Ahh well I didn't know about the new engine. Good luck on the swap!

I was thinking you where going to run 37's an auto AND the super powerful 3VZE and somehow hope you might be able to drive it up a slight incline.


/My bad./

 

No worries. Yeah if I was planning on sticking with the 3.0/auto combo, then I would definitly be going with 5.29s. Im not sure what 3.0 feels like in good shape, but mine is horrible. It wont even get out of its own way, but it has some issues somewhere that I dont feel like tracking down. I think they are mostly minor tho. I cant wait to ditch the 3.0. Everytime I pop the hood to look at something it makes me nauseous lol. I dont understand why Toyota decided to make everything linked together by vacuum.

I did discover one of the coolest things during dissasembly of my front axle. As Im sure most of you know, Toyota decided to leave gaps where the bearing races sit to make it easy to knock bearings out. I have never seen that before on anything that I have worked on. Ive actually thought about doing that before on a couple things but never have. Got to be the coolest thing since sliced bread lol.

 

My 3VZE runs really well. I am one of the lucky ones with a really solid and reliable engine. I have abused it too. I've overheated it, run it very low on oil a few times and I just did a massive road trip and forgot to do an oil change until it was over.....

Runs like a champ. It's drawback is it's lack of power compared with a modern engine. In it's design day it was pretty bloody good. The problem with many of these old machines is very simple; lack of maintenance. Unless you are really unlucky had you bought a 3VZE equipped truck off the shop floor and did ALL of its regular maintenance since day one to now it would still be reliable.

Even if you where unlucky and got a lemon Toyota would have fixed it for you. They still honour the head gasket recall. If you run your VIN and find out with Toyota that the recall work was never done you get a free headgasket job.

 

I wish I had a better update, but I havent had time to do anything other than some sanding on the jbweld on the knuckle balls. Only time off Ive had in the past couple weeks was to do some emergency dr visits for my son. As of now, we have schedule surgery in March to hopefully fix the issues with his heart he has had since birth. He had stomach surgery in November now its heart surgery, and he just turned 5 last month. Hopefully this will work and he will be good to go for a while.

Im hoping to get some shop time soon to get back on the front axle.

 

Awesome build looking forward to an update. . . subscribed!

 

Well I finally had a little time this weekend to do some work.

I capped my steering stops


I sanded down the JB Weld on the knuckle balls (but I ended up hitting it with the wire wheel on accident so I have to do some touch up)


I finished cutting down the backing plates


I also primered the axle


And I added some color (it looks orange, but its actually bright red)


One thing I didnt get a picture of was doing the Martacks on the axle shafts. I plan to paint the housing tonite. Then there wont be much left to do before I can go back together with it...well once I figure out what Im doing about 3rds.

 

Well I managed to get some work done last week.

Finished painting the housing


I made my first trip to a U-Pull-It Saturday and got this..


Its a rear end out of a 4runner with 4.88s. Now I need to find one more or order some 4.88 gears and regear a 3rd myself.

I cut the link brackets off (I did manage to nick the housing a couple times, nothing a welder cant fix tho.)


I then decided I would paint the 3rd in the housing so I could transfer it over to the front axle to finish it up. I will put another 4.88 in the rear axle after I find one or I regear one.


I painted the high steer arms and spindles (no pics tho). My goal is to at least have the front axle back together this week. I also ordered another adapter I need to go from the gm trans to the toy tcase. Id also like to start tearing the 4runner down to get it ready for the suspension and motor swap.

 

Not really an update but I did get in one of the adapters needed to go from the gm trans to the toy tcase. I also ordered a Spartan locker today. I'm only going to run one in the rear for now. I'll put one in the front later. I haven't been out in the shop any this week. It's been cold and we had an ice storm yesterday and had no power from the majority of the day.

Here's a pic of the adapter just so I can post a pic lol.

 

Great score on the Rear Axle. Front axle looks great.

 

Thanks. The best part about the rear axle is that it only cost me $89 lol. I pulled the 3rd on it last night and it looks good. Im hoping to start assembling the front axle tonite. Im making another trip to the junkyard tomorrow. Hoping to come away with at least some AC parts and calipers off a montero sport for a rear disk conversion.

 

Well I didnt really get anything done this past weekend. I did pull the 4.88 3rd out of the rear housing and prep it for the front. At the junkyard, I scored a set of rear brake calipers off a Rodeo and a airbox and a/c line off a S10 with a 4.3. We also pulled a 4" IFS lift off of a truck to put on my buddy's single cab yota. That should be going on pretty soon.

This isnt Toyota related, but I did sell this toy on Friday...

05 Rhino 660


And I picked up this one Sunday

08 YZ450f


Now Im in the market for a pw50 dirt bike for my oldest son.

 

Nice work on the axles!

 

Thanks. I need to finally throw the front axle together. Only parts that still need to be cleaned up is the wheel hub and locking hub, but I can still assemble most of the axle without that done.

 

Thats a nice bike you picked up. I used to own one just like it. 08 yz450F. I bet that rhino moved pretty good with the 660 in it.

 

Yea the rhino done okay. It was basically just a mud toy. We kind of got out of doing that. I was going to make it more of a all around ride, but decided I wanted to buy a 450 and my son a 50 lol.

I used to have a 09 yz450f. I actually sold it to buy the rhino lol. I have a 01 yz125 I rebuilt from the ground up, but it wasnt as much fun to ride as I remember from my "younger" racing days lol.

 

I wish I had more of an update, but Ive been busy.

I have started to put the front axle back together. The 4.88 third is installed. I was setting up the knuckle shims yesterday evening and I got called back into work. Im going to try to do that today, but today is the first day my lil boy can ride his brand new pw50 after his heart surgery so I might be busy doing that lol.

Here is a couple pics of the axle as it sits right now.




I also got this in the other day. It will go in the rear third once it gets here (found a used on here, just waiting for the guy to pull it and send it to me.)


I know its slow progress, but life happens lol

 

Sorry to hear about the heart surgery for your son. I hope he is ok.

 

Thanks. He is doing good, but unfortunately the surgery didnt work. But they were able to determine that it is a low risk problem. So we just have to watch his to see if it ever becomes a problem again.

 

Well I was able to get the front axle done except for the locking hubs. They just need to be reassembled and installed. I had a small set back on Saturday. After installing the axles, I couldnt get the spindle to bolt up the knuckle. After both sides done the same thing and both had about the same gap, I figured out it must be the Martacks I did on the axle. I did the Martack with the original 4cyl 3rd member. So I pull the axle back out to check and sure enough, the Martack didnt allow the axle to go all the way in on the v6 3rd. So I had to do some adjusting, but I got it. I also finally set up my small blasting cabinet to blast my wheel hubs (Ive only had it for about 2 years now lol)

Heres a pic of the hub fresh out of the blasting cabinet


Axle ready for locking hubs


Fresh paint on the locking hub face and dial

 

Looks sweet