Project Joining the Dark side!

So i bought this fine 91' toyota 4runner a few weeks back. And after the purchase decided to revamp it and get everything 100% before taking it out on the trail. But after i started tearing into it myself i started to relize i was in over my head on the knowledge portion of things. So i called up the Crash man (Mike) and asked him to help me out with things and so its been at his shop since then getting a nice overhaul!:awesomework:

Some specs on the rig when i got it:
-91 4runner body, back two windows chopped off and a custom top made for it.
-Sitting on an 81' toyota pickup frame
-81 toyota 22R motor
-5 speed manual trans
-triple top shift transfer cases on a bud built cross member
-Dana 44 front axle, with ARB air locker, chromoly shafts and CTM's
-Dana 60, hybrid rear axle with a detroit locker, and toyota outers:eeek:
-Disc Brakes all around
-Had 3 weld on beadlocks (new 17"ers in the works:awesomework
-Had 35" boggers (new tires in the works)
-No seats
-and an exo cage (eventually going by by and getting a Crash built internal one:awesomework

Im probably forgetting something but you get the idea

Here are the few pics i got before it went off to CrashFab:

















Im sure Kevin has some pictures of the rig too somewhere:awesomework:

And now its Crashes turn to update this thread as things are happening to it

Well sam loaded the rig and brought it over--and it was like walking on egg shells to get it off and into the shop with out the steering falling off :haha:

So what's the run-down of things being done to it?

crash said:

Well sam loaded the rig and brought it over--and it was like walking on egg shells to get it off and into the shop with out the steering falling off :haha:

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You think that was bad:haha:, try getting it off the trailer when it was broken:haha:

Well the first thing I did was get the front on jack stands and pull the front wheels. Once I saw what I did I went and ripped the arms off the knuckles. The passenger side wasn't hard--it litereally fell off.

I was trying to figure out the steering arms





The arms were some odd homebrew things that were almost 1.5" thick, and each arm had been cut and rewelded.

Here is the pitman arm--which really ins't that bad--the hiem bolt is in double sheer and looks to be solid.






Here is the passenger steering arm. The studs had been broken and were broken when sam brought it. Somebody had also put helicoils in the knuckle which I have never thought was a good idea. I also found somebody had drilled the arm and into the knuckle and ran a steel pin down thru it--ya that didn't work. The holes in the knuckle were also stretched/oblong--this knuckle is done.




The passenger spring was also a mess. Both u-bolts were bent to ****, the driver side was ok.




The rig has hydro assist also--but the ram is trying to push(bend) the tierod as much as its trying to push it side to side--I will have to rework that.


One thing funny about the arms, each hiem had a 1.5" spacer between the hiem and the arm to raise everything up--all of that was loose too. At this point something looked wrong. I threw an angle finder on it



Ya--thats 2 dgrees of negative caster :eeek:

TTF Fabrication said:

So what's the run-down of things being done to it?

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make it stable/trailworthy without redoing a whole lot.

So I went and pulled the springs up off the diff and pulled the huge shims off. I also found the passenger spring pin in 3 pieces, no wonter the springs were all over the place. So I went and got the housing sitting at 7 degrees of positve caster now. So at this point I decided to start looking over other areas that needed attention.

So one thing that caught my eye. I was looking over the motor and found only 2 bolts holding the driver motor mount to the motor--and those 2 bolts were loose. So I went and jacked up the motor and pulled the motor mount (one of those polly type of mounts). Well I found why one of the bolts was missing.



The one hole was done and you can see the cracks in the motor. Somebody had tried to repair it by putting some kind of sleeve in the hole (not a helicoil). Well I was able to clean the other 3 holes and reinstall the mount with only 3 bolts. It shoukd hopefully hold.

Sam had also wanted a winch put on. Well the bumper was setup for an 8274.

So I took some measurements. I had to notch both side plates down inside the back of the winchplate to get the winch as far forward as I could. The one down side to this was it put the rear winch mounting bolts right over the lower support brackets (2 mated 1/2" plates). Well I had to hole saw 2 holes into the plates (bugger). Well I finally got the winch installed.



