From the original owner:
I sold it about 7 years ago. Sad for sure. The front axle is original but the outers are 84 Toyota mini truck hubs, knuckles, rotors ect. The brakes are gm hydroboost off an approx....late 80's Caddy. Caddy did this on their cars for packaging and power. I'll have to remember about the steering. The master cylinder is from the same caddy and if you change it you need to make sure that if you go to rear discs you change it to a disc/disc master cyl. Right now it is a disc/drum master cyl. Does it still have the hydraulics front and rear connections? I always put Milemarkers on my trucks and I had quick connects front and rear for the winch. That is the reason for the tripple recievers front and rear.
The reason for the Vair tank was that sometimes when the main tank got lower then 15 gallons on a hard right onramp it would starve. As some have stated not good with the 6.2. I put the 1 gallon tank in with another fuel pump always keep that full and ran the main pump after. Never had another issue.
The rear end has a Detroit locker. The torque arm was to stop axle rap on throttle yet still let it articulate. The front end was open....I couldn't afford another locker. Front is spring over, shackle reversal and worked really well at 70mph.
The tranny is a lovely piece....It was the last year they made it I bought used. It lasted about 3 days. The gas powered units had totally different govs and such. I had it built locally by a company that uses them behind big blocks. This was his first Diesel build. The pump is the 13 vain I believe with upgraded clutches. The torque converter I had built by Continental out of southern Cal. They build converters for drag cars and such. I told them the numbers for gears, wieght, use and such and they built that converter....the tranny and converter was $3000 plus.
The 203 to original Toyota t-case is a Advanced Adaptors plate as you thought. There is a kit to strengthen the Toyata t-case so it won't spread/break on top and split. After seeing the kit I just built my own. If the PO didn't distroy the truck is must work well.
The possible bad....the engine was supposedly rebuilt when I bought it.....not so much. It took me quite awhile to figure out the high EGTs under load. After a bunch of "diesel experts", not I, did a compression test on the motor it was just tired. I just watched it as I couldn't really afford to do it right. I put in glow plugs, injectors, rebuilt injection pump, water pump ect. It ran really well for being tired. I got about 14-15 mpg. It would probably get closer to 20 with a fresh engine. I've put a v6 in a Sami and other projects prior and my real worry was cooling. The radiator is from a big block chevy. It was the largest I could fit. It stayed cool even without the shroud I never got around to building. It takes about 1.5 hours to pull the front out with the radiator and pull the engine/trans/tcases as a unit.
The truck was a bit of a wallower because of the soft suspension. When I was going to stay on pavement I just put the Rancho 9000 stiff and it handled well. I bought my Unimog to replace the 55. Did I happen to say how much I missed the Pig? They are different and yet both very capable. The Pig would eat the Mog up for power to wieght. I ate alot of folks up with that truck.
The back glass motor was dead when I got the truck
from a gold mine out in the desert (how cool is that?!)... no head on the truck and rusty. The plastic gears had ground up. I got close on a metal gear and then made the thing fit and work. It was slow, but, worked better.....so stop whinning about it!
How is that for a primer? It wasn't a "custom shop" job but it was rock solid and very dependable. I have no pictures but would love photos I can put in a file. I hope to build again and there is not much I would change.
X2 on clean it up and run 'em -
