Builds Dusty the mini truck that wishes it was a Land Cruiser (1 Viewer)
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- #102
Passed a big milestone this weekend: it runs!!! I only took video, not pics, and I can’t figure out how to post videos on mud.
All the progress this weekend wasn’t really picture worthy anyway: filling fluids, reinstalling exhaust, tightening up the suspension, cleaning up wiring, etc. I ran out of gear oil so the diffs will wait a few days. Still waiting on driveshafts, hopefully before next weekend. The electric oil pressure sender isn’t working but I expected that so I put a Mech gauge in temporarily so I could monitor the first start up of the fresh engine: 56 psi at idle.
The other milestone is I’m 1 week away from 2 years since I pulled the 22r out of it and started the project.
All the progress this weekend wasn’t really picture worthy anyway: filling fluids, reinstalling exhaust, tightening up the suspension, cleaning up wiring, etc. I ran out of gear oil so the diffs will wait a few days. Still waiting on driveshafts, hopefully before next weekend. The electric oil pressure sender isn’t working but I expected that so I put a Mech gauge in temporarily so I could monitor the first start up of the fresh engine: 56 psi at idle.
The other milestone is I’m 1 week away from 2 years since I pulled the 22r out of it and started the project.
Nice work!
Upload your video to YouTube publicly or privately, and then you share or upload the link to mud.
- Thread starter
- #104
Lets give this a try, here’s the link to the start up video:
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- #105
The rear drive shaft is a rear CV shaft from a ‘85 fj60. I took it in to get retubed to 44”, the stock slip is going to work fine cause the rear slip only needs less than 1” travel due to proper planned pinion angle change on the 4 link. I took it in to a drive line shop 12 days ago and still don’t have it back. The tech broke down the CV and wrecked the joints taking it apart even tho I specifically asked them to leave all th u joints alone, just retube it. Now we are waiting for new joints.
As for the front, it’s a modded front cv from an 86 mini truck, long slip from power train industries, and a flange yoke from a 4 speed land cruiser 74-80s. Here’s a link to the discussion and steps that got me to this point. It’s was quite to task to get to a long slip CV shaft with 4 speed land cruiser u joints.
How much slip is ok on a typical Toyota driveshaft?
While I waited from the shafts I did a refresh on a 80s vintage Warn 8274. I tore it down and found the insides were good, even the lower seal and bushings so I gave it a coat of paint, installed a new end plate, a new 6 hp motor from a 9.5 XP, and a contactor. Then I mounted and wired it. The synthetic rope will go on at a later date.
From here I finshed up the removable front rad support, hood latch and grill. I had hoped to mount the light bar behind the grill but there wasn’t enough room after mounting the stock hood latch so it went on top of bumper.
As for the front, it’s a modded front cv from an 86 mini truck, long slip from power train industries, and a flange yoke from a 4 speed land cruiser 74-80s. Here’s a link to the discussion and steps that got me to this point. It’s was quite to task to get to a long slip CV shaft with 4 speed land cruiser u joints.
How much slip is ok on a typical Toyota driveshaft?
While I waited from the shafts I did a refresh on a 80s vintage Warn 8274. I tore it down and found the insides were good, even the lower seal and bushings so I gave it a coat of paint, installed a new end plate, a new 6 hp motor from a 9.5 XP, and a contactor. Then I mounted and wired it. The synthetic rope will go on at a later date.
From here I finshed up the removable front rad support, hood latch and grill. I had hoped to mount the light bar behind the grill but there wasn’t enough room after mounting the stock hood latch so it went on top of bumper.
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- #106
Drive shaft drama is finally over. Took 2.5 weeks to get the rear shaft retubed locally cause they took the CV aprart against my request and had to order the u joints for the cv they wrecked. Sounds like they came on a sled dog team since they took so long. 2.5 weeks to do a 2 hr job. At least they didn’t charge me for the cv joints, but $500 to retube 2 shafts is pretty steep anyway. I also learned today 80 series use 66x66mm bolt yoke pattern, so I had to redrill the rear axle pinion flange to 60x68mm which was the 60 series yoke I used for the shafts. For some reason I thought 80 series cruisers had 60x68???, but I guess I never bothered to measure it. Happy to get this done.
