Hey hey!






I got this beauty from a guy locally. It started, ran, and sorta stopped so I figured I would start a build on her! It's a 1987 Pickup Longbox, has a few miles on her and the body is in fair shape considering the age.

Mods so far:
-3" Body Lift
-Custom built low profile bush bumpers. (Front and back)
-35x13.5 Toyo M/T's
-Weber 32/36 Carb
-2 1/4" Manifold back w/Flowmaster
-4" Procomp lift springs/Oversized mounting bolts
-Oversized (11/16") U-bolts
-Oversized rear shock (3/4 Ton)
-2.5" Ball joint spacers
-Sway-Away Torsion Bars
-Sway bar delete
-Tri-Y Header
-261 Engnbldr Cam
-Full Contact 9 1/4" Clutch
-35lb Flywheel
-All emissions components removed
-Mechanical Oil pressure, and Water temp gauges.



Some newer pictures:

Out wheeling looking for a good spot for camp.



2014 Mud Bogs:



Hunting season 2014:

-20 Degress C, 22R fired up no problem





Hunting chickens in the mud:





Got pulled over for no mud flaps, so i screwed my floor mats to the bumper... Works!



Mods in the near future:

-Low profile bumpstops
-Dual Spark Ignition
-Lincoln locker (Still debating)

 

So the most recent developments have been as follows:

Took the old girl out, jumped it a few times, sunk it in a creek, ditch banged it, mud bogged in the skag and took her down the Little Smoky river. Unstoppable haha.

Chunked something out in the rear end, so that's today's project.
Axle seals in the rear end also went so new seals should be here this week.

 

Pretty cool looking truck. You know what kind of bumper that is? Also, if you're planning to do a 4" bracket lift, I'd get rid of that 4" body lift.

 

Thanks! Not sure about the bumper, buddy i bought it from said it was custom and I haven't seen any serial/model numbers or branding anywhere on it so sorry I cant help ya there.

Why do you reckon I should pull the body lift out when I do a suspension lift?

 

Update:
Turned out I chunked out the ring and pinion pretty bad so I got a new third and slapped her in. Drained the milk out of the tranny and put synthetic in. Flushed the tcase, front, and rear diff and did plugs, wires, and an oil change.

The new springs should be here today so I will probably be pulling my old leafs out this weekend and slapping those in. Then I can get my measurements for new shocks.

Another project for the weekend will be greasing up the spindles and doing valve spacing as I can hear them ticking a bit.

I will post some new pictures after I get the lift in.

 

Update:
So the rear diff is all hunky dorey, replaced the pinion seal, and wheel bearings/seals while I was at it.

I received the new leafs and slapped them in. They weren't direct bolt ins had to drill the front shackles out to accomidate the bushings inside the leafs but now I have nice big beefy bolts front and back.

New development is a leaky front diff, so pinion seals, and axle seals for that will probably be the next project.

I ordered a ball joint spacer/diff drop for the front and new hardware for the torsion bars before I try cranking on them. I'm thinking of getting some 25mm swayaway torsion bars as well.

 

So its been a week or two since the last update, I figured I would get back up to date.

Turned out it was a leaky oil pan, and not a leaky front diff, got a new pan gasket and slapped that in (Much more of a pain in the ass than anticipated.) Cleared the oil leak problem up.

Ball joint spacers came in a I installed those this past weekend. I didn't use the shotty hardware that came with the kit, used some hi grade bolts I have in the shop with lock washers instead. I had to grind the upper a-arms a little to get the spacers to fit properly but it wasn't to bad.

I bought some spacers for the diff to keep my cv's at a somewhat decent angle, they don't grind or bind so I'm happy with that lite setup, easy 3" lift! Now my 35x13.5's don't rub on the uncut fenders

I recently installed a oil pressure, and water temp gauge as well. They say knowledge is power and with a 22r I need all the power I can get hah. Also slapped an old cb radio I had laying around in the Mule just in case.

I have the new 25mm swayaways on the way with new hardware so that should be here this week. I will also be ordering a LCE Performance header, new full contact 9 1/4" clutch and 35lb flywheel this week to get a little more torque out of this old Mule.

I will take a few pictures shortly and update the op.

Edit:
Forgot to mention that I finally got around to pulling the valve cover off and doing the valve spacing, couldn't get the valves to quiet down until I set them to .007 and .010. I also inspected the timing chain and chain guides which to my surprise looked great! I also adjusted the timing to right in between 5 and 8. It runs at 190-200 degrees so I think I'm still in the safe zone

 

Wow over a year since an update... Lots done (Updated OP)

Its had thousands of miles put on it in the last year or two... I will update the OP with some recent pictures of its adventures....

 

Looks like a fun truck and you getting some work done on it. Great job!!!

 

Thanks Terry!

This truck has been quite an adventure to have, i really wish i kept this built thread more up to date. There have been countless hours spent with the truck (Whether its breaking it, or fixing it) and alot of valuable knowledge picked up in the process.