LUVTruck.com

Hey not being a smart aleck lol it makes a lot of sense to do a sas but i dont plan to wheel it its my daily when its on the road the most it will see is gravel roads hauling the dirtbikes out and low clearance screwing around. Its nice to have 4wd with the snow and mud riding in the mountains. But i like cornering like a little 2wd hotrod so im stuck with some extra fab time. So be it.

What im thinking is i can build a new upper tower similar to the 2wd setups but add some more height to gain some travel making up for the higher mounting point over the axle. Can get at least a 10" coilover in there and can build it to fit a 12" im already this far into it cant go back now sounds so much easier than it is... but using some square tube and a few gussets it shouldn't be hard to build a strong mount above the axle, and steel plate for the tower. Will be a fun little engineering exercise

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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

Keep in mind that the axle and CV joints may need servicing one day so this mount will need to allow room for that. In a full replacement of both upper and lower CV you'd want to drop the lower control arm away from the the spindle and axle to get everything free. If you have a loop welded in over the axle the LCA won't be able to get away from the axle.

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95 Isuzu Trooper Daily Driver
86 Isuzu Trooper reliable backup
77 LUV 2wd stock beltway blaster (resting)
79 4x4 LUV project: 2.6L, 5spd, 31s (eventually)

MEPR: Man, my 4x4 makes all other LUVs look good

Will have to do some designing and see what i can come up with without getting in the way of anything. Havent had the chance yet today

Edit:
My dad and i talked it over and it s going to be a lot more practical and simple to just make it rwd. The extra fab time and money just arent worth it at this point. So im in the market for a rwd 5 speed. Should easily make my money back on the 700r4/np208 to go get a rwd tranny with. Im not big into wheeling i have dirtbikes that are a lot more fun to beat on and can handle the abuse. Kinda sucks that i cant keep the 4wd but it is what it is. Just gonna leave the front drive axle installed for now will replace the control arms hubs etc later on but for now i need my truck on the road asap.

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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

I see you ran into my problem and i found that you can clock the t-case down with a clock ring you can get on ebay but the problem i ran into after i did that was the ground clearance and it hung lower than the diffs so sas is looking to be the best way right now since the stock suspension is not that great in the first place but i was determined to make it work because people said it cant be done.

Yep its either go 2wd. Sas. Or spend days and a ton of money on custom suspension. I dont need 4x4 i dont wheel it hard. Just makes sense to do it the easy way at this point i prefer driving it like a car than a lifted truck anyway.
And if i grab the lower control arms from a 2wd luv i can still do coilovers later on when i swap out the rearend but thats a project for another time

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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

worked out the game plan with my dad for the conversion. since the cab is off it will be a lot easier to get to everything I need to work on. going to leave the front axle in place for the time being I NEED my truck over the winter so trying to get it going asap. later on down the road im going to pull the front axle/hubs etc and replace them with the 2wd factory control arms hubs and such to do it right. probably next spring when I have the chance to park it for a few days.
right now I have the 700r4 and np 208 listed on craigslist and the rx7 axle is going to be sold to my friend for his rx7 drift car project. that should give me plenty of funding to get the rwd tranny, clutch kit and misc small parts I need for the conversion.
so far I know I need a RWD 5 speed chevy tranny, new clutch set for it, need the suburban driveline shortened, and make a new mounting point for a 5 speed on the suburban xmember. at that point it will go down the road at least. later on its going to need more work to remove the drive axle up front and replace it with the 2wd components.

thankfully the cab is already off it shouldn't take much to get myself setup with a rwd trans and let the front sit as it is for a couple months, it clears as is so I don't have to chop it out before I can drive.. engine compartment is ready for a coat of paint now and the rest will all go into place quickly

still expecting a good two months of work to get it back on the road so maybe by new years

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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

I don't know for sure but will 2wd control arms work on a 4wd chassis? I do know the 2wd torsion bar mounts on the frame is a complete cross member. Will the geometry be correct for the torsion bars?

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Certified pilots, looking down on people since 1903.

Not 100% sure thats something im going to have to look into when i get to that point. Not something im gonna do right away. If not i can make these ones work. Bolt in option would just be the easy way. Will have to compare my setup to some of the 2wd arms

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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

got my engine pulled, transfer case and transmission pulled, had to compress the front shocks to roll the chassis out from underneath the cab and into the driveway. spent a good bit of time with a putty knife screw driver and a big wire brush cleaning out the grease and grime from the control arms ball joints etc etc. got a TON of gunk out of there


spent a couple hours with a really aggressive wire brush wheel on my grinder stripping the frame, got everything from the bed forward stripped of all rust, and almost all the paint, didn't need to take it ALL to bare metal but I took the top layer off all around and most of the paint.






then hand sanded the back of the cab and the front of the bed,


I have to break out the lacquer thinner and a rag and I can primer and paint the frame, the back of the cab and front of the bed. gotta pull the bed off and get the back half of the frame ready to paint. I have another day off tomorrow and will have some time to tear into the back half and spray the primer. also going to check picknpull's inventory and see if I can find a 2wd 5 speed to pull for this. tested out my welder on a couple pieces of scrap metal to dial in my feed rate/amperage and gas flow. happy with it so far so I wont be long with the rest of the work would kill to be done by new years and drive myself to the hangover scramble

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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

Looks good man. I'll end up having to do that to the frame of mine at some point.