The electric Equus oil pressure sender turned out to be faulty. I emailed their tech support to find out what ohms I was looking for and with their advice I determined the sender was dead, no connectivity at 0 psi, should have been 10 ohms. The sender had a good ground. They mailed me a new one. Through this I learned Equus is made by Auto Meter, I didn’t know that until dealing with tech support. The replacement came from auto meter, I pretty happy with the process, helpful and fully willing to send the replacement part.
Brakes are bled, breathers are done, put the bed sides on, assembled the intake, oil in the winch, 4 gallons of waterless coolant in, then the fricken new reman water pump and new gasket started dribbling just sitting there. I changed the gaskets. Filled it back up and it started dribbling again. FML. So I fired it ad ran it up to temp, coolant leak stopped, IDK. The only other leak was the trans cooler fitting weren’t quite tight. Both fans came one when they were supposed to via the ecu, 160 and 195 F. Topped off fluids, now I’m ready to test drive. The red light is the CEL, which I have yet to check.
The electric Equus oil pressure sender turned out to be faulty. I emailed their tech support to find out what ohms I was looking for and with their advice I determined the sender was dead, no connectivity at 0 psi, should have been 10 ohms. The sender had a good ground. They mailed me a new one. Through this I learned Equus is made by Auto Meter, I didn’t know that until dealing with tech support. The replacement came from auto meter, I pretty happy with the process, helpful and fully willing to send the replacement part.
Brakes are bled, breathers are done, put the bed sides on, assembled the intake, oil in the winch, 4 gallons of waterless coolant in, then the fricken new reman water pump and new gasket started dribbling just sitting there. I changed the gaskets. Filled it back up and it started dribbling again. FML. So I fired it ad ran it up to temp, coolant leak stopped, IDK. The only other leak was the trans cooler fitting weren’t quite tight. Both fans came one when they were supposed to via the ecu, 160 and 195 F. Topped off fluids, now I’m ready to test drive. The red light is the CEL, which I have yet to check.
This is so fricken cool!
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- #108
Thanks!!
I got Dusty out on the Road!!!
After running up to temp and ensuring not coolant leaks I took it out for a drive. The bias tires had bad flat spots from sitting, and the alignment is not perfect yet so anything above 60 k/hr wasn’t comfortable. It does sound good and pulls good. So good that the transmission blew up after 15 km of driving. So out comes the engine and trans. FML. The intake had some oil pulled, I assume suck it through the pcv system so I’ll need to look at this too.
And here’s where it sits tonight:
awesome build! good luck with a quick fix for the trans
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- #110
Time for a transmission update. To solve this unknown failure I went the simple sure way: a fresh rebuilt th400 with 34 element sprag and trans go 400 1-2 shift reprogramming kit. This kit makes it function as a normal auto in D, but it will hold 1 or 2 regardless of line pressure. The th350 was originally chosen because I already had one, and it was going behind a stock 99 lq4. Too many have suggested the th350 isn’t up to the mild cammed LS2, so better to upgrade now than need to 20 miles back in the bush. I was able to order the larger input and adaptor for the black box and it appears there will be room. The th400 isn’t much larger throughout the case, just 4” longer.
After getting the new th400 and setting it beside the th350 I figured out why the th350 failed. It turns out, unbeknownst to me, a th350 converter will mount and function on a th350c (lock up version) for a short while until the smaller splines strip out of the converter because they are only engaged 1/8-3/16”. I had no idea there was a difference in the splines If you compare the inputs on the pic below you will see the smooth shaft sticking out the end of the th350c on the left, this is the part that locks up the converter but also prevents a non lock up converter from fully engaging.
I was planning on using this stock stall th350 converter in the th400 so it would stall just a little higher, but now I’ll need a new one because there is metal shavings floating around inside. I’m happy it’s just a ruined converter, not the trans. I also learned th350c have substantially weaker input shafts due to the oil galley in the input shaft for the lock up so the th400 upgrade is more appropriate.
After getting the new th400 and setting it beside the th350 I figured out why the th350 failed. It turns out, unbeknownst to me, a th350 converter will mount and function on a th350c (lock up version) for a short while until the smaller splines strip out of the converter because they are only engaged 1/8-3/16”. I had no idea there was a difference in the splines If you compare the inputs on the pic below you will see the smooth shaft sticking out the end of the th350c on the left, this is the part that locks up the converter but also prevents a non lock up converter from fully engaging.
