1980 Toyota Pickup Build 2wd to 4wd

[J.Cole]

Those brackets are sweet. If it had regular 4 stud steering arms i would have had him get those. But since it has the six shooters I just opted to leave him the option to go back to a stock caliper / hub set up for whatever reason

 

[J.Cole]

Did a little bit of work on this thing over the holidays. Got the t-cases and 4wd trans put in and mounted, put a new clutch in, de smogged the 20r engine, and put a Marlin rear bumper on. I’m not too impressed with the marlin bumper. Price was hard to beat but the quality is lacking big time. At this point he’s waiting to get some funds up to have drivelines built. After that it’s time for a road test.

 

[Squamch]

What's issues with the bumper? Fitment? Welds?

 

[J.Cole]

What's issues with the bumper? Fitment? Welds?

Yeah exactly. Welds and fitment. The welds don't look good, either someone just started welding or doesn't care about their work. It was also supposed to bolt to the frame. Those holes didn't line up at all so i just welded it on in a few spots. It looks a lot better painted 😂

 

[J.Cole]

About due for an update on this truck. Got some more stuff done to it recently. I’ve been working on this one when I’m in between other projects. It’s worked out well and been a fun side project. Since I last posted I got the Marlin sliders welded on and painted, had drivelines made, trimmed fenders front and rear, put a Sky’s Offroad flat pitman arm on, and started to build a front bumper for it this past week. I’ll probably finish out the bumper and then wait to get all the parts stacked up for a new exhaust 🤗 here’s some pictures with some explanations.

Marlin rock sliders on and painted

Flex test to trim fenders. I tried to trim as little as possible and leave the factory flare on the front fenders. The front fenders are 4wd fenders. The bed is still the factory 2wd one so no flare on it.

Front and rear drivelines from Driveline Service of Sacramento. I’ve only ran drivelines from them and never had a problem.

I played the top and bottom of the from around the front spring hanger and added a piece of plate on the bottom of the back side that ties the frame rails together side to side and to the back of the spring hanger.

Ran to Ruffstuff and grabbed a winch plate to build a bumper around. I ended up cutting it down a pretty good amount.

 

[J.Cole]

The rest of the pictures of the front bumper progress. I need to bend a square stinger for it, add a hitch receiver then weld / paint it. Right now its just tacked together on the truck.

 

[Penetrode Offroad]

I need another 1st gen in my life.

 

[J.Cole]

I need another 1st gen in my life.

I've always wanted to build one for myself... one day 😂

 

[ToyodaAddict1980]

Bumper looks good, whole truck looks good.

 

[J.Cole]

Bumper looks good, whole truck looks good.

Thank you. I’m working on finishing up the bumper this week. Added a square stinger and some lights. I’m typically not a fan of stingers but it looks pretty good with the lights mounted inside of it.

 

[Hodgiemoto]

Yea really a clean and well proportioned build. Diggin it!

 

[J.Cole]

I finished up the bumper a couple weeks ago. Added a square stinger, hitch receiver, lights, and blinkers. Ordered a Smittybuilt winch which should show up next week. Also changed out the old oem headlights with some new led ones. Looks much better I think

 

[J.Cole]

This last week I did the classic GM alternator swap. Used a 12si 94 amp alternator from Napa part #213-4356, Trail Gear GM alternator bracket, re used the factory belt, new 4G wire from battery to alternator, inline fuse, and a new pigtail wired into the factory harness. Once I run the truck and confirm the wiring doesn’t burn the truck down, I’ll post the details of that. 😂 I removed the factory voltage regulator as well.

 

[ShitBoxSam]

What headlights did you put in there? look sweet

 

[J.Cole]

What headlights did you put in there? look sweet

Some Amazon specials. I believe these were the ones he got

 

[J.Cole]

Yesterday I finished up the new exhaust. Got a basic 2.25” exhaust pipe kit, Flowtech header, re used the old Magnaflow muffler, put 2 v-band clamps on it, and wrapped it since there are no heat shields under the cab. Got it started up yesterday and it sounded good. Quiet at idle but had some sound when you step on it.

Cut the original 3 bolt flange off to replace with a v-band flange

Next I need to figure out what’s wrong with the clutch. When I pulled it out of the shop yesterday it made a horrendous noise. Sounded like the starter stuck for a sec, then I pushed the clutch pedal in and it made more noises then the clutch wasn’t working at all 😂 probably gonna have to pull the trans next and find out what’s happening.

 

[McBastard79]

Sweet truck

 

[J.Cole]

Sweet truck

Thank you, it's come a long ways.

