Progress check

[speedy]

Alright gentlemen, after 5 weeks of work getting the time to make it happen and hooking up with my welding buddy, I finished the welding on the front axle.


I managed to cut and rotate the knuckles, weld on a knuckle gusset kit, a diff guard, and a housing gusset and a ubolt eliminator kit. It took some time because I would do all the prep at my place then take it to my friend's place. At his house we are in the process of building a deck for his hot tub(it is San Marcos after all, hot tub=chicks), so I have had to put in work on the deck to get some welding time. Anyways I still have some work to do
Here is the rundown...
I finished installing the 5.29's in the front 3rd last week, now I am waiting for an Aussie I just ordered tonight to show up to finish it up. I have to clearance the knuckles a bit to fit the Longfield 30 splines sitting in the living room. I have to clean up the welds, brush down the outside of the housing, clean up the inside, modify a ubolt for the perch next to the housing, reassemble the knuckles with new wheel and knuckle bearings, paint all related parts, install the new longspline driveshaft kit hopefully on the existing CV front driveshaft(if not, the CV hits the rear and new one is ordered for the front), and install the new breather kit I got for the front and rear from Marlin.
Then I have to dissasemble the rear end, install the 5.29's in the rear that already has an Aussie, clean up that housing and possibly gusset it so it can hold a candle to the Robocop front axle housing I have created! I have to install the ubolt reversal kit, fab up the shock mounts, and reassemble the rear end.

Then I need to finish up the carb mods I am working on... I am in the process of installing a idle cutoff solenoid for the weber 32/36. I bought a tuning manual and will be changing out the air correctors and the carb's fuel pump from a single to a dual. I am doing the float bowl mod to close off the overflow that dumps sloshing gas into the intake and kills the engine on inclines so it will instead dump into a vapor canister along with lowering the float. Then I am going to adjust my Mallory fuel pump to a lower pressure like 2.5psi.
Now if I wasn't working 60 hours a week I might have this done in a week or so, but as it sits, I am looking at a month to get'r done. Fortunately the UPS guy has been nice to me and everything except the last Aussie locker is here.

Anybody want to lend a hand, I have Keystone light!

[live4yotas]

Man If I lived by you I would be over everyday helping you to try to learn a lil to fix my truck up. I have a 85 excab 4x4 thats bone stock now. I just bought my crossover steer kit, IFS steer box, box mount, front 5" all pro leafs, extended brake lines, trail gear 5" rear classic lift. Trust me I'm going to need lots of help to.

[speedy]

Aussie's in. Front axle is all but done. I need to set my steering stops and put some lube in the diff. I still haven't hooked up the driveshaft yet to see where it's at. That is going to be the big thing since it is the major reason behind the entire front axle rebuild. Monday I will take the rear 3rd out and put the new gears in it. The carb is off and I just need to find a NPT tap and die set so I can run my new vent to the vapor canister. The float is reset, the jets are adjusted(so far). I need to plug up all the current vents that spill gas into the carb at a angle. I should have the carb completed within a week and the rear end done in 2 weeks. It's about time, I am tired of driving the Dodge around!!!

[ediblecrayons03]

sounds like your moving along pretty quick for working 60 hours a week. heres a virtual pat on the back. and i hope for your sake, you get some hot tub time too ;-)

[speedy]

No hot tub time yet, but not a biggie since it's Africa hot down here right now. I did however finish nearly everything! Gears are in, axles are in, lockers are in, axle's done and on, carb is modified with a sealed float chamber and a new vent to a vapor canister. I did a 16 hour solo workathon to get the gears in the rear end. It wouldn't have taken so long if I didn't need to pull it apart 6 times to get the perfect pattern. I still need to modify the front driveshaft since it is now too short and needs a bit more working angle on the CV. The good news though is I now have a usable 5th gear. It runs about 3000 rpms on the freeway showing 75mph on the speedo which might be around 65mph although I haven't figured out the conversion yet with 5.29's and worn 33 1250 All Terrains. It still has some nuts at that speed and I could go faster but the driveshaft begins to vibrate just above that speed. I can hold my speed on the hills as well. I am pleased as punch after finishing what has turned out to be the biggest project I have done on a truck since the engine rebuild. The new angle on the front pinion after cutting and rotating it is going to work out great to keep vibrations down on the front driveshaft.
Here's the pinion angle

[speedy]

Driveshaft parts showed up yesterday. New ujoints, new centering section. I am going to do some grinding to increase the operating angle on the factory CV. I am going to the metal shop today to get a longer tube for the driveshaft and some frame sized square tubing.
Four inch Marlin long travel leaf springs should be here tomorrow or Monday. Now I have to figure out how to extend the bobbed frame 2 inches to allow room for moving back the shackle mounts for the longer springs without completely redoing the flatbed.
I am getting closer and closer to the point where I can be happy with the mechanics of the truck! Then it's time for the big one, tires!!! I am thinking SSR Radials, 35 or 36 1250's. If the rear flex will allow it, I will go for 1350's or 1450's. Flex comes first though!