The winch came with brackets to mount the winch box to the top of the winch supports. I have never liked having the control box right over the winch to where the cable could easily smack the bottom of the box. So I went and made brackets that served 2 purposes. Not only does it mount the box but also gives the core support some strength since all the center supports that come off the non exhistant latch are gone

Once the winch was mounted I also ran all new wires and replaced the in cab winch switch.

Another thing that needed attention was the main power supply and ARb compressor (it was a mess)

The first thing was to actually fix the battery mount. So now the battery was actually mounted I installed new marine style batter post's (I use them alot of rigs)



So I went and added a main power stud/cental breakoff for all the power feeds. I then made new cables and ran all main power feeds to the junction





The grounds were also in dier need so I also made new cables (battery to body, body to frame and frame to motor)



Sam you will remember what this messed looked like :redneck:



The last thing was to fix/redo the arb wiring. There was a couple smoked wires and a fuse holder also melted. So once fixed I went and ran the system---the arb is now fully functionable :awesomework:

So next it was time to look at the steering again. I had sam grab a cooler since who ever had it before had "2" of those stock toyota coolers (the one thats just a U shape piece of tube). So I found a good spot and made mounts



I also cut the zip ties holding the res tank to the wiring loom :redneck: and looked over it to mount it better. Well I found it was badly bent and leaking.

So I dug around my stuff and found my spare res tank. I went and made up a new mount and mounted it on the fenderwell




Sam---get me a res tank for the power steering (84-90 pickup)

crash said:

Sam---get me a res tank for the power steering (84-90 pickup)

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I will get one today at work:awesomework:


And this is why it came to you, so that anything else wrong with the rig would actually get noticed and fixed correctly!:cheer:

Its looking awesome

I found a battery selector switch kinda like Hip has in my garage yesterday, dont know if you use those on dual battery set-ups or not, but i have it if you want it:awesomework:

sick rig sam good to see you finally got a worthy rig

damn i see triple cases, what gears are in the cases? locked f/r?
do you have a dana 44 front axle?:eeek:

great work like always mike,:awesomework:

I love the P/S cooler...it's so small & cute :redneck:

Things are taking shape....I will try and get some daylight shots of it on here tonight....If I can find 'em Sam!!!:haha:

dove'd85 said:

sick rig sam good to see you finally got a worthy rig

damn i see triple cases, what gears are in the cases? locked f/r?
do you have a dana 44 front axle?:eeek:

great work like always mike,:awesomework:

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Thanks!

Umm im not toally sure on the gears in the cases, stock in all of them but not sure which cases they are:redneck:

Locked F/R yep

Yep front DANA 44, we will see how long it lasts, but it does have chromolys and CTM's so the chances of it lasting are pretty good

Jackazz said:

I love the P/S cooler...it's so small & cute :redneck:

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Hahaha gee thanks, it was the only one i could get through my work:redneck:

zukkev said:

Things are taking shape....I will try and get some daylight shots of it on here tonight....If I can find 'em Sam!!!:haha:

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that would be cool kevin:awesomework:

Pics...

The first 3 were at Trail Jam last yr....Good times!!!:beer:
The last couple were taken on it's first run with Mikey as the owner...37" MTR's, no cage work, and still relatively straight!!!:redneck:
I've got some more, but need to find 'em...

Wow the body was like perfect when he got it

you gonna sell the boggers and beadlocks Sam? If so how much? I dont wanna spend much, but depending on price i may be interested so i have something decent to run when my rig is done.

TheMasterbater said:

you gonna sell the boggers and beadlocks Sam? If so how much? I dont wanna spend much, but depending on price i may be interested so i have something decent to run when my rig is done.

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Yep they are sitting underneath my house right now actually:redneck:

Ummm not too sure about the price, they are 6 lug wheels though and one beadlock is missing so 3 beadlocks and the tires are about 90% so whats it worth to ya:corn: