1st Gen. Toyota SAS (2wd to 4wd)In its new Parking Space

[inmyownsummerami]

thats grabber green engine paint. am I right?

John Deere Green, Same paint they use on the tractors

[Max Heintz]

hows it coming?

[inmyownsummerami]

hows it coming?

Still waiting for parts. I got a new pilot bearing, and throw-out bearing yesterday, and my spring and shackle mounts should be here tommarrow. I also need to get some steel for my front and rear  cross members, and my shackles.
My cousin told me that I could have his broken t-case crossmember that he bought from Hyena's boss since he is supposed to build him a stronger one, but I might just buy a new one from him so I don't have to wait.

[Hyena]

they don't have any stronger ones in the works yet    just get a new one an plate it.  they have a couple made right now.

[inmyownsummerami]

they don't have any stronger ones in the works yet    just get a new one an plate it.  they have a couple made right now.

Yeah, thats what I figured, since it has been a few months since Rick said he was going to make Bryan a stronger x-member. Does he still want $150 for the kit, or did it go up? I might swing by tomorrow at lunch and pick one up.

[Hyena]

$125 for the crossmember and bolt kit.   More with the skidplate but that aint worth it.

[inmyownsummerami]

$125 for the crossmember and bolt kit.   More with the skidplate but that aint worth it.

Cool. I don't need the skid, I'm cutting the out of my floor and pushing the case up even with the frame, and building a full belly skid out of some industrial plastic that we use on the machines I work on.

[Hyena]

Sweet.  your gonna have to push them up about 4 inches from stock (well 4wd stock that is)  the seat mounts may need to be redone.

[inmyownsummerami]

My seats are thrashed, and full of mildew, so they are being replaced with some suspension seats from J.C. Whitney. One of my buddies from Phoenix was running them and they were decently comfortable for what they cost.http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Product/tf-Browse/s-10101/Pr-p_Product.CATENTRY_ID:2011342/p-2011342/N-111+10201+600003386/c-10101

[Hyena]

I thought bryan wanted to get rid of his seats.  doesn't have have the same seats?

[inmyownsummerami]

No, his are the cheap ass plastic seats from summit. The only suspension his seats have is the plastic flexing.

[inmyownsummerami]

Last week was good as far as getting parts, but this weekend I didn't get much done since I only worked on the truck for about 3hrs on Sunday. I got the new pilot and throw-out bearings on Tuesday, my spring hangers and shackle mounts got here on Wednesday, I bought a T-Case cross-member on Thursday, and ordered a stick of 2" x 3" x 3/16" wall box tubing on Friday.
The first thing I did on sunday was remove the trashed pilot bearing. I didn't have a puller at home so I used the grease and paper towel trick for hydraulicing out the bearing.
The way it works is you take some paper towels and rip them up so that they can be pushed into the input shaft hole in the bearing. Find a bolt that fits into the pilot shaft hole with minimal play(I think the one I used was about 12mm). Then you grease up the paper towel and start shoving the pieces in, using the bolt to pack the pieces in. Once you cant get any more greasy paper towel in stick the bolt in the hole and hit it with a hammer until it stops, pull the bolt out and repeat. Eventually the grease and paper towel will fill the pocket behind the bearing and the pressure created by hitting the bolt with the hammer will slowly start pushing the bearing out of its pocket.




Once I had the bearing out I realized that my bearing drivers were at work so I couldnt install the new bearing. So I cut out the 2wd tranny crossmember. I still dont have a new acetalyne tank so I was stuck with the damn sawzall and cut-off wheels.




Then today at work I beefed up the T-Case cross-member. In Sept. my cousin broke his at fordyce, and I dont want to deal with trail fixing mine.
 Here's my cousins.


Here's mine so far.

I also plan on plating the front side.

[SQUIRREL MONSTER]

wow, theres alot of work goin into this 2wd-4wd conversion. very extensive work. nice job man! keep it up!

[inmyownsummerami]

wow, theres alot of work goin into this 2wd-4wd conversion. very extensive work. nice job man! keep it up!

Thanks dude. I'm just trying to build it right the first time. Really the work is not that extensive. I do alot of fab work at my job along with rebuilding gear boxes and general mechanical work on road-building equipment.

[Hyena]

half a million dollars worth of equipment!

[inmyownsummerami]

half a million dollars worth of equipment!

I take it you've talked to Matt or John 
The pavers might cost a half mill., but I still get to cut them up and beat on 'em with BFHs as soon as we get them from our factory.

[Hyena]

ya, Matt came over and was talking to us for a bit.

[inmyownsummerami]

I got a late start on the truck yesterday, because I had to take my Dodge into the dealer to get the drivers door glass replaced.
Until yesterday I hadn't done anything but remove parts. But I got a few "little" things installed .
First up was making room for the cases to fit above the bottom of the frame rails

Then I installed the transmission.

I know that the L-43 is known to be weak so don't plan on running it very long.
Crawl box in.
(Lost pic.)
And finally the t-case in

Having the tunnel cut out worked out awesome for installing the t-case. I didn't have to bench press the damned thing in, I just positioned it under the hole, climbed into the cab and picked the case up by the shifters.
My floor jack is MIA, so to pull the t-case up even with the frame rails I got a little creative. A 60" Hi-Lift spans the doors perfectly, so I set it across the doors and used a ratchet strap to lift the drive train and then put a jack stand under the t-case. I still have a little more trimming to do on the floor to get the case where I want it, but over all I'm happy with what I got done yesterday.

