The Frankenstein Build: 1996 Tacoma Long Travel/Expo/Trail Rig

[Blackdawg]

More truck porn cause..i can..haha

Frankenstein.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frankenstein-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frankenstein.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frankenstein-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

puppies were happy to be out again!

Frankenstein-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frankenstein-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frankenstein-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frankenstein-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

 

[Blackdawg]

I guess I can also introduce my Dads truck. Aptly named The FRV, The Frankenstein Recovery Vehicle, and is a 2008 Double cab Long bed tacoma TRD Sport. His build is pretty nuts and driven by none other then me. Its been a great rig and has lived up to the name at least 3-4 times.

So since FRV is a big part of my life and Frankensteins, i'll share truck porn of him in here too. We had a build thread for him, but my Dad is terrible about it and so am I. But the mods done to it are..well a lot.

These are before photos before we changed up the front lift a bit and put on 34'' tires.


The FRV-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

The FRV-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

The FRV-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

And just cause couple of my favs before new lift and tires


The FRV-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

The FRV-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

The FRV-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

 

[Blackdawg]

And now for the Diff install.

Basically, this sucked. Master install kits don't have the correct washer plates for the rear diff to set backlash. So had to order those. The front was a MPITA. Zuk the master of gears (www.gearinstalls.com) was very helpful to me via email.

I did not due a formal write up on this, for that go to Zuks site. So instead im just posting all the quoted info and photos from my build on TW. Im not editing it and you'll see it was a **** show. Literally took a month.

Should have at least one


Fun is beginning!

Okay everyone that knows gears....w..t..f..

So for the carrier with the ring I have two outer shims. They are the stock ones that came with the truck and the Bach lash is 14 thousandths. Spec is 6-10..

So. In a normal world I'd add 10 thousandths to the ring side and subtract them from the other side.

But

My ************* Yukon master kit doesn't have outer shims..at all.

Some photos for ****s i guess.

pinion is drastically smaller.

Pinion by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Diff just before setting the carrier in

Diff by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

how my pattern is right now. Looks good really. once i get the bachlash a few thousands better it'll sit a bit deeper.

wear by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

5.29.

Cant afford an arb yet. Least ill know how to do it and do it fast when I can.



It'll only move 4-6 thousands of an inch. Backlash is 14 thousands right now. It would be loud. Needs to be 6-10. Shooting for 8

But yea. Pinion depth is fine.

Working under a truck with headphones...not gonna work haha

Cheap stereo ain't bad.

But it'll be fun no doubt.

Also...one of the top rules of overland expedition truck Ben...don't **** with the engine, leave it stock. Just saying. Haha


Just pulled the front diff. Mother of ************* god what a pitfa. Couldn't get the fill or drain plugs off. Mounts where a *****. Just...what a *****.

So pissed I don't have lockers. Doing this twice is gonna suck.

Pictures of the progress

front diff. what a pain in the *** to pull and still haven't got the fill or drain plugs out..gonna extend the breather. was just tucked up in the shock tower..ha

Front diff gears.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff gears-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

side that holds the carrier in place.

Front diff gears-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Carrier with the bearings and ring removed
Front diff gears-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff gears-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

this job is basically impossible without a press to get the new bearings on.

Front diff gears-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff gears-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

new bearings..shiny

Front diff gears-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Old ring on the left new on the right

Front diff gears-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff gears-10.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


ring installed with the retainer clips

Front diff gears-10.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff gears-12.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff gears-13.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

ever so slowly making progress.

Mother $&#%@^*#^^#!!!!!

This damn drain plug..welded a bolt to it. Air fun snapped the damn bolt...

For the fill off though..

 

[Blackdawg]

Continued

okay guys so bit of an update. Still fighting the front diff but hoping to get the drain out today so i can start pressing in bearings on the other side for the pinion.

Finished the other side though.

Exterior mounted

Grant's Graduation.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

This pin holds the outer shell on sorta. It also drives the CV..as Gage found out ha

Front diff assembly.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

the little C clip on the end mades it a tad hard to remove

Front diff assembly-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

couple whacks with a rubber mallet and it pops back in

Front diff assembly-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff assembly-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

this half is done

Front diff assembly-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

and the bastard hard *** side

Front diff assembly-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff assembly-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


stripped damn bolt

Front diff assembly-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Which i then welded a bolt to and it proceed to break off. Drilled out the bolt or most of it.

Front diff assembly-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

ground it flatish

Front diff assembly-10.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff assembly-11.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

welded a nut this time

Front diff assembly-12.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


which proceeded to just pull the rest of the previous welded bolt out

Front diff assembly-13.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


so..going to fill it will weld and then weld another nut to it and pray to god it works.

