de6w6it

This is my '88 Runner project, called Flat Black Lemon. It is flat black, and everything that can go wrong with this truck, has, hence the lemon.
For example:
1) I have had two different hard brake lines burst on me in this thing!! And after a leaking master cylinder, I have since replaced everything brake related with new parts: calipers, rotors, pads, cylinders, shoes, drums, master, and all new custom bent hard lines!!! I also removed the lspv, and put in a jegs adjustable prop valve.
2) There was water leaking down the windshield, down the a-pillar, into the front passenger kick panel, and causing serious electrical issues. Every time it rained, the truck would spit and sputter unless you put the pedal to the floor. I replaced every sensor, swapped ecu's and MAF's, re-did every vacuum line, blocked off egr, new cat, cleaned intake plenum and TB, removed VSV's, and probably more that I have forgottrn. Turns out the two large harness connectors behind the ecu were so corroded it had expanded and cracked the plastic connectors and most wires were only connected by corrosion!!
3) When I was doing the rear springs, I was grinding away at the rusted front hangar bolt of the passenger spring, and my wife came out to talk to me, so I stopped grinding. When I turned around to start again, gas was pouring out of an obviously broken main line, exactly where sparks were flying before. So I replaced the fuel pump bracket, soft gas return and evap lines, the main gas feed hard line, and fuel filter after thankfully not burning my truck to the ground.

I wanted to post for two reasons, I want a place to keep track of what I do to the truck, and so if there is someone out there that might be able to use one piece of info I have, it will be here.
I don't have too many pics, but if anyone wants to see something, let me know.

Specs:
'88 Runner
22re
w56 w/Marlin HD clutch
stock duals
IFS rear w/ V6 3rd & u bolt flip
'85 front w/ knuckle gusset kit, hi-steer, u-bolt flip, back. plate elim., & rock rings
4.10's
31's (it's my DD that is supposed to economically get me to work...)
23" to bottom of frame

The rear is currently 2 inch stock length springs with two mini-leaves removed from the front marlin 4" pack, and also added a cut down third leaf from the stock rear pack. sits with the rear a little lower than the front, and I am sure the front will settle more, so it should work out perfect. I used 6 inch eye to eye shackles to get my pinion rolled up some (for the rear cv shaft) and to level it.


The front is kind of a mixed bag. FROR hangar, which seemed to have the least drop off any non-custom ones. 5" eye to eye Marlin shackles. Marlin's hi-steer. Marlin 4" springs with the bottom two leaves removed. The shackle tubes I placed 50mm up from the bottom of the frame, and 50 mm back from the inside of the front part of the body mount. The hangar is mounted flush. 10 inch bilstein's (I am happy with these) mounted to Marlin's hoops.

And the picture I have been waiting for:




*UPDATE* 2023
I have still been working on this. It is now on 35's, the axles and suspension and brakes have all been re-done, again. The frame got completely plated and repaired from the horse collar back. The body has been getting slowly pieced back together, there was a lot of rust and holes. I am going to try and put pics back where they got removed with the photobucket thing as much as I can when I have time.

de6w6it

Now, time for

eighty5yota

nice puddle there buddy!

is that pitting!? or burrs?

de6w6it

All clean:


Mock up to check shackle angle before finish welding of hangar:


Finished welding:

de6w6it

spatter, it;s a problem that plagues me ha ha ha got most of it off with wire wheel though

de6w6it

One more

de6w6it

and the grande finale:

de6w6it

For the front, since I didn't really want to run wheel spacers, and to be honest, I am not sure that they are legal in Jersey, so I went with IFS hubs. To do this you need:
IFS hubs
SFA manual hubs
rotors from late 80's Landcruiser
IFS calipers
IFS pads
wheel bearings are the same for SFAA and IFS, so no worries there
You have to re-drill the rotor to the 6 bolt pattern that bolts it to the back of your IFS hub, just the way your old rotor did.
You have to mount the calipers on the outer side of the ears on the knuckle, instead of the inside. I drilled out both the ears on the knuckle and the caliper, and used a 9/16 - 18 thru bolt with red loctite and a lock washer. This also requiresa grinding a little extra clearance on the inside of the caliper, because the rotor will not be 100% centered in the caliper. I also had to grind a slight bit off the ouside of the caliper to clear my stock toyota aluminum rim. Stopping power is the same as stock setup, feels great.

de6w6it

For the front, I rebuilt the knuckles, used a backing plate eliminator, and felt rock ring protectors. I got all new hardware, studs, nuts, cones, etc, from Marlin. I highly recomend this to anyone rebuilding an axle.
I still have to do bumpstops in the front, and lift the back a hair, but its getting there

RU55ELL

I see nothing but red x's.

de6w6it

still??

