ra33it

Well I'm finally getting around to posting up a build-up thread (thanks for the motivational peer pressure chef!)

I bought a 91 22re 4x4 pickup, with 235k on the clock just a few months ago.
I've been dying for a project, so I leapt in with both feet.

Since buying the truck I've:

Flushed Transmission, coolant, both diffs, t-case.
Plugs, wires, air filter.
New waterpump, power steering/fan belts
Running rotella T6 synthetic motor oil.
Replaced idler, center link, tie rod assemblies.
Duplicolor BedArmor w/kevlar bed liner.
WRX Buckets.
Cheap grant steering kit.
22re air filter silencer removal.
Replaced driver door hinges and rear window latch.
Picked up a 5th 16" 96 4runner wheel (still searching for a -used- matching tire!)

Plans for the immediate future are:
A fifth -used- toyo open country m/t for my spare
ARB OME springs, shocks, damper, and bushings to fresh up the ride
motor and trans mounts, ball joints
sr5 gauge cluster swap
home grown 2.25 exhaust, high flow cat, and maybe a header...
Rear disk conversion and full float axles

Distant future
bored 22re long block(wish I could afford a LCengineering turbo motor...)





You can see my other car up in the carport...1500lbs less weight, and nearly 3x the HP ;D

bend

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like exactly what I want to do to my truck. Subscribed. Be sure to keep this updated

ra33it

Just a quick update:

ARB just shipped me my leaf springs, struts, torsion bars, steering damper, and bushings.
Toyota has my sway bar bushings, control arm bushings, ball joints, and cv axles arriving in the next few days! Hopefully next weekend I will tear everything out and get all the new swapped back in! Its going to be such an epic upgrade from before to after.

Unfortunately this has pretty much tapped out the fun account for the short term. I really wish I could do a full float rear end w/ calipers and some 4.88 gears at the same time, but that's simply not in the budget atm....I know what I'm asking for from Santa






R

ra33it

Couldn't wait, so I pulled off the brush guard and swapped out the steering damper! Makes a huge difference, can't wait to have the torsion bars and bushings done on the front end....

Also forgot to mention while I was putting the hose away, I hooked it on one of the leaf springs sitting in my garage. Long story short it tipped over, and landed square on the knuckle of my (bare) big toe. The toe is assuredly nice and broken. Its all sorts of green and purple, zero movement, swollen like whoa. Miserable luck...at least it cushioned the impact....








Since misery loves company:



I did it weds, and the toe still doesn't bend :C

bend

iTrader: (1)

PICS! Especially of the toe

ra33it

I got that hi-lift jack on craigslist for 15 bucks I gave it a wd-40 bath to clean off some of the rust, need to replace a spring to make it work perfect, but it works fine just how it is

ra33it

Alright another quick update:

My control arm bushings are waiting for me in a bag, sway bar bushings, shock and spring bushings....and my new (used) 4.88 complete thirds are in the back of the truck!!

This weekend I'm pulling the control arms, complete suspension, and thirds. Gonna be a different rig on Monday. I'm so freakin' stoked!

ozzydg55

take lots of pics I am rebuilding my front end this weekend also

ra33it

I got a late start today, so I decided to start with the (easier) rear suspension first.

It took a few minutes to jack the frame up, onto 24" jack stands, and get the axle housing and drive shaft supported by a cylinder jack and a couple more short jack stands.

(Another ninja edit image from the future, showing 3 different jacking devices used to position everything just so)



Shocks, Shackles and u-bolts came right off.
Hanger bolt nuts came right off, but the bolts themselves wouldn't budge. I missed all the threads about the pain and suffering they cause. Mine were just like everyone elses: completely seized. No choice but to cut.

Drivers side: I used a cut-off wheel to Grind off the bolt head on the outside, and on the driver side I had enough room to use a grinder to cut the inboard side of the bolt flush with the bracket as well. I then used a pickle fork to spread the bracket a little bit and pop out the leaf.

Unfortunately on the pass side, the gas tank is about 1/2" away from the hanger bolt and there is no room to get a 3" wheel in there (which is the only size arbor/wheel I happened to have on hand :C ). If I had a thin 5-6" wheel it would've been a snap... I didn't though, so I could only grind off the bolt head.

(Pass Side image, all done, from the future)


For the inboard portion of the passenger side hanger bolt, I ended up using a hack saw blade to cut through the hanger bolt on the -inside- of the mounting bracket. It took a while, but the spring fell right out, no need to coax it with a fork. For those of you bemoaning how "hard it was" to use a sawzall....I used -one- hack saw blade, no problem

Unfortunately, its Sunday afternoon and I can't get a bolt anyplace easy right now.

I'm a little peeved, because u-bolts that ARB sent me are clearly too narrow. They don't align properly with the spring seat. My springs were wrapped, top and bottom with a jacket that aligned the u-bolts.Without the top portion of the jacket, the bump stop doesn't sit flat. Unfortunately my springs are much thicker, and I don't have enough room on the ubolts to use the bottom portion of the jacket. For now, this is what I'm going to run:

ra33it

So after a few trips around town, I ended up with a couple 8.8 14mm x 100mm bolts. NAPA didn't seem to have any 10.9 14mm hardware in the size I needed, only the "weaker" 8.8. The guy convinced me to buy the grade 8 9/16 hardware "because its close" but it was much too large to fit in the bushing, and since the metal sleeve was so thin to begin with, I didn't think reaming it with a 9/16" drill bit was really the way to go. I went back and bought the 14mm hardware and it fit like a glove. As I understand it, the 8.8 is a little more ductile, it'll bend, but won't snap easily. From what I understand, the 10.9 is stronger, but more brittle, and prone to shearing.
It cost like 14 bucks for the bolts, washers, and nuts. Home depot had something similiar for around 5 bucks, but it was cheap galvanized 'general purpose' hardware, and I really didn't want to have my everything being help up by 2.50 that I didn't fully trust.



