First Gen 4-Runner. European family adventure wagon.

The backside for people who are into such things:

I was running approximately 90 amps, which I think was just enough for the plate steel but maybe a bit too much for the nut.  I've turned it down to 85 for the next run, and will be using the pedal to help me some (I hope).

Pointers, critiques, verbal berating, and abuse all welcome. 

Fun stuff.

Instead of trying to use the exact spot of the broken bolts, why not move the swaybar mount forward or backward like 1/2 inch?  Most times you can get away with that without binding or interference.

wvumtnbkr said:

Instead of trying to use the exact spot of the broken bolts, why not move the swaybar mount forward or backward like 1/2 inch?  Most times you can get away with that without binding or interference.

You mean, just drilling and tapping two new holes in the frame?

I was worried that if I did that, the 5 or so mm of threads I tapped in the frame wouldn't be enough to hold this thing in place in the long run.  Granted the plate idea brings with it a whole handful of new issues, but it does give one helluva solid anchor point for us to bolt to.

If you guys thought it'd hold up to the abuse, I'd gladly drill/tap and be done with it all.

That type of welding is like boxing, stick and move.

Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Mezzanine and Preach:

So the panels pictured are just my practice pieces.  The stock i have for this is 10mm wider and hasn't been cut to length yet so larger is possible.

Showing my ignorance here, but by "scalloped" do you mean like this?

If so, just give me a rough angle and I can be all over it.

 

Scallop like the bike frame lugs, or a fish plate like shown here: 

See how the ends of the plate are extended out to points to distribute the load way out? Do that. I should have used the fish plate welding term since that will actually show examples. What you found is a bevel or chamfer, and is not what I was referring to. 

As for the back side of the plate, weld through primer would be best but failing there I'd just clean everything really well and weld it. If you can flood it with paint from inside the frame rail after it's cool, that'll have to be good enough. 

Welding your nuts: you're doing great. I think you've got more weld on that test than you actually need...as for heat management, if you were using your pedal you could have backed off the amps when you had the torch weaving over the nut and increased it over the plate. Add more filler to control the heat in your work too. Use your damn pedal, I'm tired of telling you. 

I think we may be way over Engineering here? How much load is really on the sway bar? 

Does that plate even need to be welded to the frame? Just let it sit inside it? 

In reply to java230 :

This isn't so much about over-engineering as it is just good practice when plating. I agree that we're talking about relatively low loads. 

I like the sandwich plate idea...what's the access like to the inside of the frame, Mr. Hungary? 

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Not quite.  I meant instead of doing the tedious drilling around the broken bolts.

Just make your plates and captured nuts and move the entire plate 10mm forward or back.

java230 said:

I think we may be way over Engineering here? How much load is really on the sway bar? 

 

Does that plate even need to be welded to the frame? Just let it sit inside it? 

I hadn't thought about that, but the frame is completely sealed.  If I went inside of it, it'd involve cutting and re-welding.

I could probably ge away with bolting the plate to the frame if I were to drill and tap screw holes, but honestly at that point, it's not much more work to weld.

Mezzanine said:

In reply to java230 :

This isn't so much about over-engineering as it is just good practice when plating. I agree that we're talking about relatively low loads. 

I like the sandwich plate idea...what's the access like to the inside of the frame, Mr. Hungary? 

Agreed on the low-loads.  This thing really just keeps the swaybar in one spot and nothing more.

No access to the inside of the frame unless I cut a window, I'm afraid...

wvumtnbkr said:

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Not quite.  I meant instead of doing the tedious drilling around the broken bolts.

 

Just make your plates and captured nuts and move the entire plate 10mm forward or back.

aaaaahhhh.  See, that would have been a lot easier.  I get it now.

See next post, I'm afraid.  Broken drill bits and everything because I didnt see your post until now...

Mezzanine said:

Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Mezzanine and Preach:

So the panels pictured are just my practice pieces.  The stock i have for this is 10mm wider and hasn't been cut to length yet so larger is possible.

Showing my ignorance here, but by "scalloped" do you mean like this?

If so, just give me a rough angle and I can be all over it.

 

Use your damn pedal, I'm tired of telling you. 

Yes, boss

So I had the entire week off last week, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldnt get a solid day in at the house or under the truck.  If I was at the house, I was getting interrupted by the police saying I needed to come down to pick up my transmission (oh, hey!  I got my transmission back)

(exactly how I was expecting it to be returned...)

