TWT -- The Wrenching Thread

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Do you have an 80 with power seats? Has your driver's side recline button broken off, leaving you in the lurch? I can help.

I have several power switches I can cannibalize. LMK if you need parts, or if you want me to rehab your switch for you.
 
Malleus said:
Do you have an 80 with power seats? Has your driver's side recline button broken off, leaving you in the lurch? I can help.

I have several power switches I can cannibalize. LMK if you need parts, or if you want me to rehab your switch for you.
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Yes, something has broken off of DS on both 80's. I'll have to look tomorrow to confirm which ones and what I have in reserves.
 
Ya know how you buy parts for a project over the years, but never seem to get to it. Well.....I finally got around to putting mini-truck power steering on my 40. A couple of weeks ago, I went over to @GLTHFJ60 's place and we did about 90% of it. Unfortunately, I didn't take "before" pics, but we removed the old manual steering gearbox, smog pump (which took up the space the new power steering pump needed), and various other smog equipment that was only previously installed in a manner that would suffice to pass the visual inspection, but since the Cruiser is over 30 years old, not a concern anymore.

The only cutting involved in the whole project was to cut/grind off the heads of the rivets holding the old mount for the steering gearbox. This was simple enough, but made interesting by the fact that while sitting on the floor doing it, one of the rivet heads hit the ground and went up the right leg of my shorts, burning the crap out of the back of my leg. YOUCH!!! Once the mount was gone and the box was disconnected from the rag joint and the pitman arm, out it came. I forget exactly where I got the new mounting bracket and gearbox, but I'm pretty sure I got them from a buddy who was upgrading to either FJ60 power steering or full Saginaw on his 40. I've had the bracket and box for well over 10 years. The good news is that they both bolted right up to the frame and the new box easily bolted to the steering rag joint. Getting the nuts tightened down inside the frame wasn't an easy task, but Johnny managed without having to leave a wrench inside the frame rail.

Next, we attached the Saginaw power steering pump to the bracket that bolts to the engine block using the front 2 head bolts and lined up the pulley with the other engine pulleys that would be used and snugged it down. We were just about to connect the high pressure line when Johnny determined that the port on the pump didn't match the end of the high pressure line I had picked up. Instead of a flared fitting, the pump uses an o-ring style fitting. Unfortunately, that meant the project wouldn't be finished that day, but I also needed to measure and get a fan belt anyway, so I drove it home in "manual steering mode" and went about sourcing the correct fittings.

Since we had removed the smog pump and related valves, I removed the air injector rail and bought a kit with the allen head plugs to plug off the holes where the air injector rail attached. Definitely cleans up the engine bay a bit.

I ended up going to "On-Site Hose" in Apex and they were able to make a high-pressure hose for me that went from the gearbox HP port to an adaptor on the pump end. Once I got that connected and cut a piece of 3/8" hose for the return line and attached it, all that was left was finding the right length fan belt. After getting a couple of options and test-fitting them, I discovered that I had clearance issues with the thermostat housing. Fortunately, the pulley on the power steering pump has a large pulley and a smaller one, and the mounting bracket is slotted, so I just loosened it and scooted the pump back so I could use the smaller pulley. Another trip to Auto Zone for some more fan belts and I finally found the right one.

After firing it up and discovering I hadn't fully tightened one end of the HP hose, I shut it down and tightened it properly and when I fired it up again....no leaks!!! I topped off the fluid and cycled the steering a few times and took it for a test drive. SOOOOO happy with it!!! It drives like a fancy new truck!
:)

The last piece of the puzzle was to replace the school bus sized steering wheel with something smaller to give me a little more breathing room. I sourced a steering wheel from a '94 80-series and I think it looks great! Gave me about an inch more room, and to me it looks like it belongs there. Just need to figure out why the horn won't honk, but that's no biggie.

Here are the pics.....

