Author Topic: Gwendolyn - My 1985 SR5 Pickup (Read 9030 times)

Mega Baby Huey · « **on:** Nov 30, 2017, 05:07:31 PM »

It's been a long time since I've had a project that I would consider post worth, but I finally got one. For your consideration, I present: Gwendolyn

The long and short:
My wife's boss had us over one night, and as I crept up the driveway I noticed a Toyota pickup grill poking out of the bushes. Turns out, that grill was attached to a whole truck in a state of neglect that suggested it had not moved in a long time. Upon closer inspection I saw that it was a 1985 SR5 Pickup complete with solid front axles and the 22re. I eagerly asked if she[my wife's boss] would ever consider selling it ("maybe... but it was my brother's..."), and told her to call me if she ever wanted to. A few months went by and she calls me out of the blue and asks if I'm still interested. Fast forward a week or so, and I'm towing it to my house on a u-haul trailer with my wallet $800 lighter.

Side note: My wife LOVES the truck. We used to have a 1985 Toyota 4Runner we called ‘Beverly’, and my wife routinely says that she never felt safer in the snow in any of our vehicles than she did in Beverly… so when I managed to procure Gwendolyn, it didn’t take much to convince her to sell our 2002 Rav4 in favor of keeping Gwendolyn as ‘her truck’.

The Truck:
1985 Toyota Pickup SR5, extra cab. It's only had one owner before me, and he[my wife's boss' brother] did not molest it in any way that I can find. It ran when parked over 12 years ago, and sat in the field that whole time before I towed it out. It is the SR5 package complete with cruise control, power windows, and a sun roof. Solid front axle and 22re… the unicorn. I sold the topper almost immediately, and don’t regret it for a second. I have the original dealer sticker and some of the paperwork from when he bought it off the lot in Colorado Springs.

The Work:
When I got it home I fully expected a knock or some other kind of engine shenanigans, and after replacing the fuel filter and pump and flushing all fluids she started up… hesitantly at first, but now she starts every time right away. She blew white smoke for the first couple of weeks, but every time I would get her up to operating temp she blew less and less, until it finally cleared up completely. Since I was expecting a rebuild anyways I did run liquid glass through which did seem to help the smoking issue while it was still happening, because I always wanted to see if that stuff really worked.
Next up was some more maintenance type repairs. I replaced the carrier bearing, and gave the engine bay and interior a deep clean. The interior really wasn’t in that bad of shape, and even though it was a lot of work, it was completely worth it. I also replaced the tailgate handle, driver’s side door weather stripping, windshield, clutch slave and master cylinders, rear main seal, newer Toyota rims with wheel spacers, water pump, all the brake pads and rotors, and installed a Marlin 1200 pound clutch for good measure. I also got a used, but complete set of OME springs and shocks for $250 that made a world of difference coming from the clapped-out stock suspension.

The Future:
I have sourced a dual transfer case setup with a Marlin adapter for $500 that I will be installing ASAP. As I type this, the truck sits in my garage and I am installing high-steer with hydro assist. The old steering was clapped out, and I was able to get a price on all the steering components that made me, and my wife, happy (not an easy thing to do!). I also have a rear axle with a toyota e locker that I need to get around to installing. I plan on throwing on some 35s as soon as this wave of upgrades is completed. She will also be needing a stereo, and the obligatory CB radio.

OVRAROK · « **Reply #1 on:** Nov 30, 2017, 05:19:49 PM »

Looks like a great start.

Mega Baby Huey · « **Reply #2 on:** Nov 30, 2017, 05:20:03 PM »

Oh Yeah! I also have been trying to chronical my workings on my YouTube channel. My playlist with all my gwendolyn videos can be found here.

Here's the first teaser trailer I made for Gwendolyn at the start of this project:

H8PVMNT · « **Reply #3 on:** Nov 30, 2017, 05:51:39 PM »

Nice find. I like where your build is going too.

THK Matt · « **Reply #4 on:** Dec 01, 2017, 03:46:17 PM »

Nice find! this is the exact find i need in a few months

Mega Baby Huey · « **Reply #5 on:** Dec 05, 2017, 04:35:19 PM »

Parts run was a great success! Now time for some elbow grease! Cue the music!

