I started my alternator swap Saturday...



Well, I got it in...



Well, I run my wires...



Well, the alt to battery wire has a connector that is a hair too small, so I open it up a bit with a uni-bit... bit catches, whips power wire around, wire wraps around two of my fingers and BAM, hospital trip...



The wire whipped around fast and hard enough to break the finger between the tip and the first knuckle!!! Over the last few days I've been relaxing. Went back to work last night. This morning I re-routed most of the loose wiring to clean her up a bit. Only ONE thing left to be done with the alt swap: backing nut on the lower alternator tab. Two hand job from below, and I only have one hand and noone to help em get the front end up on my ramps...

 

Gee, glad it couldn't have been any worse and you're alive!
Hope you patch up the truck asap, good luck man.

 

dropped the rear of the waggy today.... really need to replace the air shocks in the rear....... they are super-dooper-blown.

 

r those 14's??? ifso what tire size is on them??

 

yup, them are the supra's. they are 14x7, tires on em are 185/60/14.

 

looks really good alex. Im a super jealous of the wagon

 

Oh, it is a work in progress, and won't be drivable until probably Friday, at the earliest. A buddy is loaning me his Corolla since both the truck and the Saleen are down and I can't ride any of the bikes with a broken finger...

This morning, after taking off from work early since there was nothing going on, I did a little more wiring... This time, on the other end of the truck...



AVS arc-9 9 switch switchbox...

it is kept in the cab, just taking a pick of the air kit since I don't really have any good pics of it.

Next job will be to chop out a section of the exhaust, weld it back in(rotated 90 degrees), cut some pipe off after the cat, and run some fresh (and bent) pipe to mount my new muffler, which should be here either today or tomorrow. The muffler is going to be the best of both worlds, tiny, tunable for backpressure and sound, and looks good. I've worked with these mufflers before, and I absolutely love them! I'll post up pics of the exhaust once its done.

Oh, and SD, that wagon is WAY to cherry... I almost thought those were old rwd Celica GT-S wheels...

 

Is it the ones with the add-able plates for the exhaust?
Nice to see you get the wiring done!
Hope she'll be finished up, man.




and this morning I torqued my crankshaft bolt, adjusted timing to 5*BTDC, and adjusted idle. She runs so smooth.

 

Decided to paint the frame so started ripping it all apart AGAIN!! Wish I would think of these things before putting it all back together, DUHH

 

Rinsed the truck off a couple minutes ago ... Got some rain today and just wanted to make sure that when it dried, it did'nt leave those irritating dust / water spots ...

 

new water pump and lower rad hose and antifreeze/coolant

 

Yup!!! Supertrapp 2 inch inlet, 4 inch disc, 8 inch body tunable muffler.. Definitely sounds better. In the pics it looks like it is really close to the bag and the link, but it is actually pretty far from the link, and where the exhaust comes out is in front of the bag... I WILL be putting a little exhaust deflector type thing on it that is made to push the exhaust forward, but since air will be pushing back into it while moving forward, I will cut a chunk out of it that point at 45 degrees towards the center of the truck and down, so that the exhaust will almost completely blow out in that direction... I put 12 discs on it, and I think I will be pulling 4 out to reduce flow a bit. It is almost as loud as it was without the muffler, but it has WAY more power, and it sounds like a normal properly tuned vehicle again, and doesn't have so much of a bass drone that the truck is almost undrivable... Still need to quiet it down a bit if I am to drive the thing daily...






Quick question... I rewired my power wires going to my compressors, set up a proper tank switch and relay set up, running fuses and everything, but the connector at the battery(for the comp power wire) keeps getting burnt and melting the plastic off to the point where it won't actually take power, because the metal on the connector is so burnt. The compressors are working fine, and none of the other wiring is getting hot... Any ideas??? I have that 160 amp alt, but it has the factory wiring harness AND the new alt hot wire BOTH connecting it to the system/battery, and this wire was doing this before the rewire, and with the old 60 amp stock alt... I REALLY want to fix this sort of thing before I start driving it to work. I want to say I'm running 12 gauge wire, and the comps are only rated at like 17 amps each, so figure 40-45 amps MAX after figuring in the switch, the relay, and the comps. Any ideas? I have a section of wire double butt connected to the power wire with the connector on that, simply because both the previous owner and I noticed that if you did that, it would only mess up the added on section, and the rest wouldn't barely get warm(other than being under the hood with a running motor and the heat that puts off), just the added bit at the end and the connector, so it would be easy to fix on a regular basis...

Oh, and I have one of those AZ digi gauges coming in... Wait til ya'll see the mount me and one of my sheetmetal guys at work came up with... This shiz is nuttier that Brittney Spears and squirrel poop... COMBINED... Also, going to run one of those toggles with the led in it between the pressure switch and the relay, so the two positions will be off and auto, and since power will only flow through the switch when the switch is on AND the relay is kicked on by the pressure switch, the led will at as an indicator to tell me when the comps are running! The gauge should be in by the end of the week, so I can probably get the wiring, and final clearancing done on the mount and get pics up... I'll get lots of pics before I paint it up so you folks can see how to do it. I have had this idea for a while, and my sheetmetal guy built it up for me at the house and brough it to me last night... Also, the mount will be multipurose down the road, since I will use what is left, but unnecessary, as a hidden (in plain sight) switch to cut my fuel pump on and off...

 

the discs will control backpressure but from what i've heard *lol, heard* it doesn't really control volume as well.

toss a resonator or something else before it?
and I was thinking you build a plate and kinda form it over and behind the exhaust so deflect



Today on my truck I clay barred and waxed the cab and back.

 

No, they control volume as well, you just have to hit that sweet spot on the number of disks.. I Have this exact same muffler on my F3. I have that one down to 6 disks and it is a lot quieter than it was at 8. They have a deflector piece that bolts on to the end cap, and I think it is like $18 or so...

 

So more plates opens it up, right?

 

Drove my truck for first time in 4 weeks on monday!

 

Replaced the front shocks... It feels a lot better now, amazingly the rears are still in good condition!

 

Yup. I have found that there is a sweet spot that exists in the number of discs... You figure the starting number of discs based on engine displacement and disc size. You determine what size discs/muffler based on displacement and max power output. Once you have all the base info, you run it for a little while, and slowly pull discs, unless is it REALLY loud, and then you pull a couple at a time. When it starts getting quieter, you are getting close to the sweet spot. You pull two more discs at that point, count the number left, and clean the discs REALLY well. Put the cleaned discs on, and drive it a couple hundred miles, then pull the discs again, and read them exactly like you would a sparkplug, and then clean them, and put them back on, adding a disc if it seems to rich, or pulling one if they read too lean. I did this MANY times at a bike shop back in the day, and got halfway decent at it. This is the first time I've done it on a vehicle with 4 wheels. Its kinda weird. Same muffler that is on my F3, and the truck has about the same HP output as my F3, but the truck has 4 times the displacement, but it sounds like it will end up running about the same number of discs. I figured the math would be a little different between a high specific output bike engine and a fairly low specific output truck motor, but not THAT different...

If you want louder, or a little more power, you can run it a couple discs leaner than optimum, but you will more than likely be trading full power range tq for peak HP and noise...

 

$80 for the pair out of a 4Runner! I just need to get new skins for them and replace the wire that connects the inboard rail release to the outboard rail release on both. I have the stuff to do it, and use my aviation maintenance training and maybe have to fix it occasionally, or I could use my being broke and owning a motorcycle maintenance training and properly shape and fit a coat hanger and NEVER have to fix it...

 

painted the grill and started painting the toyota symbol on the tailgate.. trying to just make it alittle better looking