Winner winner chicken ************* dinner!!!! :goingcrazy:

Plug is out. Just gonna leave the nut on there and not get a new one. Should get this diff done today. If my new shims show for the rear could possible be done by late tonight ray:

True i am, glad to have done..well..be doing it..not done yet..

But still..missing out on mountain time now and the fact the part I paid for that don't fit really REALLY bugs me

It looks like I could press it on..but what worrys me is it's 60 thousands smaller then the crush one on the stock one

This really surprises me. An incredible resource and a legendary toyota diff builder.

http://www.gearinstalls.com/

The welded nut that could!


Front diff assembly.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Front diff assembly-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Was so relieved when it came out.


Front diff assembly-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Pinions


Front diff assembly-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Front diff assembly-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

And the damn solid spacer..


Front diff assembly-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

And the last race I can't get in :frusty:



Front diff assembly-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Front diff assembly-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

 

[Blackdawg]

Continued

Zuk replied. Gave me a great tip. Headed to the hardware store.

Yea seemed like a cool guy.

His method was promising but proving to be..difficult..

:woot:

New back lash on rear is 6.5-7 thousands. Perfect.

Thats almost what mine looks like. Also, this is what Zuk said in his reply just a few minutes ago

" Nice pattern! Slight deep which is my preferred condition. Remember, as the large inner pinion bearing wears more, it means the pinion goes a couple thousandth's down in the hole which means it slowly but surely goes more and more shallow on the pattern. A good reason to justify a couple thou deep right now like you are. And you will still run quiet. Not too tight on the backlash..... .007 or .008" is just fine for the Minimum BL. It's an 8.4".....so make sure the washer plates are thick enough to gice decent CB preload. "

so, so far so good.

Ill have photos in just a second.

Wear photo, not sure why the paint didn't wear more on the drive side..

Front diff assembly.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff assembly-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

and just cause, took this a week ago or more. Just forgot to post it.

TacoLand by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Done with that now too. Rear is done. Other then wheels of course. Maybe...maybe ill finish the front tomorrow ray:

Mother of god. I think I have spent 8 hours on this inner race alone..I can not for the life of me get it to go in :frusty: out:

Pissing me off

:yay::yay::yay: :yay::yay::yay:

:goingcrazy::goingcrazy::goingcrazy: :goingcrazy::goingcrazy::goingcrazy:


I ************* GOT THE BASTARD IN!!!!! :woot:

I FEEL LIKE THIS

Hot damn i can't believe i spent so long on that. :frusty:

ended up taking super super super fine sandpaper to the outside of the race. Slid right in after that with the cool jig Zuk told me about

Welp put the front diff together..holy ****. Not even close to in spec.

Zuk told me to add a .020 shim to the pinion...now to get the pinion bearing off...

And done. Homemade bearing splitter took a while to make. But, least I have one now!

Damn, new wear is okay. Better then before but still not good. Another pinion shim it is!

My bearing preload is gonna be hard to dial in..

Holy crap I'm an idiot..

So I missed that the OEM pinion had a big *** spacer on it. Used my new fancy bearing splitter to seperate it and bam. Damn thing is huge. 0.086 under the bearing. I had nothing on my first test and not 0.020 on my second.

Thus..****ty patterns.

So!

Disassemble again!


Well...my roller bearing just came apart...:frusty:

Parts store didn't have the pinion nut...

FML


:frusty:

 

[Blackdawg]

Was gonna wait and do one big post but screw it.

Continuing the build of the front diff..

So this is where i left the solid collar spacer..

Front diff assembly-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

the bench to grind!

Front diff.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


after first pass..
Front diff-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

so more grinding..

Front diff-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Done!

Front diff-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Now to finish getting the inner race in. Thanks to the god of diffs, Zuk, he told me to do this. Took a lot of messing with but i got it to work after many attempts.

first i set it up like so

Front diff-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

of course that was stupid for three reasons. One, on the outer pinion side is where i needed to wrench on. Two, having the two nuts on the inside isn't nessicary. Three, the washer hit the housing so i couldn't get it down even if i wanted to.

So, after more messing about the final setup looked like so.

I used the old bearing race to help press in the new one.

Front diff-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

and had most the all thread in the inside.

Front diff-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Of couse i also used super fine grit sand paper, 2000 grit, on the outside of the race and then used a big *** wrench and the screw drive to counter turn. Slide right in with some man handling.

Front diff-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

hell..yes..

