[Lil'John]

Little bit of progress... aka the flat tow to DMV Interesting to say the least... especially behind a 99 Tacoma.

Found out three things in that adventure:

1. The 55 is AT the tow limit of a Tacoma. I think I'd be comfortable doing about 50mph with it... so I think that will be the tact down to FC Fab for 30 miles
2. Flat towing is okay until you need to do "sharp" turns... then everything got messed up. Two sharp turns and two "pushes" by the Cruiser. Glad they were at the homestead and coming out of DMV.
3. You don't have to wait in line at DMV for a vin check. Quite literally, I walked in to get a number and they told me "drive around back and someone will be out shortly"

So now I get to pick up the custom plates tomorrow

Found that something in the rebuilt front is dragging terribly. Glad I need to pull it apart to drop the ARB in it

After the front gets pulled apart and assembled again but with Longs hub gears, I get to put the FJ80 rear axle in.

Still figuring the engine out. But I will have to drop that off either before or after I drop the cruiser off because I think it is going to be too much for the Tacoma to do the Cruiser AND another drivetrain

[Lil'John]

I think we can rename this project to "project sandpaper AW" because it has been anything but smooth and is a pain in the

Finally got my TRAIL55 plates after more playing around at DMV. Apparently they don't like documents that aren't signed even when they are just there to inform them to check their books to verify that a title is NOT issued in the state I bought the rig from

Now the last bit of paper work is insurance. That is gonna be a riot when I try to explain I'm do a renovation and standard bluebook would not be appropriate

[Lil'John]

Spoke too soon on being done with DMV. I went in for insurance and found out that DMV made an error on the vin because of an error of the documents I got with the rig Vin checker noted the error but the guy behind the desk blew it. Fortunately, I caught it at the insurance company. I hauled butt over to DMV and after almost an hour, I'm not official and legal Not bad after spending four days in one week and DMV

I also got around to pulling the front end apart... again. I put it back together with a nice new ARB up there. And the plan was to install some Long's hub gears. Guess what didn't work because of the stupid Toyota split year fine spline birfield junk? Pictures will be forthcoming of the difference between the hub gears. I also dropped a set of 1.5" spacers on the front to make up the odd offset of the wheels. Looks MUCH better

I also must say that having the right tools is ALWAYS worth the extra cash I purchased one of Marlin's snap ring pliers at the PMC swap meet. OMG, these things kick some MAJOR butt. They have tread on them that hold the snap ring. WELL worth the $25 to not have snap rings attacking while trying to put them on or take them off

I'm taking my FJ80 third member and an "old" RD08 ARB to get an ARB for the rear. With luck, I'll be taking up some 4340 blank stock for them to make my rear axle shafts too. Those are going to be a pretty chunk of change

[romegadave]

Lil John,

What can anyone say but WOW!! You really are going to have a fantastic rig when finished (?maybe all pigs are like Rose Red?) but certainly continuing Buckethead's fine work (heard from Bucket lately?? maybe in another section). Will continue to watch in awe------dave

[LC_Hamma]

I also must say that having the right tools is ALWAYS worth the extra cash I purchased one of Marlin's snap ring pliers at the PMC swap meet. OMG, these things kick some MAJOR butt. They have tread on them that hold the snap ring. WELL worth the $25 to not have snap rings attacking while trying to put them on or take them off

I've been wanting to buy some QUALITY snap ring pliers as I'm always guaranteed a blood blister or two when working w/ those RE Joints. They always slip outta the hole & I end up crunchin my inner thumb I've tried the Craftsman & cheapy Napa one's so if you say these are worht the $$$, I'll order a pair.

[Lil'John]

Thanks for the kind words Dave. I'm hoping it will end up being a head turner. I don't care to put the money into it to take it to true show truck level especially since I am going to daily drive it as well as do wheeling But it will be very close if I ever want to spend the money to pull the body apart for a paint job as well as the frame

LC_Hamma, before you jump on them, let me get a picture of them so you can get an idea. These are for the external style snap rings like what is on the outside of a birfield.

