1981 Pickup Rebuild - SR5 Longbed

[WoodsTruck]

Factory 3.90's. Owner knows it will need something but not sure on power output. Previous owner put the header, single exhaust, Weber and Offy intake plus a cam in it. 4.88's may be where it settles out. Another buddy has a 4 cylinder Jeep (don't ask me why) and ended up with 35's on it. He went 4.88 which is better than before with the 32's but it could still use a little bit more gear. Still undecided.

 

[thetoyotaman]

I would recommend not using 5th gear with the 3.90s and 33s to not overload the L series tranny and wipe out the bearings. It won't be able to handle that combo long.

 

[WoodsTruck]

He was thinking on a lift as well, but once the tires were mounted the top of the roof rack is closer to the top of the garage door than he thought. May pull the shocks off and run it around town to see if the springs ride ok and then just upgrade shocks. Otherwise, springs would be in order as well. I think gearing would trump (Trump?) springs but not my decision.

 

[thetoyotaman]

Original springs can improve a fair amount with new bushings if they're not damaged. Rebuilding my L series as we speak....

 

[WoodsTruck]

The transmission was rebuilt about a month before the truck was rolled. Hoping it has a long service life, but not using 5th would likely help.

 

[thetoyotaman]

Wish I knew of a machine shop that could machine my input shaft for an upgrade I have in mind but evidently hardened metal requires special tooling to do.

 

[ntsqd]

The ages old "Formula" for Toyota Mini gearing was 31's/32's = 4.56's; 33's = 4.88's; 35's = 5.29's.

I was told the same even with 4.88's DO NOT LUG 5th or use it below ~3k rpm. And to put a quality synthetic in it. So it had Torco for the first 60k miles and then I sold it at ~120k (my miles, ~225k total on the clock) with Redline in it.