Front diff-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

that was a mile stone in itself let me tell you. I hope that trick alone helps someone out there out cause i beat my head against the way for literally HOURS trying to get that ****er in.

but its done now

So with that all done, i put the pinion in and and ratched down the outer bearing, slapped the ring housing on and did a pattern check. My god was it off...

Front diff-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

needless to say...that..is..horrible..haha I wasn't sure if my ring was way off or the pinion(which it was off, i shall show you in a second) so i emailed the god Zuk again and he told me to add more to the pinion..Which made sense to me especially since i didn't have a single spacer on there because i THOUGHT the OEM one didn't have one..but i was wrong.

But now i had another problem, how the hell do i get the bearing off it without it getting destroyed.

Time to build a bearing splitter!

Went through the scrap plate we had lying around and found a perfect piece, quiet literally perfect. Mike you'll reconige this as the chunk i cut out your bumper reinforcement plate out of

1/4'' boiler plate, it'll work nicely

Front diff-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Fired up the good ole torch and cut off the long piece and was left with a 6x6 about piece.

Front diff-10.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

took a square, a washer, and file to mark it and drew this out.

Front diff-11.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

 

[Blackdawg]

and went on cutting. First cut

Front diff-12.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

and second

Front diff-13.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

fired up the bench grinder and spend a long time grinding. Damn 1/4'' boiler plate is hard ****. Basically i ground only on one side to create a wedge, or knife edge to go inbetween the bearing and pinion.

turned out alright.

Front diff-14.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


From there i put in on the pinion, used two clamps to hold it in place, and put it on the press and let it rip.

Front diff-15.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff-16.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff-17.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


worked great! bit of an explosion after it pops out but still works well.

Front diff-18.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

From there i added a small .020 shim. Wear pattern barely changed at which point i decided to look at the OEM pinion one last time and sure as ****...had a big *** shim on it :facepalm:

SOOOO..pulled it apart and there it was.

Front diff-19.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


And now im am without a pinion nut and can't finish my diff out: i am almost certain i would be driving it by tonight if i would be able to get a nut.

Oh well..[/QUOTE]

Finally got the diff in spec. Wear looks decent. Coast is perfect. Drive looks a tiny bit shallow but everything else is good.

Took apart the pinion 4 times. What a pita. Should be driving it tonight!

Front diff is in!

Gonna do passenger side cv and wheel tonight.

But


Yukon...once again...****ed me over..wrong seals for the cvs. So I don't have one for the driver side

Gonna get one from napa tomorrow. Button it up. Start driving the crap out of it

So been dead in here...

but! diffs are done! :woot: just waiting on my driver side seal which will be here tomorrow. Ill get to drive it tomorrow! and i got most the day off due to bad weather so no work.

but anyways, two things..well..three!


1) here is my final pattern for the front. Almost perfect. pinion is a touch deep but changing it affected the backlash too much so this is where i ended up at.

Cool tool we had that just needed tweak to help tighten pinion

Front diff.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

and wear pattern.

Front diff.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Done!..minus the seal..

Front diff-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

So yea. ECGS prices are worth it! Plus warranty!

Was a learning experience though. So much so that we did my Dad truck shortly after....in 3 days. Cause i had ordered enough washer plates we had what we needed for the rear diff.

 

[Blackdawg]

So will my truck and now nice camera i started exploring the camera more. Took Frank out now that he was driveable, and super enjoyable to drive(TORQUE!) I went north of town to do my first start trail photo.

Stars n tent by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Then washed it for the 5th time ever, which meant i needed to flaunt it off..

Frankenstein cleaned.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frankenstein cleaned-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frankenstein cleaned-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frankenstein cleaned-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frankenstein cleaned-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frankenstein cleaned-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frankenstein cleaned-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frankenstein cleaned-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frankenstein cleaned-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frankenstein cleaned.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

 

[Blackdawg]

Then it was time to go wheeling! Finally, after wasting nearly two precious summer months working on him.

So i met up with my good buddy Marc and we ran Shoshone Lake trail again. One of my favs. My suspention is shot to hell though, i need new shocks..BAD. However, i hit WAY less this go around with the 35s compared to my 33s. It was super super fun. One of the best wheeling trips i have done.

We then did some exploring in Sinks Canyon up Wolf trail and other roads was GORGEOUS!

don't have a ton of action shots as its a bit harder to shoot a lone but still got some!

I also ripped off my awning :laugh: Hit a tree with it So will have to try and fix it and maybe come up with a new removable mount.

Marc is ready to go!
4thjulyweekend-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Wyoming is cool
4thjulyweekend.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

4thjulyweekend-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

I like this photo..trippy..

