Hi everyone, I'm new here. I had an account at tacoma world but there isn't much on the older toyotas. I have a 96 tacoma for a daily driver. I just bought an 86 pickup last week to make into a wheeler.
She was in pretty rough shape cosmetically but runs fairly well. It's got a 22r out of an 85 with aeound 140,000 miles.

To begin, the day I bought it, I drove it up the road about 10 miles to do a short hike with my friend. Made it up there fine but on the way back about a mile down the road. I heard a loud (and I mean loud) clunk. I pulled over and the driveline broke off from the tranny side.
After this, we decided to put in 4 wheel and drive home without the rear driveline. It wouldn't start... popped the hood and found the starter literally broken in half. I ended up getting it towed 80 miles to my friend's house.
So $450 later, we found out the bell housing was cracked and the tranny to block mounts snapped in half. Bought a new starter, bell housing and brackets.
What happened you ask?
The gear that connects to the flywheel broke off and fell inside the bh, gotherwise stuck and seized the engine and the whole tranny twisted. That snapped the driveline bolts, broke the brackets and cracked the bh.
That's the back story on this truck.

Now, I have dropped the gas tank and cleaned it. Pulled the tranny and replaced all the parts listed above including the rear main seal and slave cylinder.
The clutch was new and the flywheel looked fine. Put everything back together, changed the oil and put the starter back on. She fired right up with no problems! Truck runs again!
I tore out all of the carpet because it was nasty and had holes all over. I plan on spraying in bed liner. I need to bleed the clutch now and change the tranny and diff fluid.
The brakes are also locked up so those need to be replaced as well.

It looks like the previous owner cut a lot of corners so I have a lot to fix but I'm looking forward to it. I'm no mechanic so this is my way of learning. I'll post some pictures later on but I'm hoping I can find all the answers to my questions here.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I appreciate any advice as I don't have much experience and very little knowledge on wheeling.

 

Post so me pictures of it, always like seeing what others are building. Plenty of information on here to get you where you want to be. Welcome to Yotatech.

 

Old bell housing
My cousin, Daniel, trying to pop that dent out.
Gas tank removed

Ripped out the old interior. Needs to be cleaned now
Another shot of the gas tank removed. The old cat was cut out so we tore out rhe rest of the exhaust. Gonna get a new one soon.
My friend/mechanic opened up his shop to me to wprk in. Makes life a whole lot easier!
And here's the sausage we made after a long day of work!

 

Here's a shot of the starter that broke. One of the bolts holding it in was a bell end bolt (wider at top above the threads) so it didnt thread all the way in. My guess is it started to loosen up and it fell out of place and got caught up on the flywheel and snapped off.
My friend bled the clutch for me while I was at work. I then changed the spark plugs and the tranny fluid. Actually took her for a spin. Also, I finally got the title transferred too! Yesterday was a good day!