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Borrow a samurai or tracker and put it in the back of the truck hahah

Daystar poly bushes came in so I installed them and have the axle hanging ready to start drilling holes for the radius arm mounts. I have a slight problem tho... the truck isnt sitting level on its axle stands.... it's nose down with the front weight. I've let all the air out of the back tires with a hope of the rear end coming down...and it didnt. I tried using the hi lift to bring her up, but it got sketchy really fast LOL. It looks like the trans crossmember bolt could be in the same spot as one of the radius arm bracket bolt holes, so I'll bolt the brackets on temporary using the existing bolt so I can get the jack under the front axle.

I ordered a few more odds and ends to finish things up. Pieces like exhaust heat shields, shifter seat gaskets, shifter boots and a bushing for the transmission as the factory one had turned into crumbs. Moving the driveline 2” forward also meant my shifters didn’t fit the tunnel so I did a little cutting and welding and things fit again. Everything clears and I even get to keep my cupholders!

One thing I thought I would have a clearance problem with was the alternator. Once the belt was tensioned it was against the steering rag joint. To fix this I shortened the bracket and and bought a shorter belt. The whole driveline had to be moved forward 2” to make everything clear so I also had to modify my transmission crossmember. Instead of making any changes to the frame mounts I just cut the sides off and rewelded them two inches back and things bolted up. Both driveshafts will have to be modified as well so I’ve purchased new tube for the rear and I am working on an appointment with an machinist.

Naaa just coffee night probs Go the TTB almost unhooked. Just the pivot bolts left and it'll all slide out

A little progress. Installed diff seals, torqued up the ball joints, installed rebuilt axle shafts and sealed it up ready to be shoved under the truck.

He's (re)building it to wheel it, so you best get the RAM geared up and come play

On Saturday my honey ordered me some Birthday gifts from 'Super Scout Specialists'.... Pretty stuff, not 'overlanding' stuff, but hey, 'pretty' is what the Scout is about! I'm going to have to have patience for this order to arrive! For the Ranger, I'm waiting for the 'Back Rack' to be released in the spring, the Ford dealer to get the Ford-branded 'IKON'-built leveling kit, and spring to come(!) to put the factory rims and tires back on. More patience!

Ha ! I never noticed the man on a tractor thing until now

Original on the truck. Just popped them off and painted. ('Just' popped them off. LOL While my head was in the foot wells (for the IH emblems), feet on the garage floor, my back like a pretzel, one hand stuck behind the kick panel....) 'SSS' lists used ones at $56US each, and repro look-alike stickers for very little $. But my Scout was well 'restored' when I purchased it. Just needs some 'sprucing up'.

Again, it looks way better in person, there are reflections on the chrome and lettering in the photo. I never noticed until I posted them! The red lettering is super, and really makes the text pop! It was just chrome before. More similar work to be done, as well as a lot of wrenchin'!

They look much better in person... the lighting and camera caught some corrosion imperfections in the old chrome.

We have 6 Ton stands at my brother’s garage. When they’re not high enough we have some 6”x6” x24” blocks that we nailed together with plywood, that make a nice base under the stands.

It will be getting a 6” lift and 37” tires, because we already have the tires, but the rest isn’t set in stone. Needs a large amount of body work so it will be slow going but it’s not going to be a show truck or a wheeler. More of a mild build that is just fun to drive places!

Did some fullIsize things today. Tearing down my fathers 68 GMC with him for a frame up resto. We took the body off at Christmas. This weekend was axles and suspension tear out.

Test fitted the pivot bracket location with the tires on for the first time. I was hoping to keep the original bracket location since it was easy, but the axle does need to move forward some.

Made a rookie mistake and refused an old bolt on one of the radius arms and sheard the head off flush. Then snapped an extractor 1/2in into it. It took 8 goes with a washer and nut to get it out. Lesson learned...no reusing old bolts lol.

hehe....I do regret having to sell the Sami, but the truck is much much better on my back, shoulders and neck on my 6ft 2 frame ..and having a truck is useful too. So, the ratchet strap idea didn't work...the helper springs are just way too stiff for that. However, I installed the radius arm brackets using a trans crossmember bolt, and voila, I think she's in!! With the bracket in that position and radius arms in, the DS Ujoint just slotted into the yolk without length adjustment! I'm gonna need a combination ujoint tho because the caps are too big for the '79 and I don't want to release the pinion until it's absolute necessary. Apparently a 1978 F-100 uses them. https://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/jeep-non-hardcore/540411-8-8-explorer-flange-u-joint-x-ref.html I just need to take some final measurements before I start drilling holes....

