Topic: $300

[83yota]

I love this thread

[WHITE_TRASH [OP]]

So I've spent a lot of time reading up on the A340/AW4/various other versions that have been used by MANY other manufacturers and I have decided that anyone that swaps out one of these trannies is an idiot.   You can do some SICK things to them to set them up to shift as hard as you want exactly when you want.  Cool shiat indeed.  I'm looking forward to breaking into my valvebody tomorrow to start playing with it.

[kneedownnate]

Right on!  Right after buying my 80 I bought a $300 yellow 80 lb that was basically the same rig and wanted to stick the 22re and automatic out of my 86 4by in it, but the genius who flat towed it to nor cal from arizona didn't disconnect the drivelines 

[kneedownnate]

What's the deal with the isuzu in your shop 

[WHITE_TRASH [OP]]

Right on!  Right after buying my 80 I bought a $300 yellow 80 lb that was basically the same rig and wanted to stick the 22re and automatic out of my 86 4by in it, but the genius who flat towed it to nor cal from arizona didn't disconnect the drivelines 

You still have that A340?  Make your life easy and snag a AW4 out of a cherocar and swap a few parts off the A340 then double it up with a 231-whatever strikes your fancy.


As for the Rodildo that's my go kart.  We just spent all day yesterday gutting it, took a whole long box dodge load of interior and misc unused crap out of it to the dump...  There is NOTHING behind the front seats and the doors are gutted minus the outside door handles.  The back went up about 2" from all the weight going away so I cranked up the torsion bars a bit now it's level and the 33's actually clear for once.

[kneedownnate]

Nah, paid $650 for the truck, guy offered me $650 for the engine then asked twice about what was wrong withe the tranny and offered me $150 more for it.  I couldn't pass that up 

[WHITE_TRASH [OP]]

Well if you ever get around to doing an auto swap I'll know more tech about it than you really want to know by then...  I'm digging up as much as I can find, I want this swap to succeed so I don't have to listen to the I told you so's from my wife... 

If you dig up an AW4 I'll give you a yota bellhousing for it though...  The oil pan will work but the yota one is about an inch deeper, has the passenger side angled for driveshaft clearance and the dipstick comes out of the passenger side rather than the driver side near the exhaust.

[WHITE_TRASH [OP]]

Mini update, the trans is all assembled with the shift kit installed and ready to fly with the correct bellhousing and oil pan.


My wife is picking up all the seals I need to seal everything up right before I stick it all together for the final time and shove it in place.   My wife kicks mucho ass.

[cgbemis]

Mini update, the trans is all assembled with the shift kit installed and ready to fly with the correct bellhousing and oil pan.


My wife is picking up all the seals I need to seal everything up right before I stick it all together for the final time and shove it in place.   My wife kicks mucho ass.

A mini update with no pics of the tranny/t-case combo? I ask you, where's the tech? 

As for your wife, she got a sister??

[WHITE_TRASH [OP]]

I'll get pics tomo.... well later today.


yup, she has 3 sisters, 2 like dark meat and are useless around vehicles and another that is a super cool chick that sings in a band..  She's getting a divorce, you want her digits?

[WHITE_TRASH [OP]]

The tear down.














And here is what is going on once the chassis is prepped.

[WHITE_TRASH [OP]]

Looong overdue update.  Been a very productive weekend, the trans and cases are together and in the truck.  We moved the whole drivetrain back 7" and down about 1/2ish inch.  The body is back 9" and there is no body lift built into the new mounts so it will be shorter than it was before.

The cab I'm using now is just for mock up and boy oh boy am I glad for having it!  I can hack things apart and I know exactly what will fit where etc. 

The AW4/A340 is rather large so it is a balancing act between keeping the flat belly and being able to fit the seats inside the cab.   So far we have determined that the passenger seat isn't going to have any sliders on it, the 300 want's that space instead.  The trans tunnel is hacked all to hell but actually less than it was with the W56 and yota duals, go figure.







Here you can see why I moved the engine as far back as I did.  With the engine 7" back I'll have clearance for the tie rod to pass in front of the crank pulley at full stuff.  I'm going to have about 5" more up travel than I did before so that'll bring it to about 6-7" total up and plenty down.  We'll see if I actually get to keep my fenders or if I'm going to be trimming the hood.

[89sastoyo]

yeah that cabs lookin a little small inside you could always find narrow seats that are reall low and mount them kinda high.....


I have intrega seats in my truck and there super low I could mount them up probably 2-3 inches and it wouldnt bother me a bit.

[WHITE_TRASH [OP]]

I still need to clock the 300 down about an inch so it won't be quite as bad but it'll still be a challenge.

[89sastoyo]

deffinetly, so you pushed the cab and drivetrain back to get a better approach angle I assume?

And my question since its still on leafs what are you going to do with teh section in front of the cab to the winch, mount the winch in that section?