If I was under the truck, I was getting calls from the water service provider that they needed me over to the new house "right away" as they had to replace our water meter (but then didn't bother showing up, so I had to do it again the next day).  short story long, I was getting rather frustrated with our lack of progress on either project.

Dont get me wrong, I do feel bad complaining that I got the transmission back when I had to resort to police involvement and even THEN I still had to wait a month before the shop could pony it up, but darn it I had big plans for this week.  I took vacation time and everything! 

Anyhoo, on Thursday, by some magic I finally got some uninterrupted truck time.  Here goes:

So despite my efforts, my truck parts pile keeps getting bigger.  First it was the transmission returned by the police (yay!)

and then the new transmission was delivered by the UPS guy (double yay!)

I've gotta say this about Midwest Transmissions.  They rebuilt and shipped a transmission half-way around the world in half the time it took ye olde local garage to return mine in worse condition.

Back to those swaybar mounts though.  We start like this:

and drill like this:

eventually we get around some of the bolts like this:

and then we smash them out of the way with a hammer and punch, like this:

Out comes the stepper bits, like this:

except they don't get very far because they hit something inside the frame, like this:

See that in there?  It's a plate of somesort that's only about an inch inside the frame.  It stopps my stepper bit before I can get the holes wide enough to fit the plate, like this:

So I fit a grinding bit, like this:

which was doing an amazeaballs job of making the hole wider, but still not fast enough for what I wanted...  eventually I went to the hardware store and ordered a 21mm drill bit and a 25mm drill bit, like this:

wham-bam, thank you ma'am.  But my drill did not like those big bits, not one bit.  Even giving it cool-down time while i messed with the plates in the garage, it was still as hot as the metal chips falling on my arms (holy polkadot burn city, batman.  My arm looks like i have freckles!)

Anyhoo, here it is clamped up:
 

(Driver's side)

(And Passenger's side)

Unfortunately, that's where we're stoping for today.  I don't have the confidence yet to melt things to my truck with electric fire, so I used that last coupon I had made for the practice it was intended:

Meh.  I welded, it helded. 

I cut up what remained of that first 50mm bar stock I had into similar coupons and called it a day.  I'm going to try to set aside another day sometime to play with those, and THEN I'll melt stuff to the truck with electric fire.

Good times.

A little over a week later, and I still haven't had a solid afternoon I could dedicate to melting stuff to the frame of my vehicle.  However, a certain tool DID arrive earlier this week, and I've been trying like the dickens to get out to the garage and use it:

That, my friends, is an Slee Off-Road IFS Toyota spindle bushing lube tool!!!

(With "Valve lapping compound of ominous premonition" there in the background)

Lets see what happens, shall we?

First, we start like this:

Step 1:  Remove the "C-clip of swear-word generation"

Step 2:  Thread on the "Adapter of the obligatory poser shot"

Step 3:  Pump the adapter full of "Grease of gooey goodness", and remove

Step 4:  Reinstall c-clip of swearword generation and repeat for passenger side

Anyhoo, I'm very happy with this thing.  Back in Tacoma, I tried to save pennies by making an adapter of my own.  I bought the spindle nut for the truck, and soldered a piece of pipe to it.  Then I capped the end of the pipe and installed a zirc fitting...  It sucked.

This badboy has an o-ring inside that keeps the grease flowing to where it needs to get to.  Every pump, I could see the driveshaft move in response to the pressure.  Having that done gives me one big warm-fuzzy.  (Note:  Back in Tacoma my spindle bushing went dry and made the WORST grinding sound if I locked in the hubs.  To fix it, I was going to have to take apart the hubs and drop the driveshafts to replace the bushing.  Not fun.  This 4wd isnt much good to me if I cant lock in the hubs, so this was a big one for me).

Anyhoo, with that success I thought I'd go on to install the wheel bearings, and then I figured I'd finish with a complete front end assembly.

Unfortunately, I ran out of grease right about here:

Meh.  Parts on order.. 2-weeks.

Anyhoo.  The above took me all of about 15-minutes and I really wanted to get some more garage time in while my afternoon was relatively free.  I figured since the spindle bushings were good and greased, I could go ahead and permanently install the brake discs and calipers (I had been waiting to do that incase they needed to be removed to facilitate the aforementioned greasing)

Lookin goooooood, if I do say so myself.

With both calipers on, I could finally bench bleed my new master cylinder and install that as well:

That's right.  "Racing Brake Fluid-600", baby.