de6w6it

and now it's level





I used the downey 2" stock length springs, took out the overload, put in the 3rd leaf from my stock packs cut down, then the two small leaves I pulled from the new marlin front pack.

de6w6it

I posted this in the SAS thread, but in case someone sees it here first, need some advice:
I just finished my SAS. I used IFS hubs, re-drilled fj-60 rotors to mount the same as stock IFS rotors would with the 6 bolts, and used IFS calipers mounted on the outside of the ears. There are a few write-ups on this. I have an up and down vibration in the steering wheel on hard braking at highway speeds. I don't feel it under light braking, or at lower speeds. Everything seems tight, and they are new rotors. Any thoughts? I don't get any side to side shimmy at all. I have 4" Marlin springs with the bottom two leaves taken out, Marlin Hi-Steer, and the same rims and tires I had before the SAS. I reused my (now modified) calipers and pads. It stops fine,, and on a straight flat road stops very straight. I feel the vibration more in the wheel than I do in the pedal.
Anyone experience this as a result of anything just inherently related to the SAS, or do I need to do a better job of re-drilling fj-60 rotors? The bolts are torqued properly, but I know that the holes are not as perfect as they should be, but stock IFS rotors have play in the bolt holes, and since they center with the hub, I don't think that the drilling could really be causing this. The pads are making contact across the whole surface of the rotor, you can tell by the wear pattern.
Well, if anyone has a thought, please let me know, it would be much appreciated......

de6w6it

update on the braking issue, it has gotten much better. i believe it was due to the fact that i reused my old pads, needed air in the tires, and my drivers front tire seems to have worn a little funny from bad alignment on the ifs.

de6w6it

I also moved my steering box, because the tie rod end in the pitman arm was coming in contact with the tie rod. I used Marlin's hd ifs steering box mount kit. I moved it about 1.5" forward, and rotated it so the front bolt hole is about 1" higher. I now have plenty of clearance. I probably could even lower the ride height a little more, as my goal was to be as close to stock height as possible. I was going to use Marlin's bumpstop extensions, but with the bumpstops on top of the spring plates, I only had about 1" of space between bumstop and the extension. For now, I mounted the bumpstops to the inside u-bolts, and they will hit the bottom of the frame. This will eventually get modified when I work out exact uptravel, but will suffice for now.
edit: I just wanted to add a few things. There are two plastic pins that go through the steering shaft to hold the slip in place but allow it to collapse in an accident. These can easily be drilled out. This allows for the steering shaft to lengthen slightly to accomodate moving the box forward. There is still plenty of engagement, and it will still collapse in an accident. The only difference, is the pins aren't holding it, but with the two rag joints holding either end, it shouldn't be going anywhere. There is also enough play in the soft part of the steering lines to not have to worry about re-doing these either.

de6w6it

Steering box mounted forward and rotated:


Plenty of clearance, and also a much flatter drag link for almost no bumpsteer:

de6w6it

Driver side bumpstop:


Passenger side bumpstop:

de6w6it

Finally got around to putting a new lower valance, grille, turn signals, headlights, and bumper ends on. The front had gotten hit (or hit something) with the previous owner.

Next posts will be my front square driveshaft.

de6w6it

Built my front square shaft. The pinion angle is less than ideal, it is pointing down too much because there is only a very small amount of drop built into the front hangar I used. This will eventually be fixed with a second case. Or a hi-pinion front, if I find a deal on one somehow, and/or possibly slightly shorter shackles, and/or a 1 or 2 degree shim welded the the perches and plates, provided my tie-rod doesn't hit the springs. My caster is pretty good right now, so shims are not ideal for me. With the truck sitting on the ground, hubs unlocked, in 2wd, the front shaft spins very freely with no binding. The vibration comes in about 5-10 miles per hour, and gets better tha faster you go. So, seeing as it is fine crawling, and I have never gone above 40 in 4wd, I think this will do for now. It almost seems that most of it is due to the fact that there is play between the 2" tube and the 2 1/2" tube it is sliding into. When I had my stock ifs and stock shaft, I got vibes almost as bad as this when I had the hubs locked in, for whatever reason.
I clearanced my stock IFS CV and got about 32 degrees out of it. I bolted it to the tcase, and it droops way past where the pinion is at ride height, so that shouldn't be an issue. Also there is 4 inches of compression and almost 6 of extension from ride height, both with almost an inch buffer before it hits on compression or falls out on extension.





It is 2 1/2" 1/4" wall receiver tubing up top and 2" 1/4" wall square on the bottom with all new u joints.

de6w6it

My wife also added some to the build:

shifter boots:


center console armrest pad:


cut my rear seat cover up the middle and sewed a zipper in so I can put each seat down individually if needed:


Thanks Abigail!!!