Gearbox low pressure fitting.webp


Pump high pressure port.webp


Pump HP adaptor.webp



Interference.webp


Pump mount and desmog.webp


Pump fitment.webp


Lines installed.webp


Steering Wheel.webp




 
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Nice work, Allen! Power steering is a game changer for sure. I need to upgrade my pig one of these days. The sag bracket looks like the one Georg sells.
 
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roadstr6 said:
Nice work, Allen! Power steering is a game changer for sure. I need to upgrade my pig one of these days. The sag bracket looks like the one Georg sells.
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Very well could be one of his. I literally pieced this together over 10+ years. When I came across a component, I picked it up. Don't know why I waited so long to pull it all together. It was just never at the top of "the list" until now. You can easily do it in a couple/few hours, if you have all the parts together.

I used this Mud thread of @Romer 's as my main resource.
 
Fort Knox said:
Very well could be one of his. I literally pieced this together over 10+ years. When I came across a component, I picked it up. Don't know why I waited so long to pull it all together. It was just never at the top of "the list" until now. You can easily do it in a couple/few hours, if you have all the parts together.

I used this Mud thread of @Romer 's as my main resource.
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Nice to see something I did 20 years ago is still useful :)
 
Romer said:
Nice to see something I did 20 years ago is still useful :)
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Very much so!! Unfortunately, the low pressure fitting on the gearbox wasn't on mine when I got it and those things are hard to track down these days, but I found something that worked.
 
Fort Knox said:
Very much so!! Unfortunately, the low pressure fitting on the gearbox wasn't on mine when I got it and those things are hard to track down these days, but I found something that worked.
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awesome. it probably drives like a different truck. Do you remember where you got the pulley from?
 
mwalls54 said:
awesome. it probably drives like a different truck. Do you remember where you got the pulley from?
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It definitely does. No more need to do the hand-over-hand heavy steering turns now. I guess I'm gonna have to stop skipping arm day now. 😆

The pulley was on the pump when I bought it from a buddy. I think I got it from @mtweller. Could be wrong.
 
Fort Knox said:
It definitely does. No more need to do the hand-over-hand heavy steering turns now. I guess I'm gonna have to stop skipping arm day now. 😆

The pulley was on the pump when I bought it from a buddy. I think I got it from @mtweller. Could be wrong.
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LOL. I am NOT the guy to be asking about something from that long ago. My gray matter... I only have 1/2 my gray matter left after Covid and....

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F

Post in thread 'Standalone E-Locker wiring DIY'

I had to convert my electrical lockers to air actuators because I could not figure out the wiring as a standalone. This is tremendous.
Many thanks for the legwork
  • Like

Wrote up this DIY on standalone Toyota E-Locker wiring if anyone needs it!
 
I've pulled a lot of engines, both at the house and junkyards. A 1996 Chevy 1500 Vortec 350 takes the cake as the most difficult engine I've ever pulled.

This was at a junkyard, and everything was getting cut, but good lord they put those bellhousing bolts in the absolute abyss. I couldn't even get my hand up there to find them. So I decided I'd pull the whole drivetrain.

Well turns out when you try to pull the whole drive out of a GMT400, the tcase output binds on top of the torsion bar crossmember.

So I ended up pulling the tcase, and in the process, I took an ATF shower. Cause laying directly under the drivetrain that's not bolted in while removing a transfercase is the wise move lol.

And even then, still fought to get it out. The cup style motor mounts these use, where you pull one horizontal bolt to separate them - seems simple. Except you have to lift the engine straight up 3" to get the ears over the frame side mount.

The solution to this is to unbolt the engine side of the mount from the block, it's just a royal pain to get to the bolts.

Needless to say, between the motor mounts, and the nice Hispanic man working the forklift at the junkyard who spoke ZERO English, the engine came out violently. It got stuck, I went to look what on, my amigo revved up the forklift and dumped the clutch and snatched that thang out lol

The distributor was a casualty of this violence. Fortunately I'm putting this in a 1996 2 door Tahoe with a connecting rod hanging out the oil pan. So I can swap any broken bits over.

