Well after about 3 weeks of nights out in the garage working on the runner, this stage of it seems to be done. I had collected up several parts that it needed and was waiting to have the money and time for the knuckle rebuild and OME EMU suspension. This is what went on.

New brakes all the way around, turned rotors and drums, all new hardware. Stops on a dime now.

New clutch slave and master cylinder. Shifts like a new one.

Knuckle, and wheel bearing rebuild with TG parts. Fixed the swaying steering and the positive camber on the pass side.

Cleaned and painted the front half of the frame, front axle, knuckles, hubs, rotors backing plates and so on. More rust than I thought. Still need to do the back half.

EMU 2" lift springs, OME light shocks up front, and medium in the rear. OME steering stabilizer. Real quick instal. I know lockers and armor first, but this thing was sagging a different direction in each corner, and beating me to death.

De-rusted and painted the old 15" chrome rims. I like the way the hammered metal looks on them.

Removed most of the beat up chrome off the body. Will do the rest this weekend.

Bleed the crap out of the brakes and clutch system. Go to Autozone, and get the one man brake bleeder. Follow the FSM, do it several times. It works.

I used rust-oleum paints, and will not touch the stuff again. Dont know what has happened to them over the years, but I found their rattle can paints just do not harden up at all. All the parts were cleaned and degreased, light sanded, cleaned, dryed, painted and left to dry under 500w lights. But would come out the next day to find it still not hard, and sometimes after spraying the next coat it would wrinkle which would leave me starting all over. Then the parts would chip like crazy during instal. From now on I am just going buy a good paint with a hardener mix myslef and spray. Your experiences may be dif, but I am done with it. Their high temp rattle cans really suck.

I did like the rustoleum hammered metal. I used the hammered black on the rims, frame, axle, it seems to be holding up real well. barely chipped or scratched while putting the new springs. but I brushed it on.

Everything else seemed to go really well. Thanks Wabbit for all the email advice and the quick send out of the hub dial springs and lock balls.

Also thanks to Tod at Engbldr, they could have charged me quite a bit for a timing chain and other odd and ends that I did not need. Setting the valves at .007 and .009 seems to have worked like a champ.

I will post pics tomorrow, but right now it is time to get to bed.

Later.

 

Sounds like one heck of a good time!!

 

Oh and I recommend Duplicolor high temp paints and the self etching primer. Good stuff.

 

sounds like you did alot of work... cant wait to see the pics.

 

You can't say all that and NOT post any pictures!

 

Ok I figured I would get beat up for the post then no pictures, sorry it was late and I was tired. Here goes a few.



















The ride is really nice especially compaired the saggy worn out springs that were on it. Took it threw some pot holes that used to send me to the back snapper and it pretty much just absorbs them now.

Goes down the road straight with very little pressure on the steering wheel. The steering wheel is staright again. And the positive camber is gone from both front tires.

I did notice today that in a tight turn like in a parking lot to the left or right, that the front tires would kind of skip a little. If I backed of the steering wheel a little it went away. I set the steering stops without the tires on. I will check them with the tires on tomorrow. Toe in is adjust to 1/8" in, so it should be good there. I did not do a 4wheel alignment, While putting the springs in it looked like there would not be much you could adjust in the way of a 4 wheel alignment. once the springs are bolted to the frame and hangers, the only thing the axle can do is line up with the bolts in the springs. Is this right or is there some adjustment that can be done. I will wrap a string around it tomorrow and see where they all are actually at.

I picked up some longer sway bar end links today. Did not know if I was going to leave the sway in or not. But I think it will help it some on the road. I'll throw those in tomorrow and let you know.

