Time To Showcase The Rig! New Front Stuff...

[TopStreet]

Thanks Guys!

Shamb, Thanks man! I will take the help when you offer it. I have had that link bookmarked since I started my first SAS weld.

The truck did very well the other day and had very little that I could complain about. It has been very dry here and the hole I chose has been "impassable" for some time now. Dont let its dried out ruts fool you. That thing damn near doesnt have a bottom to it. That thing is almost ALL clay too. That is what I forgot about.

I did all of my guess work on gearing and tire size / weight based on tires and rims... Not on that and 200 extra lbs of clay stuck in them.

I had to get the tires spinning before I could even get them clean, but once I did, they spun very easily. This really made me happy because with a little more power, and just a little getting used to it, it will work like I wanted it to. That and 95% of the mud around here is much softer and runnier then that, so tread cleaning wont be as bad.

[gtoyonrocks]

Looken good, thanks for the new pics. I did an engine swap on my 3rd gen. I went with a central manifold inject 4.3. I know it's not a yoda, but there are some benifits. One is, you can buy a harness that is plug and play. Two, it's not such a high strung motor, if you run and r series tranny your truck will be sitting fat and happy with 410 gears wich are a lot stronger than lower gearing. I do like the supra set up, but decided to go with the chevy set up. I love it. Very simple way to go. 

[TopStreet]

Thanks for the input gtoyonrocks!

I have an old school Downey t-case adapter with a TH350 attached to it, so I guess I had it set in my mind that I would do that with any Chevy engine. I wouldn't have to though.. I was simply thinking cost. I will revisit the idea, thanks.

I think its funny that you hit on the "4.10's being stronger" thing. This is actually part of my theory that I mentioned earlier. I will explain a little...

Yoda guys dont have u joint problems nearly as much as the domestic guys do but... Have you ever seen the before and after results with doing lower gearing? A very simple observation I made a while back is that guys who were having consistant u joint failures, were not any more. I am referring to drive shaft.

Now, if you think about why that would be, it is very simple... The amount of leverage changed. The driveshafts, t case, clutch, ect... Now have to do less work for the same results, but also see much less strain. BUT!!! "for every action, there is an equal reaction". So by making life easier for that section of the drive line, the axles, carrier, and lug studs see more force. This part of it is pretty easy to under stand.

Now the part that is mentioned less is the affect that tire diameter has. When I was finding the most breakages on trucks with larger tires and added power and what not, was "on the bounce". Coming up out of a mud hole for example... Right after that front tire wanted to come up and out, CRACK! For a brief moment the tire is with out as much weight, and it comes back down (allowing the tire to grab the surface) and adds ITS OWN leverage to the picture and stops the drivetrain. But, the drivetrain does not want to stop with all that extra leverage you added with your gears and what not. Soooo... You axle becomes a FUSE!

Picture you rigs stock 28-31" tires. To the center is roughly 15". Now do the same with your 38-40's. The center is 20" (let just say). You just added leverage. Many people like to disagree with me here because you "gear up for bigger tires" Right??... If you do, you just weakened your driveline twice. You have to think of it in the sense of: "If my taller tire were a prybar", then it would have more ability to slow down the drivetrain being taller.

So to summarize: Lower gears adds leverage, Taller tires (especially with better tread) adds leverage, and your axles are in the middle.

There is of course Weight, gear sizing, axle materials, power being applied, ect.... Put all that aside and think purely physics and design.

This is all based on trail theory and math. I am not going to come any where near saying that this is how it is. It just makes sense in my eyes.

[Cheesemaker]

Thats why when us fellow wheelers go to Sandlake, and you come flying out of the bowl, you push in the clutch when you go airborn until you land. 

[gtoyonrocks]

Thanks for that, that makes sense to me.  That is a very interesting way to put things.

[TopStreet]

We had some rain and I got some more wheeling in. 

[TopStreet]

Love the mud...

[AaronB]

that thing is huge

[4DEES]

Looks Pretty Sick With The 42's Man. I Just Picked Up Some 42's For Mine But I'm Not Sure If I'm Gonna Run Them Seeing As How I'm Breaking $h!t With 38.5 SX's(And I Got A Weak @$$ Motor)




But In Regards To The Longfields,I Highly Recomend Them. Thats Probably One Of The Best Investments I've Made To My Rig,But Then That Puts The Weak Point At Your Hubs,So Then You Gotta Get The Cromo Hub Gears........THEN,That Puts The Weak Point At Your Third Member..........I Just Can't Seem To Win With These HAHAHA!!!!

But The Mud Is A Little More Forgiving Than The Rocks,So You Should Be Good With Just Upgrading The Birfs Hopefully. 

