Whats up YT!

I bought this truck in December and have been slowly going through it. Figured it was time to make a thread and track my progress.

I wanted a simple/bare bones work truck/daily driver. I looked for about 4 months on local CL and saw nothing but rust buckets and over priced pieces of craps. When I saw this truck I knew it was the one. 2 owner, 130k, factory AC and garaged for 90% of its life. I was amazed how clean it was in person for being a New England truck. The only major things wrong were that the entire exhaust needed to be replaced and the AC was inoperative so I made an offer and bought the truck.

I planned on taking care of the exhaust right away but mother nature had other plans. We got hit with the worst snow fall in the history of Boston this past winter. Not having a driveway to park in really sucked bigtime!






The truck really took a beating over the winter... with 12ft snow banks everywhere and no place to turn wrenches I just had to suck it up and get through it.

The roads around here were tough shape too. HUGE potholes everywhere! I hit several very large potholes and my little YOTA did not take it so well. I bent the craaaaaaap out of my passenger side lower control arm (pics to follow). After this happened I stopped the madness, parked the truck and started making a plan to R&R the front suspension. I call this part the 2wd IFS Total Rebuild!!

I had never done any major work to a Toyota before this point so a lot of research was needed to familiarize myself with the associated parts and terminology. At this point we were still getting buried in snow with at least 1 major snow storm a week. It honestly seemed like it would never stop snowing. Once it finally did and 5/6 weeks later the when the snowbanks shrunk to nothing I started putting my plan into action. I did all of this work parked next to a marsh in my neighborhood.



Finally parts started rolling in and I was getting excited to start tearing into the truck but of course old man winter still had some fight left in him. The first real Saturday I planned to work on the truck it started snowing, WTF! So I grabbed a pipe vise, took over the kitchen and started pre-fabbing whatever I could. The wife was PUMPED when she got home!







The rebuild of the front end went fairly smooth. My parts list included:

Used LCA and Upper A-Arms from TAP in (rust free) California x2
New Poly Bushings for LCA and A-Arms from LC Engineering
New Upper and Lower Ball Joints
New Upper A-Arm Brace and BJS from 4Crawler Offroad
New Idler Arm
New Tie Rod assemblies (inner/outer/sleeves)
New Center Link
New Steering Damper
New Bilstien HD's
New 25mm Torsion Bars from Sway a Way
New Pads and Rotors
Lots and lots of new nuts/bolts/hardware

Here are some shots of passenger side lower control arm when I finally pulled it off.








Notice the different angles of the ears that mount to the frame. Crazy!

Everything went together smoothly with the Drivers side being my learning curve. By the time I got to the passenger side I had a system down. The only real huge PITA was getting the front of the torsion bar splines out of their mounting bracket. The rears have a dust boot to keep it clean and dry, the front not so much. I soaked it for 2 days and still BARELY got it off by beating the crap out of it with a hammer. It was very noisy and I got lots of dirty looks from my neighbors. I took the other torsion bar to work, put it in a pipe vise and hit it with some heat from my Acetylene torch. It was night and day. Trust me... heat is your friend when replacing torsion bars.

Some more pics from the build...













I did IFS rebuild over a period of 3 weeks when ever I had spare time. It was a lot of fun and I have to say the truck drives amazing after! Took it to the alignment shop and also did some fine tuning of the manual steering box... waaay too much slop. If I did this to the '94 I had a few years ago I never would've gotten rid of it.

Some cool pics the night I finished...





I'm going to continue to update this with progress pics and future plans. Also am going to need help diagnosing some issues I have with the truck mainly hard starting when hot and clutch chatter only after driving for over an hour.

I ordered a header, pro flow system and high-flow cat from LCE. It should be delivered this week (hopefully tomorrow).

Stay tuned...

-Kev

 

I LOVE 2wd builds!!

Also love the enthusiasm! Keep it up!

 

Haha! Thanks. I've got a lot planned for this truck. Already having a blast with it. I've been having a hard time sourcing an SR5 Gauge Cluster. Any good places to look other than the classifieds here or EBay?

