Topic: BigMike's Big Project

[toyhatsu]

Sorry that you didn't get to go to your event.  The tripple looks awsome Mike and everything that you've done looks excellent!!  Really love your crossmember and the flat belly.  Do you notice any more vibrations than with the stock mount?  Are you using Toyota CV's?  What degree is your rear driveshaft?  Do I have to run a after cat o2 sensor like inyour picture?  This is going to be a great show piece for the company!  Thanks for the pictures.

[ifssucks]

mike, you rig has become pretty sick. congats

on saturday i finally got my transmission installed and the tcase. that went well. i also got the oil pan sealed up with the approiate pickup tube. unfortunately the regional manager of desert rat told me i had to get my truck out of the shop now. its starting to get real busy this time of year and were running out of room in the shop. so i have to tow it home on monday and finish it there. which sucks because itll be parked in the dirt, ill be working in the dark every night, i dont have a lift,and ill have no help if i need it. but friday was mine and my old ladys two year anniversy so i got her a diamond ring and she bought me a welder.
 
so now ill have to make a new crossmember of couse because the mount holes on the tranny is about a foot away from the crossmember. but the sticks line up perfectly with the holes in the floor which is what i expected but im still worried about finding room for the radiator and fan so if and when i move the motor back im sure ill have to cut a little out. no biggie. thats actually good because now that ive got my new bucket seat mounted, when i fabbed the brackets i made it as to where you can only go so far foward. when its all the way forward im in a good postion for the peddals and wheel but the stick is kindof a reach. so its either hake a new stick to pull it back or just wait and move the motor back and it should be perfect. also ill be fabbing a new mount setup for the fuel tank, no biuggie but figuering out what to use for fuel lines is going to be difficult. the truck was origianlly carbureated so this is all new to me. im actually a motorcyle mechanic and fuel injection isnt used as much in that field so its taking a little getting used to.

 well thats it for now. happy trails every one

[freds40]

Hey Mike, how is your rear d-line angle even with the CV? Got much play for lift springs? I know it's harder on the shortbed than it was on Marlin's truck, just curious how much.

[SEAN_at_TLT]

"BigMike's Big Project", change the station!

hey man, I didn't tune it in to that station in the first place, it was already there...

[To The Floor]

Hey Mike, what did you use to get the transfer cases so clean.  some kind of special solution, or just a pressure washer.  i am doin' the clutch soon and would like to get everything cleaned up.

[FIREBALL]

Mike.....nice rear end!  No, really.
Sorry you guys didn't make Panamint. If you still need a fix, you can come up here and we'll go play.
I finally got most of the little BS done on mine.

[BigMike [OP]]

TTF, Send me your diamond plate door panels and I'll tell ya! j/k I just used our glass beed machine. That is how every transfercase and transmission leave the shop for customers. We clean all housings and also get all of the bolts galvanized so it looks brandnew.

Hey Toyhatsu and Freds40, I will check out those things tomorrow if I can. I know the pinion is tilting a bit too high right now, but I figure the shims are only temporary, and anyways once its lifted the angle will improve. Also I had the drivelines built a little on the long side so they will hopefully still fit once I change the springs. Toyhatsu, they are Toyota CV joints. The rear is an early, I think 79-83 fron CV joint, and the front is a later V6 model, I think 93-95 or something. The front one has a bit more drop angle to it, but its a bit larger size. The rear CV is a bit smaller overall so it fits near the frame crossmember eaiser.

Hey ifssucks, that's a great deal. So who gave who the first present?
I think you should be ok with room for the fan. The 2nd gen Toy 4WD trucks have about 2" more length in the engine compartment. Im sure you will have room to spare

[cgbemis]

When did marlin come out with a total spline 23 spline 2.28 turbo input ? I thought only the 4.7's were available in total spline.

[toyhatsu]

ifssucks,

Congrats on the anniversary!  What kind of welder did you get?  Motorcycle mechanic...I'm not a mechanic at all.  I have a MIG but am not a welder either

[BigMike [OP]]

When did marlin come out with a total spline 23 spline 2.28 turbo input ? I thought only the 4.7's were available in total spline.

