Build: the slow, expensive way to 160A alternator (attached to a v8)

[bloc]

Note: to anyone just getting on this board.. start this when you get the truck. I'm looking back at hundreds of pictures and trying to keep things in order.

I tend to be verbose.. so this thread is my attempt to keep things short. Lots of pics and explanations. As I get this V8 swap further along and am doing some stuff others haven't so far (BCM integration) I think interest will grow.. so here's the story.

Needing a "mountain rig" and seeing how expensive used Tacomas were, out of curiosity I checked 80-series pricing and was shocked. Many online with lots of miles for 3k or less.. I did want lockers but those with them were generally very aware and very proud.. so I bought some axles then found a truck to put them under.

94 FZJ80 with approx 275k miles, no lockers, Colorado rig but enough oil leaks to keep corrosion at bay.. $3k.

I liked the ideaof 93-94 for the cloth seats and "stronger" A442F transmission.

Fly to denver, drive it home. make note of ~12mpg and a gear whine coming from the front diff. Also put about 3qts of trans fluid into it to get the level up. yay. At least it wasn't wrecked. heh.

 

[Maleficio]

Nice!

 

[mickeyt]

Good lookin truck ya got there

 

[bloc]

So.. get it home. Baseline. Lots of OEM parts, flush the cooling system for 2 hrs straight before switching back to Toyota Red coolant. Install locking axles I bought out of Dallas.. they had been "gone through" but had a bit of rust in the past. Good enough though.

(I'm just digging up pictures I can find)

Rear hub rebuild. one of them had gear oil coming through the inside seal. For info, this can happen even if the hub seal is fine. THere is another seal on the inside of the spindle that seals the axle shaft to the axle housing. If the bearings are loose it allows the axle shaft to ride up a little and open a gap on the bottom. This will allow gear oil to wash out the grease.

Once I got it open, there was ZERO grease in that side.. only gear oil. Bearings still pretty good though! (this is how most full float axles work anyway.. gear oil in the hub, not grease)

While I was at it I put the original 94 brakes on the 97 locked axle. They were in better shape.

Then.. hit the road. This is May of 2015. Took it to SWCO to visit some friends.. then took off to the west and wandered. Still stock, only more reliable, and with locking axles.

Uranium mines in SW CO

Camped below the "hanging flume" near Uravan CO

It was a GREAT campsite. Just off the road, but below grade and hidden so while there were a couple vehicles driving past they couldn't see me and lights werent a problem. Right next to the river, awesome sandstone cliffs with the hanging flume just overhead..

 

[bloc]

Good lookin truck ya got there

Thanks.

It won't last.. (hint)

 

[bloc]

Oh, and a little bit of a technical climb to get down to the site, then back out.

So I get out of CO and head to Utah. Found a gravel route through the manti-la sal national forest. My mapping wasn't up to par and I got a little lost.. also learned the limitations of AS tires in thick mud on a sidehill.. but survived.

Overall just feeling out the truck and what it travels like.

I forgot to mention earlier, but a HUGE selling point is that I can fit all 6'2" of me in the back on a flat floor with the tailgate closed. Yes, 2nd and 3rd row removed.. but I usually travel solo or +1 so this is fine.

 

[bloc]

Turns out Memorial day isn't a great time to show up in Moab and expect to find anywhere to camp. So.. being relatively happy with the manti-la sal gravel I headed back toward durango where I know the area a lot better.

Working on my rain camping setup

Kelty Noah's tarp 12 with the MUCH stronger 8' poles

Late May still means a lot of snow up high in CO..

This is the hermosa park road near purgatory

 

[bloc]

And it didn't take long to find a little trouble.

Of course the rig was sliding toward the edge of the road.. and I didn't bring much to get un-stuck.

But.. camp trowel to the rescue..

I need better tires...

 

[bloc]

So I did a bunch of research and for me it was between 315 KM2s or MTRs. The stronger sidewall of the KM2 won out so that's what I odered. Plan all along was to keep the rig pretty low.. 2" or less.. so ordered a TJM 2" progressive lift and the shorter of the FOX 2.0 options.

Ditch the running boards, and install an ebay dorkel for good measure.
This is day of the tires.. stock springs, 30mm spacer in front.

Also the TJM Rubber caster bushings.

Installing those was interesting. I used a 12-ton shop press and the old bushings were so stuck in the arms that when they finally started to move, the CLANG that came from the press had my ears ringing for probably an hour. It was a crazy thing.

After the lift

Plus an IPOR skid

 

[bloc]

So.. time for another trip. Similar area, but by now the passes in SWCO would be open. Mid July 2015

First I headed across Texas to the El Paso area where I cut across the desert into the southern edge of the franklin mountains. The weather in west texas the first day was unreal.. sleet everywhere, Over the road trucks blown off the road, etc..