H8PVMNT · « **Reply #6 on:** Feb 08, 2018, 11:30:35 AM »

MORE!

Mega Baby Huey · « **Reply #7 on:** Feb 21, 2018, 02:30:19 PM »

Hell, I got most of the High-Steer completed:

Please excuse my fugly welds...

Mega Baby Huey · « **Reply #8 on:** Feb 21, 2018, 02:37:22 PM »

And I also got the dual cases put back together, installed the triple stick shifter, and mocked it all up under the truck. I need to do some more tunnel molding to tuck it up even higher though.

Shout out to Marlin for the Turtle Head shifter! It really pulls it all together!

redneckcustoms13 · « **Reply #9 on:** Feb 21, 2018, 05:06:09 PM »

I may have missed it, but where did you get your triple stick? I like that boot and would like to have one.

Mega Baby Huey · « **Reply #10 on:** Feb 21, 2018, 05:10:11 PM »

The triple stick setup I bought from Radesigns.

Mega Baby Huey · « **Reply #11 on:** Mar 04, 2018, 09:56:07 AM »

Made a lot of progress yesterday... I mocked up and fabbed the holders for the cross member, and got the cases installed. Everything was just *barely* clearance so I feel pretty good that I got the transfer cases up as high as possible without re-tunneling.

I also got the front drive shaft installed and put on the front lift shackles. All I have left to do today is to button up the odds and ends I disconnected and finish the piping to the new power steering pump. The pump has lines for hydro-assist, but the ram I got with it is HUGE and so I need to order something a little more street-friendly.

And of course mount the all-important roll bar!

Mega Baby Huey · « **Reply #12 on:** Mar 18, 2018, 05:55:27 PM »

Well I finally went out and worked on Gwendolyn some more... I borrowed a rubber-based square of carpet from my Father-in-law's shop and used that as weather proofing and sound deadener for the hole I had to cut for the dual cases. It should work pretty well, but I'm a glutton for punishment when it comes to working on my projects in the future, so I used rivets to attach it to the original metal frame for the dust shield and the floor.

I was then able to put the original trim on it with some rather haggard and rushed "modification" of the plastic pieces and leather shift boot. I will have to modify the boot on the passengers side, because it is pulling the stick out of 4 wheel drive when I apply and release the accelerator. I did however order the HD detent ball spring last night, so maybe that will be enough. I also really hope I can get that installed without removing the transfer cases...

And then I was able to put the pacesetter header I got on the truck. It took some... finesse to get the header on because it was hitting the transmission bell housing and preventing the bottom edge of the header manifold from mounting flush against the head and seal properly. I'm not sure if I just got a bad header, or what, but it took a few good wacks with the 5 pound sledge to massage the header enough for it to fit right. It's open just an open headers now, and I didn't finish until late at night, so sorry to all the neighbors that I'm sure were cursing my name... but I had to see her move on her own power after all these months. The power steering pump is pretty loud, but I'm hoping that's just the air bubbles working themselves out.

I just sold my other vehicle, so I will be DDing this truck in a few short weeks, so time is running out on this project. I ordered a steering stabalizer and dropped the rear line off at the drive-line shop. The guy their convinced me to go with a single piece driveline instead of the 2 piece that was on it. I had some drive-line vibrations before this even started, so I figure I would default to his knowledge despite the reports that the 2 piece drive-line is the suggested setup. I do have an extra front drive-line, so I think I'll use the CV from that in the rear to prevent any future vibration problems at higher speeds.

Mega Baby Huey · « **Reply #13 on:** Apr 07, 2018, 05:06:46 PM »

