Blownchevelle68

Great progress, I've been following along. Have you dropped to the 1" body lift at this point? Can't quite tell in the pic above. I'm getting ready to do a BL as well and trying to weigh the odds between 1 or 2"....

What manufacture for the LED headlights?

Here in Iowa my '95 rusted quickly across 1 year. Right now I'm replacing part of a floor pan, fixed a hole in the bed and will have to do rockers and a cab corner. These little trucks rust quickly as I've found out.

YOUNGIAM

I'm also interested in the headlights to where did you get them? Looks like you are doing a thorough job,nice work.

steven91

Thanks for following the progress. Still, have the body lift. It's actually a 2 inch. Have not decided if I am going to get rid of it or not. That little extra room underneath is kind of nice. I'll probably decide when I get around to the suspension. It's amazing how the winter just amplifies the rust. It may be because I'm more observant about it. Just have to make it one more month till its over and then start combating it.
I got the LEDs from Amazon. I would highly recommend them if you don't want to spend a ton of money on new headlights.
They seem durable, they are easy to install and extremely bright. There are only three cons to them which I don't really mind. They are not great in fog. The brights are more of a flood but still way better than stock. Last, they had to be wired differently to get the brights to work so wasn't just plug and go. I ended up wiring in a second switch to get them to work. I can show that if it helps, but here's the link to them

steven91

Thanks, man. Trying to do a thorough job. I figured I may be the last owner of this thing so might as well do my best to keep it alive. I mentioned the LEDs in my previous response but here the link to them

Probably the best mod so far.

steven91

I'm glad the dash is so easy to take apart on Toyotas.
So the past two days the truck had a wiring issue and finally was able to find a solution. First, my blower motor for my heater stopped working. Checked the fuses and one was blown. So i replaced it and it blew again. thought it was the heater turns out it was the transmission reverse switch going bad. Whenever I would switch into reverse it would blow the fuse which also stopped my blower motor, gauges( temp and gas), Electric fan, and reverse lights and made the truck run like garbage, After going through everything narrowing down I just unplugged it. Have a new one ordered Glad it was just that. But while the dash was sort of apart I wired in the tach and have to say its pretty sweet. This is where it's mounted. The only downside is it blocks the check engine light. The gas gauge is clearly visible just not from this angle.

YOUNGIAM

Thanks for the link, I'm going to check them out.

steven91

Recently it seems that every time I fix an issue two more appear. Luckily this forum exists because it has saved me a ton of time. So the truck started having a fuel starvation issue. When I would get up to operating temps it wouldn't want to accelerate. You could floor it and it would struggle to get out of its own way. Read a bunch and narrowed it down to the fuel pump or O2 sensor. Took off the O2 and tested with and ohm meter and when heated up it was only reading .02 volts so ended up replacing it and now it runs well. The new issue is the occasional surging idle which is an annoyance. I'll probably look into it this weekend. The next big fix is the front diff from leaking and a new steering stabilizer. The stains in my driveway are getting a bit much wonder the last time this is was changed

steven91

On a side note. I recently saved this grille
guard off of a fj80 before it was going to get crushed. Don't know if I like it or not, but it was free. Figured it'll work till I decided to get a new front bumper. Which might be soon. Found a decent arb on Craigslist that I might have to grab. It is a little big for the pickup. Opinions? Needs a little cleanup and some paint.
My sketchy mockup

steven91

Well, when living with a 30-year-old truck there always seems to be something that's an issue. Today I tore into the front diff. Easy job, right?
What was going to be a simple pinion seal and front housing gasket change has changed into a bigger issue. After removing the front cover there were chunks of metal Seems after 245k the ring gear decided to take a dump.
Not stooked

Glad i discovered it was broken before I really needed it. Not having parts for it now I just buttoned it back up and made it a 2wd for now. At least I was able to install my new OME steering stabilizer.

steven91

Haven't updated this in a while. Mostly been acquiring parts to install all at once. Have a new dif to replace my broken one. Getting a new clutch this week so i can do my leaking rear main seal. I ordered new shocks but ended up getting the wrong ones. Had to do front brakes cause the calipers froze up. Plus some good news. I manage to get a FREE ARB front bumper that I'm super stoked about. old shocks vs new... to bad they are the wrong ones
Checked the wheel bearings when doing the brakes. They seemed to be in decent condition.
New ARB! well slightly used but was free and even came with the PIAA lights
This is what the arb came off of. A day later and it would have been crushed. Just have to do a little fab work to get it to work.

jakey poo

I'll double what you paid for the ARB! What is wrong with the shocks? Too long?

steven91

They are a little long. Which, I don't think would be too big of an issue. The main issue is the eye hole where the bolt goes threw the lower a arm is way smaller, and the shock would move around.

steven91

The truck has had a few changes and one pretty major one.


First- After mocking up the huge ARB bumper I came to the relization that it needed to be chopped up more than it was worth to make it work and it wasnt worth destroying. So put it on the old craigslist and sold it to a guy with a sweet discovery.

Plus i kept the PIAA lights which was sweet.