[speedy]

Looks like I will be redoing the taillights. I ended up chopping off the bottom of the flat bed and welding on a 2x4 section to extend the frame. Sheet metal work starts tomorrow! I can finally get some sides welded on the bed along with some wheel wells.
Driveshaft is welded, but still needs to be grinded down and painted, then reassembled.

[speedy]

Here's a post rear lift pic, they haven't settled yet.

Notice how much taller it is than my roomie's poor little Rubicon.

[speedy]

Front driveshaft is bueno! The angle between the pinion and the driveshaft is nearly level. Objective accomplished with the cut and turn on the axle! The crappy rancho shocks I had aren't going to cut it anymore on the back with the new springs. 14" Bilstein 5150's with 170/60 soft valving are ordered. I have cut out all the holes for the rear lights in the 2x4 bar I put on the back to extend the frame. Brake lights and back up lights are in and wired. I am waiting on some LED turn lights and a new flasher to show up. I had originally wanted to incorporate the brake, tail, and turn light into one light but after messing with it for a while I decided it wasn't worth trying to rig it. The factory lighting isn't set up for this.
The next big issue is going to be the driveshaft. I will be waiting on a bonus and then I will get a high angle long spline CV driveshaft for the back to fix things up.
I can't wait to try out the front locker and Longsplines once it is all put together! I will be able to drive over my roomie's Rubicon although I doubt we would be friends afterwards!!

[speedy]

My avatar pic is showing the front at full flex! Now it sits like that in the driveway, ha ha ha ha!

[speedy]

So I finally finished the suspension and got to drive the beast around for a bit. Driveshaft vibrations were horrid and made driving the truck on the freeway a gamble hoping I wouldn't mess up any transfercase or pinion bearings so I took it on one last trip into town and low and behold, the engine ended up torquing over enough to snap the bolt on the K&N filter assembly I had. I lost the lower seat to the freeway never to be seen again. The rest is useless without it so I bought a smaller oval filter that wont have clearance issues.
The truck is in the garage again for another round of upgrades...
Rear 5150's are on. The 170/60 valving is the way to go, sooo much smoother. Those shocks are now going to be switched to the front. The front shocks are being sent to the rear and I am moving my upper rear shock mounts all the way to the center of the crossmember. Hopefully the angle increase as well as the increased travel will work out well with the stiffer front shocks.
I installed an LC engineering billet adapter to the intake to see if I can finally get rid of the vacuum leak issues I have had since the beginning with the Weber carb.
The big news is that the CV custom driveshaft is in a UPS truck somewhere on the way here now. The rear axle is off the truck and the rear spring perches have been grinded off. Just got done welding on two heavy duty recovery hooks on the new rear crossmember. Also just welded an extension onto the transfercase shifter that didn't have threads on it to begin with(not sure why not). So I now have a TC shifter knob. I also installed two heavy duty TC shifter springs so it wont pop out of gear on the trail. The engine has been chained down although the welds are a bit messy, I think the chain was galvanized and didn't weld well.
Finally, and perhaps the best news, 35 12/50 SSR's have been ordered and will be in next week. I am heading to Shiloh Ridge, TX with the boys on the 19th to see what the Toy can do now that I have finished the lion's share of the grunt work on this bad boy!
If anyone else is in the area I will be with my buddy in his Tacoma on new 35's(we still have a ton of work clearancing his truck for the 35's) and my roomie in his stock Rubicon, probably pulling the Ruby out of a mud pit!

[86taco]

Sounds sweet!! If you would of ground the galvanizing off the chain it would of welded better, wont give you air. You should do that when welding all galvanized. Let us know how it does on the trail.

[speedy]

Rear axle is back together except for the emergency brake cable which will need some attention since the levers aren't long enough to clear the springs now that the axle is rotated. Driveshaft is on. SSR's are on. The truck looks friggin awesome with 35" Super Swampers!!! Damn this thing is finally coming together. As soon as I get my camera back I will take some pics.

