My story starts out pretty much the same as a lot of people's I read on Mud... A guy had her on cl for what seemed like a fair price. I knew not nearly enough about what I should be looking at or what to look for. Advertised as "ran before it was parked a few years ago" and as being "stock and complete". Exchanged a few emails then a few phone calls. Made a handshake deal over the phone since he was 4.5 hours away. Talked a friend of mine into going to pick her up since I wasn't able to get off work at the time. This is what she looked like when she got to her new home...the garage.... which, in my mind was going to be for only a couple hours while I got her running(this is where I started to climb down the rabbit hole). Put a battery in her and hit the key, clunk! huh... battery dead? No. Loose cables? No.. Upon pulling the plugs water apparently sat in the cylinders for the last decade they were so full of rust! So, if I was going to pull the motor out, I might as well pull it apart and do it right(this is where I went fully down the rabbit hole!) The second pic is up pulling her apart.
I do want to give @brisveganbj42 a ton of credit. I pm'ed him, stalked his build on Phat42. He had a ton of measurements for the suspension. The goal is to still have plenty of flex while keeping it undersprung. My wife and kids don't want it so tall they can't get in and out easily...
Yes, they are. I used them for the rear and used the stock 60 hangers on the front of the front springs. Outboarded them as well. You will see a TDI, I have to work a little in between posts. lol.
When fitting the motor it worked out to have it 1 1/2" to the drivers side. Then the driveshafts were straight with the t-case flanges and trying to make sure I had front diff clearance... I was also making measurements for the battery and turbo fitment. The ac pump and belt routing made it tough to get it over that far. I pushed it as far as I could.
Here is a pic. It is hard to see, but it is a 1 in thick aluminum adapter plate. From there I could bolt on an NV3550 trans. Then I did a Blackbox to the Toyota split case. I bought it from Coty Built. If I did it over again, I would probably buy the kit from Randy @ gastodieselconversions.com He is the one I got my motor mount kits from and he is great to deal with.
Were the gussets for the hangers also supplied by Ruffstuff? The reason I ask is that there is more substantial outboarding than the stock setup, and even the stock setup should be gusseted [I've seen quite a few bent.]
I watched @fc187 do this in his shop once, and he simply cut open a section of rectangular tubing to make a gusset, only his spanned the entire height of the frame rail, which impressed me as less likely to fatigue.