We've had Total Spline Turbo input gears for almost one year now. Where have ya been?

[cgbemis]

Under my rock  . I thought it was only the 4.7's that got the total spline's on them. When I saw your pic, I went to the t-case section on the main page, and it still showed a normal stock 23 spline input.

[Pancho]

very nice truck Mike 

[reklund5]

Mike-

How are you going to switch the rear locker on and off??  I can get you a factory switch if you'd like...even one from a FJ-80 if you're going to be a butthole and run a FJ80 hi-pinion e-locker in the front...

Keep it up- the truck is looking GREAT!!

Ryan

[ifssucks]

thanks guys, im just getting a cheapey lincoln wire feed welder, nothing to fancy.
toyhatsu, your steering column will go out tuesday mornig, its a pretty big box but it got shipped well. let me know if you think its ok . hope it works for you. got the truck otwed home tonite so ill be working on it about every night now so hopefully things will speed up a little bit.  im going bowling so i gotta jet.

[BigMike [OP]]

How are you going to switch the rear locker on and off?? I can get you a factory switch if you'd like...even one from a FJ-80 if you're going to be a butthole and run a FJ80 hi-pinion e-locker in the front...

Hey what's up Ryan?

Yup I wanna go High pinion, and Ive had some offers for my front 5.29 diff once Im finished with it, but actually Rocky bought the gears and he set it up on his own time, so basically I am borrowing it from him for a couple of months until he can get his 4Runner going. Then I'll either have to find a High pinion or find a used 5.29 diff.

As for the switch, I have no room for the nice fancy dealer switches, since Ive decided to keep my '81 interior, so I will be wiring in two simple blue flat toggle switches, and I want to mount them to the front side of my trans shifter, and I will hook the blue led up to the lock switch of the e-locker, so you will activate the locker, then wait until it engages, and once its engaged, the blue led will come on.
Just something simple like these:

or


The left side of my steering colum there is a coin holder. That's where Marlin put his ARB switches. But I've got big plans for my Water/Alchol injection controls to go there so that space is reserved

Oh yeah, today after my morning classes, Tim (TURBO) refered me to a cool place out on the far west end of town where some farmer left his land open for any one. It includes hundreds of connected dirt trails with many mud holes, drop off ledges, ditches, dirt banks, huge dirt mounds, which is very suitable for the OHV/ATV crowd, but the rear jewl is this huge area near the middle where a crap load of orange trees or something were de-rooted leaving nearly vehicle-sized craters all over the place. It looks like a huge bombing test site..

So I played around a bit in open/open (since the rear locker isnt wired in as of yet) and I had alot of fun. I didnt take many pics, however, because there were millions of mosquitoes EVERYWHERE! It was pretty nasty. But I bet this place is awesome once it drys out and the bugs go some where else.

I had some fun in the craters, but I kept getting stuck with open/open/bald tires/35psi/stock suspension.....and I didnt want to risk getting really stuck because help (TURBO) would be a good 30mins drive to reach me, so I kept it on the conservative side.

I did some side hill testing, drove what I thought was pretty nasty, and then got out and like always it never looks as bad as it feels. I pushed the truck into the roll over to see where the center of gravity was at, at the back tire was lifting off of the ground. I really need to put in our springs.... What ever suspension is on the truck is pretty

So here are a couple of pics. First a poser pic and then some pics where I tried to take a high center route just to see how the underside of the rig looked. Of course this dirt was pretty soft so I wasnt worried about my unprotected tcases or drivelines.

Enjoy-

[SWAMPER]

Hey Mike why dont you try some switches from AUTOZONE they have some cool ones with the boot on the I bought some carbon fiber ones to swith my lights on/off

[BigMike [OP]]

I still need to build a skid plate / tcase guard plate that I will bolt to the bottom using the stock t/case bolt holes. I didnt order one from FROR because my tcase is clocked and they dont make one clocked. I could have bought it and then cut it in half, but why not just make my own and save some $$

So here's the great clearance of basically having "no crossmember" under there.....

