Fully polished TuRD

Yea def not cheap, but you for sure get what you pay for. I need to add some plateing to the top and ends and im done with that mount, i went for as overbuilt as possible.

 

Overbuilt makes sense with that monster Ford box you'll have in there.

The good thing about rcvs is that you only buy them once!

 

Project set back time. So i was finishing up my welding tonight and was going to mount the steering box and swing the axle under the truck. Well my "nutsert" bolt wont go in straight, must have tweaked during welding, and im now thinking of ditching the whole crappy concept. The only option i can think of is drilling a hole through the frame and sleeving it, however the motor mounts on the other side. So 1) its going to be a PITA to cut through that bottom corner 2) im worried that replaceing the bottom corner of the motor mount with a DOM tube that doubles as the steering box bolt sleeve may weaken everything. Concerns are all kinds of weird forces being placed on the motor mount between the steering box and the torque from the duals. Thoughts?

The problem corner is the bottom left. That's looking up from directly below the frame rail.

 

Tweak the direction of the threaded hole with a tap....the bolt will go in then.
Get the tap 100% in then push the tap sideways as you turn it and the tapped hole will change direction a couple of degrees easily.

 

Ill try that ZUK. My other thought is cutting the motor mount off and replaceing it with one made out of tube and tweaked forward a bit. However i dont really want to do that right now for obvious reasons lol.

 

Also, is it possible to use a large rat-tail file on the 3 Ford holes and skew them to allow it to thread in?

 

Its that nutsert hole thats the problem, the bolts going in tweaked and very hard to turn by itself. The other 2 holes are fine and are reamed out with a 1/2" drill bit after evreything cooled down. Im going to try the tap method tonight, something moved around when welding around that plate. I had a bolt coated in anti seize in there the whole time while welding, and didnt spin it until it was fully cooled so i dont know what happened.

 

Got the axle swung back under the truck finally, tons of clearence between the steering and the oil pan now. Waiting on my tap to come so i can mount the box and build my steering shaft. I raided my friends toyota junkyard he has in his attic and found a bunch of steering u joints and couplers from older trucks that should work. Other than that just cleaned up my hubs, installed my arp hub studs and repacked and installed the new hub bearings. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, hopefully ill be ready to measure for and order shocks early next week and have it on the road after the 4th.... fingers crossed!

 

Slander,
I'll send you all of the OEM Toyota steering u-joints I have left over. They are in working order. PM me your address and they are yours.

 

Thanks man, but not needed i have 6 different combinations of older toyota u joints and various styles steering yokes.

 

@ZUK The tap method worked, the steering box is now mocked up, thanks again for the tip!!

Got the radiator in, measured for fan belts and jacked around with steering shafts and u joints all evening. I pussed out and decided to throw money at the steering shaft problem, and since im on a severe time crunch and don't feel comfortable welding steering shafts together, i ordered a bunch of borgensen parts. I also learned that i HATE steering shaft u joints the hell with those LOL!!

 

Glad it worked for you slander.
I used an oem rag joint off of a 89 Runner I think and even the oem Tacoma plastic shield shown in this post and, I got lucky, it all worked for me
http://www.yotatech.com/f152/sas-fj...y-2001-tacoma-283930/index3.html#post52243976

The radiator?....using your oem or did you go bonkers and get the wimpy little 22RE 2WD rad shown here that I am using now with great success......
http://www.yotatech.com/f152/sas-fj...y-2001-tacoma-283930/index2.html#post52234256

 

I went with the 4 banger 2wd one. It sits even with the bottom of the frame rail but i may weld in some square tube on the front and backside of it as a skid.

I'm now back in the waiting for parts holding pattern. Waiting on RCV's, belts, and the steering parts. I did test fit the power steering hoses and my pre made hose wont work, im going to have to get some field serviceable hydro line and make my own. I had 2 90* bends off set 180* from each other and they wont work. The routing of this hose sucks, there's no real good way to do it.

 

Zuk,
What did you do to modify the OEM firewall plate?... sorry Slander, I needed to ask.

 

Yes I did. I just had to take my best guess at where to open up the hole for the steering shaft and got lucky on the first pass. Leaving the pass-thru open results in a lot of noise from the engine area.....putting in the firewall plate eliminated all the noise.

 

No problem, ask away because i need to know since my FROR one may not work.

My RCVs showed up today, waiting on belts tomorrow, and steering parts the rest of the week into next. Now i just need to finish up the "hell diff" as we have started calling my front diff that has fought us tooth and nail during the setup. Plan on wrapping that up on friday after work at a friends house, then i can get this front axle built and i can see how out of whack it is from welding and flipping the balls LOL.

After the steerings done ill be ready to pull it out of the garage, measure for shocks and spin the truck around to work on fitting 15" wheels on the 80 rear.

 

Thanks... mine somehow came up missing.
I'll have to get one ordered from the stealership.

 

So I was burned by breaking the cardinal rule of building a truck. I received my Amazon orders and told my wife "if these parts fit, i could maybe drive this thing driving over the weekend....." within earshot of the truck. Well out of the 5 parts i ordered (2 belts, 2 steering u joints and a steering shaft) only 1 steering u joint worked, i had to re order everything else. I decided to go with borgenson steering parts since i don't want to hack fuck my steering shaft together with a bunch of old ass welded up parts, ill be a cheap ass in other areas of the truck, not with steering stuff. Well the part numbers i got for the column side was wrong so a new one should be here tomorrow. The alternator belt measures out to 42" according to a string test HOWEVER a 42" belt is way the hell too long. So i ordered a 39 and a 40 and both didnt fit, way too small, so now i have a 40.5 and a 41 coming, frustrating.

The rear diff is back in along with the axle shafts back shoved in the hubs, all it needs is some gear lube and its ready to rock. Provided all the parts work i can have this thing rolling middle of next week.

Finishing up the front 3rd setup tomorrow after work so i can start building the front axle, which will be the moment of truth to see if everything stayed straight during the flip. I don't want to have to resurrect my friends "triangle of death" home built axle straightening rig.

 

@ZUK whats the recomended diff gear break in procedure?

 

front diff.....manual hubs....none.

rear go easy for the 1st 30 minutes....driving around town with start/stop traffic is ideal. No highway for a couple hundred miles. synthetic is best for break-in.

https://www.marlincrawler.com/tech/differential-break-and-care-information

http://performanceunlimited.com/documents/gearbreakin.html