Builds Pete the Old Prospector (17 Viewers)

[majdomo]

Like I told my wife when I started working my way through all the deferred maintenance on Ruftoys 38 years ago, “It’s a machine; it has a finite number of parts. Sooner or later I will get to the end.”

And I did.

Then I got to drive it for two years without doing anything

Dedication and resolve... and lots and lots of dirty laundry and busted knuckles and the money... sometimes I wish I was into Chevys and Fords instead of Toyotas and BMWs. Guess we can't always choose what grabs ya.

 

[majdomo]

Drive in to work was uneventful. Some oil on the garage floor this morning, could be either the new seal taking a second to swell up with oil and seal, or it's the rear main, joy. Will enjoy the moment here and worry about that later.

EDIT - THAT oil puddle was from the seal taking a second to swell up and finish sealing the oil pan, which has gone away. However I still have a small drip-type leak coming from the transmission input, which means I'm pulling it anyway.. later.

 

[majdomo]

Very short tech for today, replaced the springs in the rear hatch struts with these, much better. Super easy, take off both ball joint socket ends from the new gas strut, pull out the springs and the spacer, slide them in and reassemble.

Dumped the coolant, replaced the big hoses off the radiator and water pump, put the coolant back and that's all done. This is in prep for replacing the seals around the rear hatch and half doors, didn't want to have to fight to keep the thing propped open while messing with glue. I also ordered a replacement radio antenna, the miner used a dual mount antenna off a VW Bus so that was pretty easy to find on JBugs. Have to say, it looks stock. Trying to decide if I take out the shelf across the front, or just clean up the wiring for the radio. Most likely going to just clean up the wiring.. but we'll see.

Will have some time coming up, vacation next week. The KC Lites may be coming off, they are shorting out under the dash somewhere making sparky noises, they don't turn on unless I hit a bump just the right way, and then I can't switch them off

 

[mtn biker]

Very short tech for today, replaced the springs in the rear hatch struts with these, much better. Super easy, take off both ball joint socket ends from the new gas strut, pull out the springs and the spacer, slide them in and reassemble.

View attachment 3692426

Dumped the coolant, replaced the big hoses off the radiator and water pump, put the coolant back and that's all done. This is in prep for replacing the seals around the rear hatch and half doors, didn't want to have to fight to keep the thing propped open while messing with glue. I also ordered a replacement radio antenna, the miner used a dual mount antenna off a VW Bus so that was pretty easy to find on JBugs. Have to say, it looks stock. Trying to decide if I take out the shelf across the front, or just clean up the wiring for the radio. Most likely going to just clean up the wiring.. but we'll see.

Will have some time coming up, vacation next week. The KC Lites may be coming off, they are shorting out under the dash somewhere making sparky noises, they don't turn on unless I hit a bump just the right way, and then I can't switch them off

Best mod ever

 

[majdomo]

General maintenance stuff today. Drove down to pay Mark a visit on Friday, but was having a tough time at stoplights / idle. Figured that it was the primary jet or junk in the idle circuit, and was basically correct - pulled the carb, cleaned the idle circuit out with tons of carb cleaner, replaced the primary jet with the one that was in the carb when received (114, it should be 118 but I don't have that jet), and the rig was idling better again.

Tried to set lean drop, but I only had 15" of vacuum at 2200' altitude with a bouncing needle, and I know the engine is healthier than that. Did the valve adjustment with the engine hot and they were basically all way too tight. Adjusted per FSM, fired right up and got 19" without even adjusting the carb again. Set timing, set lean drop, got it to about 20" rock solid, then rechecked timing again at 650, and called it a day. Seems pretty happy.

Pulled the gun racks off, next up is weatherstripping on the rear hatch and doors.

