Be warned this is a long ass intro to my build thread. So heres the story on my '72 2nd gen, I bought this truck about a year and a half ago. Looked ok in the craigslist ad, dude said he was a mechanic and was trying to get it going for his grandson but he didnt have the $$ or time so it just sat there not running. I went and picked it up for about $800(after paying for a trailer and giving my buddy gas money). Body looked kind straight, some surface rust, the usual rust on the bottom of the fender, and some dings and dents, nothing crazy horrible. Someone had already swapped a 20R in it which was a small selling point for me, matching set of mag wheels. Only thing really missing was a back window. The following day i went and looked under the hood to see what could possibly be the reason for it not running, come to find out practically all the wiring was crap, shorts, broken wires, melted together wires. So lucky me this was going to be a fun project. Did i mention the guy didnt give me the key? Yea fun... At the owners property Halfway home Next day at my house 3 of 4 tires didnt hold air so i threw on some mismatched steelies i had laying around. Stay tuned...
So i proceeded to gut it. And bought a universal wire harness. More fun there. Alot of reasearching, googling, trial and error, head scratching, cursing. Took me months to get the wiring done since i would work in it after work for a few hours here and there. Didnt want to rush it. Ive put in new wiring, balljoints, lowered it via cut springs, blocks and a pulled leaf, Weber 32/36, EGR delete, GM 100A alt, BMW "ellipsoids" aka projectors with an HID kit, JDM turn signals(ebay special). Autometer Engine temp and Volt gauge, Autogage mini tach. Ive picked up some old American Racing wheels il throw on when i actually start driving it. Heres more pics...
Took a break from the wiring at some point and looked at how crappy the gauges looked so i went ahead and cleaned them up Before After Also cleaned up the radio bezel and radio which i later took out Found a guy in LA parting out a 73 so i got a driver side door since the door must have been forced open at some point and the hinge actully broke the metal where it mounts to the door. Got a tail light since mine was cracked, solid back window and some small random things. Then i bought a practically new dash pad and grille a guy pulled from the JY. Test fitting the wheels i got for it. And basically its sitting like this now, after i finally got it running i heard the motor knocking from the bottom end so i need a rebuild.
Sucks that the motor is knocking. Are you going to just do a rebuild or a motor swap to something else? I mean, u did just rewire the whole truck.
As much as i want to do a swap im going to hold off and just rebuild the 20R for now. Fuel Injection is nice but im still tired of measing with wires lol
No updates, just keep looking at options for brake components. I picked up a complete front suspension with xmember a while back from a 75+ model so i could swap the brakes. But now im going to see if i can figure out a bigger brake setup possibly using 4runner calipers.
When I had 76, and 90 something wheel hubs and calipers sitting on my shop floor years back I took note that the hubs fit on each others intended spindle but the wheel mount was in a different location in relation to the bearings. If I was a betting man I'd say the lexus ls400 brake swap would work using 84+ hubs.
Yes I do. I want to say the bearings were slightly wider apart on the later model stuff so the nut would need to machined down to fit the cotter pin or I could just be retarded... I'm thinking the bearings were the same diameter though. If you have a digital or hell even a normal micrometer and the ability to read it we can compare spindles. I have a set of drop spindles sitting in the garage to measure off of.
Il see if i can get that this weekend. I want to tear that front end apart so its not taking up as much space. Just gotta take the spring out which is scaring me a little lol
The front end isnt on truck, its pretty much hub to hub xmember and all. Spring still has tension. Need a spring compressor that goes inside the coil
I get that. That's why I said to pull the sway bar then pull the shocks. If you have the sway bar off all you have to do is spin the upper nut off of the shocks. There isn't a whole lot of spring tension on them with stock length shocks.
I had a bitch of a time getting the springs on the truck out. After i did one side the other was obviously easier lol
I finally got the extra front end apart. I Chained the spring in two spots and wrapped the chain around the UCA and slowly loosened the upper BJ and the LCA and spindle violently seperated themselves from the upper lol. Not i have a spare pile of parts lol
Anyone have an idea of what this damn knocking could be? Sounds like its coming from the back portion of the engine.
Dnt quote me, but that sounds like a rod knock. Maybr someone with abit more experience with that sound can pipe in..
Thats what in thinking too. Hell i got on youtube and found vids of 22Rs with rod knock and they sound similar. More than likely what it is