4thjulyweekend.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

 

[Blackdawg]

4thjulyweekend-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-10.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-11.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-12.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-13.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-14.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-15.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-16.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-17.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-18.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-19.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-20.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-21.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-22.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-23.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-24.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-25.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-26.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-27.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-28.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-29.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-30.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-31.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

 

[Blackdawg]

4thjulyweekend-32.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-33.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Jen survived Shoshone! ready for more!
4thjulyweekend-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Marc enjoys letting it rip after a long day of crawling

4thjulyweekend-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-10.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-11.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-12.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-13.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-14.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-15.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-16.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-17.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-18.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-19.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-21.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-20.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-22.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
4thjulyweekend-23.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Was a great time!

Absolutely LOVED the low gearing. Made the bumpy rocks super fun to drive. Engine braking is out of control awesome..or rather, in control..

 

[Blackdawg]

Here some photos shot by my good buddy Marc from the trip too

While i am at it, i am going to show some of Marcs amazing shots

HDR11 (1 of 1) by sconniehailer, on Flickr
HDR8 (1 of 1) by sconniehailer, on Flickr
HDR5 (1 of 1) by sconniehailer, on Flickr
26-1 by sconniehailer, on Flickr
25-1 by sconniehailer, on Flickr
21-1 by sconniehailer, on Flickr
20-1 by sconniehailer, on Flickr
19-1 by sconniehailer, on Flickr
18-1 by sconniehailer, on Flickr
9-1 by sconniehailer, on Flickr
10-1 by sconniehailer, on Flickr
3-1 by sconniehailer, on Flickr
22-1 by sconniehailer, on Flickr
5-1 by sconniehailer, on Flickr

We had a blast.

 

[Blackdawg]

Was a short lived victory though. My Dad and I become HAM operators and both got Icom 5100s for our trucks. To break them in and get more involved in the Ham world we volenterred to work a 100mile horse race. Was pretty fun actually. Every 25 miles they do a Vet check and are required to let the horses rest. We met them at Vet checks 1 and 3 and called down times to base where the start and finish was. And if anyone needed help or pulled from the race. was a hoot.

We went up the night before which was rainy and holy **** was it muddy.

Was still pretty though.

Frank.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frank-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frank.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frank-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Then was driving out to go camp and all the sudden..boom pop bang!

Frank-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Think the lower ball joint itself gave out. Tire got sucked under and ripped off the upper ball joint. broke the brake line and ripped apart the CV joint, then keep going and broke my Inner tie rod and split the steering rack in two right down the middle.

was on flat ground going 10mph.

Frank-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Thankfully. My dad was right in front of me with the FRV.

we ended up looping my Winch cable up and over this spare tire carrier on the swing out. Sadly it did tweak and bend a bit. But he drug me down the road to a wide spot and we left it there. Head up within the next few hours to go get it on the trailer.


I have all the parts i need ironically to fix it other then the steering rack and i know where to get a couple OEM ones from junk yards. So...should be okay unless something else got super tweaked that we didn't see.

 

[Blackdawg]

MOre photos. This is the recovery we did this afternoon.

where we left it

Frank.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

After we pulled it out of the ditch we put the trailer in front of it. I hooked up the winch to the rear bumper of the FRV. We disconnected the outer tie rod on the passenger side so we could straighten the wheel. Then started pulling it up. Went pretty smooth. Just put the ramp on the driver side in the middle and let the skid slid the truck up.

Frank-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Since we didn't have a wheel on the driver side of course. We used this. These are for putting your car on so you can push it in odd spots in the garage. Worked great for this as well!

Frank-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Pulling away.

Frank-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Done. Still amazed we got it up..haha pretty crazy

Frank-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

then we jacked him up and put some big ole dun age under the front skid.

Frank.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

We don't call it the FRV for nothing (Frankenstein Recovery Vehicle). Tundras can suck it

Frank.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frank-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frank-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Made it back safe and sound

Frank-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

 

[Blackdawg]

Haha i really am enjoying rereading my old build. this is hoot.

I had all the parts needed to fix the LBJ just not a new steering rack. Luckily i found one.

Excuse the stupidity, but its kinda funny

So...there i was...in the vast Wyo Praire....when all the sudden. I spotted and nice 4runner.






so....




i killed it...






and tracked it down...





took all evening but i found it among the grass.

Frank.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


so i gutted it out to get to the good stuff.


Frank-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


chopped out what i needed and left the rest for the vultures.

Frank-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

new steering rack baby!!! :woot:

was scary how easy everything unbolted. took 30 minutes tops.

I have a feeling, Frank won't give his up so easy...