NeedleOfJustice

Hi all,

(scroll down to skip the backstory)

I finally bought a truck after poking around these forums for a couple months. 1992 2wd 1/2ton pickup with 22re engine. Newish exhaust, brakes, gas tank, engine purrs beautifully, decent tires, no body rust anywhere, bedliner, stereo system...all for $1000!

The downside... the belly of the beast is super rotted. I am beginning to think somebody took an engine and body from California and put it on a Connecticut frame. I thought I just needed some weak spots in the frame welded by a buddy of mine but...

They cut out a big chunk of road in the middle of town near me, leaving a three inch squared lip that I didn't see driving at night, my second day with the truck, the day before I was taking it for inspection... My shot struts weren't up to the challenge, and the left strut punched straight through my lower control arm.

Ok, so next day I called out sick from work and got a new control arm...but some of the hardware is pretty shot, and I don't have a metric fine-thread die set to clean up what remains. I've tried local autobody, yards, dealer, can't find this stuff. I am told it is all hardened but can't find the grade markings to tell me if I need 10.9 or 12.9. Especially vital is the enormous (~18mm?) through-bolt that the arm hangs on. It seized to the bushing and I had to slam it out under acetelene...it's not looking so good now...more like a mushroom. Also, rubber bushings erupt into a giant ball of flame under your truck once they pop out after ten minutes' heating- FYI. New bushing is on the way...but I still have to hack the old bushing sleeve out of the frame. Or do I?

This is my first car...so I'm starting to lose hope...

Questions:

Any advice for removing the bushing sleeve that is now oxide-welded into the frame?

Where can i find...
(in order of importance)

-lower control arm through-bolt (the huge one running through the bushing)

-torsion bar tension bolt- if need be I can refab the saddles (snapped with breaker bar after liquid wrench and acetylene failed)

-torque arm through bolt (the bolt that attaches the torsion bar through the control arm)

-strut bar nuts (bolts look ok, nuts are weird welded-together square piles of rust)

Bonus round:

(edit): Are there factory part numbers for this stuff? How do I find those?

How do I know what grade I need if I try to source a generic part?

Where can I find a 10.9 bolt kit for a couple hundred bucks that will contain all these wacky thread counts and massive bolt sizes? Or what store would carry such specific bolts (outside of McMaster Carr)? I'm in downstate NY.

Any tips for frame welding? I still need to repair the frame once I get this thing back to where I started. It failed at the weld to the leaf spring in front of the wheel well, so now the spring mount in kinda wedged up in there. I have a bunch of 4069 and 4061 steel stock (1/4 and 3/8) that I'm planning on using. Will this stick well once I get to good frame steel?

Thanks! Ugh, I need a drink...

-B (aka NOJ)

NeedleOfJustice

Nobody has tips on where to get these parts?

BMcEL

Dealership.

NeedleOfJustice

Thanks Bmcel. The dealership was super unhelpful my first try around. I have ordered parts through onlinetoyotaparts.com and will call tomorrow to make sure they can ship in a reasonable timeframe. If not, I'll cancel the order and try the dealer route again.

This site was enormously helpful in finding part numbers and hard-to-find parts:
http://en.gforceparts.com/catalog/Toyota/US

BMcEL

These are Toyota's diagrams and may be helpful:

skypilot

iTrader: (1)

Well; you are not that far from me.

Curry on Rt6 & westbrook drive in peekskill has aways been a good place to shop for parts.

NeedleOfJustice

Thanks Skypilot!

Are you an actual pilot, or do you just like to get airborne in your yota?

Are you suggesting Curry for used parts, inventory parts, or warehouse-ordering parts? I've been going to Johnstons in Middletown for new factory parts when they have them, but the few dealerships I have called don't carry much for these older pickups.

I'm all ship-shape (for now). I was able to order the parts (factory new) from a discount-price dealership out west, and with much patience everything arrived and I got bolted up in no time. Since then, I took Yota all the way to the Whites in New Hampshire and back with no problems. Running fine! Eventually I'll need to under-coat to prevent further rusting, and change the oil and spark plugs, and the rear struts, and tighten up the steering, and replace the tires.... $$$.

In the future, I'm going to be very wary of any Toyota bushings and assume that they need to be cut off or burned out when removed. The rear one was seized up too when I went to reattach the leaf-spring bracket that had rusted out.

If anyone is interested I'm happy to do a walkthrough of the repairs. I learned quite a few tricks to watch for...maybe it's in the Clymers- at the time I was flying FSM only. I can also take pictures- the frame had rusted out pretty severely on the back right rear, and I was able to use flat stock from Tractor Supply and hardened bolts to get everything together again. It's working out quite well. I also chose to just reinforce the right control arm, rather than replace it- at least for a while.

-B

skypilot

iTrader: (1)

neither; I flew submarines in the cold war. Somewhere I have a pic of the USS Nimitz launching an S3 Viking. You can tell through the stadia lines she is well inside the danger zone with no hope of escape. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadiametric_rangefinding

I use Curry since its the local dealer but the counter guys are all really good about trying to get parts for old vehicles, usually within three days. I figure any bushing is going to be crusty after 24 years outside.

Surface prep is king when it comes to stopping rust. I hear POR15 is supposed to be the best.

I have my '87 yota in need of frame mounts for the body. So I need a place to find some 1/8" steel plate so I can weld up new ones.

superex87

An excellent supplier of oem toyota parts is toyotapartseast.com

They have diagrams of everything with prices ect.