 

Do you have any junkyards nearby? I pulled one from a 4Runner at my local yard.

Otherwise, classifieds and eBay about does it!

 

Working on 2 wheel drives is much more easier in my opinion. Truck looks great and looks like you are getting quite a bit done. As far as your hard starting issue, I may have missed it but which motor you have? Welcome to Yotatech.

 

This thing is sweet. I remember thinking how cool the brand new third gen trucks were when I was in elementary school. I'll be watching your build!

Terry, you really think a 4x4 is harder to work on? I haven't ever had any 2WD truck, so I can't really compare. I think IFS 4x4 is maybe some extra weirdness, but I've always liked working on SFA 4x4's because you can get to anything on the underside easily, and you can drop a transmission or transfer case straight onto like a furniture dolly type situation.

I have VWs what kind of Audi have you got?

 

I also really like to see 2wd builds.

 

Thanks for the compliments on the truck. The motor is 22re for the record. It's the last batch before they changed over to the Tacoma at 1995.5

I'm still getting the hard start when hot and I'm also getting serious clutch chatter once driving for a bit. Weird thing is that when I first start driving the clutch is fine. I really hope the clutch isn't toast!

I was killing time before some work yesterday afternoon so I decided to pull the Carfax. Funny story! The seller told me it was a 2 owner truck and garaged almost all the time. Well that was just that... a story! This thing is soooo clean underneath it would make this a plausible history of the truck. However, the Carfax says different.
I am the 10th owner! It was first sold new in Arizona and spent some years there. It then went to California for about 10 years and then came to CT about 3 years ago. The low mileage is true and it's never been in an accident. All good news but nothing like the original story.

On another note... The exhaust from LCE arrived on my door step Monday. Header, ProFlow system and Highflow Cat. Also got new studs and EGR delete kit. Gonna tackle that tomorrow. Only thing I'm unsure of is what is needed to do to actually delete EGR correctly. Gonna start this tomorrow morning... Pics and update to follow.

 

Cabot, I've had a bunch of old Audis. I had a few 5000 Quattros, a 4000, a 20 valve 200 Quattro sedan and currently have 20 valve 91' 200 Quattro Avant. It's a never ending project. But WOW, what a car!

 

Very nice quality

 

LCE is top $$ for top quality.. Always great to work with

 

The whole system is top notch quality-wise. The header install was a breeze. The rest of the exhaust was a HUGE pain in the ass. I had a real tough time with it. Prob would've been a lot easier with 2 people. I'm convinced I fit it up wrong or I'm missing hangers or something. I'm just waiting on an O2 sensor and then I'll be able to take it out for a drive. Old O2 sensor was screw in type so I need the flange type.

 

That header looks really nice. I've yet to purchase anything from LC. I might get the EGR delete stuff because my EGR is just gaudy engine jewelry and
doesn't actually do anything. I've been eying their dual row timing chain kit for a while too...

Dang, dude... You've got all the all wheel drive. I've got two TDIs but haven't tried restoring or modifying anything VW yet... Just maintenance and small repairs. There are some awesome projects on TDIclub The coolest thing I've seen over there was probably where someone bought a euro half cut with a V6 TDI and swapped the drivetrain into a 4Motion Passat. It was all bolt in mechanically, but there was a lot of electrical. I've also seen a Quattro TT converted to TDI and hotrodded. You can really turn up the HP and torque on those little motors. There is someone around here or on pirate with an ALH vintage TDI in a pickup.

 

I've been nothing but impressed with LC engineering. Their products are high quality and they even bring their A-game all the way down to the customer service level. I've had many relationships with vendors over the years turning wrenches on cars and unfortunately this is becoming a rareity. They clearly have a passion for Toyota and I take my hat off to them.

I've done a lot of reading over at The TDI Club. Lots of smart people and a wealth of information over there.
In my opinion, I think Audis of the late 80's/early 90's are incredible cars. The inline five, AWD and turbo are what hooked me. Plus the fact that all the cars from this era are related in some weird way and parts can interchange across different platforms for an upgrade or creative fix is enough for any car enthusiast to appreciate. Total nerd ˟˟˟˟ lol!