Second-Ended up finding some decent SR5 seats. After a thurow cleaning they turned out pretty good.
Before


After




Third- i ended up ordering a new set of OME shocks all the way around. I couldnt beleive how bad of shape my old ones were in. Night and day difference.


Fourth- After having it sit around for a while i finally got around to installing a new 1200 pound clutch from marlin crawler. Couldnt be happier with it.




Major update in next post.

steven91

I recently found a guy in southern Indiana who had the largest collection of Toyotas I've ever seen. Everything from 80s-early 2000s. Even had some pretty rare stuff Going to be going to him from now on if I'm unable to find something. Managed to get a clean set of fenders and some smaller stuff like tow hooks, tailgate support bars, and the tiny bars for the cup holders. I'm glad he had clean fenders because I needed them for this next project.




I'm fairly certain that every owner of this truck has painted it a different color. Original is red. Then purple? Then Black? And when I took ownership it was white. So I might as well paint it too. I decided to go with a paint called Monstaliner. It's a tintable bed liner that doesn't fade or anything.I've seen it used on jeeps and has a pretty great reviews.
Reasons for going this route.
1. durability
2. Inexpensive. The whole kit cost around 300 and probably spent another 50 on misc supplies
3. DIY and easy enough to do.
4. The truck has 262K miles so it doesn't have to be show quality.
5. I have to protect it from dreaded salt.

The first step was stripping and sanding the truck. This took about a day total but I spread it out over 2. used 100-120 grid sandpaper to scuff and even the paint out.




The second step was prep. Taping and more sanding. Wasnt planning on doing the door jams but I couldn't go this far and not.


The third step was a primer. They recommend using their primer. I didn't order any because I thought a shop sold it in town. Little did I know that it got bought out by car quest and no longer stocks it. So ended up just using a normal automotive primer. You don't have to prime the whole car just bare metal which was easy enough.
(Don't have a pic of that but you can image what primer looks like)

The fourth step was painting. You can roll it on or spray it. I sort of wish I sprayed it but that would have required turning my garage into a paint booth and a lot more masking/taping. Still happy with the results from rolling. Used both gallons but probably had a little over a half gallon left after doing two coats. I do wish I would've not mixed it all and saved some but I didn't know how well it would cover.
(Don't have a pick of painting either as it was kinda messy)

The last step was drying and then piecing it all back together. let it dry for a day or so before putting everything back together.

This was right after i got the bed back just sitting on the frame.


Overall I'm really happy with how it turned out, Way better than what it was and should help it survive in the winters. The color is called midnight special.

This is the truck all finished but the mud flaps and fender wells put on. I also chopped the 2 inch body lift so now its only a 1 and am glad i did.

steven91

The upcoming mods in the next couple weeks are new wheel and tires, brush guard,and maybe a snorkel. Going with 33x10.5x15 ATs. Thought about MT's but i dont think i go offroad enough to make them worth it.

I'm currently chasing down one of these brush guards. I saw one on a truck when i was in Hawaii a month ago and really liked the way it looked.

Next mod ive been contemplating is a snorkel. I can't say I really need one just think they look sweet. But im also hesitant on drilling a hole in my new fender.

steven91

The truck is running fine for the most part. Just about to break 250k miles.

Haven't done as many modifications as I would like to, but still making progress. Mostly a couple of interior mods.
First got a new front differential along with new wheels and tires from 4wheel parts.They are pro comp steelies and 33x12.5xr15 all terrains they make the truck look a lot better.Only a little bit of rubbing at full lock and it's on the mud flaps.
Added a gauge pod to the A pillar.

Wired in a switch panel that also has usb ports, a 12v outlet, and more switches than I know what to do with. Made an extra fuse block for safety. Also wired the electric fan to a manual switch. This allowed me to clean up a bunch of wiring and turned out really nice.



Now the bad news.
The other day I noticed a leak in my exhaust pipe. The pipe going from the header to the catalytic converter. Drove down to the local exhaust shop to have them replace the pipe. They couldn't get me in to fix but said to come back the next day.
No problem, right? Then when they tried to start the truck to back it out of the bay nothing happened. It just cranked. Turns out the fuel pump decided it would call it quits. I was always nervous about the pump as I didn't know when it was changed last. Also avoided doing it sooner because it was fairly rusty. Turned out I should have done it sooner. First and hopefully the only time the truck gets towed. Got a new pump and of course the pipe coming from the fuel pump holder cracked when removing the line. Going to get a new one and have the truck back up and running in no time.

steven91

Major update: Have been rather lacking on the updates so here we go. After driving it a bunch and enjoying all the thrills that a 30 year old Toyota has to offer i ran into more issues. You'd think that I would have them mostly all figured out by now. Ill have to find photos off my old computer to update this fully.

After dropping the gas tank and getting a new fuel pump I ended up pinching a hard line on the old fuel pump hanger. Honestly, was kind of expecting this based on the condition it was in when removed. Got a genuine Toyota replacement and everything was good. Washed out the tank as best I could even gave it a nice coat of paint because why not. When installing it apparently the hard line going over the frame support was also a little corroded and developed a pin hole. After not noticing it for a bit I had a local shop replace it because safety. After that she ran great.

old pump and hanger and the new one.


