POS Taco

Then I pulled apart my rear driveshaft to change out the rear centre/steady bearing assembly I ruined last fall, by punching a log into it and the gas tank. Got it all apart, and removed, then went to assemble the new one. And I broke my bench vise. And my trail vise broke a couple days ago. So I sat down, had a beer, cusses the damn thing, and went to bed.

 

Well, Friday evening I had the exhaust hung and welded in, the rear driveshaft loosely bolted in, and the gas tank, uh, not hung. Turns out that either the dc gas tank and crossmember are either in a different location than an Xtracab, or have a different shape. I used the Xtracab crossmember, in the Xtracab location, with the dc tank. And my strap was an inch shy. This was at 10 at night, after drywalling and taping/mudding a bedroom at home. I debated selling it all. I debated burning my garage down. I debated cutting it all into pieces and melting it down. Then I had a beer, and went to bed. Saturday, I dropped the gas tank again, cut the strap, cut a chunk from the spare strap, drilled 8 4mm holes, and welded the two together. There. Gas tank is hung.

I’m currently waiting on purolator to get my timing kit here. 3 weeks overdue, and I finally got some answers. But nothing concrete. So, I’m going to throw the motor in, and have it ready to do, when it all shows up. Frick. But, I’m making progress.

 

Purolator finally showed up with my stuff. So, timing belt, water pump, etc, all done and new. This week, I’ll get the ADD front end pulled apart, and replace it with non ADD stub shaft, and related parts, and install the front diff, get the valve cover gaskets done, and get ready to push the frame under the cab!

 

What a month. Flood in a basement room led to a full repaint and mild reno of the house. Finally back to the garage last night. CV’s are done, and I’m getting the loose ends wrapped up, going to attempt to get the cab and frame married this weekend.

 

Did you just do a re-boot on them?

 

I did. Cleaned them out, checked them, to see how they look, new Toyota grease, and back in service for another 250k miles

 

Front end is back together

 

And I am almost ready to start lifting the cab!! Should be married up this weekend! Getting pretty stoked

 

And I got piece one of the supercharger in place! Had to thread chase both holes, but the threads are good, and the tensioner is firmly bolted in!

 

Got started with lifting the cab on Friday.

 

Took Saturday off, to do a mountain road trip with the wifey. Needed a break from real life, so we toured past Banff, and lake Louise, and thru the mountains back home.

 

Bow lake, near Lake Louise.

 

Sunday morning start

 

Note the switch from 12 ton jackstands to 2.5 ton pipestands. Way more stable.

 

Old frame rolled out.

 

And while I had the body on hover mode, I swapped body mounts from the old frame to the old new frame.

 

I used a chunk of 4x4x3/8” angle, and a length of 2x4x3/8” hss With 4 grooved hockey pucks to support and lift the cab.

 

I had the krawlers on the front, to give a bit of an angle to aid in sliding the back end of the frame under the cab. Tried to keep it as low as possible, but be as high as necessary.

 

We swapped out the krawlers for the minis to roll the frame the rest of the way under.

 

And the new (old) frame was under!