Truckstarr

Hey Yota fans. I've been enjoying this forum for a while so I decided to put up my own build. Starting with a 1986 short bed with a 22r. Bought it for $800 three years ago. Previous owner had kissed a telephone pole at the A-post on the driver side, had a major radiator leak, brakes were shot, all stock, terrible little tires, 240k miles. On the plus side, the rust is not too bad! As you can see in the first pic, a stock truck + a poor line = hung up.

I spent the first summer rebuilding the carb, mitigating the radiator leak, plenty of cleaning, new plugs, new wires, brake rebuild with new master cylinder, new starter, new alternator, new battery, breaking and replacing the idler arm, greasing everything, a couple oil changes, and a bit of trail damage.

Being relatively new to wheeling, I got much of the parts from the awesomest junk yard guy around (Yota man Jim) and anything new from NAPA. In retrospect I should have been upgrading parts rather than just swapping parts, but alas.

Truckstarr

Next up was a bambi basher on the front. Got it cheap from the junk yard and a buddy helped me custom weld the thing on. I painted the wheels black too.

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

Nice work so far, man!

Just a tip.... should post your pics using www.photobucket.com . Just load em on there, then put your cursor over the pic and click on the bottom link(IMG) and then right click here in the posting box here.... click paste, and VOILA, full size pics of the project! Plus, you can store unlimited pics on there(or darn near, anyway, lol... i have THOUSANDS on there).

Best wishes with the rest of the build and Welcome to Yotatech, Truckstarr!

Truckstarr

In year 2 I needed a suspension and tire upgrade badly. Enter OLD Man Emu. I got the full package lift kit with HD torsion bars and HD leaf springs. Nitro charger shocks and steering stabilizer. Also ordered BFG KM2 mudders 33x10.5. Huge improvement. I love those km2s.

rear end went from way sagging to being way up in the air. Took a while to settle out, but I've got the torsion bars cranked and even after settling, the back is still a bit high. fine with me. Soon after I got a 4 crawler 2" body lift kit.

A water pump and front oil seal repair and a coolant hose leak later and she's running like a champ.

Truckstarr

oh thanks chef! I've been trying to figure out a better way to do that!

Truckstarr

rolled 250k in october!

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

WOWOWOWOW..... you trying to make me dizzy with that link? hahaha. Can't see it.. what is it? lol.

PS> No problem.... Trust me, Photobucket is the way to go here/and elsewhere.

Truckstarr

yeah just figuring it out!

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

Easiest way is to just 'make a new album', each time you enter a section that's different(seat swap, new tires, bumper thread), etc., just so it's easier to find once you get hundreds of pics in there, ya know? Once you have an account, just click the album you want to upload to and click the "Upload to 'THIS' album", then select multiple pics by dragging cursor over or holding down the 'ctrl' tab on the keyboard while clicking on multiple pics, individually..... then click 'open' in that window and poof, there they go. Then just do the rest as I said, before, and you'll be in biz.

Truckstarr

A pair of Hella 550s look pretty sweet on the basher!

Truckstarr

more to come soon!

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

Yeahhhhh, boooooeyyyy! lol.... Isn't that better?

Great pics, .... looks like you're having fun out there, man!

Truckstarr

So after the first time out on the new suspension, this kept happening:



Turns out, you need these to replace the stock shackle plate:



The folks i got the suspension from somehow left out this important piece. It prevents the high flex leaf springs from inverting during a low droop. A couple hits with the rattle can and they looked nice and black under the truck! $15.00 later and the problem is solved.

Truckstarr

here's a shot of the 4Crawler 2" body lift blocks. Roger Brown makes awesome stuff. His kits are complete and well thought out. I paid a bit extra to get the red color, but i think it's worth it.


A few things to note about the lift: It will make the transfer case shifter cover not sit right on the stick. not a big deal, but it doesn't seal. Also it makes it hard to shift into Reverse, but not impossible. I also got a 2" extension for the transmission shifter which Roger makes specially. I didn't know if i would need it, but it makes it's a little more comfortable.

The kit also comes with 2" brackets for the stock front bumper and 2" drop brackets for the radiator. Much needed! I didn't install the bed spacers since I'm not usually hauling heavy loads, but I may in the future.

Truckstarr

One problem with the suspension lift I did not anticipate.....



The proportioning valve arm broke off at the axle mount so I just removed the whole thing, boot and all. So far I haven't noticed much difference in braking, though I am extra careful with any significant loads in the bed.

Also my E-brake stopped being as effective as it once was. It barely holds. Must have changed the angle or something. Anyone have any advice?

Truckstarr

A few fun things got done too!

Custom cut speaker holes in the doors!


I got the cheapest 6x9s I could find and cut the holes with a sawzall! Much improved over the little 3" speakers in the dash. Still have the old tape deck installed! That takes me back....

Extended the rear diff breather...



