D21 Build

[Meleemaker]

Grew up in a F150....got it and sold it a couple years later when I eneded something better on the fuel economy. Winter after winter I missed having something 4x4. My buddy had this one and I was a pretty big fan of it. Fifth gear went out on his birthday. I offered to buy it. Picked it up for 600 dollars. 2.4 KA engine

It didnt have a lot of rust when I bought it, third owner. First had it practically forever and my buddy had it maybe a year before I ended up with it. Unfortunately they salt the crap out of the roads where I live and it accelerates rust like nobodys business. Complete 100% rusted through floorboard in my car within 2 months fast.

Anyway....





So far I have just replaces most of the brake components. I still have a problem with leaking brake fluid with the Ebrake pulled out so I have to be careful where I park so I can let my vehicle warm up(with windchill it was -55 yesterday with a base temp of -24 which isnt uncommon here). Also did some work on the ignition switch when just about anything would start it.

I have ball joints, shocks, and tie rods sitting in my living room floor right now. Waiting for a nice day to put them in(see -24 degree above). Dont have a garage to work in at home and the shop at the school is very picky about what we get to do to our own vehicles. My suspension is so wrecked and the steering is just as bad, so im hoping I can get them in soon.

Hopefully before I do the transmission, I can rebuild the engine and put some near bearings in and do a basic rebuild. I am pretty sure it jumped a tooth somewhere in its life and I just have to convince my instructors its not hard to pull out the top. Because according to him, its too hard to find information on rebuilding it and its going to be "too difficult to pull out". So instead I get to pull a 4.3l V8 out of a lexus, because thats going to be easier? Whatever.

Within the next couple of weeks, I want to rebuild the transmission and get fifth gear back. Second also has a tooth missing...so im shifting from 1-3 and its hard on the bearings lugging. And my buddy rode the clutch pretty hard and its about paper thin. So getting a clutch and gear set on order soon with some synchros....


And as for aftermarket, I wanna basically jack it up some. Maybe 3-5 inches. But I cant find anything I want besides the upper control arm kits and im not sure if I can get even 1.5 inches out of my old torsion bars. I dont want to resort to just doing a small body lift, but I will if its what it comes to between a few grand on a custom set up.

And exterior, probably just fix the rust for now. The tailgate is going to get a beautiful black with a blue pearl over it and a little reaper. Thats the closest thing to being done right now on it. Just a few more hours of push and pull before I can pearl it and clear it. Then its just sand sand sand sand sand sand and reinstall.

I want to remove the interior entirely. Upholstry stripped out and bedlined. I want to replace the dash with a custom diamond plate steel and put in all new guages. Not sure how far I will get with that, but I am pretty sure I could figure something out. Did a few dashes that way this last summer working at a weld shop on a pretty cool rig....Lucky for me, it was all coil overs and easy to work on.



But as I work on it ill try to post some updates and pictures.

[Rev_D21]

Glad to have you on board. Looks like a good project. Tell your instructor NICO has all the information he could ever want on these trucks. Have fun with the build!

[goodoldd21]

Nice solid looking truck---well worth putting some work into. Where do you live that it's 55 below? We've been getting close to minus 20 Celsius here in Ontario the last couple of weeks and that is bloody cold, so I feel for you. I know how salt on the roads eats our vehicles---it is only due to oil spraying mine that I've been able to keep it solid. I know that Rev D21 knows too, living in New York state. Hey, best of luck in your build! Regards, Gary

[Meleemaker]

I live in South Dakota....practically North Dakota.....base temps usually dip down to -20 Degrees C a lot, and when you add the usual 15-25 mph windchill factor, it gets bone chillingly cold. I usually allow my pickup to warm up around 10-15 minutes before I go anywhere and use a block heater.

That 55 below was with windchill...I think it was -33C and 22 mph winds gusting to 37. That was over Sunday and Monday last week....The sides of my pickup is covered in white salt....I really need to take it to a car wash and clean it off before it gets worse....

[Meleemaker]

So I'm still alive. Been super busy try to post some updates tomorrow when its nkt

[Meleemaker]

Alrighty....havin fun and making waves. Ive been SUPER busy the past six months it seems. I was finishing up my last months of technical school....lining up a job. I got engaged and was planning a wedding. Well yeah that didnt pan out. I started working at an independent shop. And ive been working 55 hours a week trying to turn enough hours. They started me on flat rate immediately so it was pretty rough and still can be. I also had my laptop run into multiple issues including hard drive failure...twice.

But....im still building it. I got the tailgate painted up real nice.




Thats with and without flash. Its a waterbourne paint from auto air. Gemshift sapphire over dark sealer. Looked black until you hit it with the light.

This kind of demonstrates it better.





I also did more routine maintenance. Plugs, wires, cap, rotor, filters, and re greased all the bearings. I replaced all the shocks all the way around. Ball joints and tie rods were replaced. Diff fluids....transfer case....and transmission fluid.

I also had my tires slashed. I had 235s with really nice tread left. Like 60 percent. Tires were just put on before I bought it. So I ended up going with some nice 31x10.5


Pulling out a stuck Jeep. Ended up pulling it bout 12 miles back into town too. Handled it like a champ.


Getting a ticket because my horn didnt work.


Pre 31s picture on the hoist.


Somewhat attractive girl looking way more attractive cutting bolts on the shocks.




