but we will see when i get it back together...

 

[blakeape]

Sounds like a lot of your problem it those military tires. You know they are bias ply right? I would leave the R150 trans you should have now and buy the adapters to install 4cyl gear drive cases. I don't know of any way to bolt the 4cyl trans to the 3.4 and it would be a weaker trans anyway. Marlin sells the adapters to go duals behind a R150 and many people are running them and are very happy.

 

[michael brown]

Yeah I'm well aware that them military tires are bias ply... So are my boggers and many more tires I've run on other rigs in my past... Don't make sense that them military tires ran everyday on the road for over a month without issue an now wont go a mile down the road without sending the truck into horrible death wobble... I'm pretty sure that the trunnion bearings not bailing up to spec are causing me troubles...

And about the trans, yeah I know places sell the v6 to 4cyl adapter to run the 4cyl cases. I've priced all that out and know it's kinda expensive so I was simply exploring other options.

Thanks for your help

 

[michael brown]

welp i think i figured out my death wobble problem on my truck. i narrowed it down in my head that the trunnion bearings had to not have enough pre load on them... so i knocked the tie rod ends off and sure enough... they was really easy to turn left to right. i dont have the propper tool to measure the pre load on them but i figured it shoulda been tighter than that... so i dug in and removed one small shim from both sides, re assembled and test drove it. and whaddya know, i took it down the road and the first bump i braced for the death wobble........ and it didnt happen. then i relaxed and the 2nd bump shook me slapp off the road. i spun the truck around like dukes of hazzard and brought it back to the shop....

i finally got some time off this evening so i tore both sides apart again and removed another shim from each side and tested them out. they both felt kinda stiff turning left to right, not really tight but like there was some pressure on the trunnions. so i reassembled the front end and took it for a test drive

TAAADDDAAAHHH... seems to have ended my death wobble issues. ive got a list of parts to buy for my front axle and im gonna get the right tools to put this front end together. lessons learned and they dont come cheap.

right now im saving up to put a 4cyl tcase in the truck with 4.7 gears. but also saving up to put new seals and stuff in my front axle, i HATE leaky parts. stay tuned

 

[michael brown]

so i decided that i needed to hurry up and get a rear bumper put on this truck before i went on another ride. i have decided that im not gonna bob the bed so i figured id need to figure out a way to reduce the rear overhang all i can and build a stout bumper that i could tuck up as high and close as possible to help improve departure angle as much as possible.

i know i want a reciever mount as well as tow points and also want a tube bumper to wrap around the fenders and back of the truck to protect it, so i dug in and started cutting.

i cut the lower portion of both rear fenders and the roll pan off to make clearence for the new bumper and crossmember.

i really didnt like the way i did the rear shackle mounts, i knew they was gonna be temporary and i knew i was gonna eventually cut the rear portion of the frame apart anyways to strenghten it all. so this gotta go.

i just love cutting things apart to see if i can get it all back together again. getting the frame prepped for the new xmember/bumper

mocking up the rear frame portion.

gotta salvage my shackle hanger. this is gonna be fun

and this is where i left off at right now for the weekend. i gotta get this finished so i can be at the ride nov 19th. i wanna atleast get the xmember finished up and the receiver welded in place so i can have a rear tow point just incase something happens. also i am hoping i can get my beadlocks from WRF soon and get them welded on the rims so i wont have to worry bout pushin tires off the rim anymore. i think i try to make everything last minute lol

 

[michael brown]

alrighty yall i got a little bit done, not as much as i wanted to get done but i did get it back rolling. things just didnt click this weekend, thats just the way things go sometimes. im STILL waiting on my beadlocks to get cut out so i might not be riding on beadlocks so i might not be ridin on beadlocks for the next ride which sucks for me cause obviously these boggers dont like to stick to the beads.

aighty so on to the pictures.

building my rear xmember... welding in the reciever hitch mount.

im going to add a tube bumper to protect the rear of the truck in addition to this bumper. i just needed to get this on the truck to have a rear recovery point.

a few flex shots since i have cleared up a few issues with the truck. i think it does pretty good for a truck that wasnt built to be the most "radical flexy" rig. does pretty good for a "dual purpose" truck

i still have the factory chevy "torsion bushings" in the rear springs and i felt like they was putting a slight bind on the rear springs and limiting flex so my temporary solution was to force the bushings to flex till it tore the bushing aloose from the inner sleeve. im gonna buy some good poly bushings one of these days and swap them out.

i still gotta get a better way to mount my hi-lift jack and stuff in the bed of the truck, im waiting on some hi-lift parts from wabfab still and cant wait to get them here. hopefully everything will come together for the next ride.

 

[michael brown]

well this week and weekend are going to be very very busy. i finally recieved my WRF diy beadlocks so i can keep these boggers attached to their wheels. i hung out at Chris shop yesterday to watch him cut them out and then went and got some paint and stuff to paint them up. i got off work early today so i figured id start working on them.

chris watching the plasma cutter as it cuts out the lock rings.

so first off had to grind all the slag off the rings so i could paint and weld them up.

i couldnt stand it no more and had to see what they would look like on the wheel and tire so i layed one on there and took a picture

we got a storm coming in so i had to hurry up and bust the beads on the tires so i could pull them off in the shop. its fun having a piece of equipment to do the job.

ok so everyone has dumb ideas so i wanted to share with yall my dumb idea of the day. for some strange reason i figured that running a peice of small barstock through one of the bolt holes of each ring and then putting it in the small storage room in my shop so i could paint the rings.... BADDDD IDEEEAAHHH... not only was i not able to get the paint on there good without runs but i also got paint dust EVERYWHERE.... good thing the storage room is full of dust so the paint film will wipe off... ill make a better plan of attack for paint tomorrow.

well i just wanted to give a lil update.. tomorrow is gonna be exciting. stay tuned

 

[michael brown]

welp had the day off from work so i took advantage of it and decided to get some work on these beadlocks. DIY beadlocks are pretty time consuming but thats aight cause i dont mind workin on my junk.

fist of all was to pull all the tires off the rims so i can weld em up. bought 2 new tire spoons to make it easier.

just dont let one slip.

LOL snatching 5 tires off the rim really sucks and i got tired and let it slip pullin the last tire off... pretty lucky though and only a small nick in it... rubbed dirt in it and kept goin.

next is to grind the face of the rim whre the beadlock lays and where the weld bead will go, then fill the gap with weld.

i got the outter rings re painted so they will be ready for final assembly.

then taped up and painted the inner lock ring. its tough to paint where you cant see so a few coats is a good idea.

for those that havent fooled with beadlocks this is basically what your doing. you weld the inner ring to the outter face of the wheel and when you mount the tire you slide the inner bead on like regular. Then you lay the outter bead of the tire lays on the face of the inner ring and then you bolt the outter ring to the inner and sandwich the bead of the tire between them.

hopefully the paint will be dry enough tomorrow so i can start to re-assemble my tires and get ready to ride. not gonna take any chances on my weld job and so im gonna smear some silicone on the weld surface for insurance and then slap em together.

 

[MT-Toy]

3rd Gen goodness. Who cut your beadlocks?

 

[michael brown]

a local 4x4 fab shop here. White Rhino Fabworks here in cental MS. he only has a autocad plasma cutter so he cant cut out the really fancy designs like a laser cutter can. but they look good to me.

 

[TOYOTAPARTS]

Oh damn, That must have hurt!

 

[michael brown]

lol dave... ill tell ya it didnt damn tickle... i had to sit there for a minute goin HOW THE F^*&(^ DID I JUST HIT MYSELF IN THE HEAD... ha:laughing: