OopsMyBad

Howdy guys, I bought a project that somebody threw a lot of money at, beat, and got bored with. The goal: massage out the issues, tidy up a few things before they become issues or at least make them less embarrassing, and then either see about dialing back the craziness a little, selling it, or trading it for something less crazy. I'm moving to Alaska in the spring and I'm going to be living basically out in the woods for the summer, etc, so i need something pretty serious but probably not this serious.

I also don't know what all the parts on this are from, any help pointing out some of the borrowed parts would be very much appreciated. I'm an import tech with ~8 years and 5 ASE certs under my belt, but none of my customers bring me anything this wild, and up to this point I've been a Jeep and Land Rover guy. Looks like the front axle is off a land crusher, I can't think of anything other yotas that use that style of axle, the rear axle looks like something out of a late 90's 4skinner, but it could be land crusher as well? Both axles seem to be the same width. Trans looks stock for the 5vz aside from the dual transfer cases, I have a hard time imagining that the pumpkins have stock gears in them even with the 3.4, I haven't lifted the axle up yet to check for limited slips or to estimate gear ratios.

To be honest, I bought this with a smoked clutch and broken clutch pedal assembly because of all the fancy bits and and 3.4, and since i'm doing all the work myself in my spare time (which I have a lot of this time of year) I still feel like a got a pretty good price on it. The fab work on it all looks pretty good, I like the tiny bed, I could do without the jacked up hood and scoop but i don't know if i want to do the 2" body lift so it will clear with a stock hood, somebody installed an aftermarket fuse box in the cab to run the winch and lights and such, which sadly they removed before selling it, etc etc.

some random pics:
http://imgur.com/a/Oi63g
http://imgur.com/a/k4T3h

The rear brake lines are priority #1 after i replace the clutch, they look like crap and they make me nervous- it would be too easy to snag them on something and then i'd really be hosed. The proportioning valve for the rear has a ziptie holding it in the "heavy load" position, which seems...odd, unless the brake master cylinder is stock in which case it probably just isn't making enough pressure for the brakes in general considering they're almost twice as big as what the truck came with. Any advice here is welcome.

OopsMyBad

The pics of the reinforced bracket are from this morning, i brought the old one and a new assembly to a local fab shop and told him i didn't want it to break again, he added a few welds here and there and the chunk of plate pictured....then when reinstalling, I realized that the hidden bolt above the clutch pivot point has no metal tab to bolt it up...some savage in the past worked it so hard that they ripped the damn bracket with the welded in bolt straight off the sheet metal up under the dash. Anybody have a relatively sane fix for this?

dark_fairytales

From the picture, it looks like the axle housing are not wide enough to be from a Land Cruiser. I would suspect the rear housing is the stock housing. As for the solid axle swap in the front, looks like a kit from trail-gear, maybe Five inch springs.

I do agree with you about the hardlines for the brakes, LOOKS SCARY!!!

As for the hood scoop, you could always make the hood look like a 105-Land Cruiser hood for the diesel engine.


I do not know enough about the clutch/brake bracket to comment. Good luck.

OopsMyBad

Front axle uses spherical ends for steering..not my truck obvs, but this style: https://www.yotatech.com/attachments...s-img_1557.jpg I can never remember what they're called but I've never seen a skinner with that setup, iirc they just have the exposed u-joint or IFS or something? Honestly it's a case of "it it doesn't look or sound like there's a problem with it, i never paid attention to it." Rear drums are massive and almost completely fill the 15" wheels. I'll get better pics of both in the morning.

Oh and that hood looks great!

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

It is hard to tell but the front end looks like typical 79-85 mini truck front end width. Take a pick from the front that might show the under axle truss.

If I were you I would brace that front spring hanger, it looks like it could buckle with a good hit...ask me how I know...that thing is hanging there kinda unsupported

OopsMyBad

I will freely admit to ignorance on this one, what do you mean? Again, i'll try and take some better pics in the morning. I appreciate questions that will get this thing pointed in a safer and more reliable direction.

OopsMyBad

Sorry for the delay, i forgot to post before i went on vacation.. took a couple more pics of the front axle and rear brakes. http://imgur.com/gallery/TH9QE

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

That looks like an 84-85 front axle to me.

OopsMyBad

OK, so what's up with the axle ends? The shop i spent most of my time at didn't see very many early Toyota pickups, I'm used to seeing the style pictured on land cruisers and land rovers, and nothing else that i can think of.

OopsMyBad

Oh, duh. I actually looked up the early axle. I didn't expect the brakes to be that big i guess.

So i lifted the rear axle today and spun the tires, there seems to be a locker or something in there, and counting turns on the drive shaft/tires, looks like a roughly 4.7ish ratio in the diff. If i wanted to run smaller/studded tires for the 16-20 hour drive on the AlCan, how small could i go without running under a stock ratio? If that doesn't make sense, I've read that if you want to run 35's, to put 5.3's in the diffs and your speedo will be pretty much right/hwy rpm will end up about the same as stock. What size would keep me around that point with the 4.75 or whatever it is?

voiddweller

Me thinks you should do a build thread on this one.

OopsMyBad

I'm not really building it, just un˟˟˟˟˟˟ing it. But if you think it might be interesting i could. Some guys might want to know some of this stuff, like how the truck was originally automatic and while the genius that did the wiring didn't have any trouble getting the 3.4 wired up and running, he couldn't figure out how to fool the neural safety switch and just put in a push button starter.