I mean, this goes squarely in "a triumph of optimism, over reality" but hear me out:  My RX8 goes to the track and sips this stuff every couple of years when I bleed the system.  This stuff was opened about 2-years ago and I'm not sure if I trust it enough at this point to put it in my trackday car.  But I DO trust it enough to put it in a street driven vehicle that will never see the temps it's rated for (600f).

So overkill?  sure!  wasteful?  nah.

At this point I was going to invite the eldest Hungarling out to help me bleed the brakes.  He's in his final days of summer break, and I thought he'd have fun helping with the truck.  Unfortunately he beat me to the invite and asked if I wanted to come inside.  He's started growing some cilantro a while back and was ready to transplant the sprouts.  How could I possibly say no?

So, I wrapped it up, washed up, and left the truck looking very much like it looked when we started today:

Good times

 

Woof.  2-weeks without an update.  Sorry guys, work and home life has been absolutely berkeleying crazy lately.  It's like overnight it went off and turned itself into a Sumo wrestler that's decided to plant himself firmly  on my chest.  Any breath of fresh air I thought I saw over those two sweaty cellulite encrusted horizons, turned out to be nothing more than the methane laced exhaust of the volcanic region in between...

Anyhoo, it took some scrambling but I finally got caught back enough I could turn a wrench in anger.  But where the heck did I leave off??? 

Ok, so the brakes still haven't been bled, but I ordered a kilo of tig rod and that came in.  I had some questions about it being copper coated that I PM'd Mezzanine and Burrito about, both reassured me things would be ok, and they were  (it even says so on the packaging!)

Never mind that first dot.  I was still re-setting up the machine from last time.  This time I'm much happier with my welds, and even better Mezzanine gave me some much needed reassurance.  His vote of confidence was just the shot in the arm I needed to get this week rolling.

Looking back, the frame looks a lot like this:

Which I'm mostly happy with.

My idea here is to take the parts that are the MOST flush, and tack those first.  I'll then move the clamps to the parts that protrude a bit and see if I cant squeeze them flush from there.

The thing with this damn welder is, it takes both hands and my feet to operate.  I'm sure you've seen by now that I tend to revert to my finger switch when things get awkward, much to the chagrin of my welding teacher.  This time however, I rigged up a 2-tire setup where I used one for a pillow and one for a foot rest.  Something like this:

This is easily hours of setup at this point...  sharpening and cleaning the tungsten and filler rod.  Setting up the tires so I can be in a position to see what the hell I'm doing.  Cleaning cleaning cleaning, only to find that something isn't right and then to have to put it all down to move stuff around and start over again...

It's worth it though.  Eventually I'm able to lay a bead.  And then another!

Holy crap, you guys!!!  I'm welding on my truck, and for once I'm not screwing it up!!!!

 

Anyhoo, this continues as I brrrrrrrrrt, move, get set, move, get set, damn it, move, get set, aw heck, brrrrrrrrrrt, repeat. 

Eventually I get something that looks like this:

And that?  That right there makes me super happy

Of course, I wait until the very end to blob it all up:

But hey, I'm taking the win.  Some of those welds were awkward as hell, and sometimes I could barely see what I was doing.  Moving those tires took a lot of effort, and boy did my leg cramp like hell!  Not to mention I was constantly resetting the amps on my foot pedal as the knob would get all out of wack if the pedal scraped on the concrete...

Good times.

So, having the welder still hooked up and set up...  and having the plates on the truck too hot to do anything with (Judging by the smell, I'm pretty sure I started a leaf fire inside my frame at some point...), and having some more plates still made but not used, I decided to head back into the garage and play a bit.

See, I've been deliberately putting this "weld plates to truck" job off for a long time.  I really wanted a full afternoon to make sure I had time to practice and set up the machine, and really take my time.   Right now I'm really happy with the work, and I'm full of confidence at this point, and I still have more afternoon to kill... so I figure "why not try cup walking?"

Weeeeeeellll, maybe we're not quite there yet

Good times

Even with the cup walking, I had about an hour after that to kill.  So before I hit the truck with primer (still hot) I decided I could probably start getting the transmission ready.  It's another job I've been putting off, but I figure one good turn deserves another.  First up is putting the bell housing on the remanufactured unit.  Of course, I immediately noticed something right away with the old bell-housing (that was returned to me from the garage)...

