Builds Project ToyLET (PICS)

[TachedOutOffRoad]

I still love the pics with all of the grinder dust around the 14bolt on the first page. Makes me itch just sitting here.

The simple, but functional and well built fabrication is great. With buying good parts and doing all of the building yourself, youll really appreciate and know your truck when youre done with it. Youll like the extra wheelbase too.

I ended up cutting the hell out of my floorpan and relocating the gas tank with my new drivetrain. The factory double low/offset outputs on the t-case makes for some major body trimming with my new rear output setting up so high.

Keep it up

 

[4alarm]

I've been thinking of designs for my t-case cross member. I want to keep
the flat belly, but the only way I can EASILY use the factory lower mount on
the np205 would be to drop the cross member below the frame rails to clear
the front output shaft. I've been thinking about getting a clocking ring
for the np205 to get the front output shaft out of the way, but that means
even more floor pan trimming. Then, like you said, I'll have clearance
problems with the gas tank. In the end I want to get rid of the gas tank
and run propane, but until I can afford that I'll have to use what I got.

Grinding dust: I now wear a long sleeve shirt, jeans, coveralls, and a
particle mask anytime I start cutting or grinding. It keeps the itchys away
and keeps the tissue from being black when I blow my nose for the next
day.

 

[4alarm]

Last weekend I got my rear pinion angle set (0*), and my spring perches welded up. I was going to weld up the rear brake caliper bracket, but since I wanted to use El Dorado rear calipers (e-brake) I decided to hold off until I had them in hand so I can make sure I keep the bleeder valve on top. I ordered the El Dorado Calipers, but the next day the vendor called me and said they couldn't get one of the sides. I think thats a sign, cause I was getting second thoughts about them because I've heard the e-brake is a pain to work with and overall just sucks. So I think I'll just use the Chevy front rotors for now and figure out an e-brake later.

Since I couldn't finish the caliper bracket, I decided to move my attention to the motor. I got the gasket for the carburetor and mounted it. Set the #1 cylinder to TDC and installed my distributer. My alternator bracket was rubbing on the the alternator fins, so I had to fix that. Did some other little stuff and then looked at the t-case cross member again.

This week I finally did something with the cross member. I starred at the t-case and pondered ways to do it (trying to keep the cross member between the frame rails and still clear the front output shaft) for about 2hrs. :shocked: I finally gave in decided to KISS and put the cross member below the frame rails (so much for my flat belly). In time I'll look into getting a clocking ring for the 205 and then I can just modify the cross member to have a flat belly again.

I setup a home made tubing notcher using my drill press, a 2X4, and a u-bolt, and made my cross member.

Ghetto rigged tube notcher:

Worked out well:

 

[4alarm]

I decided to use a straight piece of tube notched on both ends with a piece of 2" DOM at the ends to hold polyurethane bushings. I couldn't bolt it directly to the 205's stock mounting location because the front output flange would have hit it. I had to space it, so I used some scrap 2X2 box that I had laying around. I cut about 7/16" off the box and bolted that to the factory mount so I could get the cross member setup to weld to it. I used some tie wraps to hold the cross member up against the 2X2 so I could adjust the position of the cross member before taking it.

Cross member (tacked)

2X2 bolted to 205:

Tie wrap mock up:

 

[4alarm]

After tack welding the cross member to the 2X2, I pulled it all down and went back to the drill press to drill out the cross member. I drilled out the cross member to allow me to recess the mounting bolts (Allen head bolts). That way the bolts won't be hanging down and will be protected.

Tacked:

Mounted:

Recessed allen head bolt:

 

[4alarm]

All that's left for the cross member is to make some tabs and weld them to the frame rails, and do all the finish welding on the cross member.

Almost done:

Bye Bye Flat Belly:

 

[Radd Cruisers]

Sure you would be surprised how many folks are following this build...

Looking real good.

Not sure if anyone is still following this thread but....

 

[Mudkiwi]

Its looking good man
I like your home made tube notcher, I may have to copy that idea myself

 

[4alarm]

Its looking good man
I like your home made tube notcher, I may have to copy that idea myself

The home made notcher sucked! It served it's purpose, but getting everything lined up was so time consuming. The U-bolt is the key to keeping the tube in place. I tried to use clamps, but they just vibrated off. The U-bolt kept everything in place. I'm definitely buying a notcher before I start my cage.

 

[TachedOutOffRoad]

That notcher is sweet!!

The crossmember design was a good idea

 

[snowking]

Very cool rig ! Can't wait to see the finish product!

 

[tlcruiser66]

Nice work, looking forward to more updates.

 

[4alarm]

Thanks guys, I should have another update this weekend.

 

[Tapage]

ooohh men those are really wide axles !

Nice job dude .. nice nice ..

 

[4alarm]

I took off work on Friday so I could stay home and do some REAL work. Barring interruptions, I was able to get all the welds burned in on the cross member and then I cut out some rectangles from 1/4 plate for the mounting tabs with my 4 1/2" angle grinder (did I mention I NEED a plasma cutter).

With the cross member bolted to the t-case I bolted my mounting tabs to the cross member bushings and tacked them to the frame. I pulled the cross member back off and finished welding the tabs to the frame. The welds pulled one of the tabs inward causing a little bit of a snug fit for one of the bushings but nothing that can't be managed.