[46&2]

Nice truck man. I love seeing clean bodied rigs sporting massive meats   

I love mud, unfortunately there are far more rocks where I live than good mudholes. I like your spin on things though. You have some interesting takes on stuff. I look foreward to seeing how your truck keeps up. Despite how its working for ya, I think a cross over steering set up (even double up with hydro) will blow your mind. You'll be spinnin' those 42s with your pinkies after that 

[TopStreet]

Thanks for the good words guys!!!

I am really happy to have my axle upgrade choice so laid out for me. I was originally looking at doing a D60 front and D60 rear, narrowed to roughly 63-64"... I am really glad I went the way I did though because of weight, clearance, cost. I mean Longfield 30 splines are not cheap, but compared to what it would cost to do 35 spline outers and hubs alone, its not bad. Thanks again for the good recommendation though.

I was going to suprise you guys, but the new steering setup is on its way. I didn't get the off the shelf stuff and I don't think anyone will be disappointed. Even though what I have seems ok right now... I am all about peace of mind, and safety.

I might have some more pics coming from last Sunday, but I didn't get any of my own. Long story short: I found some mud that swallowed my truck.

[46&2]

I might have some more pics coming from last Sunday, but I didn't get any of my own. Long story short: I found some mud that swallowed my truck.

Swallowed up your 42s eh??? I can't wait to see what you were up against...

[TopStreet]

Swallowed up your 42s eh??? I can't wait to see what you were up against...

Yeah... The guy that was taking the pictures said he would have copies on a cd by the weekend for me.

I was in over the front tires and still moving until the distributor filled with water. That 4banger can turn the tires just fine BUT, it has NO room to spare.

I just got word yesterday, of a guy who has a bunch of land, and has invited us over to tear up some trails for him. Supposedly there is a pond, trails, tons of mucky cat-tails and what not. That is this sunday, so I will have some good pics then.

The group is going to consist of Myself, 81 F350 (44" bogger's ) , a Ranger of some sort (also on 44" bogger's  ) , Tracker on 37s and a old yoda with a chevy drivetrain. It could be more, but thats what I know so far.

[TopStreet]

Well, I went back out to the spot that swallowed me up last time and had some fun. This was not without incident though.

Considering this is a 50min drive there and back, and I have a trailer, I figured I would test out my new tow rig. This is a '81 Chevy Scottsdale, 350 SBC, 14bolt FF / Dana 44 HD, ~9" lift, 36" Military OZ tires. About halfway there, I was driving down the road and BAM! The whole back of the Chevy dropped, all I can see in the rear view was a cloud of dust, and its dragging something hard.

I was attempting to SLOWLY slow down and stop, but I had to cross 2 lanes of traffic first. I then realized exactly what happened when I saw the rear tire go rolling past us, like it was another car or something.

SOOO!!!..... After inspecting the damage (broken rear rotor and no salavgable studs/nuts), I promptly decided that there was no way I was going to allow something like this to ruin my day of wheeling. So I drove the 3 wheeled Chevy and trailer, off onto a side road. Unloaded my toyota, and we were on are way again.

HERE's THE PICS!

[bajabooster]

i love you truck man wicked build...think you could tuck those new 54 inch boggers..lol,,that would be bad ..and where do you live??

[TopStreet]

i love you truck man wicked build...think you could tuck those new 54 inch boggers..lol,,that would be bad ..and where do you live??

Thanks!

I saw those 54" Boggers last year and decided that the $700+ price tag (each) and the weight is what I didnt like about them. I have been running the 42" TSLs on higher air pressure and it keeps them spinnin' pretty well like that. I think the if I added and more traction, hurt my gearing anymore and it would take the fun out of the rig.

I live in the waukesha Wisconsin area.

[Yota_Gotta_Krawl]

You go to dresser memorial weekend at all? Im from Mankato Minnesota

[tryn2Crawl]

All these posting about Longfeilds and no one caught this.
Longfeild DOES NOT Recommend anything over 39-40's on the axles....Coming from the man himself on size limitation printed clearly on the web,you're bound to break it too.Just with no warranty.Remember that...So i quess d60 would have been a better route for reliability, with upgrade that is

[TopStreet]

I trust the Longfields. I didnt even know they had a warrenty to be honest.

I have been really happy with the current setup. You wont find a dana 60 under my truck any time soon... Or at all. It just doesnt need it. This truck doesnt get abused on the rocks. They are fun and all but its easier to find good mud around here. Also, the truck has a nice new paint job.

Heres my view on it:

Dana 60 - Very Heavy
            - Crappy clearance
            - Expencive to make the way I would want (high pinion, shortened, chromo 35spline)

Yoda     - Light weight, good clearance
            - I have a few of them
            - I like birfields! By design they are just better

But, I think it is interesting that nobody noticed the tire size restriction.