Son of a mother berkeleying E36 M3!!!!!  I JUST installed that slave cylinder!!!  I put anti-seize on it and everything!!!!  Not the cheap stuff, mind you.  This stuff is Mil-rated for the igniters in turbine engines.  How the hell do you break a bolt on a freshly installed slave cylinder that's been coated in anti-seize that's rated for the combustion section of a jet airliner's turbine engine????  I swear these shiny happy people must be tightening these things until they break.  It's the only explanation...

Anyhoo, this isn't my first or even my second rodeo at this point so months ago I ordered a new bellhousing in anticipation of "crappy shop shenanigans".  So out that one comes...

From here I just have to figure out which bolts go where, because nothing was labeled:

 

And eventually (through trial and error, or just dumb luck) we get something that looks like this:

and this!

Good times

By now things have cooled enough that I can slap some primer on those welded plates, so I do.

(blob shown for your enjoyment)

and then I call it a day.  It's nice to quit on a win for once.  Even if I do have to go back and perform some screw removals on my old bellhousing someday.

Good times.

I'm pretty sure the weekend followed the weld shenanigans.  Sometime between then and my next wrench session, that grease arrived (in the largest box that one tube of grease has ever been shipped in):

And some time after that a CB I ordered arrived:





I still have a cobra HHRT50, with that magnetic antenna.  But it turns out that continental Europe may use the same frequencies we do, but they use FM (Frequency Modulation) instead of AM (Amplitude Modulation).  This Midland unit does both...

Sometime the following week, I was able to get a lot more free time with the truck.  The grease is in the tube, so I figure I might as well pause on the transmission and take care of that front end.  I figure I'm going to be in a HUGE hurry with this, so the night before I set out all my tools while the kids are getting ready for bed:

The next day I am out in the driveway as soon as the kids are dropped off at school.  Summer break is officially over and I've got my afternoons back!!!  Between now and 1pm, it is just me and this truck

I pump the wheel bearings full of grease, and use that spindle nut tool I got by accident to bolt everything together (you know, this thing is pretty darn handy.  I was wrong to complain about it, and if I were to do it again I would legit order one of these)

after that, it was a simple "wham, bam, thank you Ma'am."
 

Except it wasnt...

See the manual locking hub there?  yeah, that's as far as it would turn...

Short story long, something didn't line up inside, and when I took that part off all the springs sprung out with it.  It was about at this point that I was cursing myself for not doing this one hub at a time, but my Haynes manual came to the rescue with a very nice parts breakdown.

I got everything back together, figured out what the holdup was, and in the end we got a locking hub:

The passenger side, was the same as the drivers side, and as you can see the boss was super impressed:

After that, the tires went back on, and the truck was back on all fours again:

And Robert's your father's brother.
 

Shoot, would you look at the time?  It's not even 11-o'clock yet!!!

Absolutely ecstatic with my progress today, and not one to waste the morning, I start the prep for the transmission:

Everything you see in that picture, minus the pup, is going to get stuffed up under the truck

First things first, the rubber boot, clutch fork, and the release bearing:

Next things next, I notice the new transmission doesn't have a reverse switch installed,

So that goes in next:

Now because the internet operates in a perfect world, all I should need to show you is this:

And the next shot would be me putting in bellhousing bolts while wearing my spotlessly clean button down shirt with a sweater tied around my waist...

But this is my build thread, so of course things don't go that easy.

First I gotta add some shoring under the transmission because the jack can't lift it high enough to get it in place...  which means everything has to come back down, and be taken off the jack.

After I think I've sufficiently shored everything up, I try to wheel the jack back under the truck but the bellhousing hits the seam under the truck...

So back out it comes while I search for more wood that's thinner than the stuff I've got on now, but thick enough to lift it more than 3/4"...

I eventually end up something like this:

That's a craftsman jack with a vertical 6x6, not on the jack pad, but on the jack lever arm.  The motorcycle jack now has a 2X6 or two on top of 3/4" press board...

Disclaimer:
Listen... I don't know how to health and safety this enough that I wouldn't be held liable should something happen.  So if you find yourself doing this, don't do it because you saw me do it because I'm an idiot and I was very cautious not to be in a position where this all would come tumbling down on my head and EVEN THEN, it almost did...

/Disclaimer

Anyhoo, I have everything on the scaffolding of death, and I'm pushing and I'm twisting, and I'm adjusting but I can't get the bellhousing in that last quarter of an inch...

(I know, we've all been there...)