Finally got around to installing the spare diff I had laying around one afternoon. A real pain in the butt to do by yourself but I managed. Gave it a nice coat of paint to slow eventual corrosion. Whilst installing it I decided to address an oil leak from the oil pan. So after removing it and painting it all was good, I did notice a little bit of grey metal shavings(sludge) in the bottom of the pan. Wasn't too concerned but maybe I should have been. Buttoned everything thing up put new oil in and called it a day.

old and busted

New Hotness


Never use a felt gasket for the pan only RVT


Drove it around a bunch more a few 500 mile trips with no issues until one day there was excessive banging. Turns out one of the lower ball joints had went out. No issue considering the age. Im sure they've been replaced before? Replaced both of them with genuine Toyota ball joints after reading that most aftermarket ones are rather garbage. Was disappointed at the dealer price but you pay for quality as they say.

old vs new


Really the only time I've used the factory bottle jack.


This winter has been rather mild. Thankfully... As we all know salt kills these trucks as with any vehicle but id rather not have it destroy this truck. It's probably a bad sign about the state of the environment but good for my Toyota. The past couple weeks have been the worst weather and thankfully my Toyota has been in a garage. Why? Well because it always needs fixing. If I start a GoFund Me will anyone donate? One afternoon I tried to take the truck on a highway and it wouldn't go above 55. After getting it home I checked the codes. Had thrown a code 14? A no fire for 6 consecutive times? Checked everything, cleared the codes, and it was okay? Thought it might be the old spark plug wires so replaced them and it seemed to run better.
Took it back out on a highway and same thing. Was even worse this time. Back firing and couldn't get out of its own way. Got it home and checked the timing and boy was it off. So much I assumed the chain jumped a teeth or two?

When the cam was at TDC the Crank was past 0 degrees. When I tore into the motor the first time I never replaced the timing chain. It looked good and had metal guides from the previous owner. Didn't think much of it and I should have. After tearing into the motor I didnt really notice any major damage to anything. However, I did notice a ton of metal in the oil. A flashlight shined on any bit of oil and it would glisten. Maybe a little wear on the guides? Ended up buying a new timing chain kit (OSK), new bolts, and a new timing chain cover as my old one had a small crack on the top of the casting all from LCE.

I really love new parts.

Reused the oil pump and water pump because they are practically new.

Yea! shinny new parts. After removing and inspecting the cam I was rather disappointed. It is was destroyed along with the rocker arms... Figures.


Didnt expect the lobes to be this bad.

How many of you run ZDP in your oil? I have, but haven't recently. Surely this amount of wear can't be from not using it all the time? Don't believe the valves hit the pistons as there wasn't any abnormal marks on the pistons and all of the valves seemed fine. However will be removing the valves to see. Fingers crossed.

Motor torn down to the block

Trying to stay somewhat organized

Pistons dont look that bad. There is a little bit of excess oil in the head bolt holes but I think thats normal? Will be thoroughly cleaning them out before reassembly.

New timing chain, guides, tensioner, and cover on.


I've since ordered a new cam 268 torker fromRedline cam and crank in Oregon the recommended company by Engine Builder along with a new set of rocker arms. Hoping that the valves are fine, but will have to wait a few days till i can tear into the head and find out. Till then my Yota will sit in the garage out of the elements.

steven91

Dyno Day! Just kidding. I don't think I would want to see the dyno sheets for this truck. This is actually emissions testing. Live in one of the only counties in my state that requires it. Because the truck is so old they must put it on rollers and drive it to read how bad it is for the environment. Just posting this as record/and because I have the pictures.


Honestly this old truck isn't as bad as I thought it would be. These are practically Prius numbers!


Soon to come more engine building. Still waiting on a cam to be shipped. The I can start reassembly and pray I didn't mess anything up.

STERFRY333

Congrats on passing emissions!

steven91

It's been a long time since I've updated this. Still have the truck. It's at 256k? Happy where the truck is at currently. The modifications list is slowly getting smaller for now. Here's some recent pictures.






I finally needed upper ball joints. Figured when I installed them I'd also install a ball joint spacer lift. It's the 1.5 inch from 4crawler offroad. Great quality and would definitely recommend. Allowed me to crank down my torsion bars for a more comfortable ride. That along with the new ball joints really improved the handling of this.


Recently I ran into some issues. I've been putting the truck through its paces as a work truck and daily driver. Unfortunately the fuel pump I replaced a year ago went out on me after a recent road trip. Luckily it was in my hometown.


I also have been meaning to address my disintegrating exhaust. Figured I'd address most of the exhaust. New header gaskets and new exhaust studs.. Used the same old header that's always been on the truck. Haven't a clue as to the make. Then a complete new system from the header back. Ended up purchasing the LCE cat back system. It sounds great and the kit is top notch.



Still chasing down a nice bed cap. More pictures of that to come. Still need an alignment. Also am considering a snorkel. Opinions?