I purchased this really worn out 60 series in October 2015. Purchased with 277,000 miles on it. It was beaten. Sticking brakes, a dead cylinder, no suspension bushings left in it and two broken rear leaf springs. It had history in Missouri (So long, and thanks for all the rust). I bought it from the original owners nephew. He told me a story of it being used for a national geographic film vehicle and it travelling all over the country. I didn't really believe it. The price was right for me at the time, so I was the second in line to purchase it. I knew nothing of the 60 series aside from remembering that a family member had one with square headlights in the early 90's and I liked the truck but not those lights. I had wanted an 80 series but they just seemed too new to me. I had my 2004 Tacoma and I wanted another old car since my 68 Roadrunner was and still is an even rustier pile than any of us can imagine. I missed the old car smells and feelings.
Did I mention that the truck was tired? It had a burnt exhaust valve that was causing a huge misfire. Also, the intake manifold was broken and fixed with JB weld. I had a temperature sensitive vacuum leak from that. Huge amounts of fun.
First thing I did was pull the head, but I drove it for another 5,000 miles misfiring and putting around. It wasn't fast or proper, but it drove. No telling how long it had been like that. The truck came with a huge bunch of receipts and oil change records back to new. They just wrote it all in the back of the owners manual. Very cool to see how long this thing was completely stock and loved to a point. This was the exhaust valve that was burnt.
Once I started to get the tune lined out after the head swap, I started getting into the fun stuff. I was on dry rotted Michelin tires in stock size. The truck still had the H78 spare under it that had never seen the ground, so it was a pavement princess its whole life. I bought a set of 33x10.5-15 KO tires used from a coworker with a Jeep. That was a huge step up for me to be able to actually drive on the highway, but I instantly felt it slow down off idle. The clutch was original and unhappy that I added bigger tires, but it never slipped.
I drove it through feet of water with those tires and no issue. It was such a blast since it floods annually here in Houston.
While it was still on busted leaf springs and wonky suspension, I added an early ARB bullbar that I found locally.
I added the bullbar and tires, and it was running pretty good. But then it needed the lift purely because it rode like junk. And the shock crossmember was broken. I didnt notice that til right before I was going to take its first real trip. I could have driven with no rear shocks but I really didn't want to. I aborted that effort and just parked it for a while. I didn't want to lift it til it was all proper. I welded in a piece of 2x2" tubing for that and it was better than new.
When I did the steering damper, it was still factory and way loose. I did the OME steering update and it drove a ton better.
I want to show how I got through 50,000 miles of driving this truck daily with not one failure or issue. This truck was the worst case for a lot of common scenarios for these trucks.
More to come tomorrow.
Did I mention that the truck was tired? It had a burnt exhaust valve that was causing a huge misfire. Also, the intake manifold was broken and fixed with JB weld. I had a temperature sensitive vacuum leak from that. Huge amounts of fun.
First thing I did was pull the head, but I drove it for another 5,000 miles misfiring and putting around. It wasn't fast or proper, but it drove. No telling how long it had been like that. The truck came with a huge bunch of receipts and oil change records back to new. They just wrote it all in the back of the owners manual. Very cool to see how long this thing was completely stock and loved to a point. This was the exhaust valve that was burnt.
Once I started to get the tune lined out after the head swap, I started getting into the fun stuff. I was on dry rotted Michelin tires in stock size. The truck still had the H78 spare under it that had never seen the ground, so it was a pavement princess its whole life. I bought a set of 33x10.5-15 KO tires used from a coworker with a Jeep. That was a huge step up for me to be able to actually drive on the highway, but I instantly felt it slow down off idle. The clutch was original and unhappy that I added bigger tires, but it never slipped.
I drove it through feet of water with those tires and no issue. It was such a blast since it floods annually here in Houston.
While it was still on busted leaf springs and wonky suspension, I added an early ARB bullbar that I found locally.
I added the bullbar and tires, and it was running pretty good. But then it needed the lift purely because it rode like junk. And the shock crossmember was broken. I didnt notice that til right before I was going to take its first real trip. I could have driven with no rear shocks but I really didn't want to. I aborted that effort and just parked it for a while. I didn't want to lift it til it was all proper. I welded in a piece of 2x2" tubing for that and it was better than new.
When I did the steering damper, it was still factory and way loose. I did the OME steering update and it drove a ton better.
I want to show how I got through 50,000 miles of driving this truck daily with not one failure or issue. This truck was the worst case for a lot of common scenarios for these trucks.
More to come tomorrow.