Leg0nd

Hi, I am new to yotatech, but am happy to be part of the family! Ok so first i will introduce you to my rig! I drive a 1981 Toyota Pickup and it is a 4x4, straight axles, 4 speed manual, long bed, but i am sure you guys know the wrap. Oh and the engine is a stock 22r. I won't go into too much detail about what i did to her, but here goes. I bought this truck last may for $320 with lots of work to be done! I bought an engine rebuild kit, bought rebuilt head for it, a new clutch kit with pressure plate and resurfaced the flywheel. Also I bought a complete gasket kit for it as well. Not to mention I had to replace the master cylinder and the slave cylinder too. so around around $1200-$1300 later (including multiple oil changes for water leaking into the oil reasons) with paint, I came out with practically a new factory 1981 toyota pickup! But, since I only have a four speed manual, it doesn't have a decent top end speed. I can hit around 65 without it starting to get loud, once i hit 70+ it starts to howl gradually more and more. but i have hit 85 in it but am sure that is bad for the engine... So, is it worth it to upgrade to a 5 speed manual, or where can i buy a new rear differential? but the fact of the matter is, is it worth doing? and how much difference will i experience if i upgrade? Thanks.










I got more pics if you guys wanna see. But last thing, if i where to sell it, what would be a good price? Has less than 4,000 miles on the engine after rebuild, total on the truck is around 194,000.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

pretty clean truck. and welcome to YT. I would say you could get $2-2.5K

-there have been a few recent threads on converting to a 5 speed, try going back through the threads of the last month or so..

If no one has touched your diffs, your '81 has 3.90 gears in it. '81's are an oddball like that...Are you looking to re-gear? If so remember with 4WD you need matching gears up front.
diff sources off the top of my head:
http://www.davezoffroadperformance.com/contact.html
http://www.eastcoastgearsupply.com/

Leg0nd

thanks man. actually it's still pretty dirty... I took it mudding a few weeks ago and didn't really get down and pressure wash it very well. But yeah i was possibly looking into re-gearing it. is it hard to do? and most importantly is it worth all the effort?

rdlsz24

That's a sweet looking first gen. You could put some taller tires on it to get more top end. Some BFG AT's would look pretty sweet on there.

Rob

Leg0nd

thanks man. I agree completely. I plan on getting some bigger tires once I can get a job. After all I am only 17 18 in march! But yeah i will look up what those BFG AT's look like.

punkindrublic721

nice truck.. dont see them that straight very often..

okie81

That's a clean truck, I'd hate to see you put all that effort into it just to turn around and sell it.

904_runner

hey. don't tell him that.

Hey man, if you wanna sell that, ill take it!

I don't know about putting a different tranny in it, compared from 4th to 5th, the 5th gear only drops the rpms on mine like 4-500 rpms.

83

Putting a 5 speed in would be a big improvement, trust me. If you're going to be on the highway, 5th is great. If you can find a used L52 it should bolt right up with no modifications. Or, if you suddenly become rich, have Marlin Crawler rebuild your transmission and they'll automatically upgrade it to a 5 speed!

1stgen4gunner

Thats one sweet rig, if you put 31" BFG A/T's i bet you could get 4K where i live

Leg0nd

thanks man, my dad painted it in the front yard and it turned out pretty good. what rig do you drive?

bipolarandproud

I'm with every one else ! nice truck.

Leg0nd

Ok. new question guys! How about a G52 or G54 5 speed transmission? Would that be a direct bolt up? my uncle has an old toyota motorhome that has a 22r in it. am not sure if it is fuel injected or carbed, but i do know that it has a five speed tranny. Anyone know anything about those years? i looked up on a timeline and know the trucks had G52 and G54 transmissions but it could have an L52? so, would the G's bolt up directly or do i need a conversion kit?

83

I've heard that a G series will bolt up, no driveshaft mods or anything, you just need to flip the crossmember 180* because the t-case is a bit farther back. Seems like that means the rear d-shaft would need to be a bit shorter but that's what I've heard. I have not been able to find great info on this topic, and have got as much mis-information as anything. You could try the Marlin forum to see if there's more expertise there..

Pretty much any tranny that came with a 20R-22R/E engine will bolt up to any 20R/22R/E engine, the things that need modification are typically x-member, d-shafts, maybe some floorboard cutting.

Leg0nd

thanks man you have been very helpful! I am going to call and figure out exactly what it is tonight, then it's off to more research!

83

Good luck! Yeah definitely do your research before buying. Of course, you can pretty much make anything fit, if you're willing to do the mods.

slacker

iTrader: (1)

yep ..swap to a 5 speed .. your truck should have the 3:90 gears with the 4 speed . A 5 speed would change the final gear ratio .. for the positive .

you can NOT "flip" the crossmember ..

L50 or 52 is a direct replacement .. NO mods required .


.

83

Can you flip it & use U-bolts over the frame on the back, or no? I've always got all my info from these sites, but a few months back I met a guy selling Toyota parts through craigslist. He's basically got a Toyota junkyard, and a truck in his garage matching up to some of the projects I've seen on Pirate, and so when he was telling me some things, I put a lot of stock into what he was saying. But a lot of what he told me conflicts with the conventional wisdom on these sites. He said you could just flip the x-member (something I've heard from a couple people) to fit a G-series. He also said that you don't need any lift to convert to an IFS steering box with power steering...

I don't know enough to know, but it's starting to seem like he had some bad info, even though he claimed to have done all this stuff many times. Anyways, that's why I just claim to have heard these things, instead of telling people that they can do it.

bigtrucknwheels

nice truck! as mentioned before, you can bolt up a G series, L series, or the best overall choice, the W series transmission to your 22R. L is the weakest, followed by G, then W. the W56 5 speed with transfer case is a solid choice, but I am not sure what all you would have to modify on the truck itself to swap one in.

It's been my observation though that Toyota built these trucks pretty identical. If you know someone with a welder and some basic fab skills, you could always make a new cross member if the w56 cross member didn't bolt up. Minor floorboard trimming within the vicinity of the shifters might be required, but that's really no big deal.

and again, I agree that a 5 speed will make a HUGE difference!

Welcome to YT!

Leg0nd

awesome. I think it is a G54 or G52 transmission. I can get it for free and it has only 30k original miles on it as well. the engine in it is a 22re with 30k original miles on it too. i was thinking about just yanking my perfectly good 22r out with my tranny and throwing in that 22re and g54 or g52 tranny in my truck. but why bother pulling out a perfectly good engine and tranny out? i mean it doesn't smoke and still runs like a champ! i am still debating though!