Builds Work In Progress aka: Badass (12 Viewers)

[NeverGiveUpYota]

This layer of grim was nasty. At one time someone had replaced the power steering pump with a Volvo pump and res. So most likely that is what all that grim was from.
Oh and Dave, @roadstr6 (and @Breitz6989), there is that section of hose I added to your rebuild page today under the grim prior to replacement.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Pulling all this apart was seriously fun. Really it was. Only about 100 times did I think "shoot me, why am I doing this again?" All for the love!

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

My girl was getting a full facelift. And from the looks of the pixs it was about time.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Harmonic Balancer 46mm Nut Removal: And now comes the big guns... My neighbor was kind enough to let me borrow a big wonkin' wrench and socket to get the 46mm nut off the Harmonic Balancer. He primarily used to deal in big tractor trailers so most of his tools are standard size so as you can see the socket was not metric.
That is until I realized the nut was spot welded on. And it was done by the PO I just bought the truck from. He himself told me about how he went to Cruiser Parts in NH and bought an HB from them... They took it off a brown 60 on top of the hill... (my old 60 was brown and I sold it to them for parts in '13). So it could be that this HB he had put on this truck came from MY old truck. Serendipity.
In yellow is the spot of weld. And the marrs along the edge were not from me... Crowbar is my guess. Luckily they did not get in the way of the socket nor the actual 46mm socket I bought to reinstall the nut later. I cut through it with my dremel and a metal cut off wheel. That was a whole s*** ton of fun. My son watched from a distance while his mama made sparks. I used a section of 5 foot pipe over the wrench handle and after a few almost full body pulls from the left fender side the nut came free.
This lady was damn excited when I felt it suddenly let go. "Its loose?!!!! Holy s*** I did it!" My little 3 year old had the mind enough to tell me "Congrats Mama!"

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Well, time for bed. I'll leave the best for later. Pulling that HB... Thanks for reading.
Felicity

 

[Spike Strip]

Man, for a first timer, very impressive. Welded nut and all.

More congratulations from a big kid.

 

[hj 60]

nice job doing the most feared stuff first, maybe try to find why it was welded, thread ok? (or why it came loose previously, or is that just old damage from the prevoius balancer)
I would never have removed the weld if the balancer is fine and the seal behind it is not leaking, enough other stuff to do: maybe you can be a bit more lazy

Now the balancer is off replace the seal I think, while your there...

I think you have all manuals, below is a link to maintenance:
1986 Maintenance 26 pag.pdf

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

nice job doing the most feared stuff first, maybe try to find why it was welded, thread ok? (or why it came loose previously, or is that just old damage from the prevoius balancer)
I would never have removed the weld if the balancer is fine and the seal behind it is not leaking, enough other stuff to do: maybe you can be a bit more lazy

Now the balancer is off replace the seal I think, while your there...

I think you have all manuals, below is a link to maintenance:
1986 Maintenance 26 pag.pdf

You will see soon enough 'why' it was welded on in a short time.
If you look at the dates of my pictures you'll notice that all of this work was months ago...
Seal was done which I will share in time as well.
And thanks for the link although I do have all the copies saved on my desktop and print out what I need as I go.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Pulling the Harmonic Balancer: I rented a puller from Advance Auto for something to the tune of $127 indefinitely. I tried it a number of times but was confused because the bolts in the case didn't seem right. It took me a few weeks of staring at the puller on the hb to realize I simply did not have the right length bolts. The kit comes with 2" or 4" and come to figure out the truck requires 3" bolts with this puller. It was the one that is shaped like a birds foot, first pix attached. I had read MANY threads on pulling the hb so I was well read on the subject. I knew that this puller was not the recommended type. I did order the "better" one, second pix attached, in between finally getting my guts up with the correct bolts I picked up at my local Ace Hardware and just did it.
It has quite a lot of length to slide before it actually comes free. I went slow and easy.
What I found was not exactly what I had hoped to find.
No key. And the keyway a sheared mess.
The inner edges of the key shaft on the hb was pretty okay... the inner walls of the shaft had some bubbling.
I contacted two big gun folks here on mud and both basically told me to pull the cam shaft and rebuild or scrap the truck. Neither would be happening.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Back to mud and read everything I could find on buggered keyways. I found a handful of folks who had repaired them. One guy who was actively repairing his so I contacted him and got on the phone that day to chat. @JamesR, was really helpful in simply being another going through the same s***. He had a thread going, two actually, on repairing his keyway. And at some point someone in another thread put the kabosh on an old one with 5 links to folks who'd done them. I emailed each person and had I believe 4 respond. Yeah I got the message loud and clear that repairing it was not the smartest, wisest step but when you don't have the time, money, space, ect avail sometimes you do the next best thing.
I contacted a portable welder and he was all gung ho on coming out here or having me bring the truck to him to be repaired. Said "this is the type of work that gets my nut because no one else wants to do it." He had a metal fabricating shop and all he did was floorboards, ect. He'd been in biz 46 years. Seemed like a cool guy until we spoke and he made the comment of "it would be on my liability if the harmonic balancer fell off while you were on the highway and hurt someone." I knew in my gut that was bull****. Especially after I read on James' thread that 3 years prior he came across this nut in his yard. He did not know what it was from and didn't think much about it. Then one day he's driving his 60 and he starts to have issues and come to find out his hb was literally falling of the cam shaft. THREE YEARS it went without a nut. He has one of the dust/rock shields blocking view of his hb so he never knew that it was missing. I knew then that the welders comment was bull.

