Project: Toy-rover

[andy3542]

thought id post up a build thread of the mod's iv got planned for the land rover over the next few months. I'm fed up with breaking with land rover diffs/axels so iv decided to change that once and for all and do something a little different at the same time.

thought about buying turoa's set up but decided to go with 60 series and soa so have just bought a set of 60 series axels off Jason (ClassicCruiserSpares) with disc brakes all round. rear is fully floating and has been sandblasted and painted with new rotors and pads.

picked up a pto (just the winch no shafts or pto drive) cheap and a 60series power steer box with about 60000km on it even cheaper. still need to get a lot of parts so progress will be slow but ill get it done when funds allow.

current-
245 hemi
landcruiser 4 spd gearbox and transfercase
standard axels
2" lift springs

planned-
s.o.a on 60 series axels, 4.1 ratio (to start), discs all round
power steering
pto
-44 off set rims (still to buy)
spacers depending on final tippyness.

new plan (in progress)
4 link front and rear
custom tube tray

ill post up pics once i get underway.

[tomsoffroad]

Cool.

[sibainmud]

Nice one Andy. i was wondering what you were going to call it.
Subscribed.

Cheers,

[niblik]

why soa? definately do the 60 series diff thing, thats way coolies width wise but if ya go soa, it gets the thing way fugly.. trust me.. i've had a rover there before.. uncool..

still, if it is what ya want, go for it as its only my 2c worth..

woot for the rover!

[phraza]

Ah thats what the power steering box is for haha

(saw the landlords Jeep get picked up yesturday, god damn that thing is nice)

[Sadam_Husain]

x2 on what nibz says on the soa, I know your thread isnt asking for opinions but for what its worth its not easy to get a reasonable soa without ending up so high the cog makes it scary to drive or the spring packs so low and soft that the bodyroll is equally as scary.... at the end of the day you want to enjoy your truck and enjoy driving it and if it dosent drive nice your not going to enjoy it ... IMO

my mate stuck some 40 series cruiser diffs with 825x16 tahs (huge for the era ) on widened rims into his landy in the early 1980's, a bit of guard trimming with a standard sua setup that thing always drove well and its still around today parked up on a back lawn under a tarp. I left the cruiser in the photo coz skiddy will recognise it as No1 on its madien shakedown voyage 20 years ago if he looks through this thread

[andy3542]

power steering pump turned up today although not in as good a nick as the guy said
on the plus side though the power steering lines that came with the toyota box screw and seal on nicely so i guess thats 1 less expense to worry about.

quick question the 2 holes on the power steering box are labeled "D" and "B". which one is the in and which is out?



cheers

[klompy]

D will go to tank and should be slightly bigger than B.The port closest to the input shaft is always the return as the seal is not high pressure so will only see return pressure.

[Sadam_Husain]

Yep just like Klompy says, they look the same but you'll find the low pressure return fitting is slightly larger than the high pressure fitting... so I found out last time I had some hoses made up


*70 series box pictured but just the same other than rear facing pitman arm

[andy3542]

not much progress really but isn't that the story of all builds...

powersteer pump doesn't fit and finding one in good nick is turning out to be near impossible so looking at using an electric pump out of an mr2. its been done in the states by a few guys with what seems like good results.

so I'm on the hunt for a mr2 pump preferably under $300!

started work on cleaning up/finishing the interior, made up cardboard templates of a gauge holder and got hold of a wetsuit to make up a gearstick cover.

diffs should be here this week so hopefully can get properly started this weekend.

cheers

[Sadam_Husain]

have you worked out what bits your using for the steering shafts and collum yet Andy or is it still a bit of a work in progress, is it a road legal truck you'll have to certify or anything goes?

[andy3542]

have you worked out what bits your using for the steering shafts and collum yet Andy or is it still a bit of a work in progress, is it a road legal truck you'll have to certify or anything goes?

still abit of a work in progress. have several sites where guys have done a conversion using other boxes and oldyella's thread has some good pics too.
still trying to sort out what pump will work best and then when the diffs arrive and are underneath i can work out where best to mount the box and from there work backwards. I'm open to suggestions/idea/opinions on what might work best...
iv got the 60series box, steering shafts off a hilux surf and i picked up a hilux surf power steering pump today.
realistically it'll be a trailer queen although id like to have it on the road someday.

cheers

[Sadam_Husain]

dunno if its any use to you and as everyone already knows theres 1001 different ways to do a power steering conversion, the location of the steering box will mostly be dictated by where the front axle locates coz you want to keep your tierod and draglink reasonably close to each other but without touching and also without being on a big angle to each other. When I did my 40 series cruiser conversion I used a 70 series collapsable shaft (I did mine with a rear facing pitman arm 70 series box not a forward facing 60 series box) to get from the steering box up to the firewall and chopped the round flange off the end of the steering shaft coming out of the steering collum and had a 14mm spline cut onto the end of the shaft to match the spline on the end of the collapsable shaft and grabbed a 14mm UJ off and old toyota starlet to join the two together, a landy steering box sits up by the firewall the much the same as a 40 series cruiser so that might be an easy and certifiable way of joining it all up, it cost 50 bucks to get the spline cut and I think they charged me about 15 bucks for the UJ at pickapart

[niblik]

rover steerin sucks arse.. sooooo.......

cut the worm drive off the bottom of the steerin column and trimmed up a manual cruisers steerin spline, pressed into some pipe and plug welded..


then made a captive bracket and mount to locate the bottom of the column and keep everything 'true' durin turning etc.. bolts go through the bottom of the column, through an alloy spacer, into the threaded bracket.


mounted.. note the grub screws to locate and secure the inner bearing onto steerin shaft..


made up a twin pulley.. hope it lasts.. had to configure this twin pulley system as 1 belt around the lot wouldnt get enough purchase/contact area on the pulleys.. (alt, crank, water pump, power steer pump)


as the steering box sits, its forward most bolts sit in line with the front most crossmember, so there was no way of gettin around it. cleared out some room, and welded some nuts on inside of plating securing box. rear bolts go through chassis and are crush sleeved..




then welded plate onto chassis goodly..


finally, the box sittin purty..


thought i may bolt through plate at front of box right through chassis.. just to be safe.

new bracket..


and here she is mounted.. ya might be able to see the sliding adjuster i put on the back so as to provide a tensioner on this belt..

