My Big Can of Worms Build

Alright, I've been holding back on the build stories until tonight so let's see if I can get this done before it's super late and I knock out lol.

The day I bought the truck started by getting a ride to the Greyhoud station in downtown LA at 4:30 am. For those who've never been to it, it's about two blocks kfrom skid row. Not the most fun place to be with a fat wad of cash pushed down in your sock. It was a five and a half hour ride to Fresno where I was meeting the previous owner who was driving down from Sacramento. The ride was uneventful, I actually got a good amount of sleep. Good for me because this was going to be a long day.

Sunrise:



As I mentioned before, the truck came to me with a blown passenger side rear axle seal and smelled powerfully of gear oil lol. The previous owner brought me a new seal.



I didn't want to drive 200 miles home with the diff low on oil since I didn't know how much had spilled out in the 200 miles it was driven that way to meet me. Luckily I found one place that was open on Sunday and installed the new seal for $190 At least I had talked the previous owner down $100. While the seal was being replaced I walked over to talk to the tech and he showed me this:



The camera had beer goggles on. The bearing was bad and the axle was wearing on the housing Looks like the seal blew because of that. Already ordered a new bearing kit, the brake shoes were slathered in oil too Well I'm still happy with the truck - something I've wanted to do for a long time is become capable in repairing every part of a vehicle and here's my chance to learn some more without *too* much stress since currently I have a dd.

Found a good priced high quality bearing kit here:

https://www.yotamasters.com/shop/axles/seals-gaskets-misc/rear-axle-bearing-kits-abs-style/

I think I'll try to take the axle out and bring it to a machine shop to press on the bearing.

After that good news I decided to drive from Fresno out to the coast and take the long way home along 101. It would go right through San Luis Obispo where I lived for 6 years and it would be nice to see the coastline up there again since it had been a few years since the last time I was up there. Fate would not have that.

My mom texted me and let me know her father (my grandfather) was sent to hospice care from his home. He had had prostate cancer for about 4 years and was finally fading. I was kind of out of it and ended up getting on the 5 south. It was nice for the couple hours before sunset in the valley and I had a peaceful time thinking about my grandfather who pretty much raised me while my dad was busy getting his career started until I was around 4 years old. The 5 (and a nice pic of the windshield crack I already knew about before buying the truck).



Here's my gramp - hunted and trapped to help his mom feed the two of them as a young man in the 30's and 40's in Bath, Maine after his dad died when he was 14. He worked for BIW (Bath Iron Works) as a draftsman. Then he joined the military and was stationed on Okinawa during the Korean War. After that he got a degree in Mechanical Engineering at Indiana State University (where my mom was born) and moved back to Maine.




After that the truck sat for awhile. I noticed a musty smell and a damp feeling in the interior. There's a hole cut out in the bottom of the cab in the back about 1" in diameter that I think may be the source of the moisture getting into the truck and giving it that special smell. Minor stuff - eventually I'd like to put in some replacement seats anyway.

I found a buyer for the bumper. A nice young man named Brandon. He brought a friend that ended up being one of the founders of LSK Suspension! That amazed the heck out of me lol.



Even though the weather said it would be clear it heavily misted / rained lightly almost the whole time we were taking the bumper off (about an hour and a half +/-). I liked the truck with no bumper better than the one it had on it lol. Still looking to buy a trail gear bumper from another member.

The next night it was time to spend the money from the bumper. Got some rubber. Good ol' Craigslist cash deal in Rialto. $920 out the door mounted (when I get rims).



The night before I bought 5 mismatched SCS Ray 10's for $860 shipped so I'll be looking for one more tar - the owner of the tire shop said he would try to order a 5th for a spare.

I did the math and with the new tires and wheels I'll be 12.5mm closer to the spindle than I am now. Depth perception isn't clear on this photo. It looks like worst case scenario the spindle will be about 5mm from the new tires. Possibly need some longer studs and a 1/4" lug centric spacer - no hub centric ones with the manual locking hubs thanks to @mechanicjon and his good information. I just found out that I can get wider lug centric adapters. This is the way I'll go since I don't need to deal with the manual hubs to press in longer wheel studs!



So when I got back from getting tires I had to move my truck for street sweeping the next morning. Not happening. No power whatsoever. I think I must have caused the battery to drain when uninstalling the winch and possibly when I was cutting some wires that ran to the LED's on it.

My cheap harbor freight cables wouldn't get the battery charged (or even make a spark when I touched the terminals together). No one around had any cables and my neighbor gave me the good idea of swapping batteries from the 08 so I did. The only problem was the leads were too short for my other battery to fit in the battery tie down. So I made my own. Maybe there's potential here for a group buy? PM me if interested lol.



