Since I got the white runner to my dads the berry has been put on the back burner, and since I live where I work, it only gets driven about 50 miles on the weekend and that is to my dads house to work on the white one.

But all in all she is doing great have had no problems at all. I'm planning on trying to go to 3 or 4 offroad club meetings in june so I can actually find some cool people and take her to strech her legs, so to get ready I pulled my spare front axle out of the pile of parts today, and will try and tear most of it apart tomarrow morning, and will slowly work on it over the weekends, will be nice to have matching gears to actually use my 4wd.

 

Haven't done much lately, worked on the front bumper a little and did an oil service. Besides that nothing, except today my ebrake cable where it attaches to the pull handle snapped. Not sure what I'm going to do yet.

 

Driving home today I started to smell burnt clutch, so I guess I'm going to replace my clutch soon, which is good since I'm going to piano in sept. For the jamboree. Also on the way home my drive line decided it didn't want to be apart of my truck, the u-joint at the transfer case went out thankfully right before an exit so I was able to pull over. The drive line is fine, but the flange that bolts to the case looks pretty bad will find out when I take it off later however I think I have a spare at my dads so I'll grab that one and some joints this week. Thinking I may want to build a horse collar to prevent my driveshaft from falling all the way if this happens again. Kinda sucks this is my 2nd u joint in the same spot in 3months, all normal driving.

 

You might try TG's Creeper U-joints, they're a little more expensive, (around $40 ea.) but they're rated at like 4700 ft/lbs of torque. I've been running them for over a year on my rear driveline, and they're still holding up.

 

Well I replaced the u-joint a couple days later, 95% sure it was do to a lack of lubrication on my behalf.


Since then I haven't done much been working on my dads and me tow truck, 2 weekends ago I started to weld a truss on my spare axle housing on top and bottom, also welded nuts inside my steering stops and notched my housing for my e-locker. Still have lots of welding on the Truss's but I'm make Sir to do a little at a time to prevent warpage, think I'm going to put the axle together this weekend then finish welding the truss.

Also bought some 35x12.5x17 tires all 4 have around 30% but were only 160 including gas. Then just an hr ago I bought an 88 rear end with 5.29 open gears and stock 05 4runner 17x8 rims. Guy wanted 300 for the axle and 150 for the rims on clist. I offered him 400 and he said OK and we set a place and time to meet, got to the place 15mins early then the guy called me and told me he couldn't get the 1.25" spider tracks wheel spacers off but for 450 I could have them, told m I had no use for them so we agreed that I would buy the axle and return the spacers. So he shows up with a badazz 87 runner all decked out 1tons Arbs the works, we talk for a bit load everything up and he tells me I can just keep the spacers, so awesome.


I'm going to the pismo jamboree next month, and have a ton of stuff to do.
1.build front axle
2.install front axle
3.gear and locker install- now just locker install(now have a set of 5.29s in the box for spare)
4.rear axle swap
5.clutch swap
6.tire swap
7.finish rear bumper(hi-lift and jerry can mount)
8.finish front bumper(winch any lights)
9.OBA
10.remove a leaf from all my leaf packs
11.clean
12.pack

 

Having a list made up will speed things up. When you are in the shop, half the things you will forget. Pismo sounds like it will be a great time.

 

Work has kept me really busy so I'm not going to have everything done on my list, but this weekend me an my brother took the Chevy springs out of the rear and pulled a leaf to make it a 2wd pack then notched the spring hanger because the springs were hitting the hanger, then today we took the front diff out and put the open 5.29s in the front and put the axle back together then swapped a leaf out of the front pack to soften in a bit.

I've only been able to get the winch mounted in the front but haven't been able to cut the hole for the cable, so no winch or lights.

Plan was to swap the front axle out but a couple weekends ago I found out the 5.29 diff I got is a v6 and the spartan locker I have is for a 4cyl so it won't work. So I decided to leave the elocker in the rear and run the bent front axle that way I don't have to worry about bending it at pismo. I still plan to work on the rear bumper next weekend so hopefully I get a lot done.