As you can see, everything got installed, and it is waaay up there now. The rear shocks I removed were completely lifeless. Wherever they are compressed to, they just stay there...and the springs are -very- flat. The ass of the truck is pointing way up now, because the front isn't done



I had a very difficult time finding a step by step install procedure on the internet for an Old Man Emu front and rear suspension upgrade for a 89-94 pickup, and boy did I scour the interwebs. I didn't receive any instructions, period, from ARB, and their website is useless. The factory service manual touched upon certain steps, but was lacking as well.
I tried for about 10 minutes to force these strut bushings in place, before I took em up into the kitchen and used a cheap knife to split em in half. Talk about a square peg in a round hole....


Tomorrow I'll torque everything down, and start the tear down on the front end. I feel more prepared for the front end, I have better instructions and all the replacement bolts/bushings on hand already no screwing around required.

I will say, doing this job without an impact wrench would have been miserable. The power wratchet and impact wrench make this a breeze.

ra33it

Well. Torsion bars are a real bitch.
I got em out, but it sucked. The tension bolts were really bound up, even after a few days soaking in pb blast. The new struts and t bars really make a huge difference. I'm taking it in to get an alignment tomorrow. Pictures soon

ra33it

Updates---

So I took the truck in for an alignment, and I asked for the guy to "check it for level" because I live in a pretty hilly area and I don't have a level floor. I told him I had it where I wanted to, front to back, because I figured the back was going to settle a bit....

Well I got the thing back and the guy has torqued the t-bars down to the max, to lift the front end up much higher.... woooops!! It bounced like a a low rider on every bump in the road

Lowered it down about 15 turns and did a driveway alignment......

I also replaced my u-joints this week, and had the fine folks at Drivelines NW rebalance it.

Dumpolina

Any updates?

ra33it

Yes! I have a box full of parts in my basement, but my company has been going through a merger and its been crazy busy. Girlfriends sister is getting married this weekend, and then all next week I'll spend my spare time doing a brake conversion and 4.88's...

Jaino240

Subscribed!

Hows does the rear springs ride compared to the new ones? PLanning to get OME rears

as well. Just looking for a little feedback first before purchasing mine, awesome thread so far .

ra33it

So, its been too long. Sorry guys. The company I work for was bought in Oct by a small software company, you might have heard of them...Oracle. We all had to reapply for our jobs the beginning of October, and thankfully I was rehired after the merger. its been, incredibly busy. The girlfriend has gotten laid off and then found a new job while we moved into a new house.... I haven't had a second to work on the truck because its been in constant use... but i have still been collecting parts for a -MASSIVE- update which it def. deserves, and soon!

I found a used Toyo Open country for 40 bucks, with enough tread for a spare. Mounted it up on a fifth alloy I got at Nix99 for 50 bucks, and voila, less than a hundred bucks for a full size spare (def. mandatory...!!).

Found a set of new loaded Supra Calipers online at Rock Auto, and decided what the hell, and bought em (paid way too much, but they are new in the box). Then I bought a Front Range full float rear conversion kit, while I was at it....Thank you overtime!

Bought front CV's, all the bearings and bushings I need, spindles, hubs, bj spacers, diff breathers, the works.

Once the full float kit shows up, I'm pulling the old rear end out, swapping in my 4.88 diff, new bearings, seals, axles, calipers+brackets, rotors and hubs.

Pulling the front diff, replacing with the 4.88, new cv's, ball joint spacers, and some bigger v6 calipers and rotors. Makes sense to do it all at once, and jesus, I can NOT wait to do it!

ra33it

I really like the OME springs, but they def. give the vehicle a stiff ride when its empty. With a full bed it drives great. My gf get extremely pissed off that I "don't see" speed bumps any more, and hit that doing 20-30 mph every chance I get.

My only complaint is the ass of the truck is pretty tough to level with these springs. I put on OME T-bars and shocks + damper in the front, and unless I torque the Tbars to the max, the rear is def. higher. With the t-bars that tight, the front end bobs and bounces really bad. To resolve this leveling issue i bought a set of BJ spacers from Wab Fab to lift the front end a bit more and take a bit of torsion off of the bars. The shocks look great, work great, and generally seem to be a widely approved product, tho def not for someone who wants a really plush soft squishy ride. I drive a truck, not a caddy, and I'm young & dumb

ra33it

On dec 15 I ordered the full float kit from Front Range Offroad Fabrication.
I ordered the kit, plus a proportioning valve and a bunch of odds and ends, up over 1000 bucks with shipping. Today is Jan 11 and they still haven't charged my card. I've called once to check on them, and see if there was a problem, and a second time to add an item I forgot on the order. Now, granted there was a couple of holidays in that time period, there has been no communication to indicate there is a backorder, hold up, machine time needed, nada. Blows my mind.

ProjectMcFly

Nice WRX. 08 or 09-10? I can't see the wheels in the pic.

How hard were the WRX seats to install? Or should I say, how safe do you feel they are? Did you get all 4 bolts mounted? If they're not all that difficult to do, I might have to pick up a set of 02-03 seats.

Mudd Duck 1

HAHA I found it...by accident but found it none the less. I read this thread a while back and wanted to find it again but no luck searching lol this time I'll subscribe.