82 hilux build...slow
 

I've procured an 82 hilux a year or so ago, and have been slowly collecting photos. The truck came with 35" Wranglers, 3" body lift (booo), smittybilt bumpers and nerf bars, rancho dual front shock conversion w/ one shock, a spool locker up front, and 5.71 gears all installed.

Also with the truck; a 4" Marlin lift front and rear, 14" Bilstein shocks front and rear, high steer w/ out box, front/rear flip kit, shock hoops, and all the various mounting gear for the lift.

All for $1900

Problems: The body lift looks shaky, it has some space between the block and the mount.
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Both front shock mounts are broken, the passenger side much worse than the driver side.
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Plans:

I'm going to take out the 3" body lift and probably lower it to 1.0 or 1.5 inches

Install the 4" suspension lift and high steer cut off the old shock and spring mounts and replace with the ones supplied with the truck from Marlin.

What do you guys think about the body lift? I know I'm going to have to adjust a few things, like the shifter length, and the gas tank nozzel, and maybe the steering. Anyone have any experience removing these crappy 3" body lifts? I just don't feel safe with 4" of spring lift with 3 more inches of wobbly toppling body lift. I don't want to end up on my roof.

PS anyone know why every time I post plain writing there is all this wasted space at the bottom of my post?

I would inspect your frame. The pic of your passenger side looks like between your metal square tube bumpstop and your spring hanger right above the rubber bumpstop the frame looks all rotted out. Looks like it has some serious potential otherwise

Here's a close up on what you're talking about. Looks like there is a stock brace there, and someone drilled a bunch of holes in it. Its not that way on the drivers side. The frame bends slightly there, which is why the brace is there. Well looks like when I get my welder buddy out here, I'll have to get him to fix that up, but at least its not rust.
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Isn't that where the frame Vin is/was?

So, got some work done today, got the truck up in the garage. Removed wheels and the axles, and the stock leafs. As well as the front shocks/hoops. Then started grinding and grinding some more, got to get the front spring hangers off and flattened out for the new one.
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Front axle is all ready for cutting and grinding. I'm probably not going to worry about rebuilding the knuckles. Just going to redo the inner axle seal with Marlin Crawler eco seals and install the rubber wiper set from Trail Gear. Hopefully the Birfs are straight.

YES!! That is where the frame VIN plate is. Chewmaster-better make sure the title is good on this truck.
Someone has done something illegal/fishy in this trucks past.

Oh, I've had it fully registered, so DMV didn't notice anything when it went through their system. I believe what happened was, the VIN was changed because is starts with DMV________CA. So its not a standard VIN. I can't go on the part number websites and look up my VIN and find exactly what I have. I do know the engine is from an 83, and the frame is an 82. So the guys who originally put the body lift on must have been slapping toyota trucks together and selling them to high school kids because they look cool. I even had kids saying "nice truck dude" when I drove down the street....its got broken shocks and a body lift...not a nice truck yet.

If there are serious issues, I've very good friends with the guy I bought it from, he just didn't have the time or space to do the mods. Shoot, he even helps me work on the thing.

I would just use an angle grinder to get rid of the vin. but a drill? that's odd.

Yeah, seems like alot of effort to remove the VIN from the frame, but it sounds like you have a constructed vehicle VIN, so good news. Looks like a good base to start from and a good chance to totally de-smog it legally!

Was able to procure a IFS steering box, thanks to my borther's boss, and it was free. I offered him 100 bucks, but he wouldn't take it. So thats sweet. Front axle is all cleaned up, got the old shock mounts ground down and ready for welding new ones on. I'll get pics up soon. In taking out the diff. i counted the ring and pinion gears to ensure I have 5.71 gears which I have. But this locker does not look like a spool, looks like an Aussie to me.
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Is that the case, I've never seen an Aussie locker up close?

Id say thats a richmond power trax locker judging by the douple diamond emblem on it

Not a Spool but like mentioned above Probably a power trax. It is a lunchbox locker but not an aussie, here is mine:
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Well I'm sorta glad its an automatic locker vs a spool. For me versatility is going to be paramount, I plan on using this as a driver and wheeler for now.

