Ed if you get some of that purple power be careful it will take the skin off your hand ask me how I know....the parts are looking good!!

 

Thanks Chuckar, hopefully I'll finish painting up parts tomorrow so I can finally start doing some reassembly.
Oh, and thanks for the warning on the purple power, it sounds like some pretty potent stuff!

 

Well I've just been cleaning parts and painting them as of late. I got the front axel housing painted, I painted the IFS wheel hubs. All I have left to paint is the front 3rd member housing and one brake caliper. I'm still waiting on my knuckle wiper seals, and I just ordered some FJ60 front rotors, they should be in tomorrow, I'll just have to drill the new FJ60 rotors to match the IFS wheel hub bolt pattern and then I can start reassembling the front axel. This afternoon was rainy, it's like we can't get 2 nice days in a row, so since I couldn't work outside, I came in and finished painting my Aisin hubs. I have to give credit to Space-junk's write up, I probably would never have gotten these back together! Here's a link to his write up for anyone who might need it:

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...ild-up-158644/


Here's some pics of the Aisin's (same hub in both pics, just differnt lighting):


Anyone got any tips on how to get rid of the rust on the hub housing? It was 10x worse than in this pics, I removed most of it, tried steel wool, 500 grit wet sanding, maybe I'm being to picky, this is about as good as I could get them:

 

I got my parts today from Addicted Offroad. I got my shock hoops, IFS steering box mounting kit, 18mm x 120mm front spring hanger bolts, and my knuckle wiper seals and rock ring kit.



I also went down to O'reilly's and got my landcruiser rotors that I ordered yesterday. I was a little reluctant to start drilling hole in my brand new brake rotors, but by the time I got to the second one I had it down pretty good. I found that by lining up the IFS wheel hub on the rotor where I wanted it then spraying some paint down the threaded hole of the hub to mark the rotor worked the best. It made it alot easier to find dead center of where I needed to drill.





I also got the front spring hanger holes drilled out to fit the 18mm bolts



The only thing really holding me up are the springs. I bought new center hole bolts for the springs, but three leaves on each leaf pack have smaller diameter holes that I need to drill out to fit the bolts I bought. The springs are such hard steel it just burns up my bits. Tried cutting fluid, no luck...any suggestions?

 

I got a little done today, finally got the the center bolt holes in the leaf springs honed out enough to fit the bolt through, I kept burning up drill bits, so I ended up using my dremel and a grinding bit. I got the axel housing bolted up, and the weight of the 4runner down on it...I ended up only using 6 leaves instead of the 9 I'd originally planned for my RUF spring pack. It sitting pretty high, I'm hoping it will settle ALOT once I get the 302 in it, right now it looks like I could fit some 40" IROKS under it, lol.

 

Nice, looking good, Seating a little forward? Maybe the picture. But like I said NICE....Bill

 

Hi Bill, yeah the axel is forward aprox 1-1/2" it looks like it is more in the pic. I think the shackle angle will improve once the motor is in and hopefully it is'nt super tall in the front since I'm only running 33's! Hows the pickup coming along, you get your motor back yet?

 

Looks liek the axle will be done soon. Congrats, bet you are looking forward to a test ride soon.

 

Hi Terry, yeah I'm hoping to get the axel done today, I should have had it done yesterday, but I had to go help my brother-in-law do some work on his house. I have to help him again today when he gets off work, so hopefully I'll get it done before going over there. The only thing I see holding me up would be the brake calipers, since I never got around to cleaning and painting the second one, LOL. Yeah you are right, I can't wait to get this thing on the road for a test drive!

 

I figured I'd go ahead and post the little bit of progress I made yesterday. Here is a pic of the difference between a "stock" wiper seal and one of TG's "Trail Safe" wiper seals.



^^^here is a pic after I got the wiper seal installed. It is alot harder material and kind of difficult to stretch over the knuckle ball, but once installed you can really see what a superior job it does of keeping grease in and contaminates out. Using the TG wiper seal eliminates the need to run the "felts" ...much better product IMHO, I'll keep you updated after I get some miles on them!



OK, enough teaser pics, I got to get back to work, lol.

 

Small update. I got the front axel finished, except the brake calipers, I still need to do a small amount of grinding to clearance the caliper so it is centered with the Landcruiser rotors. I couldn't resist throwing the new tires and wheels on, I'm hoping the front will settle about 6" once I get the motor in, right now I have 14" between the tire and fender. Here are some pics.



