New Guy Needing Some Q's Answered Please

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Grizzilion

Joined
Mar 20, 2017
Threads
6
Messages
52
Location
Steamboat Springs, CO
Hi Mudders,

I need some advice on becoming a potential 80 owner. The 96 I am looking at has 179,xxx miles on it, southern state car so no rust, factory lockers, and currently won't start because of a "security light" that is malfunctioning.

Anyone have experience with that? I wish I had more detail for you but that's the only real description I could get out of the owner over the phone.

On another note the Cruiser has a god awful 6" lift on it with 36" tires that need replacing. What's a ballpark figure for getting that lift off and some more functional all around wheels and tires put on?

Thanks for the help, I hope to be joining the 80 club shortly and show you how high this thing is off the ground!
 
It's kind of hard to answer your questions without more information. You say you want to get rid of the lift, but you don't say what you want to go to. Do you want to go back to stock ride height, 2 inch lift, or what? As for the tires, what do you want to do, do you want to go back to stock rims and tires, or what? So it's hard to even give you a ballpark price on those changes without more info. I have a 94 Land Cruiser so I'm not sure the "security light" your talking about is part of a factory alarm, or if this is an LED security light that's part of an aftermarket alarm. No matter if it's a stock, or aftermarket alarm, if the no start problem is being caused by the alarm and can't be fixed, both types of alarms can be easily removed from your truck to fix that problem.
 
Rifleman said:
It's kind of hard to answer your questions without more information. You say you want to get rid of the lift, but you don't say what you want to go to. Do you want to go back to stock ride height, 2 inch lift, or what? As for the tires, what do you want to do, do you want to go back to stock rims and tires, or what? So it's hard to even give you a ballpark price on those changes without more info. I have a 94 Land Cruiser so I'm not sure the "security light" your talking about is part of a factory alarm, or if this is an LED security light that's part of an aftermarket alarm. No matter if it's a stock, or aftermarket alarm, if the no start problem is being caused by the alarm and can't be fixed, both types of alarms can be easily removed from your truck to fix that problem.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the alarm info, that's good news! As for the lift I'd like to take it back down to a 2" lift with stock wheels and new 33" or 34" rubber. I know the rubber isn't cheap for good AT tires but I wasn't shire if I'd have to get new shocks and springs to replace the 6" lift.
 
Make sure it was a "bolt-on" lift and not some crazy hack job like one of the other guys here on the forum had!! You'll want to ask them what the full setup is under it, or get a bunch of photos and share them. 6" lift done wrong could have jacked up a few different things and may require more maintenance/replacing as soon as you get it.
 
I went straight to the hack job lift @crikeymike spoke of (poor bastard) - think it was a black 450 though (but I'm senile).

Yeah, if it's like a Slee 6" you could easily sell it here so it's big what lift it is.

Sounds like a decent prospective 80, GL!
 
crikeymike said:
Make sure it was a "bolt-on" lift and not some crazy hack job like one of the other guys here on the forum had!! You'll want to ask them what the full setup is under it, or get a bunch of photos and share them. 6" lift done wrong could have jacked up a few different things and may require more maintenance/replacing as soon as you get it.
Click to expand...
Good to know! I'll try and get some info from the owner so that I can give you guys more info or take some pics when I go to look at it.
 
Under the drivers seat there will be a black box labeled RS3000 , that's the port installed alarm. When I bought my truck several of the plugs were disconnected and the alarm had been disabled. Do some reading up on it first, but I imagine you can just unplug it and the truck will start up. Might need to DC the battery while your doing it so that everything resets.
 
If they geared the diffs for 36s you'll need to find stock or close to it for your planned 33s.
 
half k cruiser said:
Under the drivers seat there will be a black box labeled RS3000 , that's the port installed alarm. When I bought my truck several of the plugs were disconnected and the alarm had been disabled. Do some reading up on it first, but I imagine you can just unplug it and the truck will start up. Might need to DC the battery while your doing it so that everything resets.
Click to expand...

While DCing the battery is good practice anyway, once the FACTORY/PORT alarm is removed correctly the truck won't care that it is gone. Aftermarket? who knows.

And to be clear, unplugging the RS3000 brain box will result in a no-start. There should be an adapter under the steering column between two factory ignition-system plugs that gets removed.. doing this eliminates the alarm's ability to interrupt the starter.

It's an easy job and has been documented here many times.
 
bloc said:
While DCing the battery is good practice anyway, once the FACTORY/PORT alarm is removed correctly the truck won't care that it is gone. Aftermarket? who knows.

And to be clear, unplugging the RS3000 brain box will result in a no-start. There should be an adapter under the steering column between two factory ignition-system plugs that gets removed.. doing this eliminates the alarm's ability to interrupt the starter.

It's an easy job and has been documented here many times.
Click to expand...
Great info! I'll do some more searching through the database and hopefully find the process, thanks for the knowledge!
 
Grizzilion said:
Good to know, I'll make sure to ask about the gear setting they used on the 37's. If no adjustment was made then it should be ok to go back to a smaller tire?
Click to expand...

Yes. If they did regear and you want stock you could probably find someone to trade diffs with.. but they are heavy and bulky so it'd probably need to be a local deal. Also a fair amount of work to get the front one out.. basically the whole front axle needs to come apart, knuckles/hubs/brakes/etc
 
I spoke with the owner and he is pretty worthless for info about the truck. He bought the truck to wrench on it with his son but that never happened and the lift was already installed when he bought it out of southern NM. About the gearing he said he hasn't changed anything but has driven it at 75 mph on the highway so not sure if the guys before him did. I found a local 4x4 shop so I'm gonna ask them about a pre purchase inspection and see what they can tell me about the rig. I'll definitely upload pictures once I see the truck to get your guys input.
 
Quite a few red flags there.
 
Post pictures, we can help you out! :D
 
Wait, wasn't that butcher lift/suspension job a rig in NM?!?! Or was it in Arizona? It was U G L Y

Frankly speaking, this sounds like either a) an opportunity to steal an 80 Series or b) an opportunity to go broke.
 
LS1FJ40 said:
Wait, wasn't that butcher lift/suspension job a rig in NM?!?! Or was it in Arizona? It was U G L Y

Frankly speaking, this sounds like either a) an opportunity to steal an 80 Series or b) an opportunity to go broke.
Click to expand...
Exactly what I was thinking! I'll post a pic and see if anyone recognizes it as the hack job.
 
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