LUVTruck.com

when i tried to get mine off we had a hell of a time. for one, the treads have a little grove in them if you look close and a metal wedge wedged in , so when you do eventually get the nut off it will all be ruined... any way we had a 6ft cheater bar with pipe wrench and a torch still took over 2 hrs to get one nut off and we broke the 36 inch pipe wrench doing it... if you read the dealer shop manual it will say to replace the upper A_arm and ball joint as one unit.... so my uppers have not been changed as of yet. will eventually put on the pup upper arms with the easy to change ball joints...

PS if you look at the pic of the upper ball joint you can see the groves i am talking about

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My old but now gone Luv...

Thats easier, just see if you can hire/borrow a 3/4 bar off someone.


Or weld a bar to your adapter.


Bob.

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Current project, 1979 KB Isuzu Ute.

Daily driver, '86 Rodeo Spacecab.
Chasing parts for Isuzu Impulse.

The easiest way to fix this problem is to toss the stock upper and install the Trooper uppers.

A 3/4" impact wrench would probably due the job.

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1978 pro street step/side 455Buick, 4sp,4.11s, 31/18.5s

Wow, where does the time go, can't believe that it's been 2 years since I started this topic, and about that long since I actually posted anything in it. Well, don't fret, you haven't missed anything, in fact, since my last post I really haven't even worked on it. I did get it down to frame and cleaned it up, and POR-15'd the entire thing. The rebuild has been slow but I've finally gotten some motivation and desire back to actually work on it.

This last weekend I just about got the entire front end back together, still missing a couple things, but every night I have been able to do a little more. Spent a couple hours just hand making some gaskets for the 4wd hubs. That was an adventure, I didn't even know there were supposed to be gaskets in the hubs till I saw them in the exploded view. Good times there.



One of the other things I came across, I'm putting a header on, and discovered something that now has no where to go. Do I just remove it from intake manifold and cap it?



Next item, during the process of tightening one of the lower ball joints I noticed it wasn't getting tighter, just spinning. I'm guessing this is not good and that ball joint needs to be replaced (no big deal I have a couple more), but the problem is how do I get the nut off now? Since the stud spins with the nut and the nut isn't far enough on the stud to be able to hold the stud, any thoughts on how to get it off with out cutting it off?

Other than that, I'm not rushing through the process, taking my time, trying to make sure I don't forget things and do them right. So it's going to take time but hey, it's not a daily driver so I can take as much time as I need. (The wife somewhat disagrees, she would like to use the garage to actually park her car in it) I'll try to continue to update as I go, but I suck at taking pictures, honestly, I get focused in on doing the work and forget to take pictures. So what I'm going to try to do is at the end of each day I work on it, I'll try to take a few progress pics and go from there.

I guess that's it for today, I'll see ya when I see ya.

Chad

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Do the day don't let the day do you!

That tube with nowhere to go is the EGR tube. Take it out of the intake, cut in two, slide the fitting off the tube. tap the inside of the fitting for a plug (I think 1/8" pipe plug?) or bolt, thread both back into the bung on the intake. Do something similar to plug the air rail ports in the head.

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'78 Chevy LUV,1.9,4sp,headers,31's,SAS Dana 30,Dana 20,SOA rear w/Aussie Locker, rough body, bought new 12/4/78.
'87 Trooper,2.3,5sp,headers,31's,ball joint flip & spacer,Aussie Locker rear,Superwinch hubs,brush guard w/5.5K winch,more to come.

for my egr i did it real red neck style cut the pipe well reefed on it until it snapped closer to the rear of the engine then bent it shut with a pair of vice grips hahahaha but as for the exhaust manifold i welded a nickel over the hole that was left from the egr breaking in the first place. ill snap a pic soon when i get a header made.

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1980 Chevy LUV 4x4 Weberfied Sold
1974 Chevy LUV 4x4 Weberfied

And I'm back with another funfilled update...First up some pics of the frame finally back to a roller. The front and rear suspension is finally all back together with one exception. Just about ready to start putting the rest of the truck back on.

So first up the frame...




Now the issue I've come across. After putting the front back together, I noticed that the torsion bars seemed a little off. The driver side did not release like the passenger side did when loosening them. I have the front end supported and removed the adjustment bolts completely and this is what it looks like.

Drivers Side

Passenger Side


If you can see it, the Driver side is raised more than the passenger side is and it makes it just a bit difficult to adust back, as passenger side I can finger tighten the adjustment bolt 10 turns, where as the driver side is tight from the very beginning. I did a trial to adjust them 15 turns and was struggling to tighten the drivers side that many turns. Once I did that I measured the distance of the front of the frame from the concrete and the passenger side was about 1/4" lower than the driver side. So...any thougths on if this is a real issue, what the issue is, or how the issue can be resolved?

And finally here is what I've been toying with for the paint scheme. I may reverse it and have the purple as the main color with a yellow stripe.


As always, thank you for taking the time to stop by, and thank you for any comments or thoughts you may have.

Have a great day.

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Do the day don't let the day do you!

And finally here is what I've been toying with for the paint scheme. I may reverse it and have the purple as the main color with a yellow stripe.


As always, thank you for taking the time to stop by, and thank you for any comments or thoughts you may have.

Have a great day.[/quote]

that is an awesome little paint scheme mock up
i wish i had one to figure mine out
i think the yellow with purple looks pretty good

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

So I think what I'm going to do is take both Torsion bars out and reseat them so they are the same on both sides. Anyone see any flaws in this course of action?

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Do the day don't let the day do you!

perfect.

On a side note i think thats the 1st luv model ive ever seen. Lol id buy one to build nd put on my nightstand

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Danny Boy

i agree if i could get ahold of one it would be an epic collection piece

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

Just FYI...they are on Ebay quite often. you can generally pick one up for around $20 or less. I have I think 4, all in pieces, as the ones I've bought have either been already built or partially built. Still haven't gotten a complete unbuilt one yet as those are a bit harder to come by and can go for a bit more. Just have to keep an eye out .

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Do the day don't let the day do you!

If you want the truck lifted, but still have the original ride/stiffness, take the bars out, lift the frame up until the wheels float, install the bars and set it back down. Then you can crank the bars up to the level you want and the bars won't have as much tension on them then they would if you just cranked them up. We call this re-indexing the torsion bars. There is a thread about this around here somewhere.

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OK, I'm over it. Where's the beer?

Trying to figure out how to get them out, do they go from front to back, or back to front, anybody know?

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Do the day don't let the day do you!

I've got a trick for filling the air tube holes in the manifold. On my 80 I put spark plugs in the holes and torqued em in. Sealed em up tight as can be and I was able to eliminate the plastic tube that the previous owner had used to fix it. Had to replace that ghetto fix about every hundred miles when it burned through!!

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Jim
80 LUV 4X4 Stock Drivetrain, 3" Body Lift, Shackles & Torsion Twist
99 K2500 7.4l 4l80e all stock

i bought some 14mm bar and a tap. threaded it to fit. great seal with a bit of anti-seize. the total was under $10

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

Starting to make progress again. Front suspension is back together and complete, dropped the engine and transmission in. Getting ready to put the cab back on hopefully this weekend and can start working on the interior and wiring, then maybe get this thing fired back up and on the road by the end of the summer.

Battery Tray all cleaned and POR-15'd


Engine bay painted


Feels good to be making some progress, now to just keep at it and not get distracted...

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Do the day don't let the day do you!

It seems I'm missing one of these plugs, was wondering if anyone had one off of a parts truck they could send me?



Thanks for looking.

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Do the day don't let the day do you!

Testing some color options on the 4x4 badges, and my latest addition to the my growing fleet.

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Do the day don't let the day do you!