Sorry about that last photo of the pliers. Here’s a better shot of them. The second photo shows how the outside faces of the tip are knurled to get a good grip on the retaining rings.

 

No time to work on the truck today but I did receive the discontinued Moog tie rod end from an eBay seller. Have a great weekend everybody!

 

Today with the help of the FSM and LROR’s Part 7 in their video series “Rebuilding the Front Axle of a 1979-85 Toyota Truck” I was able to disassemble, clean, inspect and mic, lube and then reassemble the free wheeling hubs. Here are some pics.


Both hubs completely disassembled and cleaned with CRC Brakleen and then painted.

Everything reassembled and working nice.

Hub bodies at far left Free wheel hub rings, spacer and inner hubs installed. Free wheel hub ring inner diameter mic’d at .002 larger than the outside diameter of the inner hub. Acceptable tolerances are .012

 

Here’s an exploded view of the hub from the FSM if anybody’s interested.

 

Work’s been keeping me occupied almost every day but I was able to drop the front axle and get it onto some horses along with the drivers side front spring. Looking forward to cleaning the front end up and getting some new parts in it. The third member assemblies from East Coast Gear Supply are ready to ship save for the ARB air locker for the rear axle. The delay hasn’t held me up at all since I’m really not even ready to install the assemblies yet.

 

Snow day today so no landscaping. I spent the afternoon disassembling the front axle and prepping the axle housing and both knuckles for paint. I wouldn’t mind if it snowed again tomorrow but the forecast is for progressively warmer temps with Friday at 84. Typical high desert 🙂 Here are a few pics.


Casting date 6-22-81

Casting date 6-30-81

 

Decided to take off a few hours early today, finished prepping the axle housing and knuckles for POR15 and put two coats on. It was extremely gratifying as these were some of the filthiest parts on the truck.

 

Good evening yotatechnicians. Nothing to report other than the mailman dropping off a package with a thirty ounce brass hammer. I ordered it off homedepot.com at a good price and since the front axle will require setting new bearing races it seemed like a good item to have handy.

 

More goodies from UPS today in the form of Trail Gear differential stud eliminator kits. Hopefully I’ll have time again this Sunday to get something done on the truck.

 

No serious progress on the truck lately. I did receive a Statler Toyota decal which I applied to the rear window. Not sure I’m liking the size of it though. It seems too big. I’m suspicious it would look better about 1/2 to 2/3 the size it is. What do you guys think?

 

I agree that maybe a little smaller would be better but it's really up to you since you're the one looking at it. That rear window is looking good overall though!

 

Sage advice once again Punjab 🙂. I’ll see how it looks once I put it back in. Thanks for the overall compliments!

 

Got a call from the machine shop that my engine parts were ready to pick up. The block was bored .060 over and crank polished. Connecting rods were re bushed on the small end. The head was surfaced, new valves and guides were installed. Here are some pics.

 

Damn! .060 over! That thing must've been rough. Looks ready for a half a million miles now though.

 

I was surprised because it didn’t look or feel bad to me but the machinist said he could tell it had been done at least once before.

 

Awesome build so far! Where were you able to find a replacement torque rod/traction rod? I need one for mine as well and have been having a hard time finding one.

 

Thank you xjnm! My truck had a torsion rod on it which I just cleaned up, repainted and installed new bushings in. I did just Google torsion rods for our trucks a few minutes ago and there is a seller on eBay who has seven of them for sale priced at $40 each plus $18 shipping. Sorry I don’t know how to attach a link to the seller. Good luck with your project!

 

Cool thanks for the heads up! Excited to see where your build goes. It is always motivating to read.

 

You’re welcome. I’m itching to get back to work on it. Just need to get through a busy spell at work and I’ll be posting some more progress pics 🙂

 

Good evening techers,
I woke up this morning to snow so I opted for a day off. First thing I did was pull off the front springs and toss them. Then the shackles and spring mounting bolts got cleaned and painted. Then the springs were installed.

Snow on the roof of the Toyota garage.

New OME springs installed.

Side view of OMEs complete with hound.

Slider installed.