I did my front end and was amazed at how easy it was to do that snap ring... especially with the birfield wanting to slip in. It was as easy as one hand on snap rings, one hand on screw drive pulling birfield out. The snap ring didn't want to jump off the pliers at all

Turned a two banana job into a one banana job

I'm still trying to track down a good set for doing the eyelet style snap rings. The craftsman pair I have work sort of okay but I still get a lot of slipping

[Lil'John]

Just a small update while I wait for the hour to be decent enough to go rip the rear axle out... can't piss the neighbors off by starting too early I think I'm on a slippery slope for doing car work at the apartment. Hopefully I'll get to bribe someone semi local to let me do a quick engine pull in the next two weeks or so

I got the start of my front bumper in hand(see picture) Basically, the shell in the picture is 1/8" x 6" plate. It is going to be 60" wide But the interior frame for the winch as well frame mounting will be out of 3/8" I'll describe more in the picture description.

I decided to try and pull the drivetrain out before I get it to FC Fab the middle of next month. This will let me durabak the firewall and maybe the fenders. I'll be going with smooth white durabak.

I've got my ARB for the rear up at RCD getting assembled. Hopefully I'll get it next week

Onto the two pictures:
First picture is almost all the vacuum shift stuff. Yup, all powdercoated and clean... yes, even the sheeth of the cable got hit I even had all the stock lines in good shape so I scrubbed them and then painted them a nice gray similar to stock lines. The other thing you can see there is sort of how I am going to have the dash setup for the extra tcase. I'm going to graft two of the shift frames together almost like you see in the picture. I'm then going to convert all the mechanical linkage for the high low system(s) to cable pulls. One for the LC tcase and one for the NP203.

Second picture is the start of the bumper. I decided I wanted a nice rolled lip on the top so I had it done. In essence, I've got the end 21" of each side bent about 2". That left the center 18" to be the full 6" tall material. The black lines show what is going to get cut off. The little 45 at the top will get "topped" with another piece of 1/8" plate. The bottom edge of the bumper is going to get either 3/16" plate or 1/4" plate. To support the 8274 winch, I'm going to use 3/8" plate between the frame rails. Heavy duty where it needs to be(winch mount and bottom edge) but should be somewhat light. I will admit the 60" wide is a bit long but I wanted full coverage in the front

[Cruiserdrew]

I have an engine hoist and a driveway less than 2 miles from you if you want to pull it here. You have to haul away the remains though, or my wife will not be happy.

[Lil'John]

Originally Posted by Cruiserdrew

I have an engine hoist and a driveway less than 2 miles from you if you want to pull it here. You have to haul away the remains though, or my wife will not be happy.

You don't want a good running 2F? Actually, my "plan" is to have the engine drained of oil, have tranny and tcase removed, and 90% of misc junk removed. So the theory is drain the radiator, pull it, pull four bolts and then the engine... and easy 2-3 hour job That turns into 3 day marathon

And onto an update(pictures will be coming later after I recoup )

I finally got around to pulling the FJ40 rear axle and dropping in the FJ80 full float axle. Looks like it belongs there

Started off with disassembled FJ80 rear axle. Housing was shortened 7" on passenger side. All parts were cleaned. Misc things I hadn't done before today was:

• Paint rotors
• Drill hubs for longs drive flanges

Within six hours I did:

• Pulled old axle out
• Pulled springs out
• Cleaned and painted springs (half ass job)
• Installed springs with new bushings and greasable shackles/pins
• Dropped rear spare tire and flipped the chain to the right way
• Drilled hubs
• Had lunch
• Installed FJ80 axle housing
• Installed new bearings, seals, etc
• Painted rotors
• Installed new calipers
• Put tires back on
• Drained transmission in prep for pulling it next week

It still has a few things left to do but I'm waiting for stuff:

• Install ARB once it is assembled (next week I hope)
• Install longer ubolts
• Install axle shafts (need to order material and drop off at RCD... probably will end up being $1k worth of shafts )
• Install brake lines (need to order new hard lines, banjo fitting)
• Install ebrake line (need to make a bracket and shorten stock cable )
• Install axle wrap bar (waiting for engine swap so I have a good crossmember)
• Tighten up hub nuts (waiting for proper tool on order... thanks Dan)

*edit for record keeping junk*
FWIW, the flex line on the FJ80 I am using is an Earl 63020712ERL. This is a 12" long 3 Banjo on one side and a 10mm Female fitting on the other. Looks perfect. Tried to talk to Slee but he avoided my emails about JUST buying those lines from him. *shrugs*

I took a measurement of my driveshafts so I would have a before measurement. This is a 2F with 4 speed transmission/tcase. Front was 23" and the rear was 43 1/2". They should almost end up equal length after the drivetrain swap

Last odd thing I ran into when draining the transmission and transfer case is the fact that both were overfilled I was facing down slope and when I popped the fill plug, they gushed out... thank goodness for a pan under them

[Lil'John]

As promised, the pictures. Forgot to add in that I have to install the new shocks... Bilstiens

First two pictures show before the swap. Mostly taken as a reference for how much the tires stick in You can see the transplant victim in the second picture Also notable is the awkwardness of the rims on the stock axle

Last picture is proof that there is some Houdini in my Cruiser. In addition to emptying a wallet, it can hover in mid air

[Lil'John]

Another batch of pictures from today.