With the cross member complete I could finally drop the chain that has been holding up the back half of my drive train, then pull the tranny/t-case off to put in the missing pieces: flywheel, clutch, and the coupling for the tranny and t-case. I picked up my new clutch kit (Limited Lifetime warranty; 11" Duralast from AutoZone ~$139) the day before so I'd be ready to bolt everything up. Unfortunately the GOOD flywheel that I had was a 10.5" flywheel. I did have an 11" flywheel, but in was in desperate need of being turned. I found it was cheap to get a new flywheel so rather then wait until a machine shop could turn mine, I just bought a new one (~$50 from Checker Auto Parts).

Keep in mind I have NEVER installed a clutch before. As with just about every aspect of this project, I'm learning as I'm going. I installed the new pilot bushing that came with my clutch kit, bolted up the new flywheel @75 ftlbs (after cleaning it with brake cleaner), installed the clutch disk with the alignment tool, bolted up the pressure plate (couldn't find torque specs at the time and figured I just go with 75 ftlbs like the flywheel..... BIG MISTAKE should be 25 ftlbs) and tried to get the tranny back on. I could get all the bolt holes lined up but couldn't get any closer than about 1/2" from the block. Eveything seemed good, it just wouldn't go any further. After about 4 hours of messing with it,, I bolted the bellhousing to the block loosly and then bolted the tranny to the bell housing losely, and proceed to suck everything to the block by turning each bolt a few turns at a time (another BIG MISTAKE).

After finally getting the tranny completely bolted to the block I didn't have a good feeling about how it went together. I called a few friends and then got online to do my own research. I came to the conclusion that I needed to pull everything back off and start over. My main concerns were the pilot bearing and the fact that I over torqued the pressure plate.

 

[4alarm]

So I pulled the tranny back off (small leaf springs make great pry bars!), and tried to remove the pressure plate. The pressure plate wasn't clearenced enough around 2 bolts so I couldn't get the box end of a wrench around them to remove them. After severely rounding the heads of the bolts and trying for an hour with Vise Grips, I remembered that my wife bought me a set of Craftsman stripped bolt extractors a few years ago for my b-day (I love my wife). Within a few minutes the bolts were out.

I found that my suspicions of the pilot bushing were correct. When I installed it, it wasn't perfectly flush. One part of the bushing was sticking out further than the other (could just barely feel the difference). I bought a new bushing to replace it and checked out a loan-a-tool bushing remover from Checker, but the tool was a piece of crap so I couldn't get the old bushing out. I left it and used a brass punch to knock the "high" side in. After bolting everything back up (with the right torque specs) everything went together with little effort. I installed the tranny/t-case coupling (10-spline female to female) into the cross section and bolted the t-case back up to the tranny and proceeded to try and get the cross member re-mounted. I must wandering steel because the holes in the mounting tabs no longer matched the crossmember. After 45 minutes of prying I finally got the cross member bolted back up.

Overall I am not happy with how the cross member mounts to the frame. I think it will be a rock hanger. For now it'll do, but when I have time (and a clocking ring) I'm going to try something else.

Cross member welded:

Bushings installed and painted:

Tabs for connecting cross member to frame:

Tabs tacked in place:

 

[4alarm]

Tabs welded:

Tranny/T-case removed:

Big ugly assembly:

 

[4alarm]

Flywheel installed:

Clutch installed:

 

[4alarm]

For the clutch I am using a hydraulic system which uses master/slave cylinders to disengage the clutch. The fork I have is for a mechanical clutch and need a hole drilled in the arm to attach the slave cylinder to. I tried to drill trough it several ways but was unable to (hardened steel). I took it to a friends house and he used his plasma cutter to cut a hole into the end (have I mentioned that i NEED a plasma cutter?)

Hole "cut" into the clutch fork:

Everything back together:

Rock hanger:

 

[4alarm]

Next step is to get the radiator back in, plumb, and wire the engine and I should be able to fire it.

Before I can drive it I need brakes. I've been reading about the Mini-truck booster/chevy master cylinder upgrade for the Toyota mini trucks. Basically you make an adapter plate to mount a (preferably) 3/4 ton Chevy master cylinder to a Toyota mini-truck vacuum assisted brake booster. The booster off of a T100 is a better choice, but I got a mini-truck booster from a friend for free so thats what I'm using. I previously thought I could make a Chevy booster/master combo work and picked up a used combo cheap, but the Chevy booster is HUGE and would not fit unless I relocated my clutch master cylinder.

I was going to pickup a 3/4 ton master cylinder for a 70ish Chevy, but figured I check the Chevy master cylinder I had to see if I could make it work. It turns out that the one I have has a 1 1/4" bore and looked like it would work the same. I went to a local metal fabrication shop and they had a piece of 1/2 plate laying around that was the perfect size for the adapter so they gave it to me for free. I'll drill that out in the coming days/weekend and get my master cylinder bolted up, then I'll just need to run new lines and weld on my rear brackets (still) and then I should be able to stop.

Chevy Booster/Master:

Toyota Booster:

Difference: