Jeff tries to make a hot rod out of a farm truck. '92 Mighty Max

[vegasidol]

[quote=""DCIV""]Oh I want a raider. In fact a raider would work better around the small areas of my house.

The truck has a couple parts with it. Pulling a trailer is near impossible. Can't turn it around easily (have to jack knife it, and the shorter wheel base raider would be easier than a Yukon) but if I go to dump trash with a trailer they make me go to the top where all the trash is. It's vial, can't breath, muddy as all get out, and you then have to empty the trailer. If you just had a truck...you could park at the bottom and empty it in a trailer that they later take up top.

These truck come with power strait out the gate, no modifying, no swaps, no V6, just here it is. They are also newer for the same price.

So in short, I want a raider project vehicle, but I need a truck to do what I have in front of me, while I have no time or money for either.

Sorry for cluttering up your thread.

Coop[/quote]

How often do you have to dump trash?

[DCIV]

It's the trash from building. It will also after be dirt for around the house. You don't really wanna push a wheel barrow up our hill.

I always wanted a car hauler...not at this house so really a raider would work better for snow and what not, but a truck would work better for hauling stuff. I also have the money, I shouldn't spend the money but I have it. That's what frustrating. It's just been 2 years since I've gotten to work on my car, my crv sounds like a wheel could fall off with all the popping, I'm just frustrated on all levels.


Coop

[BATMAN]

[quote=""Jeff V.""]To be fair, it's not parked in front of our house

It would have been nice to have it in my garage, but with it not running, it'd have been a huge pain to get it up our driveway and moved around.[/quote]


Use a used tired attach it to your mightyjeff and push the mightyred around!

[Jeff V.]

Tonight was another good night. I managed to dig out the grunge and find the transfer case drain bolt. The rear transmission mount is unbolted and it's sitting freely on the cross member. I gutted the front of the truck as well. The only things left to remove are the fuel lines and the front motor mounts. Barring any unexpected events, the engine will be out of the truck on Saturday.

While I was at it, I pulled the AC compressor and bracket. The bracket isn't going to fit my 6G74 without some very creative mods. Using the Montero Sport compressor probably isn't an option since it's highly unlikely it'll mate up with my AC lines.

Speaking of the AC lines, it looks like someone crossthreaded the hell out of the ones that were on there. When I removed the dryer and condenser, half the threads sheared right off. I don't care about the dryer, and the condenser was smashed anyway. But hopefully I can save the hard lines. Not a huge loss if I can't, but it'd be nice to have them.

The alternative would be to try to retrofit the entire AC system from a 97-98 Montero Sport. I really hope it doesn't come to that.

[DCIV]

You could use some "soft" ac lines and then use which ever compressor and fittings you want to attach to your system.


Coop

[vr4]

Use the 74 lines and have a local shop make hoses using your existing ends to mate up with the parts you need

[ChargerX3]

Interested in hearing more about the bracketry. I has hoping to take the accessory bracketry off the max and seeing how well it matches up to our blocks. As a contingency plan I nabbed the accessory bracketry from a 74 montero that had the accessories mounted in the same location minus the alternator and hydraulic pump. Those are just vertically swapped. I can make that work.

I'm still working on the ac lines. Might weld up my own or have a hose shop make up some new.

[DCIV]

I've done both, welded and rubber hose. Both work just fine.


Coop

[Jeff V.]

Use the 74 lines and have a local shop make hoses using your existing ends to mate up with the parts you need

Think it'll matter that I'm mixing R12 and R134 parts? I guess I could always find someone to braise the aluminum hard lines together.

Interested in hearing more about the bracketry. I has hoping to take the accessory bracketry off the max and seeing how well it matches up to our blocks. As a contingency plan I nabbed the accessory bracketry from a 74 montero that had the accessories mounted in the same location minus the alternator and hydraulic pump. Those are just vertically swapped. I can make that work.

The front bracket is fine. It's the one that bolts to the side of the block that's the problem. At a minimum, it's going to need some spacers and to have one of the ears cut off where it would run into one of the motor mount plates. I'm still not sure what to do about the bolt that goes in from the front, near the tensioner.

I only looked at it for ~5 minutes last night, so don't put a whole lot of stock into this yet.

[vegasidol]

[quote=""BATMAN""]Use a used tired attach it to your mightyjeff and push the mightyred around![/quote]

[ChargerX3]

[quote=""Jeff V.""]