 

So I went to pismo didn't hang out with any yota guys, didn't know how they all were meeting so I just had a good time with my buddies for the weekend. Bent the crap out of my front axle Friday and drove home Sunday night 8pm-3am long drive with the bent housing, had to cut my tie rod when I was down their to get the truck to toe in then after driving it for a few hrs with no driver shock at 45mph we found a way to install the shock with out the tire hitting it then was able to safely drive 55mph so we hopped on the freeway but by then we had taking back roads towards i5 and man is i5 a crappy freeway down south, the road is so bad I can't believe it. But still had a good time.

Before the trip I was able to make a jerry can mount on the rear bumper will find some pics. 2 weekends after the trip drove the runner to my dads and switched axles. Will finish beefing this axle up. But its already stronger, the last axle must of been from an 83 since it only had the half truss on the bottom and my new one has the full truss making it an 84-85 I think.

Done nothing since, been working on a project truck between me and my dad, an old 67 Chevy tow truck that looks kinda like cooters the dukes of hazards, will be taking it to all the car shows next year just to be different since you don't seem them anymore.

On other news got me some used 2000 4runner calipers and rotors. So i will be doing the brake swap soon.

 

Wow, sounds like you've been really busy! Sounds like Pismo was fun! Look forward to seeing pics of your rear bumper build. The 67' tow truck project sounds pretty cool!

 

The tow truck moving my dads 67 around the shop field

 

Thanks
This is the only pic I have right now



Tearing the old axle down before the trip to put a matching gear diff in it


The only way I was able to get the long axle out


And the start of the new axle

 

I like the bumper and jerry can holder, looks good! Your front axel is coming along nicely, did you make your own axel trusses for it? Looks great!

 

Thanks, yea the trusses are from some 3"x3"x.120" square left over from an old cherry picker, now that it is all put together I need to finish welding the 2 trusses pllus make some knuckle ball trusses. I also cut the diff cover off the old axle and will weld it to this axle.

I know the bottom truss I welded on limits my ground clearance and is bad for rock crawling, but I don't plan to do any serious rock crawling, id rather have a housing that I don't need to worry about.

 

So when I replaced the axle I cut the front diff armor off and the stabilizer/assist mount off the top. Before I had a piece of scrap metal welded to my tie rod which was stupid because you were only allowed to adjust the toe in full turns, so today I bought some u-bolts and made a bracket to bolt to them then welded the stabilizer mount on top of the housing then bolted the brackets to the tie rod, will see how it feels when I drive home.

Still need to buy shocks but want to build new shock towers will hopefully have home built towers on it next weekend.

Did find one issue today my drag link hits my leaf springs when turning hard left, might have to get a flat pitman arm, have one idea ill try nexxt weekend will see.

 

Replaced my broken muffler today, it had 2 golf ball sized rust holes in it. Being cheap and wanting it done quick I took the one off the white runner.

Then flipped my drag link because for some reason the left hand thread tie rod end has a recessed end making the drag link lower causeing it to hit my leaf spring when turning left, not sur what happened but it started after pismo. But after flipping it, its now working fine.

Last weekend I started building new shock hoops, I got one hoop welded and the other one ready to weld. They are a little crude since I don't have a pipe bender so I just cut the pipes at 45s and welded them so they are square, but they will still work.

One I get my shock hoops on I can get new shocks then replace my knuckles and brakes, and since ill have most of the axle torn apart ill probably swap rear axles and put my elocker in the front axle.

 

I always liked the old chevys and liked seeing them posted. Looks like a rough way to get the axle out. Must of been a hard hit. Things happen.

 

Spent turkey weekend working on the runner. Took the elocker out of the rear and put it in the front, and the front diff in the rear. Replace the rear axle, upgrade my front brakes to 2000 4runner rotors and calipers. Upgraded my brake booster to one from a 97 4runner and a master from a 95 4runner. Then deleted my lspv and put in a manual one.

Its like driving a whole different truck, the stopping is in believable.

 

Driving my truck around, and finding out my second nature driving is stopping me 100ft before the stop. No more needing to down shift or mash the pedal, now just light pressure and it stops smoothly and perfectly.

 

Nice work on the brake upgrade! That's on my to do list eventually.

 

yea me too, i need to quit saying it and do it haha