Hey Toyhatsu, I recall seeing one of your pics as having a completely flat belly, your drivetrain is up above your frame rails correct? Also I like how Daihatsu ran all of the brake and fuel lines on the inner side of the frame rail rather than connected to the bottom of the bed and cab. I think its much cleaner than the Toyotas.

Hopefully TUBRO can get some time during the day and we can both go back out there to play. Then I wont be so worried and I'll have much more fun with another rig out to play with

For those who live in/near Fresno, this place is way the hell out west on Shields, way past Brawley, about 100 yards past Grantland Ave on the right side. You will see a road to the left, Garfield Ave, and then a dirt road that leads to the right, just take it all the way in and enjoy. TURBO's been hitting this place for a while now and he always sees many vehicles out there, and dirt bikes, etc, and he's never seen and police or anything. I dont know what the law is about going off of paved roads in Fresno County, but who ever owns that land sure doesnt give a rats ass about it. There is trash dumped all over the place and every one just drives freely whereever they please.

Here's the location of it using mapquest: Shields & Garfield

Zoom to Level 6 for a shot of the map so you can see where it is with respect to Fresno...
I'll try to link that image below:


So here are some last shots of the under charriage of my rig.

Later
BigMike

[BigMike [OP]]

Hey Mike why dont you try some switches from AUTOZONE they have some cool ones with the boot on the I bought some carbon fiber ones to swith my lights on/off

Good idea swampy, but I've already got a plan in my mind as to how I want them placed, and I need some flat narrow switches, and the blue to match my interior.


Oh I forgot to add that in 4th gear with single 2.28:1 lowrange, doing about 30mph I think? I can floor it and do a 4WD burn out and the truck will drift and yaw all over the place. ITS FREAKN AWESOME! Of all the trucks I've driven, they cant even do that in the snow basically. So this weekend I am going to TRY to go the snow - I cant wait to blast up the same hills that were so hard to do in the former 3.0 V6 shop truck and Marlin's tired truck.

[SWAMPER]

Hey Mike why dont you try some switches from AUTOZONE they have some cool ones with the boot on the I bought some carbon fiber ones to swith my lights on/off

Good idea swampy, but I've already got a plan in my mind as to how I want them placed, and I need some flat narrow switches, and the blue to match my interior.

They have some blue ones too small narrow just giving you a heads up

[freds40]

Snot hill should be a blast with a little power. 

Oh I forgot to add that in 4th gear with single 2.28:1 lowrange, doing about 30mph I think? I can floor it and do a 4WD burn out and the truck will drift and yaw all over the place. ITS FREAKN AWESOME! Of all the trucks I've driven, they cant even do that in the snow basically. So this weekend I am going to TRY to go the snow - I cant wait to blast up the same hills that were so hard to do in the former 3.0 V6 shop truck and Marlin's tired truck.

[BigMike [OP]]

Is that on Bald Mtn?

[freds40]

Yeah, it's the hill that theres a little bit of a run up to it and it is pretty wide. Usually once someone has made a run up it, their line is useless so the whole hill side has tracks all over the place by the end of the day. I remember when we were up there you crawled it on the right side in your dad's truck. Took you like 20 mins. (I think you were @ like 500:1 or something)

[BigMike [OP]]

Ah got it. That's the last hill just before the tower. Yup, I got a good run at it and one of the plug wires fell off half way up and I lost all power. I thought I would have made it. Then I found that I could Crawler over the freash snow on the right and it took me alllllllllllllll day. I was in two 4.70:1 cases just letting it idle. Even if I gave it a bit of gas, it would slip, so I had to go really slow. And Rocky was in the 3.0 V6 truck and it took him just as long to get up. I think that truck was 35" with 4.88s, and man it was a dog.