Good call (I think)! It's amazing what a bit of sleep and clear mind can do.

You know a woman's nose is much more sensitive than a man's.................. You won't get away with it unless you have an air exchanger! Looking good! I've been reading, thinking, stockpiling parts,.... AND made great progress on non-mechanical items in life. Maybe someday, ..

Since successfully returning an incorrectly ordered Spartan, my Amazon voucher refund credit yielded some bling to replace the mismatched and 'falling apart' gauges Volts, Oil Temp, Vacuum/Boost, Water Temp.....and GPS Speedo since my speedo is waaaaaaay off

This is such a great thread. I enjoy reading along with your progress. These photos / tape job feel so good for my OCD lol.

It is almost identical to what I took out in overall length. I had built the crossmember to suit originally and the length with dual t cases is part of the reason why I had to turn my rear pinion up and run a double cardan joint in the rear when I did the lift.

I had reached the point where I couldn’t go much further without fitting a few things in the engine bay so I took my rig, which was fully mobile up until this point, in and pulled the 4 cylinder engine on Dec. 1st. I had also ordered an adapter from advanced adapters to bolt my R150 transmission up to my dual geared t cases. Advance was the only one that offered a coupler that would work without replacing the input to my t case. As per the trend for this swap I couldn’t help but clean things up a bit. I felt like I had scrapped pounds of mud, undercoating and grease off the t cases and transmission by the time I was done.

With the engine fairly complete I turned my attention back to the exhaust crossover. I replaced the flex as the braid on the outside of the old one had rotted. I was able to make it fairly snug fitting using only the old crossover piping and the new flex. I didn’t fully weld at this point because I wanted to test fit in the engine bay.

Next came a bunch of assembly and new parts. Little things like the knock sensor wiring harness, that sits underneath the intake whose plastic clips all broke during tear down, were addressed. A new Aisin oil pump, new timing kit with water pump, new coolant hoses for the oil cooler and the new rear sump oil pan and pickup to clear the solid axle. I also replaced the rubber isolators for the engine since the old ones were delaminated.

I plastigauged my crank and oversized bearings to ensure all fit right and it checked out good. Next up was pistons. I tore them all down and installed one new bushing for the wrist pin in one and confirmed they would need to be honed to fit. Took these back to Nova and it was another quick turn around at a fair price. I then proceeded to assemble the pistons, plastic gauged them one at a time as I installed. All bearings got a healthy bit of assembly lube.

Still mocking up. It'll all get painted

The motor I am “upgrading” to was built in 1998 so I opted to replace many of the “perishables” on it so I wouldn’t go through all the work of the swap and be stopped by a silly piece I should have just replaced. I plan to keep this rig for a long time.

The spare motor I bought for parts was also helpful for mocking up my exhaust crossover. From the factory the exhaust ran on the passenger side but since my front axle is a passenger drop and my gas tank is on that side so it had to be swapped. I cut up the original crossover to use to build the new one and this is when I confirmed I couldn’t use the transmission that can out of the donor. 3.4Ls have the clutch slave on the driver side because the exhaust runs on the passenger. I though I could make it clear but there just wasn’t space between my narrow frame rails. Good news is the same transmission came behind the 3.0L engines with a passenger clutch slave and bolts right up to the 3.4L. Luckily a fellow 4runner owner had two he was willing to part with but wanted them both gone so I got a spare in the process.

Yeah, they were a little dry rotted. May as well just refresh at that price

Sorry, didn't mean to take over your thread Jay! So, have you thought about a big reveal party for the solid axle Bullnose? lol

What about an electric space heater @ovrlndr? PA puts them on sale from time to time - might just do the trick for the cold garage issue.

Sounds like ur a lot more busy that I am. My problem is laziness vs cold garage lol. I have some Christmas Amazon voucher bling coming soon

I'm in the same boat @ovrlndr. I'm revising my snow estimates - we had a good 50 cm.

