Project: The '81 "Yoter"

[a1gemmel]

Some little clips from some snow crawling tonight. Busted open a trail that probably hasn't seen tracks since first snowfall. In an hour, we went roughly 400 yards 
I need to go back on the weekend with a metal detector to try and find the tire chain I threw! Don't know at what point I lost it, but it must have been buried pretty good in the snow. I walked back with a flashlight and couldn't find it.

https://youtube.com/shorts/Q6zpUNylVdE

https://youtube.com/shorts/ABAd8rg2FHw

Apologies, I guess this forum software doesn't know about youtube shorts so you'll have to click through.

[a1gemmel]

More recovery shenanigans... I had just settled in for a cheeky pint before bed and a request came in on a community group - ram 1500 with a broken CV stuck on a snowed over road, about 70 minutes from me. It's been snowing hard the past two days. 1am I was wheels up, I made it to them around 2:30am. They weren't very stuck but had wandered quite far down into a gulch of a road, of course they made it to the bottom and couldn't get back up. Normally this is just a road, but with 2 feet of fresh wet snow on it...

There was a minor embarrassing moment when I was turning around, dropped both front tires into a ditch that was hidden by 4 feet of powder. Shovelled for 2 minutes and dropped from street pressure to 6psi and the yoter walked right out.

I got them turned around pretty quick, set up a bridle on a kinetic rope and then it was pretty much foot to the floor in second gear single low range for a mile to get back out. The ram in 2 wheel drive (really worst wheel drive) could hardly help at all.

This is pretty much exactly how I broke my L52, but I'm not just gonna not send it when I have a chance to give full send. I think I got away with it this time. The guys were impressed, said it was like being pulled by a tractor. A local in an F350 failed to help them before I showed up so they were doubtful it was possible  Lockers and low tire pressure are like magic.

That's all for now, I've got to go to work in 2 hours... I'll have to see if I got enough clips for a coherent video.

[Gnarly4X]

a cheeky pint...  1am I was wheels up, I made it to them around 2:30am...

...dropped from street pressure to 6psi and the yoter walked right out.

... foot to the floor in second gear single low range for a mile to get back out.

... I have a chance to give full send.

....F350 failed to help them

... Lockers and low tire pressure are like magic.

"cheeky pint".... COLD SNOW?.... cheeky pint.... COLD SNOW?.... cheeky pint....COLD SNOW?... hmmmmm....

For GO... NO GO...Snow and Glamis sand dunes always appreciated my 4 PSI.

Another deposit in your KARMA BANK! 

Gnarls.

[a1gemmel]

The most neglected vehicle in my fleet - the 1986 4runner - is getting a bit of love. I snagged a 5.29 Detroit IFS diff on FB for a song and a dance, it just had a broken stub shaft which I extracted with a welder and a slide hammer. I threw the old 5.29 trutrac from my pickup into the rear end, and slammed the detroit under the front. This goofy rough country bracket lift makes changing the front diff a huge bummer, but at least the 2 post makes it less of a chore. Lots of swearing/prying/hammering to get the "subframe" to line back up at the end. The lady might start dailying this truck since it somehow gets better fuel economy than her fullsize, so some efforts are going into making it a bit nicer to drive. Going from 4.30s to 5.29s (and not having a spool in the rear) is an immediate improvement for drivability.



Also swapped in a "new" window regulator from the doors I have saved from that parts 4runner I had. This unit was miled out!

[a1gemmel]

So here I am - drinking my morning decaf coffee and looking through facebook, craigslist, auction sites for things I don't really need. I'm hosting a bunch of friends in the summer for a camping trip, so I've been looking for another 4x4 for the occasion that I'll flip afterwards. I saw a 4runner on an auction site, started scrolling through the photos. It looked ok, not amazing for the price. Then I get to the last photo - what is this? It has a TRD supercharger kit that's mentioned nowhere in the listing? And it's priced like a bone stock truck? With 6 minutes left I put in a bid and won the truck. So now for a measly $4k I own a 1998 TRD 3.4 supercharged 4runner. I think it was a good buy but I don't really know anything about these. It does have 300k miles, but it's super clean and it ran pretty well in the 100 yards I put on it loading it on the trailer.