I had a new key in hand. It was not hard to find one via the dealership and cost me a whole whopping $9 and change, sales guy did say it was only one of 4 in the country. I'll add a pix of it here.

I also spoke to Mark up in Alaska who had repaired by brazing 5 keyways. I sought out someone to braze and came up short. I contacted a bunch of guys from my local club and one responded but by they time he had I had already started my own process. This was going one one month and I was getting pissed. Literally sick and tired of waiting for someone else to help me.

I took it in my own hands. And now is when many of you might think I am nuts or stupid, whichever, I don't give a s***. It works.

View attachment 1390422

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

The weekend before I clamped the key, I went for an over night up to NH for the Yankee Toys Fall Gathering. I am sure I received some chuckles pulling in with my little '97 Nissan Sentra but she like the truck is old skool mechanics and just keeps on ticking. I had done her plugs and valve cover gasket and was humored to see her old chain is pretty good shape. First time I opened her up to that extent. And if it weren't for mud somewhere I read the tip to tie the gasket in place with dental floss so the cover could be flipped over without the gasket falling out. It worked like a charm. I picked her up years ago from a coworker for $50. She had no heat which my coworker complained about constantly. I put a new tstat in her and she was hot again. I love that little car but it will rust out before the mechanics fail that's for sure.

I hiked the trails with my dogs, took in the fall colors and watched a few folks including Tom @Krazyfj crawl their way over the rocks of NH; the rocks there were no childs play that's for sure.

It was up in NH that I was told by someone that when I did put the hb back on it would take a BFH to do it. I was skeptical to say the least. That person told me to screw the key and just put the hb back on lining up the keyway with the slot on the hb, put the nut back on, don't bother torquing it and have someone spot weld it again.

I met Galen, @Juggernaught up in NH and his GORGEOUS blue 60. He has been a wealth of info to lean on since meeting.

None of what I heard sounded like a plan I wanted to take.
The key is meant to be in that slot for a reason and I was going to put it in its place.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

I bought a tube of Loctite 660 which I found noted by JimC in a thread from '06 I think, it is a quick metal and is used literally for keys in keyways. It works by pressure and is called Press Fit. The tube I bought was around $35 for 2oz from Jegs. I cleaned the keyway, scuffed it the best I could with a fine sand paper, squeezed a thin line of the paste in the keyway and clamped the key in place and let her stay that way for two days. The temps were warm, 60's, which was best for it to cure.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

My gut tells me that this truck had some sort of accident from underneath. The oil pan has a good dent in its underside closest to the rear of the timing cover. And someone took the time to weld it because its a mess of bubbly bumpy metal, pix attached. And as I said the PO had this hb put on so he knew what was going on and chose to not let me know the condition of the keyway or the lack of key. I believe in karma.
So what I can imagine is that somehow the truck took a hard hit from underneath and whatever hit the pan also hit the lower edge of the original hb and caused the key that was probably in there to shear the keyway. Especially when you look at the direction the shear occurred... thrust side and out toward the nose edge.
I have a new in hand used oil pan and new cork gasket (two actually). Funny thing is its a pan I bought for my old truck whose rock shield was rusted through and leaked. I had picked it up from CruiserParts in NH but when I sold the truck, I sold all the extra stuff I had kicking around to a club member. Lucky me he still had it and I bought it back from him a few months back. It will get swapped this spring.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

So for the sheared area of the keyway... I was talking to a friend Will, @chill will, about JB epoxy... he said a few words about it setting up like putty. That stuck. I spoke with a gf who's husband is a boat guy, rebuilds, builds and repairs them. He has used jb epoxy in various applications and mixed sawdust ect into it. She said, they use it by the "gallons." She did say to me "it dries like glass, literally, are you sure you want to do that?" Her words stuck as well but the crafty side of me was set. So I picked some up. I wasn't going to mix anything into it.

But before this I had to get the keyway into position. I used my starter to crank the cam shaft over. This was a funny nerve wracking moment for me. I had the truck in 4th and wheels chocked. I hooked up the battery tray and the battery and gave it a go. It only took a few on offs to get her sunny side up. Happy dance.
And there it is in all her glory.
I mixed up a small teaspoon if that amount of JB. I let it sit and covered and kept going back to it until it was the consistency of thick honey. That took a few hours. To my luck I worked in a dental lab years ago. I worked with porcelain mixed to a consistency to build up into the shape of teeth so I understood what I wanted to do really well. I used the end of the plastic spoon handle and literally attempted to vibrate the honey like epoxy into the gap so every crevice of the gap was sure to get filled. I only filled to just under the lip of the gap because I knew it would level out and less would be better for filing out later. I covered the whole area with press and seal and walked away with high hopes.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

After filling the keyway and before reinstalling the hb I took some time to clean up the outer shaft of the crank nose and the inner walls of the hb shaft.
I had watched multiple videos on cleaning up the shoulders with super fine sand paper, wd40 and a shoelace so that is basically how I attempted to smooth down the bubbling along the crank nose (sorry no pixs, hands were too busy). For the inner walls of the hb I used my dremel and a few soft stones on the ridges that the bubbles had created when the PO had a garage clearly wack the hb back on as noted in the first pix.