The threads of the stock breather are some weird metric threads, but a standard 1/8" threaded barb will work. I teflon taped the threads and it basically cut itself into the hole. Didn't really love it, but it worked. I ran it up to the passenger side corner behind the tail light.



You can't see it in the picture, but i used a paper filter folded over the end with a hose clamp to keep it in place and prevent any debris from getting sucked into it. I had also read about ensuring no sagging parts of the hose to prevent oil from creating a P-trap.

Unfortunately I underestimated the length of hose I needed and don't have enough to do the front diff. Back to the hardware store!

Truckstarr

So one day I read about converting the stock AC compressor into an On Board Air system. I spend a few months thinking about it and designing the whole thing. Much of the delay was finding the right tank. I didn't want one of the bulky 5 gallon kinds you can get at an auto parts store, and I was not interested in throwing down a ton of money on the tanks designed for this.

I was poking around the warehouse at work and saw one of those portable electric air compressors by Rigid with the double barrel tank. It looked like a perfect size, low profile and about 4 gallons. So I hit craigslist looking for a cheap used version. I found a guy selling a Dewalt compressor with the electric motor blown for dirt cheap. I think I spent $30. It had the pressure switch, a few gauges, a pop off safety valve, some quick connect fittings, and most importantly, the perfect sized tank. I stripped the parts and tossed the compressor. I had to grind off a bunch of the frame that was connected to the tank, and had a buddy weld up a cross member to the tank and the frame.





Worked Perfectly. I mounted it just behind where the spare tire used to be, above the axle. There's virtually no chance that anything will contact the tank. I say virtually because you just never know when yer wheelin'!

Truckstarr

Now for the business end. My compressor had already be evacuated of freon by the previous owner so I didn't need to worry about killing the Ozone. I pulled the compressor, cleaned it up and found I needed a new tensioner pulley. I tried to find new hoses that would work with the fitting on the compressor but that was impossible. So I just cut off the connections at the condenser end and found some barb fittings that were close.

I got an in line filter and oiler designed for air tools and an oil separator for the other side of the compressor. With a manifold and some rigging, I got everything hooked up to the pressure switch salvaged from the old Dewalt.





The filter tucks up nicely next to the washer fluid reservoir. The oiler works great and barely uses any oil.

The pressure switch needed a feedback hose to the tank and it came with a 6" long one on the Dewalt, so I had to go get a 15' long version to get all the way back to the tank. Then I piped one port on the 4 port manifold to a gauge for on the dash board, one to the tank, one as an input and one to the pressure switch.



I added an extra switch inside the cab next to the gauge so I can turn it on and off there and/or at the pressure switch itself. I tried to use the existing AC switch thinking that it would be convenient, but i found the switch to either not work or be very finicky. I also figured there may be some problems with the low pressure switch at the evaporator so before I decided on a new switch altogether I ripped open the air box under the dash and ripped out all of the parts to see if I could bypass the safeties. No luck, but I found the duct and coil to be full of crap and seriously restricting airflow. So i removed the coil altogether, cleaned the heck out of the duct and put it all back together. Way better airflow for heat!

Truckstarr

I piped 2 outputs of the tank to a quick connect under each wheel well.



I need a better way of securing them and protecting them from mud. The first day out, one connection got all filthy and wouldn't seat right.

Except for that, the first run was amazing. The tank itself fills up in about 4 minutes at idle. A bit faster with a higher RPM. I had aired down about 12 psi for the trail and it took about 3 minutes to air back up each tire. I raced my buddy with an electric compressor and destroyed his fill time!

Lessons: For some reason, when the pressure switch gets to 120 psi, it releases all line pressure until it hits 80 psi and reengages. cycle repeats. The pressure at the tank stays steady. Not a huge deal, but it switches the compressor clutch on and off every 30 seconds or so causing more wear than i might like. Along the same lines, I noticed the gauge in the dash is measuring line level and will show the pressure drop, as well as pressure increase when the engine is revved, while the gauges on the tank stay steady. Again no biggie.

Also, when filling up the tires, idle speed isn't quite enough to keep the tank psi over 80, so the filling rapidly slows down. I am trying to devise a way to keep the engine at a higher idle during fill up. Any ideas?

All in all, this thing kicks booty. It is fast and easy, and can fill everyone's tires as long as Truckstarr has gasoline! I got a 30' coil hose with a quick connect and a cool filler gun with a gauge and bleeder built in. The whole thing cost about $200.

Truckstarr

I was in the hardware store for something and wandered down an isle that had this thin, corrugated rubber sheeting on a roll. I bought a few feet of it with the idea to extend my front wheel well/ engine compartment flaps. After the body lift, the stock ones were too short.



I pulled the stock flaps off, traced the top line near the top of the new material, measured 2" down, moved the stock flap to this new mark and traced the bottom. Worked pretty well. The stuff was cheap and seems more durable than the original.

I got some black socket head screws with washers and those nuts with the teeth built into them. Looked pretty good until they started rusting. I thought they would be tuffer than that!