[OVRAROK]

So here I am - drinking my morning decaf coffee and looking through facebook, craigslist, auction sites for things I don't really need. I'm hosting a bunch of friends in the summer for a camping trip, so I've been looking for another 4x4 for the occasion that I'll flip afterwards. I saw a 4runner on an auction site, started scrolling through the photos. It looked ok, not amazing for the price. Then I get to the last photo - what is this? It has a TRD supercharger kit that's mentioned nowhere in the listing? And it's priced like a bone stock truck? With 6 minutes left I put in a bid and won the truck. So now for a measly $4k I own a 1998 TRD 3.4 supercharged 4runner. I think it was a good buy but I don't really know anything about these. It does have 300k miles, but it's super clean and it ran pretty well in the 100 yards I put on it loading it on the trailer.

SCORE....

[a1gemmel]

I wanted to be like all the cool overlanding kids so I put a rigid molle panel behind my seat. It's just affixed via nuts welded to the back of the cab, with the panel bolted in using some copper tube as standoffs.
I've just got a few bags for the system to start, have a bit of gear that always stays in the truck in there - paracord, tape, knife, hi-vis vest, headlamp, second radio, gloves. Not very full yet but I'll add stuff as I feel the need.

[Gnarly4X]

What about a 20 lb. C02 tank, big jumper cables, fire extinguisher, and a first aid kit? 

Gnarls.

[a1gemmel]

That stuff is already in the bed, of course.

I got in an altercation with a snowy ditch and a tree and broke a headlight. Upgraded to H4s with integrated LED turn signals, pretty snazzy. I bent the hood back into place but frankly there wasn't much hood left to bend.

[a1gemmel]

Noticed on my last long trip my brakes felt weak, especially pulling my snowmobile. Got it on the lift and deduced that the rear brakes weren't doing anything at all. I messed around way too long thinking it was the wilwood proportioning valve (which was stuck and needed some finesse to get the knob turning again), cracking fittings in various places and checking for pressure. Finally popped a wheel spacer and drum off... d'oh. The shoes are nearly bare, way below spec. Ordered in new shoes and drums, hope I can get those on tomorrow since I'm leading a trail run on Sunday.

While I was in there, I noticed the front pads were just about done for and grabbed a set off the shelf to slap on. When I pushed one of the pistons in to make some room it just started pissing rusty fluid... I had a caliper seal kit on hand so that turned into an impromptu caliper rebuild. Bores and pistons all looked good, I think there was just some grit inside the dust seal that got pushed into the bore seal and wrecked it.





Never a dull moment around these parts!

[Gnarly4X]

Wow!!

If you're not fabricating your hands are greasy with R&R! 

It's a good thing you are "handy" and you have some tools. 

I'm lucky to be here in the desert.  Rust and corrosion are almost non-existent.

The heat and sun does decompose rubber and just about everything else.

I'm a desert rat and couldn't do freezing cold, snow, ice and rain at elevation.

Gnarls.

[a1gemmel]

It's a life, that's for sure!

Whelp, my Oreilly's order got cancelled and the drums marked on backorder, presumably they dusted off the cobwebs in that corner of the warehouse and the expected inventory had evaporated. Couldn't get them locally at any other vendor so I'm waiting on Rockauto now. Took the 4runner instead yesterday, it did great.



In the meantime I'm trying to knock out some odd jobs on the truck while it's stranded on the lift. It would be nice if I could button up the onboard air system, so I installed the tank today.

[a1gemmel]

A panhard bar?? On my leafsprings??



I whipped this up for giggles, it's actually pretty wild the difference it makes for on-road handling. Now the truck actually turns in before the body-roll preloads the steering. Any hint of wobble or wander is gone too. Does not impact articulation offroad either.
Of course, this is just a bandaid for the ultra-slinky spring-under setup that I still don't really like. 3 link when??

[a1gemmel]

Adventure trailer - of course it has to have a complimentary graphics package to the truck.



It's fully painted and assembled now, remaining work is wiring and plumbing.

[a1gemmel]

Dipped into Moab for a day last week, did Top of the World by myself and then the whole group took Triangle Road on dirt most of the way into Grand Junction. The pickup and both my 4runners were party to this trip, both the latter being piloted by out-of-town friends - the '98 did admirably in this wicked little water crossing.

[a1gemmel]

And finally edited up some Moab footage from February

[Gnarly4X]

Wow!!

Awesome video!!

Nice editing.

And thank you for the slow guitar picking instead of brain-blasting heavy metal.

Gnarls.