Coffee this week is 7pm Thursday at the Bedford Common Tim Hortons - 36 Verdi Dr, Bedford, NS B4A 0C2 Rolling weekly schedule; .Burnside Tim Hortons - 15 Akerley Blvd, Dartmouth, NS B3B 1J6 .Bayers Lake Tim Hortons - 5 Lakelands Blvd, Halifax, NS B3K 5L2 .Bedford Common Tim Hortons - 36 Verdi Dr, Bedford, NS B4A 0C2 .Fall River Tim Hortons - 3290 Lake Thomas Dr, Fall River, NS B2T 1E6 - (Woodside when the weather is good) .Middle Sackville Tim Hortons - 1624 Sackville Dr, Middle Sackville, NS B4E 3A8

Snow day..what is one of those ? I WFH, so as long as there's internet and my generator is on.... This was at 1pm today

Note to self, do not break a tap deep in the hole (mrs) After much hammering, chiseling, drilling and burning, the tap is out. Tie rods came in too Happy days

Well back to the drawing board....seems the SL44HD-30 is for 98 Cherokees only, and the SL44-30 is for every other D44 on the planet. It's getting returned I might need Guy's 9 inch if I can find some 3.50 gears for it.

Axle U-joints and Spartan came in and hopefully the ties rods will follow shortly. Removed 2 sheared off fasteners from the radius arms - 1 came out with heat and a bolt extractor, the other had to be drilled and I need to buy another tap as what I have is worn out.

Yeah - that's something I am considering - downsizing the daily and getting a trail toy. I also have the track toy to consider ...

I'm very stoked to hear that Guy and the Bronco will be back out on the trails. Perhaps I can ride shotgun ... I'm not sure I have driver privileges anymore after I "remodeled" his front bumper against a tree

I still maintain that the RAM is too pretty to wheel. Fire on some front tow hooks for good measure and I'm sure it would do it ... but I would destroy it in the process. The Sport model has the color matched plastic front bumper with the lower "ground effects" on it as well as the dual exit mufflers that hang down below the rear bumper. First hill obstacle and I'd lose the front bumper and rear tail pipes. So ... mod the truck to swap to a more stout front bumper and do something to tuck the exhaust / mod the rear bumper ... why bother sinking all that time / effort / money into a rig that wasn't meant for trails? At least with the Hummers they were ready to go from the factory - great approach / departure angles and with a simple t-bar crank could stuff 35's (H3) and 38's (H2). So ... buy a new truck. Well, this one costs me so little (0%, nearly paid off, etc.) that it hurts to get rid of it and otherwise, simply priorities (house projects, family time, etc.). I think about the trails every single day.

Yeah, that’ll stop ya if she breaks through the fender, falls on the tire, and then rips off and under the truck...

I miss that Guy (pun fully intended) and rig.

Truth! It gets the work done.

Awesome @ovrlndr! Love seeing the progress.

Started tearing down axle #3 with shredded gears for the knuckles, shafts and anything else I can take off for spare parts. The radius arms came off with no heat thanks to antisieze Interestingly this Bronco axle had quad shocks, so the C's have extra mounts for the front shocks....cool The radius arms on this are dead straight too, which is in contrast to all of the other arms I've had, which all had some kind of kink to them. They must have been tweaked at some point in the last 40 years lol Looks like if got 3 bolts to extract too lol ....all good

Picked up another '79 dana 44 front axle setup today for parts. This one has blown gears. So I should have enough parts from 3 sets to make one good set, with spares left over

Yes, you are correct, nothing moving , the car doesn't even know it's moving, or being towed, and that is an AWD Lambo . But , you cannot tow it on a dolly behind a pickup truck, that's what they are referring to dolly towing, but with a wrecker tow truck , and the dollies on a wrecker tow truck, all 4 wheels are off the ground, none making road contact. Another benefit of a wrecker, what if your wheels didn't turn, like a transmission that won't come out of park, or something in the driveline preventing your car from rolling, or you went to the store, pulled into the parking space nose in with wheels full lock , ran in, los your keys and now need to be towed to the dealership for new keys, steering at full turn, steering wheel locked and vehicle in park, yes I can get it with the deck, but it will be ugly for you to watch, your car drug from its parking space , then drug sideways to line up with the deck and then drug up the deck, and then slid down the deck when dropped off at the dealership, where a wrecker could back up, jackknife to the back of the car and pick up the wheels, dolly the steering wheels and just pull away, and equally as easily set it down at the destination. Now does dragging the car to the deck hurt it, the answer is no, it's just ugly to watch. Either truck can do the work, and there is positive things a deck can do too, keeps the vehicle up out of road debris and road spray, cars that run can be driven up the deck making quick loading, and most decks can take two vehicles at the same time, except the deck I use at work, can only take one car at a time as it doesn't have a wheellift.