First picture is a sleeve that was in all four corners of the leaf springs. Is this normal? Fortunately it was there because the bushings I had wouldn't have fit otherwise

Second picture shows the Long's driveflanges. Some assembly required: Drilling 4 new holes for more pins Wish I would have had my drillpress available for that though Only thing sort of sad on these is the fact they get a generic aluminum cap

Last picture shows the start of assembly. Little bit of a bend in the dust shield but otherwise, it looks nice a sexy there... like it belongs There is a seal at the end of the spindle that was replaced. Also worth noting is the spindle does NOT use the same size nuts as the front. They are a larger thread diameter.

[Lil'John]

Last batch of pictures.

First picture shows the nice new rotor and caliper. It also shows the braided steel brake line peaking at the top. You can also note where I cleaned up the frame a bit

Second and third pictures show the semi final results. You can note the tin dust cap. It will get painted once I get my shafts in. You can also see the amount of tire stick out. I would almost swear I gained an inch out of the dealI cut 7" out of the axle giving me 55". I'm going to check my axle to see if it isn't 55". Seems odd that the tire seems out more than before

[Lil'John]

Okay, I lied... two more pictures unrelated to work done today.

First picture is that nice reverse light cover Also shows me being completely legal now I wonder if there is an easy way to keep that plate looking nice

Last picture is the pair of pliers I promised. Unfortunately, scaling picture down lost the tread at front that I put in a red box.

[cruiserbrett]

John,
Crown performance in vista, CA makes the brake hoses for slee. Send an example, or an accurate drawing and they should be able to make them. they are 100 times nicer quality than earls or man-a-fre, etc, shit quality brake hoses...

Crown Performance Products

[Lil'John]

Doh... I've got SOR stainless flex everywhere else and the Earl on the rear

But on the good side of things, it looks like I am going to lighten the pig up by doing an engine swap even using the "heavy" NV4500 and adding in the doubler

Weights:

• 800lbs 2F (couldn't find an accurate weight here)
• 100lbs 4 speed tranny (didn't bother finding super accurate weight here... saw everything from 70s to 140s with one "I weighed 107lb")

So I end up pulling about 900lbs out of the pig.

• 500lbs Vortec (510lb actually)
• 200lbs NV4500 (seen 195-200)
• 100lbs NP203 gear reduction (seen 81 actually)

So I end up putting in about 800lbs. For a weight savings of 100ish lbs

Of course, we start throwing the 8274 winch, front bumper, cut rockers/sliders, and "heavy duty" rear towing bumper on it... so pretty much adding weight to the pig

[Lil'John]

I had a slight snafu with SOR and one of the marker gaskets. Apparently their supplier sent out all the same type instead of a left and right But SOR handled it quickly and at no cost to me I sent them one of the wrong ones and they returned the right one AND refunded my shipping VERY good business practices and a good reason I keep throwing money their way.


I also received the upper tailgate rubber and cargo window rubbers from Cabe. I believe these are stock from PVC Cruiser VERY good turn around time on that also. The cargo window rubbers are TOP notch and will enhance the "fresh from the factory" looks I'm partially shooting for. The upper window tailgate rubber was not quite what I was expecting but still is a VERY quality part. My disappointment stems from the "slices" to make the corners. Was this a stock thing?

I've also started my ebrake cable combining system. This is going to connect the FJ55 ebrake cable with the FJ80 ebrake cable. I think I'm going to need more than just one to one ratio on the pull. Starting point is cutting a FJ40 ebrake drum backing plate up so I can get the cable insert portion.

Last item worth noting is I ran into the seemingly popular stuck tcase syndrome. Aka I can't just yank the tcase off. So I got myself a gear puller and we'll see what kind of damage I can do

[cruiserbrett]

The PV Cruisers upper tailgate WS is a nice product for sure! the OEM toyota new one I have and the PVC one are both identically cut for the corners. It is less than perfect, but both match...

