Builds Golden Boy / was 'an as-yet unnamed gulf spec diesel 1991 HZJ pickup'

[John Young]

Front sway bar back on

Rear diff going back in

Then there is this thing

Matt had to tell me what it was. I guess that maybe the engine had had a turbo on it at some point and this was an oil return, but I was wrong. This is the (messed up) oil level trouble switch.

I splashed out on new tie rods. They are not that expensive and trying to take apart old ones is labor-expensive

Rear springs with two leaves removed

 

[John Young]

New front pads and hard lines

New rear brake cylinders

(Gotta love that old Toyota logo on there)

Matt's guys got ahead of him and cleaned and repainted the backing plates for the rear drums, which I actually appreciate a great deal

I will take a minute and comment on the difference between a shop that cares and one that is there to 'do the job'. Recently the Holy Truck, a late 80 series with a carbed 1FZ started acting up. A number of things were messed up but this really takes my breath away. We needed to replace the fuel sensor in the main tank--no prob, my parts guy got it, and the garage installed it. Now we had to take it apart again because of dust contamination (too mild a word really for what we found):

The mechanic had taken out the assembly, changed the fuel level sender and then put it back with a completely non-functional sock. Contrast that with Matt's guys who decided that the rear brakes just needed to be nicer.

 

[John Young]

Another beauty shot

Starting to look like a truck again

New front disks with new studs of course

Time to get the transmission out

 

[cruisermatt]

Onto the good stuff. Today I’ll be tearing down the transfer to rebuild it, and the PTO, and install some Sumo overdrive gears. We also do an exterior restoration so this case will look as well as function as brand new when we are done.
So far this truck has been really nice to work on. It’s been neglected, yes, but more importantly it hasn’t seen real abuse, and even more importantly hasn’t really been messed with from what we’ve seen so far. All bolts and hardware has been correct, no threads stripped, heads rounded off, etc

 

[John Young]

Here is the team of dedicated surgeons all clustered around the patient in the operating theater

 

[coldtaco]

I see you have a locker axle, do you have a rear locker installed? the stud lengths don't seem to match a locker 3rd member.

 

[cruisermatt]

I see you have a locker axle, do you have a rear locker installed? the stud lengths don't seem to match a locker 3rd member.

This is not a locker housing.

 

[Fishbulb]

Keep the pics going..... they are work safe porn that helps me through the work day.....

 

[2fpower]

amazing progress and beautiful work going on there!!!

 

[OGBeno]

Here is the team of dedicated surgeons all clustered around the patient in the operating theater

View attachment 3483221

Looks like turbo time.

 

[coldtaco]

This is not a locker housing.

I had a front/rear factory locker axles and it had the same cutouts. I seem to remember when others installed the factory locker in a non-locker axle they had to cut those notches in it.

 

[cruisermatt]

I had a front/rear factory locker axles and it had the same cutouts. I seem to remember when others installed the factory locker in a non-locker axle they had to cut those notches in it.

Again, this is not a locker housing. These notches are there on all 9.5” housings. They’re for the ring gear. The notch for the locker is on the side.

 

[coldtaco]

Again, this is not a locker housing. These notches are there on all 9.5” housings. They’re for the ring gear. The notch for the locker is on the side.

thanks for the clarification

 

[cruisermatt]

Transfer case is torn down and transmission is inspected. H55f output shaft splines in perfect condition this is a really common problem area. Transmission internals look fine and shafts rotate smoothly. So all that was done was front cover cleaned up, input seal and gasket done, new bolts with pre-applied sealant.
I had a new top cover leftover from a new H55f that got a 40 top cover so I threw it on here as John complained of some shifter slop, but the seat and tip bushings looked fine so I figured this oughta do it.

 

[cruisermatt]

Inspecting the transfer case there are some oddities but nothing seriously unexpected for a non-US Cruiser.

Bearings and idler shaft actually look brand new indicating a rebuild done, however there was some really odd wear on the idler thrust washers. The output bearing races also had some pitting probably from sitting with moisture in the case after being pressure washed.
5th gear oiler cup was broken.
Interestingly input gear has been replaced with a new aftermarket one.

The big issue was the drive teeth were absolutely shot on both the high-range side on both the output shaft and the high-speed output gear. The output shaft and hi-low drive collar will both be replaced (we keep both in stock, new OEM), and we are doing the Overdrive gears so the high range gear will get replaced as well. The low-speed gear is fine and will be the only gear re-used.
We keep all the transfer case parts in stock along with new complete manual shift and vacuum shift case assemblies so we aren't held up for weeks when we run into an issue like this.

 

[cruisermatt]

Pic of wear on drive teeth

And the replacement

I also like to do new output flanges on all my rebuilds

 

[cruisermatt]

My techs also got the front and rear axles finished up today, as well as the rear springs done.

 

[Felde]

Thank you for all the pics. Educating and nice to look at the same time.
Reminds me to reward myself by taking the time for a conscious look at the beauty of a job completed and new parts in, before they get covered or dirty. Cheers Ralf

 

[John Young]

Thank you for all the pics. Educating and nice to look at the same time.
Reminds me to reward myself by taking the time for a conscious look at the beauty of a job completed and new parts in, before they get covered or dirty. Cheers Ralf

Thanks Ralf, I feel the same way. I am in Dubai while Matt and crew are in Winter Park, Florida (Northern suburb of Orlando). The cost is material but the quality and attention is superb. I feel I am getting good value, plus I really want this truck to be 'right'. I intend to keep it long-term. One thing I am noodling is the idea of putting a 79 series cab on it. Normally you can't do that because the bed is different but I do have one of these things in Dubai:

It is a steel UTE back from Australia. It mounts on rails that then bolt to the frame. Very easy to modify. So I could move the bed back 10 cm easily. Of course I would loose the fold-down windshield (which I never have used), and I think 79 has a wider frame so maybe the cab mount points might be different. Anyways I am just mulling over the idea of shipping a cab on the back of this truck and having Matt put the UTE tray on Golden Boy.

Why do this? Well those extra 10cm would be very nice. I could put in one of these coolers with a compressor

 

[John Young]

The cabs are available

But I probably won't do it. I'm sure it would get complicated and the existing cab is not all that horribly crowded.

Back in Florida @cruisermatt sent me some more photos of the ongoing work, which is a thing of beauty!

New fifth gear oiler

They have a policy as of a year or so ago of using all new fasteners, which I appreciate: