Hey, picked up this truck about a month ago from a guy who had been using as a hunting truck for the last 18 years. Meaning it bumped around offroad with barely any care and now i'm try to get it street legal and my daily driver. Here it was when I got it.




First things I wanted to attack were the things I absolutely needed for passing inspection here in TX. That meant replacing the windshield which was cracked completely in half, getting all the lights working, and the BRAKES.
Here is it with fresh windshield and a grill, I also bought a repro front bumper but its real dinky, and not sure if I want to use it.



Also the suspension was totally dead. 3 out of 4 shocks were toast and the leafs were flat. So I put in some pro comp springs. I didn't really want to lift it this far but they were in my price range and seemed like they would just bolt on.

Now as you can see, I need to extend the parking brake arms:



I also would like some input on these things. The rear shackles are point forward a bit, is this okay?


My front driveshaft is further out, I know it has splines in there and its supposed to move in and out a bit but is this a normal look? Am I supposed to extend it when using these springs?



How about this arm? Its very close to touching the swaybar so it seems like the left side of the axle can't move down much before it would be stopped by that contact.




I guess thats enough questions for now. Other things on my list/mind are getting new third members ($$$$$) because this has the stock 3.9 gears and 33" tires currently. The tires have tons of tread but are old and rotted. I'd like to put 4.88 gears in and either stick with 33" or maybe 35".

Also getting a Weber, and working out a de smog plan.

 

I only know them in stock form. Your drive shaft should have some extention in it. I would pull the end out and see how much is left for it to extend. On the other things I am not sure, maybe some others can offer some advice. A great find and for 18 years as a hunting truck, it looks to be in great condition and you have something to work with. Looking forward to your build and welcome to Yotatech.

 

The rust level is very low, which I am excited about. The bed definitely has some on the tailgate but no holes in the bed or floors.

Supposedly the engine was rebuilt a few years ago and still has less than 1k on it since he rarely used the truck. I don't know if I can confirm that story but first thing I did was change the engine and tranny oil and top up the diffs and transfer case.

I've been removing a lot of janky wiring, it was blowing fuses at random and has a glovebox full of replacements. Each time I find a loose live wire or stripped wires just twisted together, I feel like i'm getting closer to no more blown fuses.

What do people do about seats? Mine are pretty torn up and I don't really want the camo covers, would be nice to have a bench but it seems like most folks put newer buckets in. Is there a source for finding something more period correct?

 

The front drivehsaft ill be fine, for road and light trail duty
I'd get about 300 lbs in that bed and try to break the springs in, will help the shackle angle and the road manners
Maybe run some 31s until you work out all the issues and save up for reagear? that will really wake the power up. 33's really are making everything work extra hard.
As far as seats go, I'd look for something with a thin profile, out of another Toyota truck/4 runner or a civic, etc, those cabs aren't very big and the newer, more cushy seats in new cars fills up the cab quick.

 

Thanks Yota81, the shackles do easily move in the right direction when I add weight. Going to try and put some weight in there for sure, cause these spring are stiff.

Still haven,t decided on what tire route to go yet.

Right now I'm doing the de smog and waiting on a new intake manifold gasket to show up so I can start bolting everything back in place.

I extended my parking brake arms.

Going to get some sway bar extensions so they attach at a better angle. For the torque arm I am thinking I will weld on a curved steel piece then cut off the original straight bar so it has plenty of room to move around. I know serious crawler guys remove one or both of these but i'd still like to have them for windy days and braking in a straight line.

 

One of the manifold bolts broke off in the head! Going to attempt to drill it out without destroying the threads and then re tapping. Hoping to avoid having to buy a helicoil set for this.

 

What're your opinions on tire size? Mine are dry rotted and I'll have to buy new ones before doing much driving. Currently has 33", might go 35" not out of need but because the new springs lifted more than expected.

Also, have to re gear so i'd like to figure out what tire size ill stick with so I can decide between 4.88 and 5.23 gears.

 

Hello I'm having a smog problem and I was wondering if u knew where the vacuum valve is located at?

 

Good luck with the wiring. Bare splices can obviously cause a short but also tells you a real novice was doing it!