If I can go up there this weekend, then Im gonna go up that hill and back down 100 times in 20 mins

[ifssucks]

toyhatsu, your column went out today so you should see it by thursday, friday latest

[BigMike [OP]]

hey nice garage, where's that at?

Cool that ya got it to crank. Make sure that the air box wire is clean before you start it, just to make sure it's gonna run correct

[ifssucks]

no prob man, hope its what you need. thanks for the extra dough. i used to live in co springs. on montebello drive. anyway let me know when it comes. later

[BLACKDOG]

I dunno about snow mikey.  Hope it is better fopr you than for us.  We went snowboarding last weekend (11/13) and I guess they got some rain up there.  There were bare patches everywhere.  Goodluck though, hope you have fun.
Just wanted to let you know

[BigMike [OP]]

Thanks blackdog, yeah, I may not go this weekend. I dont have anyone to go with and I know its best to hit the mountains immediately after a snow storm. Its been about a week since it snowed here last, so maybe I'll just wait for the next storm.. Also it is still early here, only mid Nov. I've got lots of time to play, winter really hasnt even started!

[BigMike [OP]]

Sorry, I forgot about that question, nope, the only time I notice more vibrations is when I first start it up. You can feel the starter throughout the entire vehicle. Then once its purring it feels even smoother.


And I think either Glen or BLF asked me about my gas mileage, and I just ran through a full tank and I got 320 miles out of 15.5 gallons with my speedometer off, 5mph at slow speeds and about 7 mph off at high speeds. So Im guessing roughly 300 miles per 15.5 gal = 19.4 mpg, but Im not going to decided on my mileage until I get some bigger tires on. These 5.29s + 33s are killing me! Cruising at 80 mph is like 3,600 rpm!!!!! 

I am going to swap on some 35s this weekend and drive up to shaver lake. I probabely wont play in the snow, I dont have on board air yet so I wont be airing down at all, but I'll spend a nice day up at the lake with my girlfriend which is awesome!

So depending on how I drive it, I can make 20 mpg right now. I think with 35s the mileage will improve since I do alot of highway driving, but with 36s or 37s I think it will drop a bit in the streets.

[BigMike [OP]]

Thursday,
Tonight I ripped my front end apart to install a Lock Rite
However this is the 2nd time I've rebuilt this front end in exactly one week Man it's no fun when you've gotta do it twice so soon. I actually went as quick as I could. I had the front diff pulled in just under 40mins (includes getting it on jack stands and removing tires, really start-to-finish) and I thought wow that was easy, but man putting stuff back together always takes more time, especially when its something critical like this that can leak oil and give one greif.

Took me a bit over 2 1/2 hours to get everything back in including adding the new gear oil. I had used silicon the first time, so I had to scrape all of that goo off and start over making sure every surface is clean

This time I put it back together using about half gaskets and half silicon. I dont really care to be honest, and here's why: This front end is just temporary. And the dif in fact doesnt exactly belong to me. It's mine alright and Im paying for the 5.29 gear set, but once I find a high pinion e-locker, Rocky is going to pay me for the gear set and Im gonna give him the diff since hes the one who's set up the pattern and did all of that work...

..So since he will have it someday, he told me that he has a Lock rite that he would install in it if I pulled the diff out. So of course I yanked that sucker out and now im locked front and rear

I played a bit on our ramp before coming home but it was too dark for any pictures. I reversed up the ramp with the rear open and the front lock rite'ed. The lock rite was poping and making a bunch of clicking noise, and I drove around trying to make quick corners in small areas and it really sucks. After cornering in one direction, it wants to keep pulling in that same direction even through the truck is going straight. Its really annoying. I am glad that I will have a selectable locker someday, I dont think I could live with an always on locker, not since Ive grown up with ARB front/rear in my dads druck. Having the option to turn it off makes all the difference.

Anyways, now that I've turned a simple progress report into an essay, I'll leave now with a couple of pics from tonights work.

Sunday Morning I'm heading back out to the Fig Orchard so I will try it out and let you know what I think about it in the real world.

Night'
BigMike