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89 Runner Build


89runner

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Once I had finished having fun driving around the yard in double low gear I painted the rest of the panels. The wooden stand for the doors let me paint around all the edges so the truck would look like it came in this color. And yes, that is a moth on the tailgate stuck in the paint haha. 

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I may have skipped a few pieces like exterior door handles for the first test drive but I couldn’t wait any longer. For having a frame rebuild, SAS, rear gear, custom driveshafts and all suspension brackets cut from the frame and new ones welded on it drove straight and relatively vibration free. It is on 35” krawlers after all and I set the toe in with a measuring tape. It was officially finished and sitting on springs, that desperately needed some breaking in, just shy of 9 months after starting. 

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The next mod was a small one but a creature comfort that I had wanted for a long time. Cup holders! I incorporated my radio mount into the bracket I made. The cup holder is out of a vw passat. I had seen the same thing done on a yotatech forum a while back. 

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Then life happened and I changed jobs,houses etc and the truck sat for about a year. Once things settled down and I joined the backcountry club I got back at it. Sliders were next as I always wanted to build some and I now had a body worth protecting. This was a fun mod and it was a treat working with clean steel! I used 2x3 for the main rail and 2x2 for the frame mounts. Everything is 3/16” wall and I welded them directly to the frame. 

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Nice!  I have a similar set for the Burb, sitting in the garage for SEVERAL years now.  Long before more Life got in the way last year......

Maybe we'll see who's get on the truck first, but yours I think are already!  Ah well, my plan is working so far this year...………  lots getting done.

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On 4/15/2019 at 9:50 PM, sar4x4 said:

Nice!  I have a similar set for the Burb, sitting in the garage for SEVERAL years now.  Long before more Life got in the way last year......

Maybe we'll see who's get on the truck first, but yours I think are already!  Ah well, my plan is working so far this year...………  lots getting done.

I have half the length of rocker panel to cover so most likely why I finished first.

On 4/19/2019 at 10:05 AM, derekmac said:

I would have liked all the posts, but the site tells me I used all my likes up today, lol.  Great thread and build Paul!

Thanks Derek, I have enjoyed your thread as well as many others so I figured it was time I start my own. 

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My next mod was way overdue but the front bumper I had built 8 years ago was always meant to have a winch go in it and the time had finally come. I picked up a Smittybuilt 9500lb on sale from 4wheelparts. I also wired up an in cab winch control from the 12voltguy. 

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Next I replaced the original gas tank on my truck and the factory skid plate had long since turned to swiss cheese so a proper skid plate was in order. I built the whole skid out of 3/16” plate  with cut outs to wash out mud to save rusting the whole thing out again. 

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Nice box sides on the fuel tank skid plate.  The 'Burban doesn't have sides to the skid plate.  And sure enough, shortly after I added the locker, I slid sideways and poked a stick through the tank!  What's the odds of that?  THEN I was winching up a hill and pretzeled the tie rod.

Once I got her to the road I had the trailer at the camp ground so I loaded 'er up for the ride home the next day. 

Fox Mountain, summer event, about 10 yrs ago.  :-)

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Now onto my current project which will be drug out until this fall. I picked up a 1998 4runner as a donor vehicle to do a 3.4L swap. From the donor I scavenged the transmission, engine, engine harness and cab harness. The trans will get adapted to my dual geared transfer cases already in the truck and the cab harness used to build my own conversion harness in an effort to make the swap as plug and play as possible.  

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49 minutes ago, sar4x4 said:

Nice box sides on the fuel tank skid plate.  The 'Burban doesn't have sides to the skid plate.  And sure enough, shortly after I added the locker, I slid sideways and poked a stick through the tank!  What's the odds of that?  THEN I was winching up a hill and pretzeled the tie rod.

Once I got her to the road I had the trailer at the camp ground so I loaded 'er up for the ride home the next day. 

