OopsMyBad's 91 pickup build thing
12-02-2015, 11:04 PM
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OopsMyBad's 91 pickup build thing
I saw this beautiful piece of crap on the side of the road in town one day, slammed on the brakes in the middle of the road and stared like an idiot before i realized i should probably pull over. I saw the 5fz, and knew it was meant to be.
Sorry, i don't really understand how the attachment system on this forum works, so you get big messy pile of pics with minimal clarification.
But you can see most of the good, bad, and ugly. I had to replace the starter button right away because the old one was melted because the starter was bad and drawing current thru the button, presumably via a shorted wire in the solenoid assembly.
The pedal assembly was broken in the usual place and badly bent- so badly that i ordered a good one off ebay, and then had it braced at a local shop on the quick and dirty, then discovered that the nut on the tab above the clutch pedal end of the assembly in the cab was broken off completely, thereby leaving a nice bit of support for that end of the thing lacking, so i took it back to the welder and had him throw one more bar left to right between the two parts around the pivots. Sorry, i'm tired and i cant brain what to call those. I forgot to take a pic of it, i'll try and get one. Suffice to say that when i push the clutch, it doesn't budge a millimeter.
I had to replace the clutch master cylinder because the stupid ball and socket...thing was broken, and i couldn't find that part by itself, so i went with the style of master that didn't have that thing on it.
Did i mention that the clutch is bad? when i got it towed to my house i had to start it in gear to pull it in, and while it felt nice and positive, jerked to life instantly and started crawling along, but giving it gas had no effect aside from increased engine rpm. Le sigh.
Both axle ends need new seals. The driver's side hub assembly is throwing grease. The exhaust is hacked off just aft of the magnaflow resonator. one header pipe is cracked and touches the frame. You can see that some of the hoses and wiring under the hood are shoddy and stupid. Good thing I'm ASE certified in a variety of useful ways!
BUT. It has the 5VZ-FE. It has the dual transfer case. It has nice shocks. It has a locker in the rear, armored everything, full aluminum radiator, manual trans. I'm pretty sure i didn't pay too much for it. I hope. I know i didn't pay way too much, at worst i didn't steal it.
I ordered a new starter, it should be here monday or tuesday. I'll be installing that and probably deleting the stupid push button for the starter, the truck started life as an automatic and whoever built it didn't know how to fool the neutral safety switch? Amateurs. once that's done I can prove that the clutch is thoroughly borked and get one of those coming. I'm assuming I don't need a fancy clutch for this? I always installed Exedy clutches on japanese rigs at my old shop and never had a single issue.
after that, reseal the axle ends, and....drive it, I think. I know nothing about the aftermarket parts on this, if anybody has anything enlightening to say, by all means please do, if you see anything shoddy that i seem to be missing, let me know.
I have the rest of the interior, i ripped it out chasing a nasty mess of wires whose source was an added switchboard and fuse box in the inside that presumably used to run the extra lights and winch that didn't come with the truck. I think at this point the guy that built the rig did good work, the next guy didn't know much more than necessary to get him in trouble, and I suspect that guy installed the 5FZ...whoever originally wired up the extra fuse box and switches did a great job.
Oh, the rear brake lines. So far i'm just trying to snug it up to the rear axle with bigass zipties, if anybody knows a more elegant way to do it, by all means let me know.
Sorry, i don't really understand how the attachment system on this forum works, so you get big messy pile of pics with minimal clarification.
But you can see most of the good, bad, and ugly. I had to replace the starter button right away because the old one was melted because the starter was bad and drawing current thru the button, presumably via a shorted wire in the solenoid assembly.
The pedal assembly was broken in the usual place and badly bent- so badly that i ordered a good one off ebay, and then had it braced at a local shop on the quick and dirty, then discovered that the nut on the tab above the clutch pedal end of the assembly in the cab was broken off completely, thereby leaving a nice bit of support for that end of the thing lacking, so i took it back to the welder and had him throw one more bar left to right between the two parts around the pivots. Sorry, i'm tired and i cant brain what to call those. I forgot to take a pic of it, i'll try and get one. Suffice to say that when i push the clutch, it doesn't budge a millimeter.
I had to replace the clutch master cylinder because the stupid ball and socket...thing was broken, and i couldn't find that part by itself, so i went with the style of master that didn't have that thing on it.
Did i mention that the clutch is bad? when i got it towed to my house i had to start it in gear to pull it in, and while it felt nice and positive, jerked to life instantly and started crawling along, but giving it gas had no effect aside from increased engine rpm. Le sigh.