[speedy]

I actually made it 5 hours to Shiloh Ridge and back although I had to keep it under 65mph due to driveline vibrations. I cracked the radiator but poured some Stop Leak in it and wheeled for another day and drove it home yesterday. The front axle armor was invaluable as were the dual lockers and new SSR's. I did have a couple of minor rub issues with the tires. The front tire rubbed the shock reserve tube and the back of the wheel well a bit. The carb tried to stop me from climbing a couple of hills but I made it up everything I tried. It did much better than the last time before I did the float bowl mod.
We lost an alternator on my friend's 07 Taco TRD when he tried to do a 2wd contest and ended up going into a mud pit up to his headlight. We lost a CV shaft on a 97 Taco crossing another mud pit and then lost his ring and pinion trying to drive it hard in 3wd. His diff was experiencing way too much torque wrap due to worn out flexy All Pro rear springs. The springs have a nice S-curve to them now as well and will have to be trashed.
The 9000lb Warn was put to work at least a dozen times mostly pulling us out of deep deep mud on the trails. I didn't want to try throttling thru most of them since my entire drivetrain is new and built by me, so I got stuck in 2 good pits myself. I managed to get it off balance once on the trail and ended up on my side resting on the tires. It was still running so I just gave it a little go-juice and turned into the lean and got it back upright. Pretty cool, but I wouldn't recommend trying that at home.
My roommate came for his first off road trip in his basically new and completely bone stock Rubicon. He had no mechanical problems and made it up everything he attempted. Since the rest of us are Toyota guys, we were obviously disgusted by the Ruby following us and making it look simple. I will admit it is a BAD rig even stock.

[speedy]

Radiator has been replaced. 4.7 transfercase gears are in as of a couple of minutes ago. That took about a day and a half. Not a particularly challenging job, just a tremendous amount of work! Now I can get out of the truck and walk beside it. I sent the driveshaft back and had it rebuilt, which eliminated almost all of the vibrations. After a bunch of jet work on the weber I can now hit the freeway and keep up with traffic most of the time.
I was going to use the fuel injection off of the Celica I just got but the head on that engine is going to need a complete rebuild. I think I am tired of the 22R. I am going to wheel it for about a year then start work on a 302 swap.

[speedy]

Well it has been awhile since I updated this project so here is the new news. Rear diff armor is on after noticing I nicked a rock and dented the rear diff cover. Front receiver is on along with a custom removeable winch tray and I finally got the old Warn m6000 working that had been sitting on a shelf. I went with synthetic line and I will soon find out how much I like that. Hooked up a CB and built a fiberglass speakerbox for two 6x9's between the seats, sounds great! I am getting ready to hit up Barnwell Mountain next weekend to see how it does now with the crawler gears. I continue to have issues with the stupid Weber 32/36 and would say now that I DO NOT recommend this carb to anyone thinking to buy it new. I am going to put in a Holley Truck Avenger carb as soon as I can pull it off. I also just got a new Pro Tools tube bender and will be putting it to work as soon as I can swing the cash for some tubing. A full exocage is in the plans to protect my happy butt and my prized possesion from any damage. We finally put my buddy's 97 Tacoma back together from the last trip in August. We ended up going with a custom Deaver spring setup, bobbed the bed over a foot, and Bedlined his whole truck, it turned out awesome. We also just about finished putting a 4.5" lift on the Rubicon which will get some 33 12.50 SSR this week for the trip. Should have some pictures of our hopeful success in a couple of weeks. I am probably trailering my rig with the Hemi to eliminate any chance of leaving a truck behind like we had to last time, it is a 10 hour round trip to Gilmor with three trucks that have only recently been put together so we will see.

[Hoodlum]

Sounds great speedy. Got any pics? And Thanks for the update!

[speedy]

Just got back from Shiloh Ridge. Camping was a little cold for my Texas taste when it was below freezing the first night. The second trip in a row where my buddy broke his Tacoma and had to be towed out. This time he blew the engine in a mud hole, it was so deep that water crept up the exhaust when it was idling and got into the cylinders, unfortunately a complete loss on the engine. The good new is that my new front receiver mount worked great when we used the winch to pull his happy butt out of the hole. Had to link up to a big dually to keep from sliding into the pit but it worked great!
Here are some pics...

My buddy's Rubicon, we just got done lifting it and putting the tires on a day before this trip. Too bad I had to school him on at least 2 hill climbs

You will notice only the stub of a passenger mirror, what you can't really see is the huge dent that came with the tree that ripped the mirror off!!



Last but not least, after six months in a garage getting it bedlined, custom rear deaver spring-over, bobbed, and a custom rear bumper... the victim! This is the next day after considerable time with a garden hose.


Of course after a hugely successful trip for me and my Yota, I got home, sprayed it down, jumped back in for a quick trip to the store and of course the fuel pump is fried At least I made it there, wheeled for 3 days, and drove it home.

Scott

[speedy]

All my stinking pictures got messed up, not sure what's up but that sucks!!!

[Hoodlum]

May 23, 2008 1:00:16 GMT -5 speedy said:

All my stinking pictures got messed up, not sure what's up but that sucks!!!

What host are you using?