Alrighty. I bought a beat up/slightly built up '84 Toyota recently. Previous owner built a truggy style rear cage, and its lifted and on 35's. Supposedly it has lockers in both axles but I havent verified that yet, dont really feel like pulling the third members. Thats the good, heres the bad/sketchy. I have to swap in a new engine, previous owner blew a rod threw the engine case, and also managed to break the transfer case. Need to figure out what to do with the Torsion bar until I get crossover steering.

Ive got an engine and transfer case already, so hopefully I can at the very least get it running. Started looking up the items I will need to fix up the front axle and steering setup. Hopefully it will be a good lil project to keep me busy, get me more into mechanic work, and keep me from beating up my Ford Ranger (thought I have a few things I want to upgrade on it still) now that I have an off road toy. Pics to follow.

Definitely want to document the rebuild here, and also seek your advice and flames on the truck and the work that needs done to it.

 

Didnt get a picture of the carnage in the engine bay or the xfer case, not really relevant.


The truck, as it sits in my garage for now. The green flames are only painted on one side. Probably not going to correct that...


Cage/spare setup. Its a lil rusty, I may want to take care of that one day.


Front suspension and steering


Front suspension and steering as seen from the other side.


One side of the rear suspension. Is it just me or is the shackle/leaf spring setup kinda sketchy looking? Spring packs look flattened out...

 

Ive already got the drivelines disconnected from the transfer case. Just waiting to borrow a jack from a friend so I can swap the transfer case. Outta curiousity, the original transfer cause is the one that has the stick for it on the transmission. The one I have to replace it is a newer one that has the stick on the transfer case itself. Other than probably having to cut the hole for the stick, this new transfer case should bolt up and work all the same, right?

 

Thats actually a bitchin bed.
And i usually really hate flames but their tolerable.
Those rear shackles look a little spooky.
But looks like a fun project!

 

i see a set of Marlin springs in your future. lol ditch the shackle.

ditch the stock steering for crossover.

oh and the smittybilt front bumper lol

 

Yeah the rear shackles gotta go. I bought this truck built up to where its currently at. Cant claim none of the work. I love the truggy bed, except its going to be interesting seeing how I can get all me and my passengers camping stuff + necessary trail gear all packed into this thing when the time comes.

I want to get different leaf springs for the rear and obviously different shackles. I dont like how flat the leaf springs are. According to the previous owner though, no problems in that area from his experience. But this was also the same guy who said this was an '86 Toyota with a SAS... yeah.

 

Meh, the front bumper will do for now. I have bigger fish to fry. After I get it running, saving for an IFS steering pump, bracket/frame brace, and the crossover steering kit is the very next thing on my list.

Going to need to re-gear it someday too. Still has 4.10's according to the previous owner. They will do, but seeing as how I cant trailer this thing to any trails, it will be fun driving it at highway speeds, if it even gets that fast lol.

 

you could always extend the bed about 2ft lol



i'm a fan of bedspace lol