I was planning on using this stock stall th350 converter in the th400 so it would stall just a little higher, but now I’ll need a new one because there is metal shavings floating around inside. I’m happy it’s just a ruined converter, not the trans. I also learned th350c have substantially weaker input shafts due to the oil galley in the input shaft for the lock up so the th400 upgrade is more appropriate.
Sweet. You gonna need to shorten the rear driveshaft for the new trans though? Sounds like that was less than ideal the first time around. Might be quicker to move the rear axle rearward than deal with the driveline shop again.
A friend "iggi" on Ih8mud had similar issues with the driveline shop in Calgary recently, though I think they ordered the wrong parts a couple times via dogsled from the other side of the world and charged more then they thought it would cost.
A friend "iggi" on Ih8mud had similar issues with the driveline shop in Calgary recently, though I think they ordered the wrong parts a couple times via dogsled from the other side of the world and charged more then they thought it would cost.
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- #112
Ya I’m going to have change drive shaft lengths, no way around that. Shortening and re tubing to lengthen aren’t too bad as long as they don’t strip down the cv against my request and wreck the joints again.
Here is some nwf black box tech: in order to change from th350 to th400 (both were short shaft outputs) I needed to order a new input and adaptor from nwf. Swapping the input was super simple. Just remove the front cover, split the case in half, remove 2 snap rings and the shaft slides out. Super simple. I also needed to move the 6 mounting studs over 1 hole to maintain proper clocking of the t case, the th400 adaptor is clocked slightly different.
I also needed to add a temp sender bung to the th400 trans pan, still need to practice tig welding a lot more. It’s not pretty but it will keep the fluid in the pan.
Don't they have to take the CV apart because it has rubber seals in it?? Whenever I get my driveshafts retubed they remove my u joints. I think if they don't the heat from the welding will kill the bearing seals. I thought mini truck CV joints only flexed like 20 degrees, that's why I've never used one. They also don't look too robust, I have like half a dozen old ones laying around. Tacomas and 3Rd Gen 4runners look like they have some fairly beefy CV joints. Fj60 has the beefiest of all though. Bummer about the transmission.
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- #114
I don’t have a lot of first hand experience running IFS CVs, but I can tell you I did lots of internet searching and the crew on pirate say they are pretty strong. The only down fall is the 20* range of motion. That can be fixed by clearancing the centring pin in the CV, I briefly covered this mod in post 84.
Dusty the mini truck that wishes it was a Land Cruiser
I would also point out the u joints are the same in a 60 series CV, which are about 3 1/8” cross, with 1 1/8” caps, slightly larger than 1350 1 ton joints. The pic below has a 60 series CV on the top and the IFS CV from an 86 on the bottom. There is minor differences in the CV body, but 1 doesn’t appear weaker to me, I’m more than comfortable with these joints. I will also say they are both way beefier than the 1310 conversion CVs which are the only ones available if you are using a land cruiser t case. I guess time will tell. As far as your comment regarding needing to take CVs appart to retube a driveline, I can’t say for sure, but it didn’t look like they took the IFS joint apart to retube last time, and when the other shop retubed my 1310 conversion shaft on my cruiser I’m pretty sure they didn’t take it apart either.
On to the update for today: I clearanced the th400 tail housing in 3 spots to clear the stud nuts, then test fit it. The plan will be to stab the engine/trans/black box from the top, and then install the t case from underneath. The tranny attachment is all rigged up on the floor jack to hold the t case level.
I started on raising the triple shifters 1” to give the cables at black box breather more room. It should make the install easier too.
before:
after they are raised:
Lookin good!!
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- #116
Well after a break for a trip to KOH I got back at it.
First I have to say KOH was awesome. It was my first time, I was helping out in the True North Racing pit. We had 4 cars in the EMC, the 2 4800 cars went out pretty early in the race, 4674 made it to about mile 96 when the fan broke and took out the rad. 4675 finished 2nd in 4600 behind @RustyNailJustin by about an hour.
As for the update, I stuffed the motor and trans in, then lifted the t case and black box up from underneath with a trans jack. Clearances are good, but the exhaust cross over needs reworking.