[Lil'John]

Thanks for the confirmation on the rubber Brett. Makes me feel a LOT more fuzzy about it

New slight update.

I got material into RCD for my axle shafts 1.5" 4340 getting all worked up. Sounds like the axle side is a bit busy. Also had a slight ARB issue... a missing thrust washer Beats the half a bad case on the last used one I bought

And I've got my engine on "order". 6.0L from a 2004 truck with about 30k miles on it Bad news on the truck is the fact that it was junked due to a dash fire I probably paid a little too much for it but I did it for a couple reasons:

• they are throwing in everything but the whole truck Basically, if it doesn't move on them, it is getting thrown in. This would include the standard accessories and wiring. But they are also doing crossover pipe with all o2s, ALL the engine bay AC, the air filter box, and the drive by wire pedal/stuff.
• six month warranty after the engine is installed
• Local to me with the offer of being able to pick up any misc pieces they missed that I need for the swap.

Overall, VERY good start to the day. Now if the rest of the drivetrain will drop out without a hassle and I get my engine interested party to grab is quick

[Lil'John]

Yet another kick in the nuts from this project after what was starting off to be a nice week Definitely NOT the smoothest of projects.

First, the "good" news part of the project. I got my rear ARB finally. Under $1k for it with rebuild and gone through Cheaper than the front by a boat load

I also got the transfercase out. Of course, I got the sticky tcase syndrome and when I brought my gear puller from the "shop" to the cruiser, I found the center portion was stripped out 5 minute job turns into 2 hours as I screwed around with just the cross bar.

And the killer for the day: the bellhousing I bought at the beginning of the project isn't going to work because of a case change So instead of the "more plentiful" cases(aka everything BUT the first 2-3 years of chevys), I get the early model chevy case with the "popular" 6.5 whatever granny gear that I didn't give a flying about. Now I get to see if Georg is able to pull my butt out of the fire on this latest screw up I'm praying AA will be able to do a simple swap on the bellhousings but I'm prepared to have it crammed where the sun don't shine

[24HOURSOFNEVADA]

Your doing a great job, especially with no garage. Hang in there, there's light at the end.

[Lil'John]

Pretty good day thanks to help from Drew.

Drivetrain is now officially out of the Cruiser. Went somewhat smooth. Took about 2 hours with a lot of BS breaks

I'm scratching my head a bit on what to do with the radiator fluid. Need to make a couple calls I guess

I also got some help from Advance Adapters on the bellhousing. I get to send mine there and get the correct one They've always been a top notch company from my experience

Now I need to get that engine out of the back of my truck shortly. That way I can get another engine in the back of my truck

I'm waiting on my smooth durabak to paint the engine bay

I also need to bend up some brake lines and bolt up the brake and clutch master cylinders again

I've also got a helm manual on order for the engine... hopefully it will be the best money I've spend

I'm back on track and with around a week and change to play with it

[Cruiserdrew]

Actually, I thought it went really smooth, as John had done all the hard disconnect work ahead of time.

This is a really nice 55, and it was fun to see it up close. I can't wait to see the final product.

Regarding the antifreeze, most of the time it can go down the drain (just not the storm drain)

[LC_Hamma]

I didn't realize your truck was so nice to begin with. I assume you're going to run new exhaust ABOVE the skid plate(?) Wheel/ tire combo looks You should be runnin 35's min. w/ that axle setup Great job so far!

[Lil'John]

Drew, I do agree it went pretty smooth. I just wish the radiator drain would have worked(and was pointed the right way) so I could have had that drained out also That would have made it go even smoother

Thanks for the compliment. That makes two of us who can't wait for it to get finished up. *looks for impatient smilie*

LC_Hamma, it definitely started off pretty clean with the noted "issues".

The exhaust is going to be tucked up tight and will be doing something like the factory exhaust exit The real challenge is to make the exhaust shop understand I want it quiet

If I didn't have another potential wheeler coming, I'd probably go with spring over and 35s. But I'm trying to keep it daily driveable and somewhat gas friendly

But it will have all the "hard core" accessories(lockers, doubler, body armor, winch) so I'll be able to play on some of the harder stuff

[LC_Hamma]

But it will have all the "hard core" accessories(lockers, doubler, body armor, winch) so I'll be able to play on some of the harder stuff


THAT'S what I don't understand. Generally you NEED ground clearance to run the *harder trails & you definately WON't get it w/ stockish sized tires You're gonna trash your underbody takin all those hits. I'd sell the 31's dude

[Lil'John]

My build does buck popular opinion... but I'm doing it as a replacement to my stock Tacoma. I'd classify the final product as more of an expedition type rig.

