Poor Little Tink-Tink

strange1

strange1

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2005
Location
Elkin
Some friends stopped by Saturday and dropped this off...

yota truggie 001.jpg
 
I already have most of the large components to put it together, although some toyota purists might consider what I am about to do heresy....

Plans are 4.3L on propane/SM420/dana300 with twin-sticks. dana 44 front and an isuzu 12-bolt rear. Since I dont really want to put 39" tires back on it, and my axles are already set up for SUA, I'm going to try and make SUA work.


yota truggie 004.jpg


yota truggie 003.jpg
 

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Amazing how much longer the wheelbase looks now than in that pic. I wonder how those springs will flex in a SUA set-up?
 
hurt4x4 said:
I like it! I think I've got the old steering off that truck going on my 82'
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You got the lower half of the steering shaft? The part that attaches to the box.
 
What? No. I got a whole hi-steer and hydro assist setup from someone parting out a truck that I thought was the one you have now.
 
Yeah. I'm missing the lower half of the steering shaft, was hoping it was still attached to the box you now have.
 
Magic legs!
 
Chris and I decided it must have fell off on the way up here from Raleigh, but I thought it was worth asking.
 
dairyman said:
that front bumper looks pissed off
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I know, and I like it. I took the fenders off because, let's face it, there's just not a lot of fender left. But if I cut the bumper down to fit the narrower front end, it will ruin the look. So now I need to find a way to fit some fenders back on. I've got a good idea, if I can make it work.
 
Unbelievably, I still have this thing. I bought a house, did some minor renovations, and moved right about the time of that last post (nov-dec 2014). I have since been planning my attack on the truck and have decided it was time to start, again.

I had a hard time finding a bellhousing to mate the 4.3 and the sm420. I started with an old chevy car bellhousing, thinking it would be easiest to make work. But after doing the mods it would need and buying/making a hydraulic clutch kit to marry to the toyota pedals, it just wasn't worth it. I finally found a good deal on a complete sm465 hydro-bellhousing and picked it up yesterday. I still need to call novak and have them make the appropriate input bearing retainer, but that shouldn't be anything that $100-150 can't take care of.

Today I decided that I wanted to pull the bottom end apart on the 4.3 and make sure it wasn't about to explode. Good thing I did. The guy I bought it from had never heard it run. He said the previous owner had told him it had a mild performance build and was ready to go. It had been sitting a couple of years before I got it, and has been sitting a couple since. My original plan was to rebuild an engine I already had, and really only got this because it had a carbuerated intake (for the propane conversion) and an MSD distributor. I think I will keep this one. It looks like someone spent quite a bit of time balancing the rotating assembly, but it still needs some work on the bottom end. Everything else seems to be in good shape and it has lots of compression (I've never seen one this clean under the valve cover).

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Gonna try to polish the crank rather than grind it, since it has previously been ground .020", according to what was stamped on it. And also because I have $0.00 left to pay a machine shop to do it.

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I really hope I don't find anything else wrong, but am thinking that I may as well pull the cam out and check it while I'm in there. If I find more problems there, I'll just tear it completely apart and start from scratch. I should add that I have no idea what I am doing, but it didn't take long to figure out crank bearings aren't supposed to look like that. That's a rod bearing in the background, almost as bad as the crank but not quite.
 
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