I figure the splines must not have lined up correctly so I reach for the tailshaft only to be reminded that this transmission has an "innie" and not an "outie".

"No problem!" says, I.  I'll just go crank on the engine a few times with a socket wrench...

I get said socket wrench, but when I get to the crank bolt, I'm reminded that I've got everything set to top-dead-center because I've disconnected the cam and I cant turn a thing...

Drat and double drat!

I ponder my conundrum a bit, and decide there's nothing else for it.  I give my transmission one last good SHOVE and I cant believe it, but she is IN!!!!!!!!!!!

heart racing, I've gotta get a bolt stabbed in this thing before it changes it's mind.  The bellhousing has two sizes of bolts, and I grab a handful, hoping I've got more than one example of each.  It turns out that I've got one big one (goes in the top two locations) and two small ones (goes about 5 and 7 o-clock low).

The big one is long enough to reach, but I cant get my socket on it.

The small ones I can get my wrench on, but they wont engage enough threads for me to be comfortable cranking on them.

So I grab my 3/4" socket wrench with all of it's extensions, a 3/8's adapter, and most of its extensions, a knuckle, and eventually we have something that looks like this:

Once I got that big one engaged, I was able to sandwich everything together enough that I could finally crank on the bottom two.  Unfortunately, at this point, I'm out of time and need to start wrapping things up...

But look at this!!!!

That transmission is in there, baby!!!!

Of course, the boss was as stoked as I was

Time to wrap up.

There's no rain in the weather forecast, so I left the driveshafts out.  But the t-case had to be moved back in the garage.  Tomorrow when I drop the kids off, I'll have another free afternoon for another thrash.  But for now, it's time to clean up and head to work.

 

Thursday now, and I figure I've got enough to keep me busy.  I've gone and put the tags talking about fluid on my door and steering wheel for the transmission, but that reminds me that I have LOTS more fluid drained out of this beast than just transmission fluid.  The trick I usually do is "if it's going to kill me or a critical car component, I'll put the reminder on my driver's seat"  (that way I have to sit on it or move it out of my way before I can drive it).  This is what my truck looks like at the moment:

Cool.  Health and safety complied with, I can move on with the t-case install...  I think I'll call this "and out comes the tap and die set" .  Because when I brought out the transfer case, and tried to thread in all the fasteners for a test fit, out came the tap and die set:

With that cleaned up, the transfer case went on the motorcycle jack (sans scaffolding of death) but I still need that jack with a vertical 6x6 to support things since the crossmember isn't in yet:

Things go much easier with this little guy, than they did with the transmission and I get it bolted in place with minimal fuss.  But all the same, I'm realizing that I may not have enough hardware here to do what I need to do...  The red oil filter box has all my driveshaft bolts, but there's just not enough of the other stuff to bolt things in (like the crossmember, some of the bellhousing bolts are still missing... the slave cylinder... the starter...) 

So a quick run to the hardware store was in order, so I could continue uninterrupted from here

From there, it was easy money.

the slave cyl goes in, the starter goes in, the front driveshaft goes in...

The rear driveshaft goes in

aaaaaaaaand......!


You guessed it.  "Out comes the tap and die set".

See the top left corner of the rear driveshaft?  Yeah, the bolt was stripped enough I couldnt thread the nut on...  Same with one of the front bolts too...

After that, it was up with the crossmember

and look close at that picture....  Yup.  Out came the tap and die set!

What gives here???  I've never had this many issues with bolts before!

Anyhoo, the crossmember was very much an "up, oops.  Wrong way.  Down, and back up again" ordeal, but eventually we get it in place.

After that, it was time for the moment of truth:

THE SWAYBAR

and out comes the tap and ...  just kidding.  That thing installed itself like it was it's job

After that I top filled one quart in the t-case, and three quarts in the transmission.  Nothing's leaking so I stab the shifters in place






It feels good to have that done.  Two big dominoes down with that right there.

Good times

Would you look at that???  For once, my pile of crap is getting SMALLER!

Woohooo! At least you have that tap and die set handy! 

java230 said:

Woohooo! At least you have that tap and die set handy! 

No kiddin!   I knew I was moving up in the world when I bought that kit, I had no idea how much I'd have to use it

I'm really racking my brain, but aside from a failed 1971 Datsun 240z project that had sat in a field for 5 or so years....  I cant think of a single other car that I've worked on that's had so many issues with its hardware.   I guess it's better to get this stuff out of the way in the driveway instead of the trail but still...