Brody's 94 Front End Clean up

[Brody]

Ever since I got the truck with the POS ARB front bumper on it, I have hated the design of the bumper as well as the absolute cheesieness of the quality. I have managed to eliminate all but the winch plate in the center and I didn't like that either. The access to the winch control was a joke...and some extremely bad engineering to boot...requiring you to get down on your knees and fish your hand up from the bottom to get to the control. If you had gloves on, you had to take them off...So what I did was cut out the whole top of the remaining bumper over the winch, allowing me to operate the winch like a normal person. Anyway, enough said...ARB bumpers suck wind and there are many, many more and better products out there for much less..

Next in line was adapting a Toyota Celica fan to fit in front of the radiator. I had picked up the fan from U Pull It for $17 and just needed to get it to fit. It was a tight fit, requiring me to take off the front grill, reattach the PS cooler and relocate the tabs on the fan to be able to mount it. Since I managed to trash out the fog/driving lights that were on the front (revision 102 B of the front end), I already had a fused switch ready to go for the fan.

I then decided to eliminate the tractor turn signals I had put on and rewire the side marker lights as turn signals. Pretty much a no brainer as the wires were very simliar as far as markings went. I could have gone one step farther and replaced the relay, but I didn't care if the signals flash fast or slow...they just needed to work.

Lastly, since I was pretty lazy, I had never properly mounted the brake line tabs after installing the backing plate eliminator plates, so they were kinda hanging there. Nothing wrong with that, it had bugged me just because it looked (and was) unfinished. I made a couple of shorty brake lines, made a bracket using some brake tabs, and welded it to the steering part of the knuckles. This was the best place to mout them, but will require taking the brake lines off when I service the front end...no big deal..

Here are the pictures:

[1freaky1]

big improvement, it doesn't look so heavy now

[Funrover]

I need to add an eletric fan on my Volvo.. you just reminded me.. LOL.. Go to see you don't waste your rime Pete

[Brody]

I need to add an eletric fan on my Volvo.. you just reminded me.. LOL.. Go to see you don't waste your rime Pete

Junkyard it...

[Funrover]

I plan on it

[Pathrat]

You can take a truck apart and put it back together like I can take apart a body; with skill and without fear. However, I think your skill is more useful and has a higher coolness factor. I admire your work.

[Brody]

You can take a truck apart and put it back together like I can take apart a body; with skill and without fear. However, I think your skill is more useful and has a higher coolness factor. I admire your work.

Thanks very much, Stephanie! It is less bloody, too...or is until I manage to tag myself on something....and I don't get to work with microscopes...

[Pathrat]

:lol: You have bled more doing your work than I have doing mine!

What are you doing up? :brody::D

[Brody]

What are you doing up? :brody::D


Trying to stay awake long enough to pick LaDawn up at the airport. Her flight gets in at 11:00 from Vegas. She and her Mom had to go down there to take care of some of her Stepfather's business as he had passed away.

She hadn't seen him since she was 3 years old and her Mom didn't think too much of him, so there was no drama involved, just stuff to take care of being next of kin..

I'm tired....

[Pathrat]

Trying to stay awake long enough to pick LaDawn up at the airport. Her flight gets in at 11:00 from Vegas. She and her Mom had to go down there to take care of some of her Stepfather's business as he had passed away.

She hadn't seen him since she was 3 years old and her Mom didn't think too much of him, so there was no drama involved, just stuff to take care of being next of kin..

I'm tired....

good that it was not full of drama, that kind of thing goes so much easier when it is matter of fact. At least you can head out pretty soon.

And, off this topic, I will have to watch for the consensus date on the axle rebuild. You described the parts to take off as if it were common knowledge and easy, and for lots of other people I bet it is, but Miss Visual here wants to see this take-down.

[Brody]

You described the parts to take off as if it were common knowledge and easy, and for lots of other people I bet it is, but Miss Visual here wants to see this take-down.


Yeah, but I didn't do that for people who haven't done it. That reply was to someone who sounded like he had done it before. What I described was the quicker 'broken Birfield trail fix' which, like you mentioned, only makes since to someone who has had one apart.

This would be good for to you to watch even though this is primarily for a straight axle with Birfields, it will show all the working parts. Maybe I can walk you through the broken CV stuff when you are hear. As long as you are IFS and wheel like you do (even though you are a careful driver and don't hammer down unless there is mud), sooner or later you are going to trash a CV. Wouldn't be a bad idea to try to locate a spare from a yard to carry with, especially for those desert jaunts..I'll keep my eyes peeled. These are fairly cheap..

[Brody]

For anyone who reads the Toyota Owners magazine, there is an article in the newest one about a fan install in a LC 80. I happened to open it the other day and noticed that, aside from having to rearrange some little brackets to fit, it is the exact same fan that I installed in my heap...essentially a Toyota fan (mine came from a donor Yota passenger car).

The biggest difference is that they paid $288 for the fan and I paid a whopping $17 at a junkyard. As they do help with lowering the temperatures, they only reduce the actual temperature about 10-15 degrees. This is noticeable on the gauge to some degree, but is more noticeable climbing hills where you don't see the gauge start to creep up.

I would probably have taken the fan back if I had paid $288 for it as the results helped, but not $288 worth of help. For the $17 I paid, I feel like I got a decent return for the money...