I put it 4 wheel drive tonight to see if everything is working right. It just did not feel right to me. 4h and 4 low a few times, kind of sounded ruff with the wheels turnedright and leftno noice straight, not grinding, but ruff, and felt like it was pulling out of a turn in both 4h and low. This is on pavement mind ya. A buddy saw me playing with it, came over asked if it was ok, told him I did not know and what it was doing. He asked if it was locked. Said I doubt it, but we through a jack under it, put in 4h, spun a front tire, and sure enough both front tires would turn at the same speed. I wish I would have pulled the diff to check and see if it is welded, or has a real locker. Does not feel like the rear is locked though, so does not make any sense why the PO would spent the money on a locker up front first. So I bet it is welded. If it is welded will this cause any problem in the long run for a DD.

Other the minor time consuming problems with paint I love the look, and the performance inprovement was well worth the money and time.

I think I am going to finish painting the back half of the frame and axle, then try my hand at the body work and paint.

Thanks for all the help and advice from this site.

later

 

Nice work man!!!

 

one other thing that I forgot to mention is that I noticed the drivers rear looked a little lower than the pass rear. looked under and the pass rear shackle is sitting at 10 deg to the aft, and the drivers shackle is sitting at 15 deg aft. enough to make the truck sitt a little off. Is this something that I should try to adjust before to many miles. or should I let it settle a little and see if settles into itself. shackles are the stock shackles. could afford the greasable anti inversion shackles right now. But the pins were cleaned and greased. I will weld in the anti inversion plates this weekend.

 

I wasnt real sure about the driveabilty on road, ride quality was nice. And I had some tire chirping in tight parking lot turns. The steering stops were not adjusted out enough at full lock so I adjusted them out. And the it was toed in about 3/16" more than I thought, so I adjusted it out to a 1/16th toe in. And picked up some 4 1/2" energy suspension sway bar end links. Man is it nice now.

Also ran a string around it to check the 4 wheel alignment, spot on.

I am real impressed with the quality of the EMU springs an shocks. You can just look at in compare to the the other brands and see that they are way heavier built.

If you on the fense about what you want in a bolt on suspension, spend the extra for the EMU, you wont regret it.

 

Looking good.

I got a set of OME springs for Barney but not the OME shocks. Too big and bulky and I freaking HATE that yellow. :hillbil: Only thing I got was the leaf springs, everything else I am modifying or using something else, like I did on Fink4x4's 85 4Runner. A bit more work but worth it in the end I think.

Sounds to me like you might have some lockers or welded diffs.

 

I aggree, the yellow shocks a bit over the top. I did not even think about the color until I opened the box. The wife started laughing, my stomach turned. But it is a trade mark, even as bad as the paint/body looks, I have gotten several coments about the OME set up just from people seeing the yellow shocks. And the ride quality is real nice. I think I may end up going for the extra leafs in the front when I do bumpers.

Later

 

hey, corbin, where did you get your OME springs? i am thinkin about using them, but i havent foud a place that sells the springs only, i already have some rancho adjustable shocks i'd like to keep.

 

OME EMU set up came from Iron Pig Off road, good guys to deal with. I had a budget, rocky-road was listing the set within my budget. But when I called they said it would take 4-6 weeks for shipping. I called around and ended talking to Cam at IPOR, told him what my budget was and he came through. It took almost 2 weeks to get here, but it was not IPOR's fault. They way fedex freight worked around turkey day and weekends took up all the time, and they lost it for two days. Ask for UPS as shipping.

With all that said I did not know at the time that Brian at WabFab can get them also. Good guy to deal with there also. And I am sure he will give a good deal also.

I did not get the anti-inversion shackles, could not afford the extra $300.00. Used the old ones and need to weld in the anti-inversion plate, $15.00. No big deal just got to get it done.

ARB does not sell the EMU springs as set, each part is listed separate. When you buy from a vendor everything is separate also. Some vendors just list everything as a kit. you should be able to buy what ever you want. If you only want the rear springs now. They should be able to sell them to you that way. If you dont want the shocks just tell them you dont want the shocks.

The ride get better on road everyday.

 

thanks corbin!

i'll definitely be ordering myself a set very soon!