i feel your pain hahaha. im only concerned about the highsteer on mine cause it appears to be lifted with ad a leaf, the high steer kit requires 4" lift, and my front end sags terribly. i dont want to do any crazy swapping, i just want a 4" bolt in lift that i can play with

 

Thats what the PO did to this truck, just didn't upgrade the steering and it went to crap quick! Before you couldn't hardly keep the truck on the road. I hope this fixes all of those issues. The RUF probably wouldn't be a bad idea for you as long as the springs you get aren't worn out. Its not to much of work. I think it moves the front axle up a few inches though. Which in turn you will have to do a lot of cutting for the steering box to fit. That's the only reason I'm not going that route. I don't want to cut the truck up to much. I just wanted a little lift to run 33's and keep it so I can DD it. I will eventually get rid of the blocks in the back and get rear 4" leafs, but that will come in time.

 

I didnt want to spend the extra time and $ since i didnt plan on going any larger than 33's on my pickup. I DD it 40 mi/day...its not super speed racer but its not too bad with the 4.10 IMO /w 31-33's. Any larger tire n i would grab some 4.88's. Single case with 4.70's and 33's with stock 4.10's is low but could always b lower when crawlin.

 

Lol, our trucks must be a lot different! When I say its killing the drivetrain, I've yet to put it in 5th gear. It was going to burn the clutch up if I kept driving it like that.

 

Wow thats odd...My 22re even before the rebuild ran strong and i still havent changed the clutch since i got the truck like 2-3 years ago. Maybe your clutch is at its end? is it slipping? Im not chirping gears by any means but no one passes me =P I felt the difference from 31's to 33's but it wasnt shockingly different...just lost a little bit of torque. 4.88's are gonna make u alot happier regaurdless.

 

Yea, this is the worse truck I've ever driven as far as over geared. This is my 24th car and truck I've owned and never had it this bad. I think the 488s will make a huge difference.

 

From ur pics it looks like you might be able to tilt the back(shaft side) of your steering box upward...u want the arm close to the frame WITHOUT hitting or binding on it which gives you the most clearance with leafs before they strike the pitman arm. happy balance of both

 

Hope that helps

 

I have been debating on whether to run 4.10s or 4.56 gears front and rear in my 85 pickup. It has 31 x 10.5 R15 right now. I have welded diffs in it right now and it won't go faster than 55 mph in 5th. Don't know what ratio they are as the previous owner did it. Even he couldn't tell me what ratio they were. I like how they don't slip with the 4wd, but I would like to be able to go faster. 4.10s sound good, but does anyone make a gear set that won't slip in snow, etc.?

 

Thats perfect Socal. Thats exactly what I was thinking. The 410s would be fine for your truck I think. The 456 would be fine too just have high RPMs, but if you ever went to a larger tire they would be fine too. An E-locker or air locker would be good for you too. That way you can lock the diffs when ever you want to. Just something to think about. What kind of RPMs are you running at 55mph? Plus if i were you I would take a GPS just to make sure the gauge is acurate.

 

If ur tapped out 55mph in 5th with 31's u surely dont have the stock 4.10's in the diff...probably be perfect with some 4.10's (you and Nightmare should swap diffs lol...he needs 4.56/4.88 and u need some 4.10's)

 

I'm not sure of the RPMs, but I do know that the pedal was to the floor and it wouldn't go any faster.I definitely don't have stock gears Socal. The guy I bought the truck from only used it to drive trails. He said he never took it out of 1st and the gearing was setup for trail riding. I've had people speculate that I have 5.29s or something high like that. I might run the welded diffs through the winter and then in the spring start looking for some 4.10 E-lockers or air lockers like you were saying Nightmare. Depends on how much money I can spend in the near future .

 

Have you tried the rear 4.88 third I gave ya? Heck, by now I figured you have it all put together and painted since I saw it Saturday!

 

Ha ha, man I had it put together and finished the steering up and put the radiator back in. Cranked it and ran it on the jack stands in first gear. Talk about some bearing noise! I have the rear end tore back apart and going to put a set of bearings in it. Took the front third out as well. If everything works out, I'll have another 488 for the front wednesday. Also started working on the wiring issues. For some reason the PO cut the wiring harness from the firewall to the motor. Going to take the harness off the parts truck wednesday and try to get the temp and oil pressure on the dash to work.

 

nice find and good luck with the project... i'm personally a fan of that original paint job and tube bumper

 

Thanks Boom, I like the original paint too.. We will see how it goes as it get closer to getting back on the road.

 

Well, still haven't been able to get a front third yet. Still looking though. Hopefully it won't be long and I'll have one. Parts are clean and ready to go back together so now it's just a waiting game

 

Hey guys, its been crazy busy around here. I'll have an update with pics posted tonight. Been playing the waiting game on parts to get here. Building the front third with new gears and bearings tonight. I'll have the rear third bearings in tomorrow and will be building it asap. I'm ready to get this thing back on the road.

 

Well after a night of chasing wires and the PO's previous problems, I ended up taking every wire out of the truck! Talk about agravating having try and fix what someone else has butchered! Here is a couple of pics of the wires and what I started with





A little eye candy



At this point I have the complete harness and just about everything wiring related off the parts truck and in the 85. Everything works so far except the dang fuel gauge. Still trying to work out that problem. Any advice on chasing that problem would be nice. If I remember corectly the sending unit works off a ground. So if I ground out the wires it should tach the gauge out to let me know if the gauge is functioning corectly. Correct me if I'm wrong please. I'll get some more updated pics of the truck as a whole soon.

 

Here is a few more pics what I've done lately.

New window rubber seal.


New outside window weather striping.


Radiator and harness in.


Steering box finished.(for some reason it looks like the box moved from the angle I had to begin with but no looking back now.)


The pile of wires that came out, and there was still more wires on the other side


The new Yukon R&P gear part numbers and the bearing part #'s. I don't recomend putting these bearings in the rear third. Stay with toyota bearings in the rear. The front doesn't get run as hard so the KOYO's will do fine. I picked up the gears and the bearings for $100.00.