I've run into an issue. I've been mocking up the steering box and I'm not totally sold on where it I have it. The axle is mocked up, with the drag link and tie rod installed. The only place I can mount the box lines the front bolt of the box right into the square...ish hole in the frame. Is this going cause a strength issue with the frame. I do have the heavy duty mounting kit from Marlin. So I think the plate on the mounting kit should be plenty strong enough, but I'm no fabricator either.
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I'm also looking at taking that body lift out before I get too much work done. I can already see having less body lift will affect where I can put the steering box, and weather or not I have to cut the inner fender to install. I'm going to get my body lift from 4crawler. But I'm torn between just doing 1" or just going back to stock. Stock sounds awesome for my center of gravity, but going with 1" body lift might be nice, because the truck was assembled to have a body lift, and there will be numerous mods to take it all out, and a little additional ride height, I'll be running the 35" Wranglers the truck came with.

As far as removing the body lift. My 4runner had 3" when I bought it; so I cut them down to just over 1". I disconnected the steering and telescoped it in to the right length. The brake lines were fine. The 4wheel shifter did not work until I lowered it back down so that was done. I had to buy some shorter bolts and maybe some fender washers. Clean and paint the frame. done

The steering plate kit should have frame tubes that go in between the 2 plates, so there would be no strength issue w/ that rectangle hole. Just use a die grinder to open that corner of the rectangle up and then drill the other side and get the tube to fit in there. Weld all 3 tubes to the outside plate 90* and then put it through the frame and inner plate, then weld it all up. After you double check everything of course :rockin:

I had 4crawler make me up a 1/2" body lift because I didn't like the way the 1" was fitting my bumpers. I would have gone back to stock, but I needed that 1/2". So you could go 1/2", 1", or stock level. Depends on what you need. Double check your body-radiator support area where it comes close to your steering box. Might want to get the body lift done before you weld up your steering.

I can only shake my head when I see tall body lifts...you really shouldn't need more than an inch or so...the body lift may help you stuff bigger tires, but your frame is still close to the ground. I was riding in a rattletrap chevy when the bolts on a 4" body lift snapped, allowing the cab to roll almost completely off the frame. We weren't on the highway so we escaped serious injury, but I'm still very leery of body lifts. If you're gonna do it, do it right.

I'm quite leery of the body lift as well, especially with that gap at the top of the front blocks. I am definitely going do finish my body lift mod before I weld in the box, an prob even before I drill. The half inch body lift is a good idea, gotta love the custom way 4crawler does business, as long as you can navigate his site :) And love all the info, I spent some time on there WOW! tons of info for exactly what I'm looking for on way more than body lifts.

Thanks for the input on the box mounting, I probably won't worry about the frame strength.

Ran into another issue. My drag link is not threaded properly. The Tie Rod End will not thread into the drag link, but will into the tie rod. So I contacted Marlin, and all I had to do was send it to them and they'll fix it no prob. They were not worried that I was not the original purchaser. Gotta love the customer service.

Oh yea, the lift could affect the radiator and hoses and the fan, and the front bumper.

Went ahead and ordered the body lift today. Went with the 1" and grade 8 hardware, and new poly bushings, as mine are pretty shot, and I want to eliminate as much cab noise as possible.

Thanks 4crawler


Got lots done, since my last visit. Bot axles are cleaned up and ready for paint and welding on the shock mounts. Also the front spring hanger is mocked up and ready for welding as well. I even went as far as mounting the front axle to make sure the steering box is mounted correctly. I'll have to wait for marlin to finish fixing my drag link, but it looks pretty darn good to me.

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So I got my body lift in the mail, everything looks just like I wanted it to. There is a little issue though with what I ordered. The body lift that was on the truck has bolts that have a 19mm head while the lift I have has 14mm head; the 19mm bolt its self is wider than the 14mm. So the hole in the body mount is bigger, Anyone have any issue with me using the thinner 14mm bolts even though the hole they slide through is larger. The old bolts are grade 5's and the new ones are grade 8's

I don't think the bolts should move while everything is torqued down. And of course there are large washers so the bolts won't slide down the hole. I don't really want to have to send everything back and get the oversize hardware.

I had a similar issue when I took the body lift off of my truck. The new bushing kit came with smaller bolts so I just went down to Home Depot and got the proper diameter bolts. My worry was that since there are only 6 cab bolt that the thinner bolts stood more of a chance to break and I was also concerned that the cab could shift a little due to the difference in bolt vs hole size.

I spent about $15 in hardware for the nuts, bolts and washers (including the bed). The cost was negate-able and I didn't have to wait or deal with sending the bolts back.

This is relevant to my interests.

So 4crawler said the bolt size is not really an issue. Here is a direct quote for those with the same question. I didn't want to get new bolts because I would then have to dill out the body lift blocks to a larger diameter, which I am not interested in doing.