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My names Trevor BTW.

thanks, that wire wheel I had on my grinder made it soo easy to strip the frame.

going to try to find the right trans at picknpull in the next couple days, Camaro or s10 most likely I got a big list of the tag and casting numbers for chevy 5 speeds to bring with me. gotta get this thing rolling and I don't have to mess with my front suspension to do it

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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

spent another few hours out there today, not a whole lot to report on, didn't take pics until I had rolled the chassis back inside for the night
pulled the bed and stripped the majority of the frame, some small areas still need going over but its 90% ready for paint






bed still needs an afternoon of work put into it but that's next on the list.
have to pick up some black john deere implement paint the stuff is really tough and comes in spray cans, by the time I get my new tranny the frame will be painted and ready for the bed to go back on and set the cab back down.

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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

dad and I got my chassis painted today front to back top and bottom
this right here is some GOOD paint covered in the first pass and one can lasts forever. did the frame 3-5 times over depending on where with 3 cans

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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

had a pretty good morning at picknpull, went to Vancouver and had no luck, made it down to north Portland and struck out finding a T5... so I got myself a NV3500 out of a 95 S10, I don't know of any of you guys have tried pulling the trans out of a mid 90s s10 there is that ONE bell housing bolt you just cannot get to got to it by dropping the crossmember finally after a half hour of trying to bend the floorboard out of my way

not pictured but I go the flywheel, shifter, shifter boot, slave cyl, xmember mount and the line for the slave cyl, ran out of time before I could pull the master cyl, will just order one from rockauto


sadly there is a bit of damage...


but I have a 1yr +30 day warranty on it to if I run into problems I can go get a new one. Thankfully the crack that extended out from it was welded up and didnt come near the gearbox end of the housing wont have any leakage issues. Still wanting to at least epoxy a plate over the hole or have someone weld it up

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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

went back to picknpull got the front half of the 2piece driveshaft, the rod/boot for the slave cyl I forgot yesterday, pulled a couple misc small parts for other members from the luv there

now that I have my trans and the ends of the driveshaft I need I can bring it in and get one made, should have the trans and engine installed tomorrow or the next day, got two days off to get that knocked out and measure for the new driveshaft about to the point of assembly now. need to order a clutch kit and a few misc odds and ends and I can get it back together

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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

I might be mistaken, but I think the s10 nv3500 is a bit shorter than the full size nv3500. It should line up with the powerbyace 700r4 mount. The powerbyace v6 headers should clear if you trim the the dust cover attachment point from the passenger side. The s10 nv3500 also has a better 1st gear ratio.

If I had mine to do over again, and had the patience, that's the route I would take.

Yessir its a bit shorter and has a bit less steep first gear. I already chopped my stock xmember out so im going to have to do a little fabrication. Will be test fitting and measuring on my day off tomorrow and see where im at . I have pacesetter shorty headers that are reallllly close to clearing the steering shaft . I think it will actually clear if i can pull the steering shaft and put it back thru the middle tube that goes out and down. Will get a pic of that when the cabs back on
A few more little tweaks and such and the truck will be ready to be assembled

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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

Well more problems today. The slave cyl housing contacts the driveshaft flange on the front diff just before the trans fully bolts up. Its not my much so i think i can pull the input flange and the slave cyl will clear the diff itself. Engine is installed again tho and i have room to move it back a ways i flipped the mounts left to right side to get tcase clearance so i have a lot of room to scoot the engine back like 2.5+" and clear the diff flange

Will see in a few when my dad comes by to give my another pair of hands and an inpact driver
Other than that it looks good and the rear trans mount comes close to the xmember i bolted in so i can build an extended mount point off of it and up to the trans since the xmember hangs low.

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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

Well we looked at everything and it looks like just moving the motor mounts back will let the engine bolt up but then there is the issue of starter clearance so instead of half assing in tomorrow im going to jack up the front end and get to work dropping the front axle. Going to take a good part of the day but all that crap will be out of the way. Have to remo e the control arms and everything to get the axle shafts out amd drop the axle tube. Dad wants to weld in a tube or new xmember in place of the axle to strengthen the frame since we are taking the axle out and removed the stock trans xmember for a bolt in one. Im not sure thats necessary this frame is really beefy but the stiffness could help keep it planted. What do you guys think on that?
Gonna be a long day but everything extra will be out of my way and the front end will lose a good 80-100lbs

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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

i have my power by ace mounts flipped around with the nv3500, and there is a stock driveshaft in there that works. Im not sure what the driveshaft is from tho.

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If the system fucks you. You fuck it back!