Around this time it was with great pleasure to add Joey's @NLXTACY, Wits' End sticker to my truck... ignore the fact its a tad cockeyed. It is a perfect addition.

Also I will note that thanks to mud I had tips I used for the timing cover bolts... proof in second pix. I did shear one bolt which had a nut on the back of it that I wasn't aware of so was able to pick up an aftermarket bolt and nut that was right in size and length.

I pulled my front crank seal and replaced it with new to my cleaned up and freshly painted timing cover. I did not have a seal puller but made do with what I had. (Its been added to my list to buy.)

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

And the next day the keyway looked perfect in my eyes. I had almost nothing to file down. Just as my gf had said, it was like glass.
I did, just because, take my old metal file to it but really nothing proved off by the level of the file or what I could see by eye.

I know for a fact that this is hugely ballsy. No one needs to tell me the risk I took here. I already am well aware this is NOT what most mud big wigs would tell anyone to try.

Oh and while I was at all this Ryan, @CaptClose gave me a bit of a heart attack when he asked me if my gears were lined up right. "the bearing marks, are they correct?" Something or other like that and I pulled the cover back off and counted the teeth on each to where they would match up and the count was the same (last pix circled in red, number of teeth before they would meet is 10). I pretty much wanted to throat kick him through the phone.

A new cork gasket and the cover was back in place (third pix).

HB in place and key visible in the keyway. And no. I did not clean up the weld... It wasn't in a place that was going to bind up the nut so I left it alone. Yeah, yeah, call me lazy, its not the worst move I have made yet.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Fan Shroud Mod: During the weeks I hemmed and hawed over what to do, I did do the fan shroud mod, I cut and painted each. Pumpkin UFO was the beer of choice that night as it was almost Halloween. Again my moms old 27,000rpm dremel was my favorite tool. My neighbor recently offered me his 4" grinder with a stone to cut down my alt bracket and the strength it had the two times I turned it on and held it in place were just too much for me. I know my limitations and that dremel is seriously a great little tool as long as I have the right bits avail.

I chose to go with two toned so I can see each half better at a quick glance. Plus it just looks really cool.

 

[OGBeno]

I had a new key in hand. It was not hard to find one via the dealership and cost me a whole whopping $9 and change, sales guy did say it was only one of 4 in the country. I'll add a pix of it here.

Sales guy lied. There are 7 just at my depot alone.

Classic.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Radiator: So as you can see above the truck got put back together... New radiator (CSF 2708 All Metal from Amazon $293.81 8/30/16) with the smaller cap I ordered from Toyota (16401-54750 $17.98 9/01/16) tho I did talk to @beno about it but did not want to wait for it to be shipped. And yes, the day I ordered the key I had talked to Onur @beno on the phone and he did have one as well as he states above ... again, I chose to go with the dealer for the fact I knew they'd be quicker.

Harmonic Balancer Reinstall: So to get the hb back on I was not about to use a BFH to do it. I used my stock bottle jack and a piece of wood. Worked perfectly.
New WP and FC and cleaned up the fan I had tho I had gotten a stock fan awhile back I chose to stick with the Aisin one with the additional fins for increased air flow.

And prior to the reinstall I d/c'd my entire AC. Unhooked the Freon lines and when they started to hiss I walked away. It only took about two minutes and all hissing ceased. Compressor is pulled as are the lines and the condenser. @Cruiser Jimmy is taking some of it... but the rest is up for grabs... @thewadejack mentioned it on "what did you do with your 60 this weekend" recently and I offered the compressor... he has dibs if he needs it. @mattressking is seeking a bolt. LMK guys, if you want those parts. I can get better pixs then the one above which is fuzzy as heck.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

I reinstalled the hb nut, chose to add blue thread sealer as a precaution and torqued to spec.
My girl looks a whole lot different today.

Water Pump: Aisin WPT-028@W22 from Rockauto, sorry no price on my reciept, bought 8/30/16). I bought the water pump wrench too but forgot I even had it and made do with two wrenches to get the nuts off the inner surface of the FC to the water pump which are almost impossible to reach. Hold one wrench stiff and twist with the other. Takes some thinking but it was easy enough. Getting the nuts back in place is the witch job... thankfully I have small hands... smaller than most of you guys at least.

Fan Clutch: Aisin A8 FCT017 from Rockauto, no price either, bought same time 8/30/16)

And oh my fing god were those new hoses a bitch to install. Lots of dawn soap and lots of swearing and I got them done but they were seriously the worst part of the reinstall.I simply brought all my old hoses to napa and we matched what they had in stock and I cut them to length with my heavy wire snips.

Then Halloween came and in total dork fashion, I dressed as a Toyota mechanic for work.