Well it's been a bit of a scramble here lately. I've been slamming Gwendolyn back together in prep for her taking on the role of DD, and my transfer case issues sort of turned into a bit of a headache. When I got it all back together, I thought the biggest issue was the shifter for the 2x4 or 4x4 selection kept popping out of gear, but that was only the first phase of the problems. After a few test drives my selector stick seized up almost completely to the point I could barely move it. I immediately headed for home (I was less than a block away) and when I made a left hand turn in my neighborhood the stick finally loosened up and I could use it freely and easily. But when I hit the bump for the curb into my driveway I heard and felt some nasty repetitive clunks through the stick. I was out of time, so I had to drive it for work the next day, and didn't have time to tear into it. The next day the ticking and tapping were still there and louder than ever. Whenever I would reverse down my driveway it would clunk and tick loudly, and when I would move forward it would continue banging until I made it out of first gear. This continued pretty much all the time I was driving it, and I even started to notice that even when there was no ticking I could still hear what sounded like gears spinning loudly from what I believed was the rear-most case. After babying it through the work week as best I could, listening to the horrible and sporadic ticks and taps all the while, I finally tore it apart today and found that I had installed the Clutch Gear backwards, leaving me in a sort of half engaged 4 wheel drive mode. The initial stiffness I felt in the selector stick was the collar gear trying to sync the 2 gears together, as the incorrect orientation of the Clutch Gear left the 2 gears too close together for the collar to disengage 4x4 completely, and the ticking and banging was from when the collar would catch the Clutch Gear and partially spin the idler gear. I was super happy to find no metal shavings in either the gear oil or the case when I opened it up, and I thought for sure I was going to be replacing gears.
In the picture below you can see the INCORRECT way the gear was put in.

But after that I got it all slammed together and when I backed it out of my driveway just now, the issue seems to have been resolved. Today I also put on the steering stabilizer I got from Marlin Crawler, and I have absolutely no idea if there's some correct/magical angle I was supposed to mount this shock in, but I did my best to keep it as far away from the rocks as possible. As soon as the paint and primer dries I will finish hooking it up. The High Steer definitely feels different than the stock setup, and I notice when I'm making a turn and go through a ditch or a hole it feels like the steering kind of does its own thing. We'll see how much the stabalizer helps, but I think it's just something I'll have to get used to.

I'm also happy to report that the rear drive shaft worked perfectly, and the exhaust sounds great. We have a great local exhaust shop that did a great job of hugging my under-belly to avoid confrontations with rocks. The MagnaFlow sounds a little rice-ier than I would have hoped, but it sounds great none the less.

emsvitil · « **Reply #14 on:** Apr 07, 2018, 09:53:56 PM »

None of the new pictures are showing

Mega Baby Huey · « **Reply #15 on:** Apr 07, 2018, 10:01:32 PM »

Did that fix it?

emsvitil · « **Reply #16 on:** Apr 07, 2018, 10:27:00 PM »

Mega Baby Huey · « **Reply #17 on:** Apr 08, 2018, 01:01:32 PM »

Here's a little footage from this afternoon. I hooked up the steering stabilizer and took it out for a test run today, and it did amazing. I couldn't help but try the "walk the crawler" that Marlin coined all those years ago. I love the dual cases.

emsvitil · « **Reply #18 on:** Apr 08, 2018, 06:28:55 PM »

The pictures aren't fixed anymore............

Mega Baby Huey · « **Reply #19 on:** Apr 08, 2018, 07:28:28 PM »

Third time's a charm?

emsvitil · « **Reply #20 on:** Apr 09, 2018, 02:57:13 AM »

As of now, I can see them....................

Mega Baby Huey · « **Reply #21 on:** Apr 21, 2018, 02:38:12 PM »

Well after a year of moving it from my garage, to my storage unit, to my garage, to my storage unit, and finally back to my garage, Yota87Truck and I finally got around to throwing the locking axle under my truck. When I bought the axle last year I did some measuring and thought that I had bought the same axle I had under my truck already, that someone had modified to accept the elocker 3rd member from a newer 4runner or Tacoma... but what we found when we looked a little bit closer (and by that I mean Yota87Truck took one look at it and saw it immediately) was that it was actually an IFS gen truck axle modified to fit the e locker. The axle case was beefier, the axle itself was wider, and that the mounts for the e brake cables and brake lines are still (for the most part) the same as my stock axle. Pleasant surprise! This meant that I no longer had to use the wheel spacers on the back axle to fit the newer Toyota rims I have on the truck. It also meant that the getting the ubolts to seat at the bottom of the leaf springs required a 5 pound sledge and repeated convincing. We got it in the end though...