Fox Mountain, summer event, about 10 yrs ago.  :-)

Sounds like you did a number on the burb! Those nice box sides took out my grease fittings on the pinion end of my driveshaft first time out and when flexed the right way the yoke would contact. Needless to say it had to come back off and be modified but I do like the idea of the added protection on my brand new tank. 

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Well I was likely right at max towing capacity because those uhaul trailers aren’t light but it towed alright from bridgewater back to enfield like that. I didn’t go much harder than 100 and there was plenty of downshifting on the hills but it seemed to go alright. Personally if I was going to tow anything of any significant weight on any frequency I would want a half ton. 

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6 hours ago, 89runner said:

Well I was likely right at max towing capacity because those uhaul trailers aren’t light but it towed alright from birdgewater back to enfield like that. I didn’t go much harder than 100 and there was plenty of downshifting on the hills but it seemed to go alright. Personally if I was going to tow anything of any significant weight on any frequency I would want a half ton. 

The weight ratings of half tons are very high these days and may do the trick.  But in the past if I was going to do any 'heavy lifting' I would go with a 3/4 ton.  And the 1 tons have incredible tow ratings these days!  MUCH more than I would ever want to haul!

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And we have a 'good sized' car hauler.  Rated at 10,000 lbs.  My brother's tweaked 3/4 ton Cummins diesel hauls really well.  Even with the car hauler outfitted with sides and loaded with wood.  And the truck's 8' bed loaded as well.  Going over Foley Mountain.  (We had a really good rate family wood supplier in Tatamagouche.  Unfortunately he passed away...…  and 3 years later we're still hauling wood out of his garage and basement!)

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7 hours ago, autumnwalker said:

 

@sar4x4 how much does your hauler weigh?

I totally forget or never knew!  Typical of a good one, frame rails several inches high, my Burb fits totally on the deck with room to spare, long tongue with the frame rails coming to a point at the hitch.  Electric brakes.  Well over 20’ long IIRC. Dual axles, 7,000 lb each I think.  And fenders strong enough to drive the Burb up on.  Hauled the Dodge Cummins listed in my signature on it from F’ton to Halifax.  By a twin Dodge Cummins!

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I started working on the harness once the shell went off to become part of someone else’s build. I stripped from the cab harness what I would need to make the engine run in my truck. What I am left with is a small conversion harness to plug into the body harness in my 86 body, a ground and only a couple wires to splice as I don’t believe a female plug is made for the ecu plug in my 86 body harness. I left lots of wire so I have some flexibility for mounting my ECU, but as you can see not a lot of the body harness is required. I gain an OBDII port with this conversion which may come in handy. Heck I may even get it to run without an engine light on, its only been on since 2003!

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spacer.pngIn the spirit of not having wires in the engine harness that served no purpose, I stripped out anything related to ABS, AC, cruise control and airbags. As none of these functions were fed into the ECU I shouldn’t have any signals to cheat. I also swapped which side of the harness the transmission wiring and O2 sensors exit since I need to reverse the exhaust crossover and I’d rather not run my harness just inches away from the exhaust. I don’t plan to run a catalytic converter so I will be sorting out a way to cheat this signal and it will likely live in a box on the inner fender. The ignitor wiring had been hacked from my harness so I spliced in a section from a cheap donor harness from kennys. Talk about a lot of tape and loom. 

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Stripping down the engine I was hopeful at first but then once I had a look inside the cylinders through the plug holes with my recently gifted canadian tire inspection camera (best wife ever) I spotted some water marks in some of the cylinders. The crank bolt was plenty tight as it took a thick piece of flat bar bolted to the rear of the crank and a good size cheater on my breaker bar to get it loose. Once the heads were off, the oil drained and pan off I knew I was doing a rebuild if I was going to use this engine. The good news is that when I plasti-gauged rod bearings and crank bearings they fell within factory specs. The crank didn’t appear to have any damage so I think the engine was just parked too long without running. 

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