Logan81Pickup

This is my '81 Pickup I bought yesterday. I'm going to start turning it into an offroad rig starting this winter probably. Right now I've got to work on titling it and getting the A/C fixed.

I just have a few questions about it though. First off, the front leaf springs are bowed up, rather than down. Is this normal, or are they worn out or broken? Also is the sway bar usually removed for off-road use?

Second, is there a good way to plug up the holes in the frame? I want to get it rhino lined, but if mud gets in the inside it will just rust it out from there. Right now the frame is in pretty good condition, there's some braces welded onto the back (where the front of the leaf springs mount) and some of the bed/cab mounts may need replaced. But the truck is in good mechanical condition I drove it 2.5 hours back from where I bought it to my house without any issues.

I've been itching to test this thing out off-road and probably will go do that sometime this afternoon in some good spots I know (that's our farm land).

donomite49

go ahead and get 3" lift front springs, you can fit 33's with. thats what i did with my 79.

nice truck btw.

welcome to yt.

83

Tilting?

You don't need any lift at all to fit 33s. But of course you can lift it if you want. All depends on what kind of offroading you plan on doing, or if you're just trying to look cool.

Having a little reverse arc in the front springs in completely normal. In fact I'm not sure I've ever seen one that doesn't have it. Doesn't mean you necessarily don't want to fix it...but it's probably fine. You could post photos so people here can look at it.

As far as the sway bar, I'm not sure. Again, it probably depends on what kind of offroading. I don't do anything hardcore, but I drive down in the desert and up on crazy mountain roads, and I've never needed anything more than a stock vehicle.

With the stock height of these trucks, you don't really need to worry about a lift unless you're going to be mudding. For rough roads, a locker is going to be the biggest improvement.

Logan81Pickup

The back of the truck is fine, but the front is a little low. As far as removing the sway bar I really would just like a little more articulation. I tested it out and it didn't really have any up front.

As far as lift I'm thinking an actual spring lift would be better than blocks. I'll probably end up putting bigger tires on when these wear out. But as you can see from the pictures they're practically brand new.

83

I'm no offroad expert (hopefully some of those will chime in), but I think articulation comes from leaf spring flex, mostly. Stock springs don't articulate too well.

RESEARCH. Yes, you are right. But the fact that you would even consider blocks shows that you need to do some research. Blocks should not even be an option.

If you really want a lift, look into just getting all new leaf springs (all 4). It's really hard to find stock leaf springs, so most of what's out there are going to be lift springs anyways, and will have more flex (articulation) than your stock springs. I wouldn't go trying to level out a 1" difference between the front and back, due to some sagging from age.

Do your homework. As soon as you start putting on bigger tires, your gear ratio will be wrong, which means you just turned a slow truck into a MUCH slower truck. Bigger tires will mean regearing, if you want any performance out of your truck. 30x9.50 is about the biggest you can go without a noticeable loss in power. You can get away with 31x10.50s, but you will notice the lost power. Any bigger, and you're just asking for no highway speed, and not very good torque. All for a just a couple inches more clearance.

Anyways, if you want your truck to perform, bigger tires = regearing. Gets expensive. That's ok. I'm just saying, go into these modifications with your eyes open.

People run 33s with no lift, and no regearing. I wouldn't...but people do. Then they post on here asking why they have no power, and "should I rebuild my engine?" or "how can I modify my engine to get more power?" etc. You'll get the most of your truck with a well tuned, STOCK engine, and the correct gears for your tire size. Chasing after horsepower gains is expensive and kind of pointless. These engines will only put out so much power.

So, do what you want, but please take the time to do some research, and save yourself a lot of money, time, and frustration.

westjohns yota

the post above is exactly right, hes hit the main points of these trucks exactly where they need to be stated, if anything just regear with 4.88s and 33s and wheel it for a winter, thats what i did, then i wanted 36s. and lockers and 5.29s and soild axle blah blah blah and 83s right, it gets expensive, a well tunned stock truck is the best truck

Logan81Pickup

I wasn't even going to bother with blocks. Everyone around here has 10" blocks on their trucks. And not only do they look terrible, but the function terribly too.

As it is the truck's geared high enough, so if I were to go to 33s, I'd regear and have lockers put in at the same time. I don't plan on doing any ultra serious extreme offroading. I just want a capable truck that I can drive on the street.

