Builds Stevo's '95 4BTRunner (2 Viewers)

[StevoJonesFJ60]

Next up was getting it ready for the road, I drove it on the tow dolly but noticed it didn't want to go into 2/3rd gear, even though it felt like the shifter engaged fully. It turns out the transmission I picked up had a bent shift fork. I only paid$400 for it so I wasn't too surprised, but it was off to the junkyard to get a new one. I got a quote for a rebuild, $5000 was a little out of my price range with getting the new house.

Fortunately it fit in the trunk of the Camry. They didn't have a way to take the driveshaft off so I got that too.

Swapping the trans in the middle of the NC summer was no fun.

 

[StevoJonesFJ60]

I had to swap the pilot bearing too, since the transmission had a different input shaft. Out came the bread. I took some pictures this time of the process for those who have never used this method before.

Any bread will do:

Stuff as much as you can in the bearing opening.

Then use a dowel or something cylindrical the same size as the opening to compress the bread.

Keep stuffing more bread in and beat on it with a hammer to drive it into the bearing space, it will eventually start pushing the bearing out.

And voila, after 10 mins or so, you now have a removed bearing, and minimal cleanup. I much prefer using bread to grease, which also works, just is much messier.

 

[StevoJonesFJ60]

Been busy with distillery clients too. Took a trip to help setup some clients making Soju in Georgia.

Nice little distillery with a 200 Gallon electric still.

Took another trip up to upstate NY to a client who is wrapping up a distillery.
1000 Gallon still, with whiskey and vodka columns under the plastic.

 

[StevoJonesFJ60]

I spent most of the summer doing an upfit for a local client. Steam pipe welding, equipment installation and recipe development.

It was a ton of work, but it turned out awesome, he just had his grand opening and they killed it with a huge turnout.

 

[StevoJonesFJ60]

Some of the opening,

Glamour shot of the equipment making some booze too!

The last trip was up to Massachusetts. Helped improve the efficiencies at a distillery and got to run this beautiful still.

Was able to improve their proof gallon recovery rate by 25% and had a blast with the distilling team up there.
I also tried some very interesting spirits. This one I didn't expect to be as good as it was.

Now that those trips are done, I have some more time to get the 4BTRunner finished up.
The main issue I am trying to deal with is the electrical. I have an issue where I don't have dash lights, tail lights or brake lights.
I cant seem to figure out what the issue is. All of the fuses and relays seem to be fine. The turn signals work fine too. its just a weird thing.

Automotive wiring has always been my Achilles heel. If anyone has any suggestions I would be more than happy to try them out.

 

[Vossie]

How are your grounding points? In my experience most electrical gremlins reside in bad or intermittent grounds

 

[StevoJonesFJ60]

How are your grounding points? In my experience most electrical gremlins reside in bad or intermittent grounds

So this time it was user error, I thought I reconnected all the wires after swapping the body. One power line got missed. Brake lights work now.

Now I just have to figure out where I have a short in my tail light circuit, as it blows the fuse immediately once I turn my headlights on.

 

[Vossie]

So this time it was user error, I thought I reconnected all the wires after swapping the body. One power line got missed. Brake lights work now.

Now I just have to figure out where I have a short in my tail light circuit, as it blows the fuse immediately once I turn my headlights on.

that happened to me for a while, turned out it was a bad bulb

 

[StevoJonesFJ60]

that happened to me for a while, turned out it was a bad bulb

That's what it ended up being for me too! Thanks for the input.

I finally got it all together, all the wiring is done and its ready for some drives around the neighborhood.
Apparently my neighbors aren't too keen on the noise from it though, while taking it for some test spins around the circle one of them called the cops on me I guess I was testing it out a little too thoroughly.

Other than the noise, the truck is running and shifting great, steering does wander a bit more than I would like, so I will probably throw in a steering stabilizer to keep it from tracking all over the place as the speed picks up. It most definitely needs an alignment too.

Any good recommendations for steering stabilizers?

 

[StevoJonesFJ60]

It has been way too long since this has been updated, been busy with distillery work and life in general. But the truck has been on the road and a blast to drive.

In terms of some upgrades, I was able to grab some nice welders from an auction to fill out my garage shop.

I now have a sweet old-school Synchrowave 250 TIG, older than me, but for $600 dollars it was worth it all day long, also snagged a CST 280 for $450. They have already paid for themselves being used for work.