The front bracket is fine. It's the one that bolts to the side of the block that's the problem. At a minimum, it's going to need some spacers and to have one of the ears cut off where it would run into one of the motor mount plates. I'm still not sure what to do about the bolt that goes in from the front, near the tensioner.

I only looked at it for ~5 minutes last night, so don't put a whole lot of stock into this yet.[/quote]

Good to know. Im tempted to keep the old brackets, but not super excited about the V belts I would have to keep as well with the high revving Mivec. Probably just go 2nd gen Montero anyway.

[aaronatstate]

[quote=""Jeff V.""]Think it'll matter that I'm mixing R12 and R134 parts? I guess I could always find someone to braise the aluminum hard lines together.[/quote]

Shouldn't. You'll just have to make sure you have the right fittings for R134. Just make sure all the mineral oil is out of the lines (if they are R12 lines), because R134 uses PAG oil. Also need to make sure you get the right PAG oil too.

[DCIV]

More important, make sure you pull a vacuum on it for a good while. (For those who don't know vacuum destroys moisture)


Coop

[Jeff V.]

I probably already know the answer to this question, but let's go through it anyway. It's not like anything else is going on.

I installed a set of factory mud flaps on my truck. I noticed the right front tire would rub when I turned the wheel. The left side was fine. Plenty of clearance. The flaps bolt to the body and not the frame.

The truck was hit pretty hard on the right front corner. As far as I can tell, this only screwed up the body and the right corner body mount on the frame. The hit was far enough back to screw up the base of the windshield pillar on that side. The suspension seemed ok. I had it aligned a month ago, and it came in dead on.

So what are the odds the passenger side suspension is just pushed straight back? I'm really, really hoping it's not the suspension pickup points on the frame. Hopefully it's just a bent control arm, which is on my near term list of things to replace anyway.

The suspension creaks on that side when it's loaded, so I'm wondering if it's bent and putting some weird angle on the torsion rod on that side.

What do you guys think?

[DCIV]

Could it also be work body mounts? Suspension fatigue? I would eliminate all easy solutions till I started thinking like you.


Coop

[ChargerX3]

I would hope its just the control arms bent. I would start by measuring the center-line of the front hub to the rear wheel axle. That should at least confirm the offset.

[vr4]

[quote=""ChargerX3""]I would hope its just the control arms bent. I would start by measuring the center-line of the front hub to the rear wheel axle. That should at least confirm the offset.[/quote]

This.

[Jeff V.]

I checked it before I left the house just now. The wheels were as straight as I was going to get. It looks like the right side might be pushed back about a half inch. I really hope I can fix that with new arms.

One other thing I checked. The Sport engine has a v-belt for the AC compressor. So that matches the Max. That'll save me some headaches.

[ChargerX3]

[quote=""Jeff V.""]I checked it before I left the house just now. The wheels were as straight as I was going to get. It looks like the right side might be pushed back about a half inch. I really hope I can fix that with new arms.

One other thing I checked. The Sport engine has a v-belt for the AC compressor. So that matches the Max. That'll save me some headaches.[/quote]

Good time to upgrade to the gen2 upper control arms. Then steal the lower from your other max.

Yup, same v belt i noticed that too when i was looking for a new accessory main bracket. Its like its meant to be.

[Jeff V.]

Got a late start today, but it was overall successful. My original plan was to pull the engine and trans as an assembly. That wasn't meant to be. I'm really glad I didn't have any intent to keep this engine. Whomever worked on it last was an idiot. A bunch of the bolts are mismatched. Some of the hose clamps were missing. The crossover pipe for the coolant wasn't bolted down and basically fell out when I touched it. Most importantly, all the lifting brackets are missing.

At this point I was pretty grumpy. The only way to fix the mood was with the official junk food of BAWC.



So I decided to drop the trans out separately. I've got no idea how I'll swap the transmission on my own truck, because I'd be clueless how to reinstall this lump without a hoist and a proper transmission jack. The transfer case sets it way off balance, and the main casing of the trans is cast iron.

At least I don't have to deal with that right now. The transmission, transfer case, and about 5 pounds of sludge are sitting in the back of my truck.



All that's left to pull are the wiring harness, torsion bars, and a few other random things. Tomorrow is unfortunately off the table, so it looks like it'll be another few evenings after work. Barring any setbacks, it'll go to scrap next weekend.