I still need to move the steering box forward, I'll probably wait till after I get the motor in and the springs settle more.



My father-in-law picked me up some shorty headers at a yardsale yesterday for $20... They dump out a little lower than the manifolds I was going to use, also the collector is bigger, 2-1/2 or 3 inch instead of 2" that I was running. I might just run the stock manifolds for now and upgrade to the headers later.



here is a pic comparing the stock manifold to the header.

 

Wow Ed that looks great it should drop a lot seeing how you still have everything to put back in keep up the good work!!!

 

Go Ed,that thing looks friggin awsome.I dont know if you are gonna get it to settle 6 inches.Oh well, thats a good reason to build yourself a badass bumper that has some weight to it.Did you endbup useing those springs you got from me?

 

Thanks Chuckar, Yeah I think it will settle quite a bit, I was jumping up and down on the front end and the leafsprings fill pretty soft.


Thanks Brian, after seeing it sit that high, it makes me wish I had bought some 37" tires instead of 33's!!! Lol, yeah I want to build a plate bumper eventually, but will probably run the smittybuilt that came on the 85' for now. Yeah those are the springs that I got from you, the first 3 leaves are your old ones, then the next three are off the 85' and I pulled out the 3 Chevy Luv springs that were in the pack. I think once I get the motor, tranny and T-case in (hopefully this coming week) and the front settles, I will just make the rear match the front.

 

Just a quick side note, I tried test fitting the headers that my father-in-law got me for $20 (on the 85' parts truck, the 302 is still in it) and the way they dump out is directly into the frame, so I won't be using them





Monday I'm going to pull the 302 out of the parts truck and start prepping it for paint. I should be getting my new throw out bearing on Tuesday...I'm going cheap and not replacing the clutch since it "felt good" and wasn't slipping or anything. Then I still need to mock up the engine in place and build some new motor mounts for the frame.

 

Where did you mount the radiator at on the 302 swap

 

I haven't actually swapped the 302 in yet, I'll be doing that this week. The 302 came in a 85' pickup that I basically bought for the motor, NWOR Bellhousing/tranny, and the front axel. The previous owner of the pickup had cut out the grill and a little bit of the hood to make the radiator fit on the outside of the radiator core support. He was running 2 electric fans on the inside where the radiator normally would be.


This set up worked fine at freeway speeds, but not so go in town, but I definately didn't care for the appearance! I'm still deciding on what to do for a radiator. I know of one place in town where I live that can build custom ones (supposedly at a reasonable price) and I'm going to check into that, the other alternative is to go to the local pick & pulls and start measuring to see what fits. OneIwilly told me to try a S-10 4.3 radiator, I still need to check into that also. My main goal is to keep it as stock looking in appearance as possible and not resort to cutting the core support, unless I have to.

 

Now you can move it around again. Seems like when they cant be moved they get in the way of everything. Starting to look like a truck again. To bad about the headers not working. I dont blame you for not changing the clutch, if it is good go with it, allows for spending elsewhere. Looking good.

 

My headers are in the way of the starter for my 302, the starter is too long, any ideas?

 

Thanks Terry, yeah I was a little bummed out about the headers, hopefully if everything goes according to plan the 4runner will be ready to fire up by this weekend. Here is a list off the top of my head of things I need to get done:
1. pull the motor out of the 85', clean and paint it (I'm going to do that today)
2. finish cleaning up the tranny/t-case and put it in (going to do that today)
3. get a new throwout bearing (should be in tomorrow)
4. install the motor (I'll do that tomorrow)
5. get my steering box mounted further forward (I'll do that after the engine is in)
6. install front brake calipers and brake lines
7. figure out what radiator to use
8. I need to find a gas tank (going to use the one out of the 85' just to get it running)
9. hook up the exhaust/ other odds & ends I'm forgetting

You can try to find stock exhaust manifolds from a wrecking yard (like I have pictured in in post #95... that is what the PO was running on the 85' pickup I bought and it cleared the starter). Those manifolds can be found on old f150's or Ford LTD/crown Victoria's, or I think they even make reproductions. Or you can look at Northwest Offroad (NWOR) they make custom headers for Ford and Chevy V8 swaps. Or you might even look into replacing your starter with a smaller one, NWOR sells those for the 302 also. If you're on a tight budget, used stock manifolds are probably your best option, that's what I'm going to use, but I have the entire exhaust system off the 85' so it's not going to cost me anything. Good luck!