"Should be no issue with the stock sized hardware in your kit, once tightened down, things won't move around. The poly bushing kit you have is set up for the supplied size hardware, so that part is fine. As long as the bolts don't pull through the holes in any of the washers, they'll be fine. You could always slip on a 3/8" on top of any of the washers with a larger hole in them to close down the hole" (Roger @ 4crawler)

I did add washers to my install, using a 3/8" grade 8 washer on each end of the bolts. And there are grade 8's all the way around, the old lift had larger diameter bolts but were grade 5's. I mushroomed some of the grade 5's so much when i removed them I had to grind the top to slip through the washers.

Glad I can help.

Since I've got my front axle mocked up on the springs, I've been looking at my front drive line angle, which is very sharp. I'm very concerned about it. I was not really planning on doing dual cases, but every day I look at my rig it seems like the right way to go. I even have a donor case that came in the back of the truck, but its been outside for a long time. So I tore it apart, check it out:
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So I started to clean it up to see how bad the damage is, and if the gears and bearing are even serviceable. Here's the damage:
http://i1090.photobucket.com/albums/...6/DSC02210.jpg

Do those gears even look serviceable? I don't really think so, I don't want my gears to fail while i'm on a trail, sounds awful.

So I've gone from just a new front drive line, to custom front and read drive line. Will prob get mine from Davez. I've liked what I've seen from them, and they seem like good people. But I've got to fully commit to dual cases. The consensus i've read seems to be, put in dual cases if there are serious front drive line issues, and it will alleviate the super sharp angle

In tearing apart my possible donor case I've run into a roadblock. I can't get the shift forks to move. The case is old and rusty obviously. So is it possible the forks are just frozen in place, or am I doing something wrong? Has anyone else removed these shift forks before, and encountered these problems? Should the forks move quite easily with just your hands?

I followed what Marlin said in their donor case write up, and I have the original Toyota repair manual, not that Haynes garbage. In both write ups it makes moving the 2wd/4wd shift fork sounds really simple. I've used pry bars to pull the fork towards the rear of the case, and hammered on front side of the fork. I've also used penetrating oil and my map gas torch, and I've maybe moved it two tenths of a millimeter. I've hammered on it so hard and so many times both of the needle roller bearing have fallen out, and the front wheel drive gear sits loosly on the main shaft. (the shaft portion of the fork shows no wear from this)

Any help would be appreciated. I can grab some pics of necessary. And here is the link to Marlin's crawler install page. I'm having issues at the end of page 2 and beginning of page 3. http://www.marlincrawler.com/sites/a...-installer.pdf

Well been a while

Junked donor case for spare parts, sits in pieces on my garage floor. Went with dual cases, ordered a crawl box from marlin. And a tripple stick from Davez off road performance. Installed them together, and with a little finagling got the, to work great together. I had ordered heavy duty detent springs for my shift rails, I took them out because they were making it too hard to shift. Maybe I'll put them in when my rails get worn and won't stay in gear.

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Should be installing it later tonight with my girlfriends help

Wow it's been a while. Since my last visit I've installed the dual cases. My buddy and I did it with a simple floor jack. Bad idea in my opinion. In the future I'll buy or borrow a small lift to put it in. The tripple stick has also been a little bit of a hassle. I got it all in and adjusted, then I realized I forgot to install the 4wd indicator. So I installed it, but the indicator Lines up right under the shift rail. So I'm going to have move the rail to the outside Of the bracket and see how it works

I've gotten much of the welding done. Rear spring hangers, front spring hanger, and much of the steering box as well. Also put in a rear shock relocation bar from Davez. Welded it in, looks good and should put my shocks in a much better positioning than modifying the orig. one and setting up the /\ that tons of people run. Tied up the lspv, I have not tested it yet, but it works for everyone else why can't it work for me.

I got Paul (my welder buddy) coming tomorrow to finish welding. Hopefully my rig will be sitting on its own wheels soon

Tons of work done....enjoy I know I do

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Whats the point in the body lift?

The underside of the truck looks good though!

body lift should allow more axle twist in extreme climb situations (tire clearance).

NICE build. Really nice.

Why not just take the suspension up higher?

There's some practical limits on how far away from the frame you put the axles starting with the driveshaft angle from front of transfer case to front axle (and from the transmission to the rear axle). The angles do get pretty wild. Maybe you just have to get used to replacing universal joints with higher lifts.