Both axle ends need new seals. The driver's side hub assembly is throwing grease. The exhaust is hacked off just aft of the magnaflow resonator. one header pipe is cracked and touches the frame. You can see that some of the hoses and wiring under the hood are shoddy and stupid. Good thing I'm ASE certified in a variety of useful ways!
BUT. It has the 5VZ-FE. It has the dual transfer case. It has nice shocks. It has a locker in the rear, armored everything, full aluminum radiator, manual trans. I'm pretty sure i didn't pay too much for it. I hope. I know i didn't pay way too much, at worst i didn't steal it.
I ordered a new starter, it should be here monday or tuesday. I'll be installing that and probably deleting the stupid push button for the starter, the truck started life as an automatic and whoever built it didn't know how to fool the neutral safety switch? Amateurs. once that's done I can prove that the clutch is thoroughly borked and get one of those coming. I'm assuming I don't need a fancy clutch for this? I always installed Exedy clutches on japanese rigs at my old shop and never had a single issue.
after that, reseal the axle ends, and....drive it, I think. I know nothing about the aftermarket parts on this, if anybody has anything enlightening to say, by all means please do, if you see anything shoddy that i seem to be missing, let me know.
I have the rest of the interior, i ripped it out chasing a nasty mess of wires whose source was an added switchboard and fuse box in the inside that presumably used to run the extra lights and winch that didn't come with the truck. I think at this point the guy that built the rig did good work, the next guy didn't know much more than necessary to get him in trouble, and I suspect that guy installed the 5FZ...whoever originally wired up the extra fuse box and switches did a great job.
Oh, the rear brake lines. So far i'm just trying to snug it up to the rear axle with bigass zipties, if anybody knows a more elegant way to do it, by all means let me know.
12-27-2015, 02:00 PM
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The Most Important Item of Business: The clutch is not bad. Thank all the gods, old and new. When I moved it last, I didn't realize it was currently in the lowest possible gear range, and the idle is a bit high- so revving it from 1400 to 2500 just wasn't a big enough difference in rpm to affect the speed noticeably in first gear.
First drive was 2 weeks back and it went well: I only went a quarter mile, but it felt good just to move it under it's own power. Everybody in town that saw me stared like I was on fire, haha. There's a big exhaust leak at the driver's side downpipe and the exhaust terminates after a single Magnaflow resonator, so uh, it's a bit louder than i'd prefer...It also doesn't have the kind of power i would expect from the 3.4, but i'm used to it in 4runners with stock tire sizes, so I may just be overestimating it. Bead lock wheels with 35's aren't exactly light; that said it will still roast the rears, and the locker definitely works.
I've been making progress as time, daylight, and rain have allowed. Mostly on wiring and getting the truck street legal again. The rear lights' wiring was a serious mess, there were no front signals, some wiring to the right front corner had been nicked with a cutoff wheel and was cut almost invisibly, that had me pulling my hair for half an hour. I can't decide if i want to leave the electric fan on a switch, to wire it up to come on via thermo switch and relay, or start measuring for a stock clutch fan again. Bah. You can see the kind of job that I've been taking on in the before and after pics.
So far I've pulled 40 or so feet of unneeded wire out of the cab and engine compartment- for some reason, some fool didn't feel like taking advantage of the fact that there's a secondary fuse box conveniently added just under the radio. I'm still debating whether or not to keep the starter button or try and get the ignition switch back in charge. I put a new grille (thanks ebay and china, pretty tough to beat $25) on and it looks much, much better. Ibought new front markers but of course I got the wrong style. It turns out it's really hard to find the right ones with black trim and not chrome, I'm still looking.
I bought a new front hub/axle seal kit from Marlin Crawler, although I probably won't get a chance to install it before i have to drive this thing 9 hours to Portland in a month or two, but time will tell.. Not having a dry, level place to do the job makes me pretty nervous.
The rear brake line situation is still ugly, I'm probably just going to get some big zip ties and at least snug it to the axle for now. One of the front lines is stainless braided, one isn't, i don't recall if the rear is, but it feels like they could use to be bled, so i might as well see if i can get a stainless line for the missing one if i have to open the system anyway.
