"The Blue Truck"

[rattlewagon]

How is your ride with the Monroe shocks? I used the same shocks on my Toyota and it rides stiff as hell.

Theyre fine for off road, great budget shock. this truck sees 0 road miles, so I cant comment on that part

Without having any actual data other than the "seat of my pants meter" , I would say they are about 1/2 as stiff as a Bilstein 5100.

 

[rattlewagon]

New valve cover gaskets, plugs, belts and threw some paint at the 3.4. Need to flip the exhaust over to the driver side and its ready to go in.

3.0 is only held in by 2 transmission bolts and the exhaust, hoping to get it pulled next time Im out there.

 

[rattlewagon]

Been picking away at it an hour a night. We have an event up here oct 30th "hallowheelin" and goal is to have it ready for that with virtually no free weekends.

3.0 is out. All of the under hood wiring has been pulled. Next step is the dash.

3.4 got my through bolted motor mounts from the 3.0, and Im just needing to flip the exhaust and it can go in. Going to reuse the 3.4 flywheel and clutch with the 3.0 throw out bearing.

 

[rattlewagon]

Motors in, t100 harness is in. Putting it back together one piece at a time.

used yotashop crossover I got from a friend. used 3.4 flywheel/clutch with 3.0 throw out bearing, through bolted 3.0 motor mounts.

Had to change the pigtail on the ignition to be able to reach the harness, besides that dash harness all hooked up pretty well

Using the 3.0 PS bolt and lines, it bolted right up to the 3.4 PS pump. 3.0 bolt on top/3.4 bolt on bottom

No pics, but used the 3.0 slave cylinder and starter.

 

[rattlewagon]

Battery tray to move batter to drivers side. Bolts welded to the bottom to go through the inner fender.

I forgot to take a photo before I painted it, but 2" emt exhaust welded to the collector with an amazon 02 sensor bung welded on.

Should start going together pretty quick. got delayed when the adjusters for the PS and alternator were frozen, so they had to be removed, heated and worked free.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Emt exhaust? Awesome

 

[2big bronco]

Emt exhaust? Awesome

Im 90% sure its the same shit as exaust tubing just in slightly different sizes.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Im 90% sure its the same shit as exaust tubing just in slightly different sizes.

I was thinking it might be a little tougher and obviously easier to bend if you already have emt benders.

 

[rattlewagon]

googler says EMT is .083 and exhaust is .065 or .049. These are all scraps from electrician friends job sites. We built the exhaust on the danger runner from EMT and flex pipe too.

Exhaust is finished, tucked the 02 sensor up above the shackle. I need to find a safe place to run the wires so they dont melt

Heater hoses, fuel hose, vacuum lines and intake finished. The list is getting smaller...

 

[rattlewagon]

Dash going back together.

Cleaned the wiring for the o2 sensor and fuel pump stuff up a bit.

When your using these as bolt through, make sure to clean the paint off for good connection.

Had to trim the ends off a bit on both, but found these two hose part numbers on a 3.4 fb page, and they really do work well. Napa 8453 for the lower and Napa 8249 for the upper.

Drove it today!

I get by with the help of my friends

rips pretty well! "racing" my buddys 22rp runner.



Back in the garage on its own feet again. Took me about a month to get this done. I need to clean the throttle body and idle air control valve, because it idling high. one small PS leak to fix and put the dash back together and Ill be ready for Halloweelin!

 

[rattlewagon]

Been out a few times now, truck is working awesome. This motor has been siting in my shed since 2018 waiting for my 3.0 to die, I should have swapped it in along time ago.

About finished with under dash stuff and almost ready for that to go back on, and figure out what to do about the hood.

Changed out my front bumps for the chevy style like the rear, did them the same as the rear (even used my old rear mounts) just way shorter.

They bump on to the ubolt plate. They hit just before the spring goes flat, based on the rear Im guessing that the bump will compress about 1-1.5 inches. UPDATE: on a hard stuff, they will collapse almost completely, could use a little stiffer one.