 

[RodrigzCrzr]

Hey there been following your thread lately. And the more and more I look at your rig the more similarities I see in a previous rig I owned.
I only have 1 photo of it. here is a pic of it and see if you see anything similar in the two .
cheers
Jorge

 

[majdomo]

Hey there been following your thread lately. And the more and more I look at your rig the more similarities I see in a previous rig I owned.
I only have 1 photo of it. here is a pic of it and see if you see anything similar in the two .
cheers
Jorge

View attachment 3700131

Thanks, gotta love the sweaty rigs! Those Dick Cepek jug carriers were the business back in the day!

Wagon wheels will likely get swapped for some proper patina'd stockers, eventually.

 

[majdomo]

Zen of Slow today.

Drove in to work early this morning, having a new appreciation for the 3 speed and reminded of this story from Mark.

 

[majdomo]

Been having fun with the rig, nothing really to report except that I replaced the fusible link, such as it was, with a proper unit from @Coolerman, check out this swaggage! Sweeeeeeet, comes with the proper plug to attach to the big ammeter wire so that you can clip the fusible link in between that and the new, bigger line to the positive terminal. If the link ever blows, all you need to do is replace the link itself.

And here's the "fusible link" that I was replacing, lol:

And installed. I didn't even change out of my pajamas and my coffee was still hot when I was done:

I'm getting some fluttering at the ammeter even with the new link, and am only getting 13.7v when idling at the battery. Plus, the ammeter seems to stay about halfway between the middle and + side on the freeway even after the rig has been running for 20-30 min. Looking at replacing the voltage regulator and rebuilding the alternator (brushes and bearings), will probably do this myself rather than subbing it out, but we'll see. Seems the process is pretty straightforward, link here from Coolerman's site.

 

[majdomo]

More power system tech today. Since the ammeter wouldn't quit doing its jig all over the gauge, I decided to pop in a new voltage regulator, for a couple of reasons. First, though just guessing, seemed like this would be the main reason this was happening. And second, you can still buy them rebuilt directly from Toyota. Check this out:

Here's the part number and box it came in. $18 from the dealer, bargain!

Installed and the ammeter sticks right at the middle when running and warmed, and got 14.7v at the battery at idle! I did also buy new brushes and bearings for the alternator, but given these results it's probably not imminently necessary.

$18!!

Also got a Benchmade Griptilian today for EDC. Awesome.

 

[majdomo]

New add to the herd... think this is a 1983 model



Runs and drives, needed a radio system but that was about it. It's as much fun as it looks!

I was very into RC cars when I was my son's age, and had the exact same radio for my Tamiya Grasshopper (which got trashed), and eventually moved it over to a Nichimo Spirit FF (also trashed but worth big money these days - just like real cars, the ones that didn't sell well went way up in value), and then finally to a weird Futaba rig that I ran until I turned 14 and got a job, then a girlfriend, etc. But this is where it all started - working on RC cars turned into working on real cars, electronics, ham radio, and so on.

Needs new tires, but that's about it. I have a video but I can't load it up to Mud, unfortunately.

Heading out to Vegas for the USC-LSU game this weekend, there are many other places I'd rather be than Vegas on Labor Day weekend...

@65swb45

 

[65swb45]

30 years new! Now that’s what I call NOS. I feel like a circle has been closed, since I’m sure my friend’s son (who would have been the same age as Charlie is now) did the original assembly before he gave it to me…30 years ago!

 

[majdomo]

30 years new! Now that’s what I call NOS. I feel like a circle has been closed, since I’m sure my friend’s son (who would have been the same age as Charlie is now) did the original assembly before he gave it to me…30 years ago!

It is SO COOL running this all over the driveway! I got it in some dirt in the yard, and up and down the street, but then he yelled at me for running it on the street because he doesn't trust me driving it

Thank you Mark for keeping it in such good condition all these years and thinking of him when it was time to move it along!!