But I survived and found the gravel.

This is an interesting route.. all military reservation, periodic signs saying don't leave road due to unexploded ordinance, occasionally signs warning of laser light (??)

But it gets you up into timberon/cloudcroft the back way, and is a lot of fun. Actually feels like overlanding. Whatever that means.

I hung out with a friend in NM for a couple days, then moved on toward CO.

Straight to Black Bear Pass. I heard it opened the day before..

 

[bloc]

Guess I lost the pic of me breaking the Landcruiser logo on the back. The right side was loose but apparently prying it the rest of the way isn't the proper method to remove. It snapped in half. I should have used fishing line to saw through the adhesive.

Oh well.. Bigger issues to come.

Black bear was FRESHLY opened.

No problems at all getting down to Telluride. The tires/lift/everything did exactly what you'd expect.. take a capable rig and add clearance/traction.

 

[bloc]

The weather opened up as I hit the steps.. turned into a beautiful day.

Head through Telluride, then right back up to Imogene pass

The plan is to get into Ouray and find camping for the night.

 

[bloc]

Then....

 

[bloc]

 

[bloc]

It's not worth going into a ton of detail, other than to say don't let yourself get too close to the edge of the road, and don't put your hand outside of the truck in case of rollover.

It was still soft from having been under snow until a week before, and with the right side of the truck tilted upward trying to climb over a snow bank the left side started to give out. My attempts to fix the situation didn't go well. In retrospect what I should have done is turn up the mountain and back down the slope. But I lost a bead and rolled 1.5 times. Right as the truck started to stop, I put my hand out (the ground was right in front of me) and the A-pillar smashed it into the ground. Fortunately it rocket the other way and let go.. and this didn't happen on top of a rock (they were everywhere).. but I snatched my hand out, sat stunned for an instant, turned off the ignition, and tried to get out of the seatbelt. Surprisingly difficult when you are upside down.

Few pics..

Rescue party and downhill shot

View attachment 1422928

HUGE props to total strangers. A guy in a 4runner down the hill heard the sounds of the roller and came speeding up. He made sure I was ok, then helped clean up the yard sale a bit, then broke the news that he had no recovery gear. So we went into Ouray to find help.

In town I found out a tow would be about $2500 just to get the wrecker up there and flip the truck onto the wheels. Getting it back down the mountain would be on me.

So a great local put me in touch with a local landcruiser guy, and another of his friends and we went back up the mountain.

The jeep driver had all the experience, but the 100 had the big winch and necessary weight. We set it up with two lines.. one to do the work and the other to keep the rig from rotating further down the mountain.

Being afraid it'd start to roll when it got onto the driver's side wheels, I crawled into it while upside down and engaged both diff locks. Between that plus the transmission being in park, and the parking brake.. it shouldn't go anywhere.

 

[bloc]

 

[bloc]

Stock seats are TOUGH. Hi-lift to the seat to lift the smashed windshield frame so I could see. That seat cushion is still in the rig and working fine.

 

[bloc]

So now we needed to get it down the mountain. I pulled the intake hose off the TB and found quite a bit of oil. Luck would have it that the direction it rolled meant that getting it back onto the wheels funneled PCV oil right into the head. If it had gone the other way.. no oil in the CC.

So I had to pull the plugs and shoot the oil out. Note: don't leave your camping gear anywhere near this process. The oil hit the hood and ricocheted out like a fountain. Yay.

Second bump of the starter? it ran rough at first, but we cleared any flying insects out for a few hundred yards..

The cloud lasted about an hour.. and I drove it off the mountain. We kept the hundred behind me in case I lost brakes.. jeep in front if it needed a pull. Nearly everything was downhill so the reduced weight of the jeep wasnt an issue.

When I got into town the 100 owner basically insisted I stay at his place overnight.. my plan was to drive the 2hrs to Durango where my friends live and I'd figure out something to do. He said I should go the next day.. so I stayed.

Huge silver lining in the clouds here.. i met some truly great people.

The next day I drove back to Durango.. 2hrs+, up to 60mph in the rain with no windshield.. this was REALLY bad.

On the way I figured I'd put on my motorcycle helmet (I brought it for ATVs in NM). Well. i get it out of the bag and find..

 

[bloc]

 

[bloc]

The big dent in the cowl and PS A pillar is from a large rock that ultimately stopped the roll. Right after this it would have gotten a lot steeper and I might have gone over a bunch more times.. all the way to the trees in the background.

At this point we decided to trailer it back to Houston where my friend has some property that it can sit on while I figure out what to do.