Wheeling again sunday , then the light parade again on the 10th, and our big yearly snow run Jan 21st.. Let it snow!

 

[rattlewagon]

light parade... ohh ahhh shiny.

Aired up 25 psi for pavement and my frame height went from 24" to 26"

Battery leds in the wheels and the rest is powered off of a 750 watt power inverter. even had an electric blanket for the wife and dog.

Got my dash back together and the oil pressure gage has stopped and I dont seem to have heat yet. Fans coming on, but still blowing cold. hoping it just needs to be bled a bit as it worked well before.

 

[Leatherhead_25]

Swap looks great! Is the stock Ps pump playing nice with you hydro assist out on the trail?

 

[TiTRD]

Nice work Caleb!

 

[rattlewagon]

Swap looks great! Is the stock Ps pump playing nice with you hydro assist out on the trail?

Thanks! No hydro assist for me yet. Its just the stock box and the 3.4 pump. But seems to be working well.

Nice work Caleb!

Thank you sir! Jungle on Jan 21st, comon up!

Got the hood on. Turned the front stops all the way out, used 3/8 spacers on the hinge and cut all the supports out. I added a 1/2" square from the scrap pile to support and bow the back of the hood up bit and just self tapered it in. . It clears the top of the engine by about 1/2"

Ditched the factory hood release for some pins

These spacers are the little grommets from the 3.0s fuel rail.

 

[TiTRD]

Thanks! No hydro assist for me yet. Its just the stock box and the 3.4 pump. But seems to be working well.



Thank you sir! Jungle on Jan 21st, comon up!

Got the hood on. Turned the front stops all the way out, used 3/8 spacers on the hinge and cut all the supports out. I added a 1/2" square from the scrap pile to support and bow the back of the hood up bit and just self tapered it in. . It clears the top of the engine by about 1/2"

Ditched the factory hood release for some pins

These spacers are the little grommets from the 3.0s fuel rail.

Depends on weather. I'll have son that weekend.

 

[rattlewagon]

Realized that my computer mounting was bad. The passengers feet kick the wiring and make the truck die (loose wire is another time)

I yanked out the factory heater core and blower for a smaller amazon heater, and re mounted the computer up higher and wires out of the way on the firewall. So far so good!

I need to get some ducts, going to have one run to driver/passenger feet, then one up to defrost. uses two little 12v fans to push the heat round, should work really well!

Old heater out:

New heater with excellent translated instructions

And heater and computer mounted, with tons more room under the dash.

filler up and keep on truckin

 

[Penetrode Offroad]

Fun looking truck.

 

[rattlewagon]

Fun looking truck.

Thanks! I have a good time with it..



Edited for a little more tech.

I made a new set of tire chains. I posted in the tire chain thread but ill put it here so this post is more than just a video.

My old set is in the middle, about 91 inches long and fits well on my 38s. The new set is about 110' long, so well cut them down a bit.

Removing the cam locks for two reasons. 1, I feel they pop open when dragged across trees/rocks and B, I want to put another cross piece right where they are..You could also add two quick links instead of undoing the whole side, but I only had a few quick links on hand.

I did this for all 6 cams on both chains, Started adding the extra pieces

stock vs doubled

cross pieces and the chain tool.

Use this side of the tool to open the clamps up. I would put one handle on the floor and use my body weight to help compress it.

This side closes them back up. Having this tool makes this go so much faster.

Few disposable bungies and were ready to go.

 

[rattlewagon]

My through bolted stock motor mounts were shot so I replaced them with some RuffStuff Toyota mounts. Not many more vibes than I had before and the engine doesn't wiggle anymore.

The rest of the can of the engine paint

And the paint chipped when I put them in

On the driver side I had to pull the oil filter and dipstick tube to get the engine mount off, and had to pull the starter on the pass side. These are supposed to keep the engine at stock height, but my old mounts were so shot I think it brought it back up to stock height and now my hood doesn't close anymore... so hoodless again for a bit.