But $356 for a fully dressed engine with a 120 day warranty, and $57 of core I can get back, is hard to beat. Pull-A-Part reigns king of the chain junkyards.

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40LandCruising said:
I've pulled a lot of engines, both at the house and junkyards. A 1996 Chevy 1500 Vortec 350 takes the cake as the most difficult engine I've ever pulled.

This was at a junkyard, and everything was getting cut, but good lord they put those bellhousing bolts in the absolute abyss. I couldn't even get my hand up there to find them. So I decided I'd pull the whole drivetrain.

Well turns out when you try to pull the whole drive out of a GMT400, the tcase output binds on top of the torsion bar crossmember.

So I ended up pulling the tcase, and in the process, I took an ATF shower. Cause laying directly under the drivetrain that's not bolted in while removing a transfercase is the wise move lol.

And even then, still fought to get it out. The cup style motor mounts these use, where you pull one horizontal bolt to separate them - seems simple. Except you have to lift the engine straight up 3" to get the ears over the frame side mount.

The solution to this is to unbolt the engine side of the mount from the block, it's just a royal pain to get to the bolts.

Needless to say, between the motor mounts, and the nice Hispanic man working the forklift at the junkyard who spoke ZERO English, the engine came out violently. It got stuck, I went to look what on, my amigo revved up the forklift and dumped the clutch and snatched that thang out lol

The distributor was a casualty of this violence. Fortunately I'm putting this in a 1996 2 door Tahoe with a connecting rod hanging out the oil pan. So I can swap any broken bits over.

But $356 for a fully dressed engine with a 120 day warranty, and $57 of core I can get back, is hard to beat. Pull-A-Part reigns king of the chain junkyards.

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First of all, why did you want that engine.

Second of all, if you had a forklift, why not take the whole body off (cutting all the body mounts/wires/cables) then pick the powetrain right off the frame?

Either way, funny story. I feel your struggle in my heart, lol.
 
As a real contribution to this thread, I successfully test fit the 10 speed trans to my bus engine. Pilot engagement is good with the machining that was done to fit a larger pilot bearing too. Big win.

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GLTHFJ60 said:
First of all, why did you want that engine.

Second of all, if you had a forklift, why not take the whole body off (cutting all the body mounts/wires/cables) then pick the powetrain right off the frame?

Either way, funny story. I feel your struggle in my heart, lol.
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Well I bought this '96 2 door Tahoe because I think they are awesome. And I bought it with the intent of LS swapping it. But once I got it, and discovered it had only been parked for a week, and was ready to roll minus an engine. I figured I'd just stuff a cheap junkyard 350(what it currently has) back in it so I could drive it soon. And gather parts for a rowdy cammed 6.0 down the line.

I've never tried to pull a body off at the junkyard before, I'm sure they would do it. But I've never had an issue with it on until now lol
 
40LandCruising said:
Well I bought this '96 2 door Tahoe because I think they are awesome. And I bought it with the intent of LS swapping it. But once I got it, and discovered it had only been parked for a week, and was ready to roll minus an engine. I figured I'd just stuff a cheap junkyard 350(what it currently has) back in it so I could drive it soon. And gather parts for a rowdy cammed 6.0 down the line.

I've never tried to pull a body off at the junkyard before, I'm sure they would do it. But I've never had an issue with it on until now lol
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I've always had a soft spot for those 2 door Tahoes! It looks cool!
 
40LandCruising said:
Well I bought this '96 2 door Tahoe because I think they are awesome. And I bought it with the intent of LS swapping it. But once I got it, and discovered it had only been parked for a week, and was ready to roll minus an engine. I figured I'd just stuff a cheap junkyard 350(what it currently has) back in it so I could drive it soon. And gather parts for a rowdy cammed 6.0 down the line.

I've never tried to pull a body off at the junkyard before, I'm sure they would do it. But I've never had an issue with it on until now lol
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At least you're not like those criminals at LKQ in Charlotte who routinely cut frames to pull engines. They completely ruined a perfectly good 80 frame, just to get the engine out; and the front end was already gone at the time.
 
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