I will also need to bend the trans shifter to clear the crawl box shifter when the trans is in rev. and the crawl box is in low.

[inmyownsummerami]

Oh yeah, If you're stuck using a sawzall, I highly recommend bosch Heavy Metal blades. They cut clean and fast, and don't bend like other blades when they slip out of the cut and stab the material being cut.

On sheet metal they're a little bit aggressive, but 1/8" or thicker they work awesome.

[86bobbedtoy]

yep bosch and milwaukee are the shi!. (I love milwaukees 21 TPI for anything over 1/8th")  GREAT BUILD..

[inmyownsummerami]

yep bosch and milwaukee are the shi!. (I love milwaukees 21 TPI for anything over 1/8th")  GREAT BUILD..

I have had no good experiance with the milwauke blades, they always seem to bend or lose teeth easily when I use them. But I have had no trouble with the bosch blades other than destroying the retaining hole from not having the blade not locked in well enough.

[inmyownsummerami]

I slacked off this week, but tonight I got a little further on cutting out the floor and getting the case above the bottom of the frame. I also finished up reinforcing the cross-member.

The weld on frame mounts are a little high so I'm gonna have to build up some pieces to weld to the frame, and then weld the mounts to them.

Instead of plating both sides of the cross-member, I only plated the back side and then I welded 1/4" x 1" flatbar to the top of the 3/8" plate.


The flat bar should keep the 3/8" plate from flexing and ultimately breaking where my cousins failed.(Pic #7 in post #42)

[inmyownsummerami]

Rain sucks when you have to work out side.

Last sunday was the last day I got any thing done. My cousin brought over his map-gas torch and we bent the tranny shifter so that it would go into rev. when the crawl box was in low. It started to look like a crazy straw, I thnk there are about 6 bends in the damned thing to get it to clear every thing.

We also got the rear 2"x3" .188wall shackle x-mem. welded in.

I doubt I will get anything else done until after tinbenders. I wish my truck was ready so that I could bring it down there, but I have no seat time in it, and thats too far of a drive for me to take an untested vehicle. Now that I hink about it, riding passenger with Hyena should be just about as fun as actually driving.

One last pic of the shifter clearing.

[inmyownsummerami]

I bought seats today. I was just going to run the buckets that came with the truck and power wash them and get seat covers, but I figured I'd might as well get seats now instead of building mounts twice. I'm also going to be running 4-points, so I might as well have seats designed to run harnesses. http://www.hunsakersports.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=228 Shipping on them is a little high at $80 for the pair, but the total is still cheaper than high end seats.
I want to keep the truck low as possible, but in order to mount the seats so my head isn't against the roof I'm going to have to lift the body about 2".

[Gittinit]

I bought seats today. I was just going to run the buckets that came with the truck and power wash them and get seat covers, but I figured I'd might as well get seats now instead of building mounts twice. I'm also going to be running 4-points, so I might as well have seats designed to run harnesses. http://www.hunsakersports.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=228 Shipping on them is a little high at $80 for the pair, but the total is still cheaper than high end seats.
I want to keep the truck low as possible, but in order to mount the seats so my head isn't against the roof I'm going to have to lift the body about 2".

Are you lifting the body becouse the transfer case mount is so high for flat the flatbelly. I think it would be a better trade off to lower the trans crosmember and loose the flat belly rather than raise the body and loose out on your center of gravity.
Your post got me thinking about the seats but at $80 for shipping I could probably do better. 

[inmyownsummerami]

Are you lifting the body becouse the transfer case mount is so high for flat the flatbelly. I think it would be a better trade off to lower the trans crosmember and loose the flat belly rather than raise the body and loose out on your center of gravity.
Your post got me thinking about the seats but at $80 for shipping I could probably do better. 

Yeah, the t-case x-member is up so high that the seats would be mounted too high, and my head almost hits the roof. The body lift will allow me to mount the seats lower, and will also give me room to do some slight boat sides. As far as raising the cog, it shouldn't be that big of a deal, since the suspension will be kept low.

[jimbo74]

what are you mounting the seats to? and how will you keep the elements out of the cab?

[inmyownsummerami]

what are you mounting the seats to? and how will you keep the elements out of the cab?

I'm going to build a floor frame to mount the seats to, and also use it to mount the new floor panels.

[Gittinit]

If you remove and modify the crosmember one more time you could save your self from having to install a body lift. cut the crosmember so that it is in 3 pices.. center and each side, then put the ruber under your current mount instead of on top of it, mount each side under that and tack it together. Then weld it back up, and plate both sides. You will get what your wanting with no body lift, and still be stronger than the mount similar to yours that broke. Basically make it mount on top then bushing then crosmember, instead of the crosmember/ bushing / mount the way it is now.

I know its alot of work but I think it would be worth it for you, no matter how ready you are to wheel your own.   I( hope this makes sense.  

[Hyena]

but he wants a flat belly.  i would rather have a flat belly with a small body lift than no body lift and a low belly.  you have no idea how many things the t-cases get hung up on until you lift them and not get hung on them anymore.  the bopdy lift won't huirt his COG that much cince it is a light truck and should still be low.  it will also help clear the tires with a lower suspension lift.