To make this fit I chopped 6.75” out of both pipes behind the mufflers, then added 6.75” back to the driver side pipe. Seems like lots of work but I needed the passenger side v band to be behind the front sub frame crossmember, while leaving the h pipe in place.
I also modded the shifter gate as per the pirate crew’s advice, it’s now just dents from N-D-2-1, no gates, you can push it to N from any gear without the tigger, and if you squeeze the trigger you can push it straight to R, for bail out situations. I did this in my land cruiser and love it.
I still need to re work the cross members. I’m thinking of really simplifying these, and going from 2 with sleeved bushing on each side to a single sleeved bushing under the black box. I used to be worried about how weak the 4 bolts on the tail of the th350 were, with the 6 bolts and heavier casting of the th400 I’m thinking a simple centred mount is fine. The bb adaptor happens to line up right over the sub frame crossmember too. Pics on this will be coming.
First I have to say KOH was awesome. It was my first time, I was helping out in the True North Racing pit. We had 4 cars in the EMC, the 2 4800 cars went out pretty early in the race, 4674 made it to about mile 96 when the fan broke and took out the rad. 4675 finished 2nd in 4600 behind @RustyNailJustin by about an hour.
As for the update, I stuffed the motor and trans in, then lifted the t case and black box up from underneath with a trans jack. Clearances are good, but the exhaust cross over needs reworking.
To make this fit I chopped 6.75” out of both pipes behind the mufflers, then added 6.75” back to the driver side pipe. Seems like lots of work but I needed the passenger side v band to be behind the front sub frame crossmember, while leaving the h pipe in place.
I also modded the shifter gate as per the pirate crew’s advice, it’s now just dents from N-D-2-1, no gates, you can push it to N from any gear without the tigger, and if you squeeze the trigger you can push it straight to R, for bail out situations. I did this in my land cruiser and love it.
I still need to re work the cross members. I’m thinking of really simplifying these, and going from 2 with sleeved bushing on each side to a single sleeved bushing under the black box. I used to be worried about how weak the 4 bolts on the tail of the th350 were, with the 6 bolts and heavier casting of the th400 I’m thinking a simple centred mount is fine. The bb adaptor happens to line up right over the sub frame crossmember too. Pics on this will be coming.
Is 4675 the same Jeep who left the starting line alongside 4602 Steel City Racing?
Great job on the EMC podium finish
I have to re-re-re-work the three inch exhaust in my 62 again
Nice update, looking forward to pics of the cross member!
Great job on the EMC podium finish
I have to re-re-re-work the three inch exhaust in my 62 again
Nice update, looking forward to pics of the cross member!
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- #118
Is 4675 the same Jeep who left the starting line alongside 4602 Steel City Racing?
Great job on the EMC podium finish
I have to re-re-re-work the three inch exhaust in my 62 again
Nice update, looking forward to pics of the cross member!
Yes, 4675 and 4602 where on the line together. Here’s a vid I took from the Monster platform at the start.
Here’s a question for you all: is this adequate for the new crossmember? It’s a lot less than the last double crossmember I had going but I’m a lot more confident in the TH400 tail housing strength.
For a racing application? IMO, that's not enough crossmember. Need to support the transfer case at the back along the transmission centerline with the same type of bushing as the transmission mount.
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- #120
So I stopped making excuses and reworked the rear crossmember. The first pic is the old one. I cut off the previous flange that bolts to the t case and moved the tabs on the frame back and bolted the tube in. I cut a new plate to bolt to the t case and connected it to the crossmember with a centered poly bushing.
The drive shaft shop changed the length of my shafts again, ready to bolt up $280 later.
This is what the trans hump ended up looking like before paint.
Next I’ll finish the reinstall of the wiring, mount catch can, tap steering box, remount ps pump/alt, refill fluids, assemble the completed exhaust, then close up the floor, put the seat in, mount shifter and drive it. Hopefully this weekend.
The drive shaft shop changed the length of my shafts again, ready to bolt up $280 later.
This is what the trans hump ended up looking like before paint.
Next I’ll finish the reinstall of the wiring, mount catch can, tap steering box, remount ps pump/alt, refill fluids, assemble the completed exhaust, then close up the floor, put the seat in, mount shifter and drive it. Hopefully this weekend.
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