If you're into TDI's check out the link for this motor swap/project thread. The site is 99.5% old school Audi but there are some insanely smart engineers and talented fabricators who frequent there.http://www.motorgeek.com/viewtopic.php?t=45645

 

Finished up the exhaust and EGR delete last night. Drove the car to work this morning with a grin from ear to ear. WOW! is all I can say! The throttle response and added power is AMAZING! The exhaust is a little on the loud/raspy side... I probably could've done without the high flow cat. Overall I am very happy.

Moving forward I will be addressing the no working

 

Finished up the exhaust and EGR delete last night. Drove the car to work this morning with a grin from ear to ear. WOW! is all I can say! The throttle response and added power is AMAZING! The exhaust is a little on the loud/raspy side... I probably could've done without the high flow cat. Overall I am very happy.

Moving forward I will be addressing the nonworking AC, trying to find Toyota bucket seats to swap in and putting on a 4x4 front clip.

 

What's up YT!

Been driving the truck regularly for a little over a month now. Had to go to an exhaust shop and get the LCE Pro Flow system tweaked a bit. It was rattling against the drivers side torsion bar. If I had to do it all over again I would've had the exhaust fabbed up by a local shop. The header is amazing quality and so is the Pro Flow system but the fit of Pro Flow system doesn't justify the price. Overall very happy with everything and LC Engineering is a great bunch of people.

Onto the clutch issue. I'm getting extreme clutch chatter after the truck has reached normal operating temps. It only happens when taking off in first and does not happen at all until after about 20-30 mins of driving. I'm guessing it is heat related.

I'm looking for some ways to trouble shoot. The clutch does not slip at all in any other gears at WOT. I've pulled the e-brake, put the truck in gear and let the clutch out, it immediately learches forward and stalls out. Also did visual inspection of the slave and nothing seems to be leaking. Searching has revealed similar problems but most are describing a leaking main seal which leaks onto the clutch while parked and gives the same symptoms only right at start up and goes until the oil is burned off. My symptoms are the EXACT opposite. I also read about tranny mounts and people replacing the slave and master cylinders which helped but didn't solve the problem.

The truck is 2wd and has 135k on it. I have no paperwork regarding a replacement so I'm assuming it's the original clutch. Any insight and/or troubleshooting tips would be greatly appreciated!

 

I have seen chatter when the front main bearing in your transmission gets some slop in it. Here is a link https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f199...l#post52176460 and on the next few pages that may help explain a little bit of it.

 

Update from the past few months...

Got a cheap steering wheel off of Craigslist and installed it. Got the steering wheel for $20 and bought an adapter hub for $35.





Chevy!?!

Also installed a brand new OEM grill. Another >$50 Craigslist find










The truck has been running well for the most part. I'm still chasing the clutch chatter issue I mentioned a few posts back. This is definitely heat related. As the temps have been dropping with the Fall weather on us now the chatter is almost nonexistent. This is very annoying.

Some bad news... Got in a little fender bender last night. If anyone has a lead on a passenger side 4x4 fender and hood in maroon semi local to Boston let me know.







Time for 4x4 fenders

 

As winter slowly moves out I'm starting to focus on the truck again. I managed to bend out the fender a bit and slapped on a new bumper and turn signals. That will tide me over till I can find an entire front clip to weld on so everything lines up again.

My current problem...

I tried installing an SR5 gauge cluster this afternoon. It's not going well. I need some help cause if this cluster is bad, I need to send it back as it was not cheap. The ad said it was from a 4 cylinder electronic speedo 4 runner. This is suppose to be plug and play from what I read. The 2 problems I'm having are:

1). The tach is frozen between 2,500 and 3,000 RPM.

2). The turn signals do not work.

Is the tach on the SR5 gauge fried?

I swapped back in the non SR5 gauge cluster and the turn signals still do not work. WTF!?! I checked the fuse in the kick panel and it looked good. Switched it out with a known to be working fuse, still nothing. What gives?

Thanks in advance! You guys here have helped me a ton with this truck