[andy3542]

cheers for the replies guys! especially your pics niblik. I'm thinking about doing what you've done because as you say the land rover boxes are sh*t. iv also got pics from other guys who have done pretty much the same thing and got it to work very well. my only question would be around certifying it?
im leaning towards niblik's set up but keeping as much of the land rover bracketry there as possible so if i do get it certified it could potentially be set up like yours sadam.
the surf uj's fit onto the 60series box so ill be able to use those and most of the column. really just hanging out for the diffs to arrive so i can get started properly. jason said he'd sent them on the 18th so they should be in auckland this week.
cheers

[Sadam_Husain]

my only question would be around certifying it?

mounting the steering box is pretty straight forward with a couple of plates either side of the chassis rails with crush tubes, you cant do any welding on the steering shafts, you can shorten and re-spline shit but as far as I know they dont accept welding anymore, I dont know if you need a collapsable steering shaft if the box is mounted behind the front axle, you do if its mounted in front of the axle, probably worth downloading the lvvta doc's and/or do a bit of asking around on their forum so you dont end up having to pull it all to bits and re-do it to get it to comply with certification

http://lvvta.proboards.com/index.cgi

[andy3542]

so now i can actually get started....

[andy3542]

progress....

[andy3542]

Just planning ahead has anyone bought knuckle rebuild kits off trademe from a company called BTS Taranaki?
Cheers

[Sadam_Husain]

dunno about those BTS ones but a lot of those kits use pretty cheap chinese swivel bearings these days, I think the terain tamer kits still use koyo bearings and the last kit I got from BNT a 3-4 years ago had japanese bearings. If your bearings are ok it might not hurt to just price up the swivel and axle seals from Toyota they had brought their prices down and were pretty competitive a few years back but I dont know what there like now?

[Big]

Based on a doco a while ago I would stay away from anything made in china that could potentially be lethal.. buy quality and it'll last much longer .. Also when you are at it.. the rebuild .. drill a hole and pop a grease nipple into the kingpin area as it'll save you time greasing it up after river runs etc .. Ive drilled out the filler plug and completely filled the nuckle as I havent done a rebuild yet and couldnt be farked pulling it down to get a grease nipple on the king pin but will do when I do pull it down..

[andy3542]

cheers for the replies guys. After living in China for 6years iv bought my fair share of 'good quality' chinese parts for the motorbikes I owned up there. Will price up some good quality bearings (the current ones are stuffed) and genuine seals ect from toyota. As for the grease nipple i already had that planned.
Cheers again

[suzolla]

If you are not going to get a kit, have a look at these bits. Particularly the wiper seals.
http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=28018
Cheers
Tim

[andy3542]

got some more done today... as always a few hours work looks like nothing sorted an airbox with 3" in and out off a primera thatll fit nicely so allow a 3" snorkel. also figured out how to mount the power steering pump. thinking about rear mounting the radiator as well which will allow me to recess the pto and give next to no approach angle as well as keeping the radiator clean.
cheers

[andy3542]

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthre ... 984&page=3

thats what were going for at the end of everything...

slowly making progress... have removed the rest of the front and done some measurements for the steering as well as mocking up a dash design.

next week plan to get the tray off and hopefully get the rear diff underneath.

cheers

[andy3542]

spent the day with ron (crazybustard) on saturday and have agreed to buy a cherokee motor and all the extras off him, which will end up in this truck or another 1 at some stage but for the moment will sit in the corner of the garage. he also told me about a 3/4link rover he knew of that used mitsi arms.

so new plan (once iv done some measuring) and talked to my fab guy more is 3 link front, 4 link rear.

on a side note the shocks i ordered from marlin crawlers in the states still havnt been shipped (nearly 1 month on) and i havnt had a response to my emails or forum post... has anyone else had problems with them?

[jeremy]

Don Kyatt sell the Terrain Tamer knuckle kits with good jap bearings etc - 09 263 6021 ...it'll work out much cheaper than buying from toyota.

[ClassicCruiserSpares]

spent the day with ron (crazybustard) on saturday and have agreed to buy a cherokee motor and all the extras off him, which will end up in this truck or another 1 at some stage but for the moment will sit in the corner of the garage. he also told me about a 3/4link rover he knew of that used mitsi arms.

so new plan (once iv done some measuring) and talked to my fab guy more is 3 link front, 4 link rear.

on a side note the shocks i ordered from marlin crawlers in the states still havnt been shipped (nearly 1 month on) and i havnt had a response to my emails or forum post... has anyone else had problems with them?

There Email and forum is hopeless and you wont get any response but if you ring them they are fantastic to deal with and very helpful.

[Batfastard]

Don Kyatt sell the Terrain Tamer knuckle kits with good jap bearings etc - 09 263 6021 ...it'll work out much cheaper than buying from toyota.

Yep you are so right bought a ln106 kit on friday all fitted and was only $80 including gst a bargin.

[andy3542]

been collecting more bits. (trailing arms, springs, seats, diff rebuild kits) and pulling more bits off.
only thing worth taking a pic of -

ordered 5 so id have a spare. but theyve sent me 4x 14" and a 12"....