rswords

This will be just what the title says... An average guy building a capible truck. I wont be spending huge $$$ on this thing... but at the same time I wont be cutting any corners... well maybe a few... I'm not some kick @ss fabricator but at the same time I'm not a redneck engineer... just a good ol' boy. I'm sure some peole will have a different view on some of the dessisions with the truck... and maybe I will help someone along the way. Again... this is what I feel a average build should be... Some of you might have read this on pirate.. but oh well... over here it will all be together...here it goes!!!

Gotta love the south... Typical VA Yota Frame... Solution 1/4" boxed for 36" That will give me about 8" of "good metal" on both sides of the damage... Wish me luck...




The tow rig for good meassure... '98 Z71- 6" procomp- 35" procomp MT's-4.11's


KEY WORDS FOR SEARCH: frame fix rust rusty holes in frame fixing frame useing 2wd frame patcing rust

rswords

More rust and holes then the H.M.S. Titanic...


New Solution...
Cut the ˟˟˟˟er off and try again...



A torch make removing things sooooo easy...


Think this would be a good wheel base for a rig? No?


The old frame...





The new frame... Off a long bed 2wd so the front-most mount for the bed has to move back... But other then that this thing is stout...



Our wonderful sophisticaded jig to ensure both frames had the same body mount locations...




I would like to thank Rob Love in Mathews for all his great work... He is doing a great job and I am feeling alot better about it then I thought I would.

rswords

Well it's done... Lets here some opinions... Good? bad? okay? I drove it around all day yesterday and beat on it a little at the property on some bumpy hill climbs... seems solid.


The 2wd frame fit great... everything bolted right up (gas tank, shocks, springs)



Here is the patch to hold the two frames together... Look like an L going down the out side and around the bottom. (and yes the nerf bars have been removed)




patch on inside of frame rail...


Some poser shots at the property... You can see my spotter in the first one... The rear shock are limiting drop alot, the shackle has not straightend out at all all the way.



Any way... it is done. And I have to say the last part went eaiser then I thought... I said in one of my other posts that I should have done a frame swap but now I have changed my mind... I think this was the easiest way I've found to fix a frame. In my case the front half of the truck was in good shape. But the rear was shot... So I could not justify a frame swap, I've done that before and this was easier, and I still have a 22R from the donor truck. Just my $0.02...

rswords

Here is a better pic of the rear flexed... The shackle is not vertical and the springs seem like they have some more in them. If you pushed on the truck it would lift the rear tire. The shock won't let it go any further... guess it's time to go to Auto Zone..

rswords

Just putting this up for some of the not so knowledgeable guys to get an idea of what it takes to do this. I have never done this project before and all the information that I received for this project came from reading and searching Pirate4x4.com… Believe it or not the search button works… I would also like to thank j-me4runner for selling me his hy-steer and hydro assist set-up out of his truck… If you have not had the pleasure to meet him he is a great guy. Thanks again for your help!


Anyway to get started I first bugged/bribed/begged a friend to let me use his shop for the day. This makes life so much better when you have all the tools and other things (heat) to work with… And just an FYI if you set a TV that has been out in <30* weather next to a heater… It will break… Good thig Christmas is coming up…



So we jacked up the truck and began!!!

First order of business is to remove the steering shaft and the stock steering box and bracket… For my steering shaft I removed the bolt and then had to use a chisel to spread the clamp at the fire wall.. be careful though, I ended up splitting it trying to put it back on and had to weld it up as a temporary fix so now I can only move it around the yard until I find a new stearing shaft.



For the end at the box it was easier to just remove the two bolts on the rag-joint and pull it apart ones the steering box was removed…



Then simply un-bolt the box and bracket…




Then go ahead and take off any thing that has to do with the steering… be a careful when you take the old steering arms off the top of the knuckle they hold the knuckle on straight and when removed they will let a lot of grease and oils out… Judging from the looks of mine I need to rebuild mine VERY soon. You should have a pile that looks like this…



We went ahead and put the new drag-link and tie-rod in place next… it can be a little fustrating to get all the parts and pieces to line up so take you time and don’t force anything… to hard… A little tip is there is a bearing type thing in the knuckle that needs to line up with the steering arm and can take some time to get it right. I had to re-use the nuts and washers from the old steering on my new/old stuff… so don’t lose any of them.

rswords

Next I went and lengthened the steering shaft. This is where I had to vary off what I had read on Pirate… Everything I had seen said that all you had to do was drill out two plastic roll pins… well that was not my case. If you look in the pic below I circled a spot on the shaft. There is/was a piece of plastic around it…. Well ther is another one of those indents inside the sleeve of the shaft… What I had to do was heat it up with a torch to melt the plastic out of it. Kinda like what I do to change the stock U-Joints on my ’98 Z71 driveshaft.



After this small but expected set-back (if you think your not gonna run into any problems working on a 20 year old truck stop reading now) we mocked up the new IFS steering box to see what we would have to cut. I moved mine forward as far as I could w/o cutting into the body mount… then rotated it up as much as I could. I have a 3” body lift so I only had to trim a few pieces back. If you have no body lift I hope you don’t mind hacking up your nice truck.