I did the audio last night. It had s*** vr3 5.25"s 100 watt speakers in the doors. Which is the only speakers this thing has. The deck was garbage too. Id hit different presets and it would change the equalizer and change it to mono and turn it off and reset presets and basically none of the buttons works properly. And the passenger speaker had a terrible cone in it. New set of kicker speakers that are 200watt(and shallower than the vr3) and a pioneer deck fixed it. Beautiful sounding and way better than before. The old deck had the mounts taped together to hold it in place. Wires were twisted and taped. Well I got it all wired up. The antanne adapter was broken. Someone tried to twist it and broke the wires...or most of them. So I went to get a new one. Sitting in the walmart parking lot putting it together because I didnt want to drive the 10 miles back to the shop to put in a handful of screws....got it working. Turns out the switched 12v power on the ignition(not accessory) will blow the taillamp fuse with the antennae plugged in. I was heading back to the shop to fix what I thought was my dash illumination issue. Got pulled over at 3:30 in the morning for no tail lamps. Officer was really cool about it and let me go. Turns out that power wire which was hooked up to the last deck does not need to be. Saw a few other people with that issue on here with 240s and such.

Anywho....some of the guys I work with suggested a small 4bt cummins and transmission for it. I like that route. I think im going to go that way with it once the transmission fails entirely and replace the whole drive line and go the diesel route. No emissions or anything like that to worry about. And we crammed in a 502 into a 57 belair. I bet we wcould get the cummins to fit this bad boy.


Next plan of action for Sheila(my pickup)....
Probably make a set of boxes for some 6x9s to set in the back. I like having the nice upgrade, but might as well do it all at once.

Replace right CV shaft. Boot got torn up and parts are on order to be delivered friday.

Remove the bed and start a mock up for a flatbed. Probably a limited metal frame with wood panels to save on weight. Shorten up a bit too. Making a rollball/light rack to mount some off-road lights. Im sick of being out trail riding and having to either back up a long ways in the dark...with windows tinted pretty heavy....or just not being able to see enough to the sides.


Thanks for lookin....tried to post some pictures to keep you entertained!

[Meleemaker]

My carrier/hanger support bearing bushing was completely destroyed in about a day. So i ran over to my local napa. She asked what the diameter was. I looked at her, you got the book. You tell me what it could be. I hadnt torn it out yet because I didnt have a new one and parts are usually a couple days wait minimum. CV shaft was 7 days. Well she had one on hand and i got the old one off and installed the new one. I greased it up real good and made sure it went on the correct way. Well I have a pretty bad shake shimmy shudder under load at 10-15 mph only. I know my one UJ was boarder line. Had a little bit of resistance when I spun the caps. So I may be back in to replace that.....

I picked up some kicker 6x9 speakers to put in the back. Gotta get a decent box for them....may have to just build one too. Pretty happy about that.

Did some more thinking. I am pretty sure im going to run the 4bt diesel with a manual trans/transfer case. Run drive shaft straight back no hanger bearing. From that point/during that swap I will be putting in a solid front axle. I heard that the 98 f250s work well if you shorten the tubes up a little. Probably try that route. But damn those ball joints suck to replace its easily an all day job to do both sides when you have to pull the diff and do inner axle seals.

Starter mock up for a flat bed with light rack. Had a busy last couple of days. Had monthly training....next night we had a girl threatening to jump....then friday night we had to clear out a bar to put out a fire. Today we had a nice size grass fire out of town a ways.

[captn cookie]

Hello all,
I am new to the hard body world, and have just bought a 1996 2.4 4x4 5 speed king cab hard body. When I purchased it the guy said he screwed the timing up doing a tune up at night with his buddies. I should have known that something was up but I bought it with high hopes. When I towed it to my house I fixed the timing which was way off almost as he did it on purpose. It ran but was rough I thought ok maybe he fouled out the plugs. So I do a proper tune up when doing so the oil smelled like pure gas. When i completed the tune up and started the truck it was knocking very bad. I called the seller he said he knew that and thought a tune up would fix it. The truck only has 145k miles on it so I am asking should I rebuild the motor? My intentions to do so are if it is able to is have the block tanked (cleaned), trued, bored .002 or as I say 20 over, honed, and replace freeze plugs. With that have the crank grounded and polished if possible. I have seen some rebuild kits on rockauto that come with new pistons, front seal, rear seal, rings, bearings, oil pump, and all the gaskets. I plan on purchasing new connecting rods and water pump. A master mechanic friend of mine said that he check/rebuild the head if need be to square away a friendly debt. I would have the head inspected to see if it needed to be trued and cleaned as well. So I basically would have a new engine. My question is any suggestions to this? I have rebuilt several engines So i am always looking for a project. Looking forward to all input.

[Desert Rat]

Unless you're going to run serious horsepower and huge tires, the F250 axle is way overkill for your truck. If considering a solid axle, find an 80-91 Wagoneer (full size) with a non vacuum disconnect axle if you want to do a leaf spring setup, or a 77-79 F150/full size bronco setup if you want to run coils.

Nissan4wheelers.com has many solid axle swap threads to read through and get ideas. Most of us there have been there and can answer questions as they come up.

Tell me more about your diesel swap idea. The stock trans isn't going to hold up to tons of torque, but the Tcase is pretty stout. Unfortunately they're married and need to stay as one unit, else you'll be needing a full drivetrain swap.

[david29]

Luvs me some 4x4 action as much as seeing lowered trucks. Keep it going.