Well I got both trucks out of the way for street sweeping. Looks like I'll have to find a place that can properly recharge an Optima yellow top which I heard is more difficult than your regular kind of car battery And the outcome of this operation:

It's time to get a truck tool kit together. This project took way too much time because I was looking for the right size sockets and wrenches. I'm going to write down the size of each bolt that I work on from now on (until I just memorize it) and have a tool kit that has each and every one of these that's easy to find that stays in the truck (for small stuff like this - I take all of my tools on road trips already).

More to come next week I'm sure!

 

Well there's an ever increasing list of things I have to address on this truck - luckily lack of money is forcing me to research how to fix all of them rather than pay to have someone to do it, so I'm learning a lot from various sources. Members on here have been great help especially @Blackdawg @Dirty Pool @DJB1 and a handful of other first gen expert owners. What I do know about is painting so to save some money I bought some mismatched blemishes from SCS. Here's the progress so far:




I brushed and rolled these with some red oxide primer since I had some for rust prevention for the undercarriage. I'll paint them in a couple weeks when the paint comes in. Looking forward to seeing how they come out. Didn't feel like spraying these like I did on my 08 wheels because I've done enough it in my past as a professional painter - I like the peacefulness of brushing and rolling so we'll see how that goes!

 

Started to work on the rust on the undercarriage. Started with the rear bumper. A wire wheel for my cordless drill and some scotchbrite pads made the job relatively easy.

 

Greased what I could get to. One of the UCA's had a zerk pointed the wrong way and I didn't have time to get a wrench to turn it the right way. While I was doing that I found the carrier bearing had a "little" play. Contemplating the solid carrier bearing swap, but no rush since the truck gets driven ~2 minutes a week for now while I'm working on it and I'll be getting rid of the 3" lift shackles out back so geometry for the driveline will change once I do that and guess it'll be better to wait to mess with it once that happens



And probably my favorite mod so far was to take off the bug guard. Weird, but it got me really positive about the possibilities of the truck. I also removed the old heat mat from the hood - liking the free mods

 

I will answer here instead of your PM.
That support bearing looks to be toast. Further, the flange looks loose. Might want to check into the condition of the flange, it's splines, the DS (splines) and the nut.

 

"Finished" painting wheels today. I can't decide how to paint the "bead lock" bolts - I'm thinking painting them black. I just don't want a lot of paint build up on them. I've got an idea for that, we'll see.

Next up is going to be getting the shell ready to sell by fixing some window handles that came unglued with some Loctite AA 349 UV glue. Next weekend it'll be ready to sell hopefully and then I'll have some money to fix some stuff on it!

Tips for anyone trying this method of painting:

1. Keep wheels cool and paint out of the sun.
2. Let wheels dry pretty well before 2nd coat.
3. Use a bucket like I did so you can spin the wheel and check for holidays (misses) and runs (drips).
4. Use a roller and grid setup like I did - no paint trays (useless junk that Home Depot likes to sell for easy $)

 

I'm excited to see those mounted on your truck. I'm soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sick of black wheels unless they're OEM steelies.

 

I'm ready to see them on too! Not a lot of extra work to paint them 2 colors with the "bead lock" style ring on it - gives it a good edge to run a roller on! Once I have the tires mounted I can put them on and sell my current wheels / tires and get some more money for mods! This cycle is going to happen until everything I don't want / need from the truck is turned into $$$ for things I want for it lol

 

Things are happening - slowly.

 

Wheels, and truck are looking good!

 

Little update today. Shoes are on. Did some housekeeping in the wheel wells with paint while I was installing them. A little step in the functionality dept., but a big step in the looks dept. Good for building morale. Also put on some 2" lug centric wheel spacers because I'll be running the rear shocks outside of the frame once higher priority mods (drivetrain & electrical) are addressed. Got the truck up to ~45 w/o any vibes - pretty good for new tires & no hub to rest my wheels on.




Took the frijole negro on a fieldtrip to the nearest gas station since it was on E. That's the furthest I've driven it since I bought it and drove it home 200 mi.

 

Did you end up paint the bead lock bolts? I'm planning on removing/ painting mine and wondering if you have any tips... only worry is scratching/removing the paint while screwing them back in

 

Not yet. My tentative plan is to paint them flat to keep the paint build up to a minimum, use tape on the inside of a ratchet to keep them from getting marked up while installing them, and spraying some clear over everything once they're all on so the clear coat isn't messed up. Plan b. would be clear coat before I put them back on and still use tape inside of the ratchet.

 

Pulled off the skids and found some fluid on the front diff. It smelled like gear oil. Kind of watery too and mixed in with a ton of sand.



Decided a degrease session was in order to find out where the leak was coming from.

