Great work. All the fresh paint looks really good.

 

i didn't get the axle all back together, but i made some progress.




i decided to try something new. instead of painting mating surfaces and/or gasket surfaces i used some gasket sealer. last time i did nothing, and there was wore rust and pitting i wanted to try and avoid.
this got me here:



i was cleaning the old grease out of the birfields and they weren't moving very freely, so i decided to remove the inner shaft. i used the slide it into a tube a drop tube on ground method. worked great and was easier than i thought it would be. problem is, both snap rings that hold the inners to the birfield broke. if i can find a p.n. i will try and get them from toyota, if not, i know marlin carries them.
i think i have been guilty of overfilling things with oil or grease with the more is obviously better mentality. i am going to be mindful of that as the axle goes back together.
the knuckles are a little tight with the 0.4 mm shims i decided to use on all 4 trunions, but i think its ok. not sure how i came to the decision of what shins i used last time.
also, i used a thin dab of neverseize on the cone part of the cone washers, which will hopefully aid in removal.

 

thank you!
to be honest, this thing has never seen "real" wheeling, just dirt roads and LOTS of street miles. that, combined with how rusty, rotted, pitted, etc. everything was, made me want to take my time with the finish work and painting this go round.

 

so my bilsteins were pretty rusty and gross, so i wire wheeled them, taped off the shafts and stickers, and sprayed them.
i'm going to have to make one metal sleeve that goes in one of the shock eye bushings, as it seized with the old bolt.
also going to make some spacers for the rear upper mounts, as they are a bit wider than the shock bushings.
a few easy lathe projects to keep learning on.
i made some beads for abigail as a test:



i got the old tie rod ends out of my steering very easily, as i used lots of never seize on the shank threads. i decided to mill some flats on them to hopefully aid in not destroying the paint when adjusting them:


and painted:

 

Keep up the great work. I'm very jealous of your fabrication skills. I can't wait to see the truck done!!

 

i appreciate the compliment
i'm looking forward to driving it so much...getting closer, slowly but surely

 

i finally got the front axle buttoned up.

the snap rings finally came from marlin. getting the axles back into the birfs took a little patience, but i believe i was succesful in not damaging anything in the assembly process.

i needed patience again as i had a hard time getting the birfs past the knuckleball ears, so there was some soft face dead blow involved. i did mar the edge of the one birf a little, but i think it will be fine.

my ifs hubs are going to need some work next assembly, as a lot of the threads for rotor mounting are pretty trashed from my original poor drilling on the first set years ago. i will have to drill out and tap for an m12 i suppose. i bought a metric tap and die set at HF just for the m10-1.25 to chase the threads, and it ended up being garbage.

another issue was getting the hub seals knocked in. maybe one hub is out of round a little or has a small lip, as when the seal finally started to go in, a piece of the lip caught and bent as the rest of the seal just started to move. i pulled it out, filed it clean, and got it to install.

i got my calipers painted black. the v6 fronts look beefy...looking forward to the new brake setup.






i still have to tighten the u bolts and shackle bolts.

next up is to make my shock spacers and get all the shocks mounted. i have to check to make sure the exhaust clears the new shock mounting, or else i'l have to modify the exhaust...again.

then on to plumbing.....

 

i picked up some pretty nice shape black front seats from an '05 rav4. they dont seem to have airbags, no armrests, etc., so they seemed like a good candidate. dial adjust lumbar on driver, tilt and slide on both.



also took some shots of the front v6 calipers vs the rear solid axle solid rotor fronts.

 

shocks are in (bolts still loose)
the bilsteins look dumb painted dark, but oh well
i didn't need to make spacers for the rear uppers, a washer on either side of the shock bushing inside the tabs was perfect.

 

i got my steering back in (not tight or aligned):




and i got my exhaust painted and installed:

 

got the shock, leaf spring, shackle, and U bolts all tightened up since the jackstands are under the axles now.

i'm thinking about making some angle iron plates to do my toe alignment. my brother and i originally set the toe and wheel straight, just measuring off the tires, and you could drive 75 and let go of the wheel for a mile. hoping to at least get there again.

time to order front caliper mounting bolts, brake lines and fittings, proportioning valve, residual valve, fuel line, and breather and return line.

 

coming along nicely!

what are you doing for an E-brake>

 

thank you

e-brake is on the list, at some point lol. there is trail gear or sky manufacturing for tcase e-brakes, if i remember right. i don't think i'm going to try and do a home brew for that one.

 

have used Sky's kit on a former project I would consider using All-Pro's. Sky's & trail gear uses a brake caliper that you can't service if i remember correctly, i think it is a from a riding lawn mower.
All-Pro's uses a wilwood caliper that looks better to me
https://www.jegs.com/i/All-Pro+Off+R...hoCCk8QAvD_BwE

 

that is awesome advice, thank you. i will absolutely look at AP, and would agree completely with your rationale of why.

 

i got more parts, and i got some more done

i ordered nickle copper 3/16" line, 10 mmm x 1.0 tube nuts, proportioning valve, residual valve, an line and fittings, rubber fuel line, etc.

i got my tank installed, 1/4" rubber return line and vent line run, and -6an pressure line run.

from summit:
earls 804506erl -6 45 degree hose end
summit sum-240-615b black braided -6 an line
earls 807691erl -6 an hose to 10 mm banjo bolt (fits stock fuel filter on the side of the 22re, but the tabs that held the stock banjo from rotating while tightening have to be bent out of the way)

from extremepsi:
https://www.extremepsi.com/store/Ext...TED-FLARE.html
this adapts the stock m14 inverted flare pressure line on the fuel pump bracket to -6 an

 

 

 

also ran 50 amp service to the garage (4x 6 awg, 1-1/2" conduit) for a sub panel:

 

i need to do something like that. being able to get a nice welder for projects would be great.