[TopStreet]

Hey guys,

I havent been doing a whole lot with the truck lately. I wheeled the thing so much at the end of fall that I had a bunch of stuff to fix to get it going again.

-I epoxied the Radiator (still have to get a new fan)

-Trying to get a smaller shackle on the thing, and I went too small

-CLEANED IT! I was hosing off the dash it was so full of mud.

-Altinator took a crap (whats new)

-Starter was submerged so many weekends straight (with out much driving in between) that the drive gear rusted in a stuck position

-and I a have been trying to get my pinion angles staightened out so I can get rid of the shims up front.

Here are the pics!...

[TopStreet]

A couple More:

[Hyena]

it all looks good.  but does the bolt for your pitman arm hit your tie rod?  it looks like you could take the misalignment spacer out and cut down that bolt so it doesn't hit as bad.   sick that your are running 42 and toyota axles. 

[THK Matt]

you mind showing us how or telling us how you dismounted and mounted your own tires?

then i could have a shop just balance them.

[TopStreet]

it all looks good.  but does the bolt for your pitman arm hit your tie rod?  it looks like you could take the misalignment spacer out and cut down that bolt so it doesn't hit as bad.   sick that your are running 42 and toyota axles. 

It does look like that now that I look at the pictures. I will explain. I have been attempting to fix a DW issue with the truck. I thought that the previous steering setup had something to do with it. I also thought the shackles had something to do with it. I went to go throw some baby shackles on there (just to see if it would help) and they were so short that they folded against the frame like in the pic.

Now, I have 14" Bilstiens in there, and I am about 1 inch away from bottoming them out. I can flex this truck to actually bottom them out, but never further were the bolt would meet the cross bar. So once the shackle issue is sorted out, it will look better. Its nearly as high as it can go right now though. I hope that was clear.

And as far as it being sick to be running the yoda axles.... Is this a good sick or a bad sick? haha

[TopStreet]

you mind showing us how or telling us how you dismounted and mounted your own tires?

then i could have a shop just balance them.

Its pretty easy. I use a few pry bars (tire spoons would be better), a hy-lift jack, and a ratchet strap. I will be putting a set of 37" mtr's on soon and I will take pics of each part of the process. Basically:

-Put the tire on the ground under the truck at a good jacking point.

-Jack the hylift with the base real close to the rim, near the inner bead. You may need to let up on the jack and spin the tire 180deg to get the other side. Do this to both sides of the wheel.

-With the tire loose, put one prybar under the tires bead, and pry back using the rim as your pivot point.

-Use another prybar to work the bead up all around the rims edge. Then pull the other bead up so that it comes off the same side of the wheel, and repeat the last step.

-Do the unmounting steps in reverse to get the tire back on the wheel.

-Place a nice ratchet strap around the center of the tire, going with the tire. Not across.

-Jack the ratchet strap untill the tire spreads and the bead is in contact with the rim. Make sure not to make it too tight to the point were it buckles the tire and makes a gap.

-With the valve core out, use a nice, high flowing air chuck and try to set the bead. Make sure to then undo the ratchet strap before it gets too tight, or it will really snap at you.

Thats about it.

[THK Matt]

thanks.

[TopStreet]

I forgot to mention the tubing is 1 5/8" x .083 Chromoly with Ballistic Fabrication tube adapters and 3/4" QA1 rod ends.

[boggerunner]

nice truck, i ran a home4brewwed turbo setup on my 4runner for a couple of days, and pulled it off before i did any real damage.  I used the stock turbo manifold with a 87 rx7 turbo, and pulled 6 lbs of boost. i just got a set of 91 eclipse injectors, 440cc i think, but the motor knocks so bad that turbo'ing it would last about a day...
Ever been to red wing mn? im from there

[TopStreet]

nice truck, i ran a home4brewwed turbo setup on my 4runner for a couple of days, and pulled it off before i did any real damage.  I used the stock turbo manifold with a 87 rx7 turbo, and pulled 6 lbs of boost. i just got a set of 91 eclipse injectors, 440cc i think, but the motor knocks so bad that turbo'ing it would last about a day...
Ever been to red wing mn? im from there

Thanks!

I cant say that I have ever been in Red Wind before. The turbo setup together caused air/fuel related heat knock?.... Or the motor had rod knock?

I came across a new turbo for a good price, and I was thinking of putting it on this green truck. I could only run low boost and a stock ecu. The thing starts and runs so nice right now though, that I dont really want to mess with it. So we'll see what happens.

[Thomas P]

Nice truck man! I like how you think! Im impressed, you better get those longfields in though, you will save yourself a ton of headaches!