Offroad-Express

After lots of questions, talk and planing MT is finally doing a sas on the Mu.... and a wee playing round with the rear to level it out
Basic deal is as cheap as possible, definitly helps when you know the parts manager at Toyota
So we are looking at hilux axle which he got for free (discovered later there were a few missing bits and it was bent ) mounted on a set of Hilux IFS rears and extended shackles... change the steering over to X over steering running an IFS hilux box, out back SOA and just extend the shackles to level it, MT is gona try and do as much as possible that said I think he's sick of the grinder....
As it rolled in the shop friday night

And yes MT is the one about to do the haka The fun begin's toy up on jack stands stipped all the IFS out , the drivers side A arm had to be cut out bolt was rusted to the mounting bush to the piont the truck was moving on the stands from the hammer used to try and push it out.... cut the bastard off with the nine inch
Lots and lots of this

It ends up like this

taking a break from grinding I helped him setup the axle.... noticed the axles didn't want to go in... oh joy pull out the straight edge and have a measure up found both sides were bent alot of pissing round and its straight again... funny thing they never bend where the americans put there bracing its alway either side of the pumpkin going either forward or back
Anyway a traded 4.56 slippery in there and the axles drop in this time, then start sorting the swivil housing kit... this is where we noticed the solid axle which he'd bought in parts was missing a few parts only 3 taper washers and nuts
managed to scrap up another 8 from bits in the shop so we set up the arms, while he was grinding I'd machined up a couple of arms for a budget X over kit this is about as strong as I can make this setup

putting in the new longer studs

The lower arm torqued up

Spacer block over the top so the clamping force of the upper arm is transfered to the lower arm not reliant on the studs, note the slot there is a key left in both arms to provide a mechanical advantage

top arm on and 3 out of 4 torqued

Tomorrow night hopefully get the IFS hubs on and axle ready to weld the front X member in

Go the Mothers Utility ....

Cheers Reece

Looks good Always good to see a solid axle mu

was a mothers utility now its a
MANS Utilitly!!!!!1

Its a shame i cant change my user name, it should read MadMu or Mutilate

or just Mutt.....

go you good thing!!

Was a slow night last night I was a bit distracted with expanding the workshop twice the floor space now Yehaa
MT got a bit more of the axle done, only one drama but my throat is a little dry at the moment in need of some thing to keep it occupied
Did a bit of playing

this or



This


Oh and heres some pic of the ARB bumper I've finally talked him into getting rid of ugly piece of.... opps almost forgot your selling this wonderfull, brand named piece of crap



Cheers Reece
De Ranged Engineering :lol: hey I'm in a bigger building now

De-Ranged wrote: only one drama but my throat is a little dry at the moment in need of some thing to keep it occupied

i'm sure i could be of service...

double the shop space huh? just think of all the cool projects and parts ya can fit in there now! mint!

niblik wrote:

De-Ranged wrote: only one drama but my throat is a little dry at the moment in need of some thing to keep it occupied

i'm sure i could be of service...

double the shop space huh? just think of all the cool projects and parts ya can fit in there now! mint!

good on ya nibs, a bit far for a beer run, but I never turn away free piss

hmmm a valiant ranger ute with a 265 hemi, rotory powered trike... as for parts still sorting through the stuff I've had stashed.... found a few bits and pieces I'd forgotten about

build has changed a bit, now looking at bigger feet I really should hide those 37's a bit better

i think 35s will be more practial than those massive 37s!!!!!!!!!!!


Anyone got some old 35s forsale?? and cheap?? lol

cheep, lol, wrangler 37's are cheep

Time for me to update a few build threads guys are getting a bit bumed that they don't have em up to show off so time for a day on the computer
First up some stuff on this toy
With all the grinding done the discussions started about how much lift was going to happen with the SAS lets just say we don't need to rehash this end result is we did a spring over on the rear axle and decided to go from there

This diff is now for sale if anyone is interested we've now gone to a Surf rear for more width and more diff ratio options
With this mounted on the original shackles we started on the front

Running a set of Hilux rear springs up front this is where we ended up thats a 33" in there at the moment

With everyone happy the shackle mounts were made

And becouse I believe in doing it right instead of fast


becoase its going to do alot more road k's than playing we went with standard height hilux shackles add a bit of bling nice shinny greaseable ones


More to come soon...

Nice work Reece

Next installment
Not liking the factory welds that hold the piece of tube that the front x member sits under and becouse we needed some recovery pionts... beefed up things a bit

With the axle in place time to start sorting steering, after looking at mounting a Surf box, 60 Series cruiser box and different options with pitman arms... made the call to leave the standard box and pitman arm in there as it clears the diff and drivers spring just
But becouse its a bit shorter than the toyota ones there is a loss of steering lock and the steering would be slow the lost lock was only 5mm either side at the steering arms.... an actceptable loss... till I noticed an binding issue with the ball joints so here is the answer I came up with

Made up a new arm to drop the balljoint down and line it up a bit better and while I was at it shortened it up so steering is now at a good speed and full lock
Oh and did a IFS hub swop for more wheel track too.... got to love toyota engineering to line up the brakes one side I had to machine 1.5mm off the posts the other side I had to take .5mm
With the front axle in and steering next on the list was Drive shafts and a bit of extra width for the rear
This is where we hit a problem, the front drive shaft. Becouse the Izuzu box is so short and the UJ's have bugger all flex (alot less than the toyota ones I prefer to use!!) I"ll put up a pic of what I've had to do to get flex out of the one we have to use after looking at all the options we decided to swop the front head to a high pinion 4.8 and put a hilux surf rear axle in this improved the gearing and allows full drop
the axle is dead easy to drop in everything lines up the only issue is brakes to sort this we did a disk conversion on the back using a hilux front solid front disk and Mitzi Gallant calipers

the cables just needed trimming and a new end fitted
To help line things up made a new gearbox X member that lowered the box about 30mm




Bugger it my fingers have had enought More to come...

Cheers Reece

Awsome work dude

WOW...there is some serious work going into this. Awesome stuff...

got a bit of spare time so here's some more
Right remember my comment about slack Isuzu UJ's here is a toyota one below vs a standard isuzu

The other thing is there is no way to make a toyota one fit with out an adapter ring which moves it further out making the angle it needs steeper catch 22
So after a bit of clearancing we end up with this

the blue is contact ink I used to mark where the meat had to come off.... still not as good as a toyota one but good enough to do the job oh and that is welded to a hilux shaft too
With the back Drive Shaft becouse of the road K's this is gona do as daily driver I pushed for a double cardinal joint (takes out the fast slow from the eliptical motion you get in a CV that is bent ) the joint Jess supplyied was off an IFS truck so I clearanced it out a bit to get some more range out of it

the pic is from machining the end that goes into the tube I use this to hold it while I clearace the ball housing thats in the chuck
Being a slip yoke ment that I had to do something with the end of the shaft so I machined up a flange welded it and then machined it true so we can bolt up the CV joint

The X member needed a bit of clearancing I think in the pic you can see the brace I welded on the back and bottom to make up for what we removed

Thats enough for today I'll finish the rest tomorrow Jes

Cheers Reece
De Ranged Engineering
027 541 8794

Very nice

Well the trucks finished now, just doing some bit and pieces here nd there,

Heres some of the build, had to play with these leaf packsto get them flat and not inverting





Heres the final flex shot





Ill get more pica out on the trail,

Just need bar work and a winch o 35s