On the seats, I got some from a Civic that fit OK. But thinner backrests would be better. Older Hondas and Toyotas have them. Here is a link to my conversion. The same basic strategy will work for any of the older Honda/Toyota seats.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f114...hy-not-263073/

 

Thanks pingong, I think its time for me to take a trip to a junkyard and hopefully fine something that at least has springs and padding in fairly good shape then maybe have it recovered.

Chipper86, there are lots of valves involved in the stock vacuum system. You should read the De-smog thread in the pre-84 truck forum and seriously consider removing all of that junk...assuming your state allows it.

 

I was taking out my driveshaft to prepare for changing my diffs and noticed this bracket on the driver's side that bolts the engine to trans.


And here is the passenger side where it looks like there SHOULD be the same thing.


I'm not sure what its called so i've had a heard time searching about it or ordering one.

 

Found it, its called a stiffener plate in case anyone else needs to know.

[edit] I installed the plate but the bolts into the engine block started to tighten then slipped...I am guessing this is why there wasn't a plate there before. So I guess I need to figure out how to get some helicoils in there

 

Okay, so I ordered my differentials over a month ago and one finally arrived so I switched out the rear. I ordered some tires and getting those installed tomorrow. The current tires were apparently filled with slime but then not driven so it mostly dried to one side and it hops around like crazy cause of how off balance the tires are.

Also, put in a new brake master cylinder. Now the thing actually stops!

I am checking off things to pass inspection and right now there are some electronics giving me a hard time. I can get all the lights to work but the blinkers, wiper and horn sporadically don't work...all i have to do is touch the fuses and they fire back up. So I tried removing all the fuses and cleaning the connections and added dielectric grease...same issue. Any ideas on making the fuse connections more reliable? At this point I just have to hope they all fire up while being inspected.

Installed a new horn and it doesn't really work...I can hear it attempt to make a noise so I think I will look in the steering wheel at the connectors and maybe try to find the relay.

Will post some pictures when I get it back with the fresh rubber.

 

The grounding mechanism for the line that goes to the steering wheel might be weak. I shimmed up the brass ring (after cleaning it up) and just cleaned the contact post. Also replaced the horn relay and horns. But the contact in the steering wheel was the main culprit:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f114.../#post51991728
post #11 in this thread shows the brass contact ring.

 

Thanks for that link 83! Doing a cleaning and shimming of the steering wheel contact parts will be my next task for getting the horn working.

Hopefully picking the truck up from getting the new tires mounted later today.

 

you could probably find an early 80s to mid 80s toyota corolla or corona... soemthing along those lines, and get the seats from them. they made a lot of brown and tan interior back then it seems. plus theyd look better than most other things you could try. Mazda Miata seats are great because theyre slim, cheap, and have excellent lumbar support...

 

83Pingpong, I did the steering wheel refresh and got my horn working!

I am still having a problem with some of the fuses not blowing but requiring me to push on them to keep the wipers, blinkers, heater and such working. Should I try putting in fresh fuses even though these aren't blown?

I am also trying to address a fuel issue that makes the truck buck and surge if I go to fast...initially it hit above 40mph. Then I checked and adjusted my float height which helped a lot and I was cruising at 65mph fine. Until I hit a hill and the same effect. So I figured the fuel pump still wasn't keeping the carb full.

At this point i've installed a new pump but haven't gotten to take it on a high speed test yet. I am doubtful it fixed the issue since my fuel pressure gauge still reads like this: http://vid1317.photobucket.com/album...psfenqio9d.mp4

No matter how I adjust the regulator, it doesn't effect the needle. It could be a bad gauge, I will report if the fresh fuel pump is actually working well after I get it out for a cruise.

 

It sounds like the contact surfaces that pinch the fuses are corroded. Based on what you've said about the wiring system, it could be something else.

But it might not be a bad idea to pick up a new fuse box and just rewire the circuits. Cleaning up the old one might be more work, but a used decent one at the junk yard would do. You can check the circuits out one at a time, do the critical circuits first. There are really not that many of them. You could replace the bad wires, too.

Not that hard but time consuming. It would rule out some issues though.

 

Here it is on the fresh tires.

 

Truck looks good on the new tires! I agree with ping pong, new fuse box is probably in order. As for the fuel gauge I had the same problem when I did my Weber. I had a Holley fuel regulator and Mr Gasket gauge. I ended up buying an LCE low pressure gauge and was able to dial it in after that, the Mr Gasket one was not very good.