1988 samurai LWB build

[kris97ranger]

the axle is centered i dunno why it looks like it isnt in the last picture. so now i just have a few small things like getting a few bolts out that the previous owner broke off in the hubs. and then like i said b4 get my highsteer arms on and i have to order my rock assault felt protectors. nobody lists any for the landcruiser but i took the stock plates and held them up to my buddys mazda's toyota mini truck axles it seems that they are the same so once i hear back from trail gear ill probally order them.

 

[kris97ranger]

well... heres a catch 22 for you. i got a call from my foreman today and im back to work tommorow at 7 am (gotta get up at 5am) so im gonna be back at work making 33.75 an hour instead of my old $18 an hour so il have lots of $ to finish this thing.

BUT its a 60ish hour work week lol in 5 days so no time to work on the truck. at least i get weekends off

 

[kris97ranger]

okie doke a day of work is done and over and i got to come home to a new pitman arm and highsteer arms plus i got my hst cheque from the government today too. yaaaay free $

should be throwing the steering together saturday

 

[Bennybooster]

At least you have the money to do stuff now

 

[BONES]

Yeah time with no money sucks, but money with no time is equally as unfun, haha. Good on you for makin moola, now she will get the parts you want her to have, if and when you actually get time to build it. lol

 

[kris97ranger]

okie doke! lets see..... i got a few things done this morning.

yesterday sucked, up at 5:30am then at work jackhammering/ being a forklift for 10 hours lol i got home and ended up going out to dinner and a movie (bad teacher friggin hilarious) got home at 1:30 am went to bed up at 8am dropped the gf off at work and went to the shop.

i got my highsteer arms on and threw my crossover bar in and the two tires are pointing completly different directions haha. so i took 4.5" out of it sleeved it internally with solid round bar then burned it all togther again with 4 roset welds and then a bead all around where was cut. its all good now tires are straight

then i ended up having to move the steering box forwards about 4-5" which sucked. i had to completly remove one body mount and will be re-doing it in a different way another day. i made a 1/8" plate to strengthen up the frame before i mounted the box (halfass thinking of hydro assist one day if i can swing it)

once i knew where the box was going to be i pulled it out again and bolted it to my highlift jack and got a 1 1/4" socket on a 1" rachet and tried pulling the pitman arm nut off no go.... threw a 8 ft pipe on the rachet and it spun off no problem so i threw my new pitman arm on that and called it a day. all of this sounds like not that much but it took me from 8:30 to 1:30 somehow...

and of course i have no pictures.... i will try and get some this afternoon b4 i go to the races.



i just want this damn thing done its close but not quite. i still need to:
throw my rear diff in
get the combi kit for the rear drums
get the wheel cylinders for the rear drums
hook up all my brake lines.
get power steering lines
power steering pump.
swap transmissions
get a transfercase
driveshafts
trim fenders
measure for and install new front shocks


ugh i thought i was further along...

 

[kris97ranger]

ok picture time. i ended up slacking out saturday even and ran up to the cottage lol

1st off here is my shortened crossover link. i know it doesnt look the greatest but this is all being done with a stick welder and getting burned in HOT so dont worry lol plus like i said before hammared inside of it is solid round stock you can kinda see where i did the roset welds

and here is my steering linkages at ride hight think im gonna have any problems with bump steer? lol

and the clearances between the crossover link and the oil pan i think it'll be fine but we'll see worst comes to worst ill actually have to put in bump stops

my pretty highsteer arms

and here they are in comparison to the stock ones (kinda hard to see but they go down to where my hand is)

now in order to get everything all nice and straight i had to move the steering box up ALOT more then i wanted to so much so i had to remove a body mount...

the body mount will be replaced with some angle iron welded to the bumper support. (bumper support is like 1/2" thick it should bestrong enough)

so once i had my box in place and everything done i decided to change out the pitman arm.
this is the old with the stupid male TRE built in.

and here is the new one. its the exact same length and drop as stock

now its hard to see but my crossover clears the pitman arm by an inch the two bars are exactly parallel but im concered with them hitting each other as i have my swing shackles up front. but i like that my drag link is almost flat to the ground ( i could easily get a flat pitman arm and not have a worry but i like that i figure im going to have zero bumpsteer)

so if it becomes a problem im going to do a shackle reversal so the axle swings to the way and away from the pitman arm.



while shortening the crossover link i realized im bad at simple math when im tired and hot so heres my solution

and once all that was done i threw on a few new stickers id like a trail gear one as well but the ones they sent are like huge on a samurai windshield lol

 

[BONES]

Right on!

With them flat -ish springs your diff shouldn't move too far forwards under compression, I wouldn't think.

 

[kris97ranger]

yea im not super worried about it. and at ride hight the springs are perfectly flat i get paid thursday so i should be able to get the rest of what i need to button this thing up then next week i can get new tires on the f150

 

[Andres629]

Man, this thing is awesome Kris! I love me a good Sami, and this one's doing up real good-like!

 

[kris97ranger]

thanks man its coming along... but now this whole only working on it on weekends is getting old fast. i think sunday im gonna try and knock out as much as possible and get it ready to go.

i want it ready for like the beginning of august or around there because i wanna get out on a labour day trip to the same place that i broke this truck last time. another 3 day trip

 

[kris97ranger]

alright so for the last week or so we have had record setting temperatures in my are like 3 days straight at 38 degrees celcius plus humidity so its feeling like above 45 degrees (for you americans thats 113ish)

thats rediculous for me lol we got sent home from work on thursday cause it was too hot and then fridays are early days so i went straight from work to the shop and got my rear axle rebuilt and fiddled around with a few more things for about 5 hrs or so. came home went to bed went back to the shop this morning at about 9am and got my transfercase pulled out and then started on the transmission....


how fun.

turns out toyota transmissions are an absolute pain in the ass to get outta samurais lol my arms barley fit behind the motor and firewall and then the bellhousing almost hits the trans tunnel (this is with a 3"bodylift)

so after sweating a ton and getting pissed off i finally got the transmission out. and am waiting on a transfercase to put it all back together.

i bought some new tires for myf150 on thursday too so once that shows up on my visa il see how much i have left on it and may be getting a shipment from trail gear for some TRE's, and other odds and ends.


ive been thinking that in the winter i may go hydro assist and because im needing a new power steering pump anyways i was thinking of getting a hydro assist one but how will this work out for me if i dont do hydro assist until the winter?

 

[kris97ranger]

not completly a samurai related update but lookie what i got

i also picked up the wheel cylinders,spring kit, front 26" brake lines,2 TRE'S, my felt protectors, and a transfercase mount, and somthing else.... that i cannot remember lol

i already have the wheel cylinders and spring kit but the rest is still being shipped. plus its a long weekend this weekend so i should get quite a bit done

 

[Andres629]

Nice, like them tires on the 150!

 

[kris97ranger]

seem familiar? lol i like them so far i work as a labourer for miller doing bridge construction and i got to play with them a bit today on the way to a pour. In the mud of course (we've had alot of rain for the last two days) my forman and one other guy had to lock in 4wd and i backed up the hill to the bridge with no problem lol. and im only 2wd!

also found out that when some guy pisses me off in traffic my truck will still spin them in 1st haha