[a1gemmel]

Rock crawling? We went out to Tie Rod Bender yesterday to get into the thick of it:

No major damage to either rig. I scratched up my driveshaft a bit, the XJ took a bit of rocker damage and sliced a sidewall on a rock.
I've got the steel to make up some rock sliders, just need to get around to it. Haven't really run a trail where it was a factor, but I do want to push the truck with some bigger challenges in the spring.

[a1gemmel]

Been putting a lot of abuse on the truck the last few months, winter is going to involve some maintenance and upgrades...

[a1gemmel]

Wanted a better way to pull transmissions with the lift, decided to build a scissor table. (In the literary world, this is called "foreshadowing"...)





Cylinder was $60 at Hazard Fright, everything else came from the empire of dirt. Machined all the delrin bushings/rollers on my craftsman lathe and made all the bracketry on my fray 10r mill. Manual machines are fun!

[a1gemmel]

First big maintenance item - had a rear axle seal leaking so bad that I've been topping off the diff every time I go wheeling. Obviously the solution is to upgrade to a 3rd gen rear axle 

Scored a complete assembly minus third, cut all the brackets off.



Love this table, should have built it years ago.





Big design problem with the toyota leaf spring bushings with the 18mm bolts - there's no sleeve in the bushing so the bolt doesn't have anything to clamp on, it inevitably starts moving around and ovalling the holes... surely I'm not the only one to have this problem?



Lazy fix - weld a washer on the outside, weld the nut on the other side.





Yadda yadda, new housing in and assembled. I've gone to a u-bolt flip kit, just cut the original shock mount brackets up and welded them to the housing. I'm also pointing the pinion at the t-case and going to a CV driveshaft - this now has 15.5" of clearance to the driveshaft flange. Surprised the rancho shocks are still perfect 4 years and 40k kilometers of abuse later.



Cut the fixed yoke and a few inches off the driveshaft, welded a V6 CV joint onto it. All painted up, will probably go to a shop for a balance check next week.



Got a few things left to do tomorrow to button it up, but it's looking pretty good.

[OVRAROK]

When I built my 84, I made the mistake of not putting a neg 2 degrees at my pinion. I align my pinion as straight as I could to t case( DL angle). Afterwards it had a vibration cruising, when you would be in-between acceleration and de acceleration. Did a bunch of research, and found that once you find DL angle, get degrees, then point pinion 2 degrees downward, to allow for axle wrap. Vibration was gone..

[a1gemmel]

When I built my 84, I made the mistake of not putting a neg 2 degrees at my pinion. I align my pinion as straight as I could to t case( DL angle). Afterwards it had a vibration cruising, when you would be in-between acceleration and de acceleration. Did a bunch of research, and found that once you find DL angle, get degrees, then point pinion 2 degrees downward, to allow for axle wrap. Vibration was gone..

I think my angle is a degree up at the moment - I'd heard of what you're saying and had it in the back of my mind. A few confounding factors. I've got the traction bar and so a lot less pinion angle deflection.  I'm going to be swapping in the 6" longer W56 pretty soon, which will of course make the driveshaft steeper and probably take it to a degree down. We'll see how it all shakes out, there's always angle shims...

[OVRAROK]

I think my angle is a degree up at the moment - I'd heard of what you're saying and had it in the back of my mind. A few confounding factors. I've got the traction bar and so a lot less pinion angle deflection.  I'm going to be swapping in the 6" longer W56 pretty soon, which will of course make the driveshaft steeper and probably take it to a degree down. We'll see how it all shakes out, there's always angle shims...

6" longer transmission, I'm sure you'll have to cut down driveshaft. Time to do dual cases if you haven't already. I'm sure it's going to effect the front shaft to.

[a1gemmel]

Yep, I'll have to cut the driveshaft down again and lengthen the front. Already have dual cases.

[a1gemmel]

Completely forgot to take a photo of the completed product, but I realized I didn't have the right t-case flange for the CV joint so I modified mine. Used the welder to build up the diameter another 12mm, cleaned it up in the lathe and then drilled in the new pattern.

[OVRAROK]

A lathe is a must have..

[a1gemmel]

It's that time of year again...



Got it down now, takes me about 25 minutes per tire

[toyodaaddict]

Those tires look ready for the snow. Are you going to be doing recovery missions again this year?

[a1gemmel]

Those tires look ready for the snow. Are you going to be doing recovery missions again this year?

It's looking like it! Snow has been coming in pretty early this year.