While I was under the truck last week I ran the numbers and ordered the proper shims to get my axle to the right angle with the new dual case setup and it seems to have eliminated a lot of my vibration issues. I still need to do it with the front setup, but for now I'm happy to have the rear fixed. The other part of the new axle that was fun was extending the parking brake cable for the new axle width. We were able to replace the length of cable rope on the passengers side with a slightly longer piece, using a Swaging tool and the proper fittings. This really gave it the "factory" feel and retained the functionality of the parking brake, and avoided the circus of grafting in a longer piece of cable rope in with crimps like the last time I did this swap. The new bigger drums in the rear also helped my stopping A LOT! I know the rear brakes don't do much, but my old rears must not have been doing anything because I feel like I halved my braking distance. We also found what appeared to be water in the brake line, which could have also explained the weird braking issues I had.

We're planning on running to Moab tomorrow for some light testing of the new setup. I am also going to be wiring up the e locker in the next couple of weeks. For now I will manually engage the locker, but it should get me by until I can get my setup figured out.

Mega Baby Huey · « **Reply #22 on:** Jan 06, 2019, 01:10:51 PM »

Knock knock, who's there? Piston #2....

I'm now looking into a 2.7 swap... I'm hoping to find some good swap-ready candidates on copart.com. Until then it looks like Gwendolyn is parked again for a while.

Mega Baby Huey · « **Reply #23 on:** May 02, 2019, 10:58:51 AM »

So Yota87Truck and I got the engine swap done. I ended up finding a craigslist special. The guy I bought the engine says it was a professionally rebuilt motor with less than 10k put on it. He was swapping in the Mercedes diesel and was selling the longblock. The install went well, and she's running great!

Mega Baby Huey · « **Reply #24 on:** May 02, 2019, 11:13:40 AM »

New tires today! Before:

And After

:

Mega Baby Huey · « **Reply #25 on:** Dec 26, 2021, 07:42:32 PM »

Here's the video showing how the engine swap went:

Mega Baby Huey · « **Reply #26 on:** Dec 27, 2021, 07:36:41 AM »

To play a bit of catchup...

I've done a few projects on Gwendolyn since my last updates. The front driver's leaf spring finally let me know that it had enough, and was ready to retire. So I bought a rough country lift and threw on the front half so it was driveable, with the plans of coming back to put the rear on later... That was in April of 2020, and I still need to put on the back half of the rough country lift.

Lots of other plans for projects coming up too... I've got 4.88 Ninja gears on the way from Marlin (Merry Christmas to me) with a TON of electrical projects planned (Maybe I'll actually wire up the e locker, 5 years after I installed it).
In preparation for those electrical projects, I did a 'radio delete' yesterday. I removed the head unit and replaced it with a small bluetooth/aux board that takes up a fraction of the space as the old head unit. It's secured in with zip ties for now, and I'm thinking I might buy a 3D printer to print off my own custom insert for that space... I'm thinking maybe some spots for switches and possible cup holders?" Who knows.
But I also mounted up a Spotify "Car Thing" to control my music while the receiver itself is just a volume knob.

a1gemmel · « **Reply #27 on:** Dec 31, 2021, 05:05:30 PM »

Love the truck!

Mega Baby Huey · « **Reply #28 on:** Jan 04, 2022, 06:38:12 PM »

I had an interesting repair the other day that I thought I would share in case it helps anyone else... Gwendolyn is pretty well loaded as far as factory options go, and I was shocked when I first saw the cruise control button on the dash. When I got her up and driving for the first time I tried out the cruise control and found that the light would turn on when I pushed the button, but it would not work more than that. I never really put much more thought into it, but I figured I might look into it someday.

...

Fast forward half a decade to a week ago, and I see someone in a forum mention that they adjusted their clutch pedal and it fixed their cruise control (!!!). The next day I spend an hour on my back under my dash fiddling in a space much too small for my gorilla hands and watermelon head, and I manage to move the pedal forward enough to press the button... and Hot damn! I have cruise control! It only took me another 2 hours after that to take it all apart 2 more times to get the clutch to have less than 2 feet of travel and we're in business!

Before (button not pressed when clutch released):

After (button fully pressed when clutch released):

I just wanted to put this up in case anyone else could use the hint. It might be my imagination, but it seems to have helped my problem with stumbling off the line and a recurring rough idle situation, but that might be coincidence...

toyodaaddict · « **Reply #29 on:** Jan 05, 2022, 12:20:14 PM »

Would that device you used to replace the stereo head unit work with an old ipod (non bluetooth)?

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