The other main issue is that mounting brackets experience more and much more torque, the farther away from the frame that you pin the axles. All of the brackets have to be disproportionately bigger as you get farther from the frame (not linear). At the same time, it also gets much more expensive. But look at the 4" lift (Marlin kit) done here, and it doesn't seem like there are any weak links! No comprimize work, and ChewM claim NOT to be a fabricator. Damn tough looking build.

I am no expert on how much, but a combination of axle lift and body lift works best. That's what people do. Why the body lift? Maybe someone can clarify.

Oh, one other issue is stability... keeping the frame closer to the ground contributes less to top heaviness... But the 1 inch lift used here is probably for fabrication clearance, maybe the steering box or dual transfer case clearance. The cab is lighter than the frame which is made of thicker metal-and the frame also has engine and transmission/transfer case connected to it! Good idea to keep all of that as low as possible. Nice 1" lift from 4crawler here.

From what ive seen, body lifts are just a cheap out. Not that they are bad, just that it ends up causing more noise, less comfortable ride, just a cheap way to get more height. I understand what your saying about driveline angles..but there are some rigs with 8+ inches of suspension lift, and not a single bit of body lift.

The real consequences of just getting the axles farther from the frame (and no body lift) is some instability. They roll easier. But this might be subtle, and tire clearance might be ALL that most people are after (and maybe transfer case clearance,etc). I'd love to hear from experience on this point (forum members-OP!!). I have heard people say they want the tire clearance, but don't want the frame (engine and drive train weight) so far off the ground. I think it has to do with other things like the transfer case clearance. A modest body lift, combined with suspension lift gives you more tire clearance for suspension twist, but keeps the weight lower. Maybe if it were possible, NO body lift would be best. It is probably a personal choice. I agree totally that body lift by itself is useless cosmetic approach though. The reason for suspension lift is obviously ground clearance! Most times, you probably don't need body lift at all, and it adds work to the project. OP added a 4crawler custom 1 inch lift. Eventually, someone will tell us why (transfer case clearance!?!).

My 2 cents:

To me, body lifts are just another tool in the toolkit. For some use cases, they work great, for others, they are less desirable. I think they have gotten a bad rap as a result of people adding them to an otherwise stock-height vehicle as a way to cheap out. That should say more about the intelligence of the person who went that way on their rig, and less about the usefulness of the product.

It has been my experience that on some rigs, body lifts work very well in conjunction with suspension lifts. Ultimately, the single biggest reason most off-roaders lift their vehicles is to clear bigger tires, and thus have more ground/axle clearance. As 83pingpong stated, suspension lift can bring its own challenges in terms of an elevated center of gravity, more force (leverage) acting on the brackets and pivots in your suspension system, and more downforce (again, leverage) on your axles and driveline parts. All of these challenges can be overcome very successfully, but at a cost of time, labor, and money.

To put it another way, I don't need to spend $50,000 building a rock-crawler grade suspension and drivetrain on my trail rig. That would be kind of like buying a Lamborghini to drive to the grocery store once a week, great if you can afford it, pointless otherwise.

That being said, on a 1st gen Yota, you can get good performance relatively easily out of a 4 inch spring lift, with a 2 inch body lift. In this configuration, you can clear 33's perfectly with plenty of room for articulation, or 35's with minor cutting on your front fenders. If you get a pro-comp or comparable 4" suspension lift ($650), and a 2 inch body lift ($150), you can run a well balanced, inexpensive trail rig for less than 1000$. With a little welding experience, you can do a RUF mod (approximately 4") instead for about $450, and have a much smoother ride, and only be out 600 bones.

Here is my take on the body lift.

First; it came with a three inch body lift which in my opinion is large, and not something I would personally install. When three inch BL's are done, the steering shaft and shifter are welded to lengthen. I installed the one inch BL to allow clearance for the tripple sticks and not have to alter either the shifter or the steering shaft. Working in the transmission tunnel was tight in my opinion and I have just the one inch, so customizing the hole for the triple sticks was a little easier.

Second; the lowering of the center of gravity is very true. Read roger's website and he breaks it down from an engineers perspective, when done right body lifts and even axle shims are very useful and safe.

As for my truck. It's pretty much done. I took it out on a successful trial run. However my tranny has been leaking oil, and I'm going to pull it very soon, it's the seal on the input, leaking out the clutch fork arm thingie. Also the tcases are leaking as well as my power steering box. Getting a rebuild kit for the box, and I think I am going to resize my steering shaft because it barley fit. So now some slip shows. Anyone know how much slip is supposed to show? Going to probably put spacers on the wheels all the way around, prob 1.5 inches. we'll see.Ill post some current pics, also got a link to a few gopro/YouTube videos.

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