'99 Flatbed Hunting Rig Build

This freak accident with a metal pipe in a scrapyard happened back in February (not my fault), and I was worried the scrapyard's insurance company was going to total my truck due to its age and mileage, but they didn't; Ended up costing almost $3,000 when all was said and done!

 

Thanks. I’m glad to see there are still some active forums out there.

 

I dug into the front today. Decided I would start by pulling the upper and lower ball joints, assess the cv axels and upper control arm bushings, and if all went well install the new front suspension coils before moving on to the rack and pinion removal.
Of course none of that happened!

I was able to remove the LBJ and UBJ on the driver side; I just removed the entire knuckle all at once. The cv axel came lose within the boot closest to the differential and belched grease on the floor, so I decided I’ll go ahead and have them remanufactured. still all well until I went to remove the coil retaining nuts to get the old coils out. I found some devil had stripped the rear nut closest to the wheel well. couldn’t get a bolt extractor on it so the driver side progress came to a standstill.



I moved on to the passenger side and ran into yet more issues. UBJ came off fine, as did all three coil retaining nuts, but the LBJ is seized. I put so much force on my pitman arm puller that the bolt head for the LBJ deformed and slipped the puller. transitioned to a wedge ball joint puller and a BFH and still couldn’t get it even two handed swinging the BFH. This was the side of the accident so my best guess is that has something to do with it. I couldn’t get the LBJ bolts out either, somI may have to pull the entire lower control arm to deal with that on the bench.

Not quite sure how to attack the drivers side coil retaining nut. my best idea was to see if I can drill into it from the sidd, but once I go that route there’s no turning back. Always something!

 

a little more progress. Both cv’s out. Can anyone confirm if this is oem? The part number is correct, but the front shocks weren’t oem so I just wonder if these are the original cv’s before I take them to be remanufactured.

 

This one? First, penetrating fluid (Krooil or PB soak). Or, drip candle wax on it. That also works. Vice grips next.

Then, I'd try heat and vice grips, or hammer and chisel, or a nut-splitter. Probably in that order. I have used sawzall on similar problems. Your new ones will have new studs anyway. You can either try to get under it and saw the whole thing off, or saw one side off in a spot where the chisel can bite, then knock the remaining 3/4 of the nut off.

You can also buy sockets for rounded nuts. I have a set and have had some luck, but you may not have enough space above the drive it on the nut.

 

Thanks, that’s just what I needed—I hadn’t thought of a nut splitter. It’s in too tight of a spot for a bolt extractor, and the backdrop is no good for the torch. hopefully a little splitter can handle it. Thanks!

 

For the lbj your gonna beed one of these.
I've killed a couple of the other pullers.
The back nut .I'd take a Sawzall to it.
What part of az are you in?

 

Green stickers are usually oem.

 

Those CV axles look OEM. The rebuild kit is available form Toyota. It's easy work, just messy. You need a brass drift and snap ring pliers.

On the nuts- try the

$29 Irwin 394002 Irwin Tools IRWIN Bolt Extractor Set, 5-Piece (394002)

Irwin 394002 set. I've never found a bolt it couldn't get out. You can even use an impact with it.

 

Thanks folks, ended up getting it off yesterday evening. The nut splitter couldn’t deal with the flange on the bolt, but it loosened its grip enough for me to crack it off with the vice grips.

I sent the cv’s out to be remanufactured with phoenix rack & axel since they’re across town from me.
Decided I’ll go ahead and do upper and lower control arm bushings while everything’s out so everything will be fresh up front. She’s coming apart boys.

 

Got the CV's back from Phoenix Rack and Axel. Not an all together good experience. Sent me driving across town twice, didn't have them ready when they said they would, then didn't bother to call me back to let me know when they were ready the second time.
I also realized that they threw away the dust shields for both CV's, and didn't provide replacements. So now I am on a hunt to figure out how the hell to find replacements. Asked the shop about it and they said "they don't do anything, so we throw them away"........thanks

 

That is shitty.

 

That sucks. The dust shields are an ORM part, your dealer can get them.

 

Yeah tell me about it. Well, I found that place based on searched on here, so for anyone else searching in the future, that place sucks.

 

That sucks . They treated me well when I got my steering rack from them.

 

A little update on things done:
Oem rack installed
coolant system flush x4 (had rust in the system)
koyorad radiator installed
oem thermostat
new upper control arms
whiteline lower control arm bushings
lca cams were in great shape so just cleaned them
diff drop
oem cv axels refurbed and installed
front coils installed


of course she threw some codes while flushing the radiator
p300, p306, p302
I decided to clean the MAF sensor and replace sparks and wires, and to replace the fuel injectors with refurbished oem from motorwest performance.
haven’t got to the wires and injectors yet, but while getting the maf out I found that the air box had a big crack in it so dirty air was getting sucked in beyond the air filter. cleaned and epoxy’d the box, and tested it only to find that the codes went away, so now the injectors and plug replacement may be academic.

Lastly, got the bed off, you can see the stance differences between tired oem and the old man emu set upfront. The frame is immaculate, thank you Arizona.

 

and now on to the next rabbit hole

 

I have a set of motoroworks refurbed oem injectors going in today. Also swapping in oem plugs and wires. I’m hoping the misfires are due to bad plug gapping (they were ngk’s, nice plugs) or bad injectors. #3 did not have any firm grip to the seal, and #6 had a small tear in its seal. #2 spark plug looked the best, but was one of the cylinders misfiring. I have
mismatched coil packs too, but I’m going to put it together with the current packs and see if it straightens things out. if not I’ll get an oem set of those.

 

little update; the motorworks injector replacement seems to have done the trick. The truck runs much stronger now; and so far no codes. She hasn't been driven though, just idled. The flatbed is now coming together; just did a test fit on the frame and everything lined up well, so I'll pull it off and keep working on it. Biggest problem I've run into is my gas filler nozzle placement idea seems like it will likely not work. I had intended to install it like you see in the picture, and flip the oem filler nozzle 180 degrees, but once I test fit, I dont think the angle will work with the oem nozzle at all. I'll have to figure out some sort of aftermarket filler nozzle. Hopefully that's not another rabbit hole.

 

factory placement is pretty much in that triangle above/ahead of the fender well, unless you have something else going in there?

then again it's only a rubber tube so you could easily make something, just have to make sure everything flows "downhill" to keep from back-flowing to the evap tube