 

[majdomo]

So been a minute, enjoying the truck but avoiding the 110* weather here in LA. This is the first weekend we haven't had stupid temps and this is a bye week, so guess it's time to pull the transmission! The clutch has been shuddering in first, and the input shaft is leaking, plus I found that the rear driveshaft u-joint was so bad I could get movement in the u-joint by hand. No bueno.

Anyway here we go:

I was finally able to pull the trans hump after taking out the gas tank, which is stupid but at least it's easy. Yes, the captain's side weatherstrip is peeling. I have to get to that too. On top of that, found some chunkos attached to the drain plug on the transmission, no idea how long those have been there.

So fun! I also returned the Griptilian, I can't carry on campus without it being under 2.5" so ended up getting the Full Immunity. I'm not a knife guy but I'm not not a knife guy. This is really nice.

Plan is to pull the trans today, get the flywheel down to the machine shop during the week and find some time to visit Mark @65swb45 for parts before next weekend.

 

[charliemeyer007]

Knife laws make as much sense as gun laws. When do criminals care about laws?
All gun laws are unConstitutional period. Punish criminals for committing actual crimes like murder.
I'm not sure the death penalty is a deterrent to crime but I do think it cuts down on repeat offenders.

 

[majdomo]

Knife laws make as much sense as gun laws. When do criminals care about laws?
All gun laws are unConstitutional period. Punish criminals for committing actual crimes like murder.
I'm not sure the death penalty is a deterrent to crime but I do think it cuts down on repeat offenders.

Knife laws are tough, they change by city and situation, so you could be fine one minute but then walk down the street and you're in violation of the law for being in a spot where they aren't allowed. For me it's a tool, but as great as the Griptilian is, it strays a little more into scary weapon territory (for LA EDC, anyway). I definitely hear you, but since this is tech will focus on that for now.

Trans and transfer case are out, but look like they were salvaged from the Titanic, so many barnacles. An hour of ASMR chiseling made it look a little better than this but not much. Will do more tomorrow.

Also, can't really tell here but the rear main was leaking and making a mess. So yeah, this had to be done. That slip spline is going to be fun getting back into phase later, lol.

And the flywheel. The one on the left came off the rig, the one on the right is from the parts stash from the original '72 block. I am probably going to resurface the one that came off the rig, fewer hotspots but a few more cracks / crazes. The one that came from the '72 block has a lot of grooves, like a bad rotor, and more pretty bad hotspots. Machining will make it better of course.

I also pulled down the spare rear driveshaft that I remembered I had, so I'll put that back in when reassembling and hopefully don't need to mess with u-joints.

So that's it for today. Rig is kind of put up for a little while, but that's ok. Good weather and nothing to do

 

[charliemeyer007]

All most all guns can kill, same with knives and other tools - it isn't the inanimate object's fault how it is used.
Too bad we will never know the death toll from the exempt from lawsuits the latest "vaccine" hoax.

Automatic center punch and paint to mark the dots is very handy before taking stuff apart. A little brake kleen spray and clean rag wipe preps the area good. I bought some of those yellow paint markers from Amoron for $1.50 each, and have been very happy with them.

 

[65swb45]

Those are some pretty big chunks you found on your drain plug John. Probably from 1st gear. Since you’re going to regasket the transmission anyways, you should have a look. A Dremel may be in order. Maybe more.

 

[majdomo]

Those are some pretty big chunks you found on your drain plug John. Probably from 1st gear. Since you’re going to regasket the transmission anyways, you should have a look. A Dremel may be in order. Maybe more.

Yeah I'm sort of afraid of what I'm gonna find. I'll open 'er up tomorrow to see what's what.

Putting in a 4-speed has crossed my mind...

 

[65swb45]

Yeah I'm sort of afraid of what I'm gonna find. I'll open 'er up tomorrow to see what's what.

Putting in a 4-speed has crossed my mind...

I’m actually building one of those combos right now for a client in Culver City. He bought a used transmission from cruiserparts before he knew about me. Cost more to fix that one than it would have to buy one from me.