After that we put the box back in place with some clamps to mock everything up



With everything snug and the lengthened steering shaft back in I went ahead and cycled the suspension to check for any binding or other problems… then turned the wheels lock to lock to make sure everything looked okay so I could drill the holes.

rswords

After everything seemed to be in a good spot I went about mounting the IFS box. I had ordered the IFS mount from Marlin (great product and service by the way) but I decided to mount it a different way. I got some 1/8 steel plate and made up some plates for each side of the frame… I know that a lot of people are going to give me some flack about this but I felt it is was the best for my application. I didn’t trust my welding skills enough to weld in the tubes to the frame. I will deffinatly keep a VERY close eye on it though. I did use all the bolts and one of the spacers for the top bolt to keep the plates from crushing in on each other.



Here is where I ran into the next problem… The frame mount for the torsion bar on the front axle is right in the way of the rear bolt on the IFS box… no big deal just a sawzall and some grinding and the problem is fixed.





Now that its out the way the inside plate can be put in place.



The next issue I came to was that j-me4runner had hydro assist on his rig and the IFS box had been drilled and tapped for the ram. Since the hydro is another project for another day needed to bypass it… simple enough I just looped a hose between the two ports for the hydro and zip-tied it away from moving parts and the exhaust, this also was temporary and I have since plugged the holes… but the hose did work.



That was it… I torqued all necessary bolts down to factory specs welded the plates to the frame did a quick at home alignment and enjoyed my new found steering control… It is nice to not have the truck dive to the right every time you hit the brakes!!! All this plus not having to worry about smashing my steering on the rocks made this project well worth the time effort and money.






I hope this will help someone with there build if not… oh well it helped me learn a lot about my truck.

BajaRunner

That was a fun Tuesday morning read!!

rswords

Hope it did not put you back to sleep...

99_Runner

Great write up.

Lunnzz

One unrelated question do you have blocks in the rear or just the longer shackles? Thanks

snap-on

Glad to see you decided to wash that front end up so you had nice half clean parts to work on ..... nothing like booty fab

looks good.

rswords

It was pressure washed...

rswords

No blocks... Lift shackles and springs Not sure of the size though. I bougt it lifted... I want to get rid of the springs for some 63" Chevy's.

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

Good stuff...and nice shop space!

I used 1/4" plate inside/out for my IFS box and it ain't going no where.

You were smart to ditch that crappy rusty old frame...once the cancer starts it is easier almost to start from scratch like you did.

rswords

Well welcome to my latest edition of lets kick the Previous owner in the balls…


My 85’s interior had seen better days… well lets say years… the previous owner must have determined at some point that the stock carpet was not good enough and while redoing the dining/bedroom in the old trailer they picked up a few extra yards to make the truck match… I guess it made him feel more at home on long trips… Sorry… I know that was a bad pun… I won’t do it again… maybe… I am still in shock He didn’t opt for the “shag” option…

Well lets start with some pics…

Nice carpet!!!




Next remove the seats and pull out the old stuff!!!
After the carpet job It was no surprise to find all this under it…


It seems that as the electrical stuff would quit for what ever reason (blown fuse, old wires, rabid rats living in the carpet) they would just wire up a new system… with out any of the small yet effective safety measures such as fuses or even insulation on the connectors.

There was a small hole in the floor… nothing big… hey it made it easy to watch tire placement on the rocks!!! Not buying that excuse huh? Guess I should patch it… Wish I had some sheet metal to do this right but the bondo will have to make it till spring… It’s held up good so far… no cracks yet!


After all that its just a matter of flat black spray paint inside… and some bed-liner for the floors…


Heck I even went ahead and painted the rest of the truck…



Well after about 8 hours of work and maybe $20 in supplies I have an interior that does not make me want puke… Until this summer that is, ‘cause I’m sure with the black interior and no A/C I should get a nice case of heat stroke.

rswords

Here comes another update... My girl had bought me a 9k Tabor winch w/ multi-mount for X-Mas so I have to mount it up...

After debating all of the Pro's and Con's of a multi-mount I decided that some of the times I get Stuck, I want to go back not forward... and since buy a 2nd winch is out the question as far as money goes… My decision was made… The first project I have to tackle is getting a 2” receiver on the front of the truck. I could go out and buy a $200-$300 bumper that attaches at the stock point or get creative… I will take the later… After looking at the front of my truck I decided to remove the stock cross member and replace it with a custom made one….
For those of you like me who learn more from a pic…

I will remove this…


And replace it with this…



Well the next problem is that the radiator is in the way of the receiver… I luck out in this situation because I have the 3” body lift. Because of the lft the radiator had been dropped 3” to get the fan in the shroud… So I can remove the drop bracket for the radiator… Oh wait… But then the fan wont line up with the shroud… hmmm…. How to fix that… I know…


3-speed Junk-yard Ford Taurus fan-------------------------------- $35.00
Universal Thermostat from Auto Zone Part Number 226203-- $18.89
On-Off Switch for the dash----------------------------------------- $10.00



Wiring Diagram



Thermostat Switch



Had to flip the cover on the switch around so that when the cover is closed the fan is in the “ON” position

rswords

Have to have a way to connect the fan to the Rad... $7.11 @ advanced auto.

rocket

iTrader: (1)

Man i don't know how i missed this thread from the get-go but keep it going! I'm loving every second of it!

Nice work!

rswords

Thanks... Hopefully this weekend I can start wiring the fan up... Right now the truck is getting some sliders welded onto it.