[WHITE_TRASH [OP]]

I'm stretching the hood and fenders back to the core support.  The new springs will let me cut about 2" off the bottom of the spring hanger so I'll get a little better angle there.  I'm moving the radiator back with the engine and putting the winch inside the core support and building a new nose pick and bumper.  Remember it can't be completely off the hinges I'll be driving this on the road..

[SloCrawler]

Like how you did your rear springs, planning on doing the same with my 1st gen

[WHITE_TRASH [OP]]

Like how you did your rear springs, planning on doing the same with my 1st gen

Inboarding the springs was one of the better suspension mods I did.  just don't use a soft spring pack inboarded or you will have a very uncontrollable rear suspension.  I built mine butter soft at first and it wanted to flop at any time...  Now the rear is rather stiff but the added leverage makes it work extremely well.

[WHITE_TRASH [OP]]

So we pulled the 300 off and clocked it down a whole position so now there is a damned good chance I can fit the passenger seat without too many issues.  Also cut the factory shifter mount off for more clearance.





Here you can see that the engine is pretty close to being in the factory position than it has since I built it about 6 years  ago.   I had to turn the trans shifter lever over to clear the floor but it'll work just fine.   The header and dipstick are in good positions with the cab too so I'm happy with the placement.





And the motor mounts 7" back, pulled the mechanical fan off beings the tie rod will want to occupy the same space. 

[wakkjobb]

You sure like them pur-dee colors, eh?    
Nice build, way to save it from the grave... and make it better too.   

>>Dan

[KDXSR5]

Still one of my favorite builds Lookin good!

[SloCrawler]

Did you have any pics on how you monted the front of your rear springs?

Holy cow I didnt think Id ever have any real updates!

[ninja turtle]

did you lower the motor too?

[WHITE_TRASH [OP]]

The front mount on the rear springs is simply a stock spring hanger off of the ranger I robbed for it's springs when I first inboarded them.  Simply welded it inside the frame and they have been good and solid to this day.


The engine is lowered about 1/2" due to the shape of the frame.  If you look at a 2x or 4x solid axle frame the area behind the motor mounts slopes down towards the rear.  Moving them back 7" dropped it some.

[WHITE_TRASH [OP]]

Ok ladies time for an update.






Ok so I got home from a long week of playing in the snow in Norcal to get up to seadrizzle to drop the load off and get home...  I was greeted by a cleaned and organized shop..  My wife and a friend of ours spent the week busting their ass to get things back in line.  Well that was all I needed for motivation to get back to work.





I wasn't home 20 minutes before I had my work clothes on and out in the shop cutting apart the old rear shock hoops and hacking the ever living hell out of the bed...  Literally, I almost destroyed it with that damned plasma I'm such a hack.   I did my damage to one part of the bedside and finished the rest off with a 6" skinny on a 4 1/2" grinder, MUCH better and little touch up needed.

Ended up bobbing the bed 10" but I may cut it down a bit more to get rid of some more overhang out the back.

First fitment with bedsides intact and inner fender wells still in it.






And a couple more with the HACK job I did to the bedside...  Good thing it is just sheet metal, I can fix it up and make it all better again.   The tailgate is on and functional, I'll have to rebuild the bed floor though.  I would have left more of the floor but someone put a piece of plywood down on the floor and left who knows when.  By the time I got it the damage was done so I just cut the swiss cheese out of the way.

Oh and yes, I will need that much room for up travel.   I'm going to cut the tie down hooks off and run a piece of 1 1/2x.120 DOM down the bed rail as a rub rail and to tie the internal/exo together with the fender flares and tail protection.  I got the tailights installed too, they fit like they were made to go there.  I'll snap a better pic of them tomorrow in the light.  We also started stripping the black cab too, it'll be ready to get cut up and go on next week.

[89sastoyo]

damn when you get some sheet metal on there it looks reall low and bad ass. Whats your frame height?

[WHITE_TRASH [OP]]

Frame height was right at 25" before.  With the lack of body on it right now the front is sitting about 1 1/2" higher than the rear.  Once the other cab goes on and the cage and tubed front clip go on it'll be back to normal.


I need to measure a first gen short box, I'm thinking of putting a canopy on it for winter wheeling and so far I've only cut 10 off the long box so in theory I haven't cut it too short... 

[89sastoyo]

even if its to short the bling canopys are ones from new frontiers and what not you can get nice fiberglass ones pretty cheap atleast around here. I was looking into buying one that was the same dimension as my bed for like 150. If not bob an aluminum one just rivet it and rtv the two surfaces

[WHITE_TRASH [OP]]

Yea I'm obviously not affraid to hack apart and modify anything to fit my needs.   But a bolt on and be done with it canopy would be nice just so I don't HAVE to cut up a perfectly good part..

[shawnb]

So I've spent a lot of time reading up on the A340/AW4/various other versions that have been used by MANY other manufacturers and I have decided that anyone that swaps out one of these trannies is an idiot.   You can do some SICK things to them to set them up to shift as hard as you want exactly when you want.  Cool shiat indeed.  I'm looking forward to breaking into my valvebody tomorrow to start playing with it.

FU give me back my free auto. LOL