Carpet was also getting wet in the rain so I decided to pull it to see where it's getting wet from when I washed it. Found a lot of aftermarket wiring that was just cut and left. Glad I did this - got me game planning for projects including a hunt for a parasitic draw. Just left the drivers seat.



Spent 3 hours degreasing, power washing the engine bay and undercarriage and vacuuming / windexing the interior. Finished up around 2:30am. Still a mess, but better. The diff:



Found a ton of sand inside. Not the normal amount - there were grommets missing from where the previous owner had done aftermarket wiring and sand was just dumping in under the carpet and rear seats. I don't think he ever cleaned it out. Said he liked to go to the Oceano Dunes. Got a little bit of my old home from all this Pismo sand lol.



Also found what I thought was dog poop, but after a few smell tests, realized was a piece of dog food thank goodness.



Finally can see my cam bolts that were buried in sand and grease and grime. The plan is to buy an open diff and swap it out for this one with the aussie locker and reseal it if needed and sell it. Lower ball joints getting replaced at the same time - hopefully next week. Looking better.

 

Found out the front diff leak was from the drain plug only being finger tight

Too late, I already bought another diff and I don't really want the Aussie locker in the front so I'm still going to swap the diff out.

Bought the replacement diff from Cal Mini Truck - the guys are mostly cool there. Here's a couple cool trucks there:



One small snag in this process was that they sold me a diff with a drain plug that was all but stripped:



I tried to get it out with the allen socket and penetrating oil, a chisel, and drilling, but that sucker was not coming out - took it to a local shop with a nut and they welded it on for $25. Hopefully I'll still come out on top when I sell my locked diff.

Since I was going through with the swap the first thing I had to do was remove the driveshaft. Man was that a pain in the neck lol - didn't help that I forgot I could keep it from spinning until I almost had the whole thing taken care of. Here's how I got the nuts off the flanges:




I took the front off first and zip tied it with a huge zip tie.



The bolts on the transfer case flange didn't want to come out for some reason so I had to tap the driveshaft off with a brass punch. Penetrating oil was used liberally.




When I got the driveshaft out I could get a closeup of how grimy it was:



Nas-T. Dang it was caked in sand and oil. Degreased it with my 99 cent store degreaser, acetone, a pick, rags, metal scrub pads and brushes, and tons of steaming hot water:



Took a couple hours to get it cleaned up, greased up, and ready to paint tomorrow or whenever I get a chance to do it:



Oh and my big mod of the day, $10 Chinese TRD shift knob because the metal one that was on there was too big to be comfortable when shifting



Since I work on my truck on the street any time I forget a tool it takes me awhile to go downstairs to my apartment in the basement and walk back to the truck. I treated myself and got a $15 tool carrying bag, loving it so far:



Well we'll see if I have enough time to replace the diff before summer - the next 7 weeks I'll be working on Saturdays so I'll have to do it in increments if it's possible to loosen everything up and make it happen - maybe I'll try taking out the cv's one day and then swap it out another day.

 

In

 

Went on a blitzkrieg road trip last Sunday. DTF Anthony upgraded his truck to a 10.5" Tundra rear end and was getting rid of all of his 2nd gen axles. He had an 8.4 with a blown third member for $150 complete with brakes so I headed up around 4:30am.

Stopping for gas in the wee hours:



Around Santa Barbara the sun came up, just in time for me to head into the fog on 154:



Stopped to take a photo of Cachuma Lake. It was nice and full compared to how it's been lately:



Got up to Santa Maria around 7:30 and slept for a couple hours at a truck stop then went over to the shop and saw what's going on, pretty awesome:



A couple first gens, one going links and supercharged, another going with Anthony's custom outboard spring setup in the rear:



Anthony gave me a good place to get reconditioned batteries for cheap in Socal:



And his truck looking beast:



Got my axle wrapped up and headed over to SLO to meet up with an old friend from when I lived there and worked at the Fremont Movie Theater:



Saw this guy on the way up there - what you can't see are his mud flaps with chrome Texas state emblems and airbrushed diff pumpkin:



Had a good time hanging out with my old friend and watched a funny movie - Iron Sky. Left later than I wanted, but it was worth it. Axle in the bed, headed back around midnight:



A successful trip!

 

Poseur Shot - started taking measurements to see if Giant's 64" SUA kit will fit with my axle - looks like it's going to be close, but doable:



The new axle has 54-55" of usable width if I keep the spacers on, which I am guessing will at least be able to be reduced to 1" if not more. Geoff from Giant emailed a pic of his spring hanger and it looks like the leaves extend out 4 3/4". When adding this to the 41" measurement of the frame from the outer sides, it comes up to 50.5" so I should be able to have at least 1.5" of wiggle room on each side.



I'll keep planning this out and I won't have enough to buy parts for the rear end for awhile, so I'll keep making measurements

 

Goals for the FN