The LED trailer lights they hooked up are obviously just 3 wire units, so i hooked up a converter to get turn signals and brake lights working. The front turns signals...i'm not thrilled with what I had to do, but seeing as how the bull bar is welded on i couldn't exactly just put a regular front pumper back on, so i had to get a little creative and bought some cheap LED units off ebay that emulate new style front blinker/DRL set ups- there's a bright ass white light (that I put on a switch) on till you hit the turn signal, then the white cuts out and the amber row of led's flashes. There's no reflector to speak of, just the sort of of prismed lens on the front, so they aren't the kind of thing people would appreciate you leaving on while driving at night, but they do actually put some light on the road. But they were cheap and they work and they make the truck legal, so good enough. I obviously had to wire in an aftermarket flasher relay for LED signals, and it works perfectly.
The K&N setup is pissing me off, as usual. Why people think the stock airbox isn't good enough is forever beyond me, but in this case it may have been too big to fit where the battery used to live. the old maf housing was literally taped with a roll or two of electrical tape to the stupid cone filter, so I bought a nice aluminum housing that will get me by respectably for now. Pics of that when it arrives. Debating on new carpet or molded vinyl mat for the floor...I think where i'm going the carpet would be a bad choice.
Oh, and I remembered to take a picture of the braced pedal assembly. I hit the clutch and it doesn't budge, period. Hopefully that trend continues forever.
First drive was 2 weeks back and it went well: I only went a quarter mile, but it felt good just to move it under it's own power. Everybody in town that saw me stared like I was on fire, haha. There's a big exhaust leak at the driver's side downpipe and the exhaust terminates after a single Magnaflow resonator, so uh, it's a bit louder than i'd prefer...It also doesn't have the kind of power i would expect from the 3.4, but i'm used to it in 4runners with stock tire sizes, so I may just be overestimating it. Bead lock wheels with 35's aren't exactly light; that said it will still roast the rears, and the locker definitely works.
I've been making progress as time, daylight, and rain have allowed. Mostly on wiring and getting the truck street legal again. The rear lights' wiring was a serious mess, there were no front signals, some wiring to the right front corner had been nicked with a cutoff wheel and was cut almost invisibly, that had me pulling my hair for half an hour. I can't decide if i want to leave the electric fan on a switch, to wire it up to come on via thermo switch and relay, or start measuring for a stock clutch fan again. Bah. You can see the kind of job that I've been taking on in the before and after pics.
So far I've pulled 40 or so feet of unneeded wire out of the cab and engine compartment- for some reason, some fool didn't feel like taking advantage of the fact that there's a secondary fuse box conveniently added just under the radio. I'm still debating whether or not to keep the starter button or try and get the ignition switch back in charge. I put a new grille (thanks ebay and china, pretty tough to beat $25) on and it looks much, much better. Ibought new front markers but of course I got the wrong style. It turns out it's really hard to find the right ones with black trim and not chrome, I'm still looking.
I bought a new front hub/axle seal kit from Marlin Crawler, although I probably won't get a chance to install it before i have to drive this thing 9 hours to Portland in a month or two, but time will tell.. Not having a dry, level place to do the job makes me pretty nervous.
The rear brake line situation is still ugly, I'm probably just going to get some big zip ties and at least snug it to the axle for now. One of the front lines is stainless braided, one isn't, i don't recall if the rear is, but it feels like they could use to be bled, so i might as well see if i can get a stainless line for the missing one if i have to open the system anyway.
The LED trailer lights they hooked up are obviously just 3 wire units, so i hooked up a converter to get turn signals and brake lights working. The front turns signals...i'm not thrilled with what I had to do, but seeing as how the bull bar is welded on i couldn't exactly just put a regular front pumper back on, so i had to get a little creative and bought some cheap LED units off ebay that emulate new style front blinker/DRL set ups- there's a bright ass white light (that I put on a switch) on till you hit the turn signal, then the white cuts out and the amber row of led's flashes. There's no reflector to speak of, just the sort of of prismed lens on the front, so they aren't the kind of thing people would appreciate you leaving on while driving at night, but they do actually put some light on the road. But they were cheap and they work and they make the truck legal, so good enough. I obviously had to wire in an aftermarket flasher relay for LED signals, and it works perfectly.
The K&N setup is pissing me off, as usual. Why people think the stock airbox isn't good enough is forever beyond me, but in this case it may have been too big to fit where the battery used to live. the old maf housing was literally taped with a roll or two of electrical tape to the stupid cone filter, so I bought a nice aluminum housing that will get me by respectably for now. Pics of that when it arrives. Debating on new carpet or molded vinyl mat for the floor...I think where i'm going the carpet would be a bad choice.
Oh, and I remembered to take a picture of the braced pedal assembly. I hit the clutch and it doesn't budge, period. Hopefully that trend continues forever.
Last edited by OopsMyBad; 12-27-2015 at 02:09 PM.
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