 

[J.Cole]

Got a few things done this weekend. Figured out the clutch problem. Turns out I was missing two bolts for the trans and that was causing the trans to flex away from the motor causing the clutch to not work. Added the two missing bolts and all is good. I drove it behind the shop and drove up onto some wood thats piled up.

Then today I got the winch installed. Had to trim the grill a little but I think it looks good tucked in there.

This week I’m gonna do a once over on it. I’m hoping to make it up to the Rubicon in a couple weeks for a shake down run.

 

[MT-TOY]

This truck is built awesome. I love the original brown and beater black together. Nice work.

 

[J.Cole]

This truck is built awesome. I love the original brown and beater black together. Nice work.

Thank you. This truck was the perfect candidate for a rock crawler. It was in a front end collision about 6 or 7 years ago now. He went to pick n pull and cut out the part of a front clip he needed and spliced it in. Which is the reason for the mismatched black / brown. I'll have to dig a pic up from around 2012 / 2013 when the truck was still stock and untouched.

 

[J.Cole]

Here's a picture of it from July 2012

 

[J.Cole]

Now that I’ve ran the truck a few times and let it sit without it burning to the ground, here is how I did the alternator wiring.

I used a GM 12si alternator from Napa part number 213-4356.

I ran a new 4G wire from the post of the back of the alternator straight to the positive terminal on the battery, with a bussman mega fuse inline.

There is two terminals for the alternator plug
1 & 2 (picture stolen from Billavista)

The #2 terminal is the remote voltage sensing terminal. This goes to the post on the back of the alternator with the new 4G wire going to the battery.

The #1 terminal is the excitation or "ignition" terminal. This goes to the yellow wire on the plug going into the factory voltage regulator which ties into the dash light.

Truck fires up and immediately starts charging at 14.2 or so volts. And the factory light on the dash still functions as it should. I hope this can help someone else.

 

[grapehead]

God bless you J.Cole. I've had an alternator sitting on my bench waiting to be swapped into my 87 4runner but all my wiring research kept yielding conflicting data, so I've been dragging my feet on it.

Short, simple, to the point, success. Now I've got something else on my weekend to-do list.

 

[J.Cole]

God bless you J.Cole. I've had an alternator sitting on my bench waiting to be swapped into my 87 4runner but all my wiring research kept yielding conflicting data, so I've been dragging my feet on it.

Short, simple, to the point, success. Now I've got something else on my weekend to-do list.

Awesome, I'm glad I can help

 

[J.Cole]

Got this thing up to the Rubicon over the weekend for its shakedown run and it went awesome. Drove it to and from the trail and put somewhere around 275 miles on it throughout the weekend. Went in Loon, ran to Little Sluice, camped at Soup Bowl, and came back out Loon. Couple of little things to add too and address but nothing too major.

A rear brake line got pinched by the rear shock and started oozing a little bit of fluid by the time we got home. Not enough to notice from the brakes but when we were looking around under the truck we noticed.

I want to trim the firewall / front can corner so the front tires don’t rub when it’s fully turned and flexed.

An e-brake would be nice. Probably gonna figure out a line lock or something. Since there’s rear disc brakes on the truck, the factory cable e-brake won’t work.

Overall I’m really happy with how the truck worked out. Definitely a successful first trip out. Here’s some pics.

 

[2 86s]

Great build, happy to see it on the trail and getting used!

 

[J.Cole]

Started on the front cab corner trim today. I got a majority of both driver and passenger sides cut out but they still need some final trimming. I called it a day today when the shop temp hit 104* 😅 gonna try to get the rest trimmed tomorrow before it gets too hot.

Getting ready to make the first cuts.

I would cut some of the corner then drive behind the shop and flex it on the wood pile and kept repeating and repeating

 

[J.Cole]

Great build, happy to see it on the trail and getting used!

Thank you, I hope to get it out a couple more times this summer.

 

[J.Cole]

I got the firewall trim all sealed up a couple weeks ago. I ended up cutting a pretty good amount out of it. Might need to add some bump stops in the future when the springs settle a little.

Went up to the Rubicon this past Friday to Saturday. It poured rain on us Friday night. Chart said 0.7” in total. Woke up Saturday morning to no rain and overcast skies. Was planning on going to Little Sluice before turning around. That was cut short when our buddy broke his front coil over. The first gen did awesome again. Got it up Soup Bowl fairly easily. Next time I want to get this thing to Buck and back. At that point I’ll feel pretty confident in it. I love this little truck, it’s so simple but it does so good on the trail.