honestly(no offense ryan), he does not need a rig, much less one that needs work.
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Dude you know how I learned how to wrench? I crashed my good truck (that part wasn't planned) and bought a crapsman 140 piece tool set and a 1986 civic with 150k miles on it and a clutch that was on its last legs. Got a friend to help me replace the timing belt and water pump, then when the clutch went out I had him help me with that. I was actually about your age (sophomore in college?) The best way to learn is to start doing. You're not gonna learn how to swap out an axleshaft or anything else until you get in there and get your hands dirty doing it.
Same here. I had some decent background before though, as I had helped mike and a couple other friends swap engines. However, most of the time I did stuff I was completely brand new at it. My time line went like this.
Bought a blazer, put 6" springs in the front and a shackle flip in the rear with 2.5" springs. I bought all the crap to convert the front to 8 lug, and went to the junkyard and bought a 14 bolt. I had a shop do the gears, swap in the 14 bolt and swap the 8 lug crap on. They told me they wouldn't charge me extra, as it was easy to do when doing the gears.
That was great, until spring break. I had done a ton of mudding up until then and had never looked at bearings, etc... Hell I didn't know how. Well I learned how in galveston when my wheel almost fell off... Problem was there wasn't anything left!
Having daily driven a "nice" 78 bronco for a couple of years in college, i would say stick with something new.
Things that went wrong:
Locking hub blew off the driver's side some how
brake pad failed, cutting a sweet 1" wide gap into the rotor
bearings went bad - took out hub too, later same thing and took out the spindle
electric choke wire used to fall off causing the choke to kick up the idle and the truck would overpower the brakes when stopping, you could put it in neutral and solve the problem, but it was a surpise if you werent ready for it
master cylinder developed some sort of freak leak and brakes quit working while doug was driving
U joints twice
carb never worked right and used to backfire through the carb all the time
leaks around weather stripping
headlight bulbs both went out randomly at the same time, spent two days chasing wires until i figured that one out
a/c went out a couple of months after i got it, never fixed it
oh yeah and i dumped 7 grand into it and sold it for pennies on the dollar
Did i learn alot, sure, was it fun, at times, would i have rather taken the 5 grand i bought the thing for and put it as a down pymt on a truck from the then current decade, hell yeah.
I always said if I could go back, I'd get a 85 toyota...
Even though mine was fuel injected, I still had annoying problems to chase down once in a while. Most of the time the engine was smooth sailing, until it developed that electrical gremlin the last few months 5th year. Of course I did swap a GM crate motor in a couple months after I bought it.
Of course I did things in the wrong order, paid too much initially, but I don't regret it. I had to learn somehow.
I wouldn't start with an 85 toyota again. I'd start with an 89 4runner or a 3rd gen extended cab and SAS it when I was ready. Or a sammy, or a cj (back in the day...I'm too much of a yota dork now), or a 4.3 S-10, or a cucv. For as much fuss as people put up about them being the "holy grail" of toyotas there's really not a lot on that truck that you don't end up replacing pretty early in the game.
Jerry- You were able to sell a 79 bronco? thats an accomplishment within its self.
I DD'ed mine throughout high school, sunk an easy 15k into it, and now its just a dead reminisce of care free times.
have you done either?
I must have missed the buildups. So what exactly was so hard about hanging a spring hanger and installing bushing sleeves, and what was so easy about mounting the steering box?
i dont know, how about a full day of cutting everything off and grinding it all smooth. inside and out. then cutting holes through the frame while not overheating the fuel lines(something no one mentioned). and while your performing a SAS you will want to move your axle forward. making you relocate the steering box anyways. its also a helluva lot cheaper to buy some $35 plates for the box than it is to do a sas. either way a $300 steering kit is involved. and most of the time you can find a box for $50 or so dollars.
i missed the funny?
I like my jeep but it has alot of money, I wouldn't do it any different except it would be nice to have not fubared the fenders because after that I just didn't care, and it would be nice to have a windshield.
I didn't know anything, but the next truck I build will be either a 4runner, or 2wd toyota w/o a motor, or a JK if I can find one wrecked
i want a fj80 91-97 w/ a blown motor. 5.3 or 6.0 would go in it. Then I could pull my airstream to Colorado, park it at the RV Park and go wheeling for the day!
which ask the question. When did the rear axle go from semi-float to full float? 94?
question on TBI conversions:
do you have to get the same harness for the computer #, or can you mismatch. the only comp i found at P&P that was '7747 had the harness cut because someone wanted the actual TB. also, if im wanting to do fuel and air only, i have to get the wiring for the water temp, everything connected to the TBI, fuel pump relay, 02, and aldl? if not, what else?
Identify!
man says chebby, but i dont remember 10 bolts having the extra large webbing, its also, 5x5.5
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i8...2/DSC05865.jpg
IIRC chevy 10 bolts DID have a bigass web on the side of the diff that was actually a bumpstop pad but I will have to check the two burbs at my shop tomorrow to confirm. Everything else on there looks Chevy but GM sure as fawk never made a 5x5.5 front straight axle.
do you know for a fact the bolt pattern is correct, picture of the diff cover?
what about early 10 bolts. like 70's models...I don't think they were 6 bolt yet
here's a pic of 10 bolt..looks the same to me
http://www.boyceequipment.com/axle7.jpg
10 bolts were always 6 lug, unless they were 8 lug. They didn't start until 77.
If it hasn't been mix and matched, it's dodge or jeep. Jeep made some trucks with 5 on 5.5.
How do I tell if I need to replace my tie-rod end links? Alignment shop told me I needed to, but they seem fine to me? (except for a little sloppy steering.)
jack the front tires off of the ground and see if there is any play in them, you may just need new dust boots, and put some new grease in them
Jacked around with the uglytruck last night trying to diagnose my stumble. Stumbles when accelarating from idle. Unplugged the TPS and it immediately idled up. Like 500 rpm. Adjusted the idle back down, hit the gas a few times and it seems the stumble has gone away. Figured it had to be the TPS but ran the diagnostics on it anyway. Everything seems to check out. Have seen several posts on other forums with people saying that they had a bad TPS and just left it unplugged without any problem. Does this sound right?
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/8...ffspaceri1.jpg
(man I hope that linked right...)
yeah, I'm gonna have to ask you to, ahm, go ahead and come in on Sunday too...
So i read this article the other day with a project that they ut an intake and an exhaust on to measure the hp gains, and basically they had a gain with both on individually, but when both were installed there was a gain but not as much as with the intake only..they took it somewhere where they reprogrammed the cpu and managed to get a huge hp gain from having both installed, is there any place in CS that could do this? i really dont want to go out and buy the $300-$400 programmer for my truck..