From the experience I've had with the style of wheeling I'm planning on doing, the two biggest things that stop me dead in my tracks are gearing(control) and lockers. Well, also the solid axle issue

I should have put harder in quotes with a wink after it. What the uneducated wheeler call "harder" trails are things I normally due. Without the gearing or lockers, the trails I do are a bit rough It turns into more of a momentum fest

This won't be doing Little Sluice on the Con or Fordyce. I won't be trying things that will guarantee body damage.

The doubler was done mainly for the gearing... but it also helps with the front driveline length issue that 55s seem to suffer

For any of the true hardcore stuff out there, I've got my extra cab 45 eternal project It has the standard Dana 60s, big block cady, linked suspension, etc

[Lil'John]

Another day another mess to clean up

After crunching some numbers, I found it was going to be cheaper to just drive my ass to Advanced Adapters to swap out the bellhousing rather than trying to ship both ways and pray the new one got back in time So a simple swap of cars with the GF and I'm getting 28 MPG

So, a nice four hour drive down there. Got to deal with Vic and we got the whole mess sorted out as well as picked up a shifter for the NV4500. Priced much better than even Summit was offering them for Then I got a tour of the facility. Very cool place and I'm jealous of the people that work there

Then the doodoo hit the fan on the return trip Got to Santa Nella and had a little hiss out the front end but couldn't see anything major leaking but did suspect a slight issue. Decided to push my luck and barely got to Lathrop when the car started seriously overheating Fortunately, I got a tow from AAA to Sacramento for free but I did find the damage while waiting for the tow. One disintegrated cooling fan... lost all the blades on it but two(I'll get a picture of it tomorrow... it is very impressive)

And the hissing was a pinched/nicked hose. I'm still trying to get the car apart to see if there is any radiator damage. Replacement fan was cheapest from the dealer

But on the cruiser side, I got rid of the engine/tranny. I got the firewall stripped down and just about ready for the durabak. I got to do a test run to figure out whether to use bristle brush or foam brush.

I also ended up with a gallon of smooth white durabak Probably too much by a ton but when 2 quarts of smooth white ended up being 75% the cost of a gallon, I said to heck with it.

I went with smooth over standard because the texture was a bit too rough for a place where hands will be in and out of. Durabak was nice enough to send a sample of both out that arrived in like 2-3 days. Textured version was slightly nicer than the Herculiner but not by much.

With luck, tomorrow I'll be painting the firewall in between fixing a BMW fan and hopefully dropping a load of parts off down at FC fab

[cruiserbrett]

Hi-jack ON:If its a e36 or e46 3 series BMW(92-nearly present) you ought to do the entire cooling package(rad/thermostat/hoses/waterpump)... they are notoriously short lived(60-75k miles), and kill the head/headgasket very quickly if pressed too hard into the red... A very good friend of mine works at a BMW shop and does that job on 20 or so of those cars a week.

Cool getting to tour AA, and getting that all worked out in person. Would love to see the CNC operation they have!

[Lil'John]

Originally Posted by cruiserbrett

Hi-jack ON:If its a e36 or e46 3 series BMW(92-nearly present) you ought to do the entire cooling package(rad/thermostat/hoses/waterpump)...

Lucky guess on model

Actually, everything was replaced about 2 years ago when one of the radiator outlets dry rotted As far as I know, with the 250k miles on it, it was the original parts Still runs like a top even with all those miles on it

[cruiserbrett]

Hi-jack on: 250k on the original stuff before it gave up? that is amazing! every time I visit my friends shop he has a stack of radiators where the outlet came off at 70k, or the plastic(WTF?) impellor on the water pump gave up. I think BMW is thinking planned obsolecence on the 3 series. Build them just well enough in certain departments to get them to live well past the sale from the first owner to second owner then they still have folks that think they are amazing cars that buy another new one... they are GREAT cars if the first owner went above and beyond what BMW calls a maintenance schedule...17k mile oil changes and lifetime tranny fluid in autos is there current maintenance plan...