New leaf springs means I have to put shocks on too right? Otherwise my suspension won't really travel any farther unless I just remove the shocks all together.

All this stuff is going to cost a couple grand at least, and I'll probably have to wait 'till winter at least if I want to do all that.

Edit: I forgot to mention I only used 6 gallons driving the 130 miles home that's like 21 mpg.

83

Good that means your engine might already be running really well.

When all the people with more modified trucks get back from weekend trips, hopefully you'll get more advice.

You might not need it, I guess. But if you're looking for advice on how to build your truck, letting people know what you'll be using it for will help. Building a truck for mudding is a completely different thing that building a truck for rock crawling. Building a mall crawler is totally different than building an offroad truck. And if all you want is a capable offroad truck for some logging roads and hunting and the mountains...you've already got it. Just drive.

Blocks not only don't perform well, they're dangerous.

Logan81Pickup

Also is there anywhere I can get a decent front bumper for cheap? I don't want something super fancy, but I want to have a little bit of protection too. If I just weld 2x4 square tubing to the frame and put endcaps on it and round them off with a grinder do you think that would look decent?

I'm pretty proficient with a welder, so if anyone has any ideas for a bumper feel free to throw them my way.

Edit:

Didn't even break a sweat on this. I need some harder stuff to climb.

Edit: On second thought I'll probably need a bit more than that for a bumper >_>

Here's some pics I took of the worst of the rust. The frame looks to already be rhino lined, and maybe it was repaired where that metal is welded over it. As far as I could tell the inside is not very rusty at all. At least not enough to worry about.








There's what I was talking about with the front springs. I'll probably replace all the springs anyways, as they don't really seem to be of very uniform stiffness.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

That negative arch is a bit more than I have seen..your back must hurt every time it hits the bump stops

Logan81Pickup

Oh yeah it does ride quite rough. There's a few things I've got to work on (register, A/C, radio, brakes) before I can start any body or suspension work though.

It's not quite as bad as it looks in the pictures, but it's still less than optimal.

Discombobulated

Well I like it, best part is fixin what others let go it would be boring otherwise

jastamjas

Thats a nice truck I looked at it on craigslist and when I called the guy about it he said it was gone. Now I know who bought it. Which is a good thing I think my wife would have killed me if I bought another truck

donomite49

i put 33" bfg at's on my 79 when i first got it with worn out springs, and they rubbed at full lock.
i put + 3" rough country springs and lift kit and ride quality improved 100%.
do that and get some soft valved rear shocks and yot will have a quality ride and way better articulation.

i ended up with rancho multiple application (soft valved) shocks on the back and it worked amazing for a low buck suspension. i could hit speed bumps for example and the suspension would go up and down, the truck would just ride smooth, no back aches.
they don't make the soft valved rancho's anymore, maybe the more expensive adjustable
ranchos would give you the same ride quality.

down the road you can do the 63" chevy spring swap and really have something.

westjohns yota

ive been looking for one as my daily driver, i love an older first gen toy stock!

Logan81Pickup

Small world ain't it? I figured out that oil is leaking from the valve cover gasket and the oil pan gasket, so I'll replace those whenever I can.

Logan81Pickup

Ok major problem sprung up a few days ago. I was just driving the truck around, and suddenly it gained TURBO POWER.

Well actually, it's a vacuum leak. The problem is I can't seem to find where it is. I've checked every vacuum line I can find, and after looking it over for a few hours I've determined it's coming from the intake manifold somewhere, either at the carb or where it meets the head. It sounds almost exactly like a really loud turbo, and it only goes away as I am revving the engine.

Does anyone have any idea what it might be? There's no way I'm driving the truck with it as it's loud as hell.

83

Well, it could be the intake manifold gasket.

Bingle

Big can of carb cleaner, go around and spray suspect areas while the engine is at idle. You'll get a stumble or drop in rpm when you spray at the leak. When you say "turbo power", did you get a bump in power, or just started making a loud sucking noise? I would check all the hoses on the bottom of the air filter cover (if stock) too.

Logan81Pickup

Turns out it was the carburetor gaskets. There's an aftermarket spacer in there though, so I don't know if I need different gaskets or not.