Finished just in time to rip it around as the sun went down.

Going to throw some new bushing in the TG bombproof t case mounts and that should help everything stay solid.

 

[rattlewagon]

After nearly a decade on TSLs I found a deal on a set of 37 reds. Good sidewalls, still have tread.. Ordered up some 17" steelies from rough country and here we go.

EDIT: The rough country wheels were the cheapest I could find, and have a 4.5 back spacing, while the pro comps I made beadlocks from were 3.5. I did have to put 1" wheel spacers on the rear to keep them off the frame when flexing, and used a 1/4" spacer in the front to get the wheel off the caliper, but the the more back spacing helped with my scrub radius, so I just did the smallest spacer.

Two wraps of gorilla taped the beads and put them on the rims.

Excited to give em a try.

 

[rattlewagon]

1 year on the 3.4 swap and it it doing great.

The reds are AMAZING in the rocks, place where the swampers would stop grabbing, the reds just pull it right up. However, its been so wet and sloppy, that without the swampers, I cant GET TO the rocks. We found a magic combo of sticky treps in reverse on the back and reds on the front. We call it mullet stickies.

Snow on the ground now so its time for them to come off and the swampers and chains going back on. Hopefully next summer is dryer and I can use all 4 reds.

New amazon rock lights to finally replace the harbor freight led switches. Haha. I had real street glow neons under the dash from back in the day, but one broke so they were replaced with LEDs.

 

[Leatherhead_25]

Reminds me of the early 2000's when everyone had tsls in the front and boggers in the back

 

[rattlewagon]

I needed to replace a broken hub stud, and figured it was a good time for an upgrade. I removed the 3/8 stud and cone washer in favor of a 7/16th stud.

a 1.25 length was just about the perfect length as the stock length, the allen heads so you can still get the wheel on.

Drilled all the holes to 3/8, then to 25/64th, which was the size the tap called for.

Tapped to 7/16 -20

Hubs needed to be drilled to 29/64th to clear the 7/16 stud. It takes up just about all of the taper, really fits the larger bolts well

I ran into a little problem here as I could not drill through the TG chromo drive flange. Even bought a "hard metal" bit from the local hardware store and didnt touch it. So I went back to locking hubs with chromo gears for now. I did have to drill the back of the hub out too to match the extra dowel pins from the drive flange.

On and torqued to 70lbs. Absolute thrilled to have gotten rid of the cone washer here.

Here was my parts list form mcmaster carr, it was like 55 to the door for the bolts and taps, even with buying the bolts in a 10 pack.

Bunch of wheeling coming up this winter, and i must have ginxed my self with the last post because the 3.4 either cracked a head or is starting to have a head gasket go.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

I wonder if you could use a carbide burr bit on a die grinder? Would take forever if it did work though.

Have a local machine shop you could ask them about it? Might not be crazy expensive

 

[rattlewagon]

Oh I like the die grinder idea! But yes, will bring to a machine shop friend in town to try first.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Oh I like the die grinder idea! But yes, will bring to a machine shop friend in town to try first.

It might just eat up the bit, but maybe worth a try

 

[rattlewagon]

Headed down to Mass for the annual Northeast Toyota Crawlers Club meeting this past weekend. They didnt have much snow but I left the chains on anyway but apparently they hooked a hopped a little to hard.



Took out the rear output on the t case, a u joint and bent a rear leaf spring... oof. But I was able to drive out still in front wheel drive.

Took it apart Sunday.

I had to cut off that spiral gear and the bearing. The shaft was broken and not connected to the 4wd gear, but WOULD NOT come out and that black spiral gear would not move.

I would love to find an RCV chromoly output if anyone knows where one may be. Otherwise I have a stock one to put back in.

 

[SKULLYOTA]

Cool build! Reminds me of the good old days.

 

[Sluggy]

Trail gear is the only output that I know of these days... and it's way over priced.