Added in some new shelves and things to make the space more efficient.
Being that I had a garage to work in now instead of the full shop I needed some more storage for materials.

Some heavy wall 2x2" tube later my new material/axle rack was built and promptly filled up with piping.

 

[StevoJonesFJ60]

That piping was promptly installed at a clients place in NJ.

Action Shots.

Installed for now, just waiting on the equipment to come in.

 

[StevoJonesFJ60]

In order to pass inspection I needed to add in a E-brake, so I took the old Toyota lever arm, and added in some brackets.

Pull section:

Works well enough to pass inspection, but I want to swap it out in the future.

 

[StevoJonesFJ60]

After driving around for a couple months and some light wheeling I wasn't thrilled with the rear springs, they rode too rough and I could tell the suspension bolts were not too happy either. She's a heavy truck, so the 1/2" bolts were not up to the task. Not quite perpendicular anymore.

New bolts are going to be a bit better, 3/4"

I also snagged some nice new rear leaf springs off of a 3/4 ton chevy, the 3" wide springs believe it or not are a lot more flexible but I pulled a leaf anyhow, I am nowhere near needing all 4.

Got the new springs test installed,

Fully installed, and so much nicer of a ride.

 

[StevoJonesFJ60]

Since the springs were installed I wanted to upgrade the rear bumper.

Added some side protection.

Painted up

And installed.

Tucks in nice!

 

[StevoJonesFJ60]

In sad news we had to put our pup down, its primarily the reason I haven't updated in so long. She was our first anniversary gift together. She unfortunately developed a malignant tumor in the back of her throat. A month after the diagnosis she was starting to lose her ability to eat solid foods easily and would get winded after playing too much.

She had a great life though and was smiling up until her last ride.

 

[StevoJonesFJ60]

Time and life goes on, we waited a while before deciding if we wanted to get another dog.
We took a trip to the local pound and knew immediately that we had found our new little baby.

She was desperate for some real love and just pressed her whole body against the fence to get some scritches and affection.

Got her home and gave her a bath, got her some toys, and showered her with love.
The shelter gave us a flyer with the 3/3/3 rule on it. 3 days for decompression, 3 weeks for settling in, 3 months for feeling fully at home.
This was her day 1, I think she skipped a few steps.

 

[StevoJonesFJ60]

Since driving around for a while, I wanted to get some paint on the truck to protect the metal. It was starting to flake off the top and the hood was all speckled.
Had a local guy trade work for tools and stuff. Not a show-quality job, but then again this isn't a show truck.

 

[StevoJonesFJ60]

Driving around and screwing around I came up with a couple more areas to work on.
First on the street, it wasn't the best once I crossed 65MPH, no death wobble, but a bit too much wander for my liking.
First attempt at the fix was adding in a steering stabilizer.

I took it for an alignment and got some caster readings, they were around 3° so I decided to bump that up a bit. I also wanted to make some tweaks to the front springs. Since the 3" springs were way better in the rear, I decided to swap the fronts out too.

I cut off the front "drop brackets" for the sliders and added in some brackets for the fixed points. Here are the new 3" wide F250 front springs.

All fit up:

And slider boxes adjusted to their final position.

Its hard to see but there is about an 1" or so more "slide" in the boxes. This is perfect to give me all the uptravel I need and leave the rest for droop.

 

[StevoJonesFJ60]

I have known the rear axle has had some serious deflection in the past but it was free.
I have kept an eye out for any potential new axles and was thrilled to find a nice clean 14bolt with 3.73 gears in it.
$243 and an hour pulling it and it was mine.

It has a bit of extra brackets on it and had the gov-lock, but for the cost I wasn't going to complain. An afternoon with the grinder and it went from looking like this.

to this:

 

[StevoJonesFJ60]

Of course as soon as I get the axle I had another piping job come in. This time a big stainless steel manifold for a client.
So the rack needed an upgrade for working. Loaded up with stainless piping all 2" schedule 40.

I figured the best way to increase workspace would be to add a removable worktop to the rack.

Framed out in 1.75x1.75 3/16th wall tubing and 3/16th plate top installed.

Perfect for some not so light work, and also removable for when I need better access to an axle. I promptly put it to work on welding up the manifold.

Needed a place to store the manifold sections, back of the truck it is.