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What did you do to your truck today?

Discussion in 'General Truck Info' started by Coast Steve, Aug 25, 2010.

  1. Ronin

    Ronin Active Member Supporting Member

    Looked at the winter tires, decided they're not gonna do another winter, down to the snow indicators. Plenty of tread left for summer, gonna burn 'em up and throw on my other set of snows come fall. Maybe new tires/rimps next spring... got a summer set of mags but the offset is wide (no good here, ist vorbotten) and the rubber is shot anyhow...

    Hit the trails around here plenty anyhow so that'll work.

    Did flip the fronts and rear tires/brake inspection and service. Noticed a torn CV boot on one side, pick up a new one Monday and fix that.

    Greasy anyhow... might valve adjustment this afternoon, got one or two that are tight, one or five a little loose. Spare valve cover gasket set on hand already, been meaning to do it for a while.

    Then she'll really purr... :D
     
  2. Eric Pickle

    Eric Pickle New Member

    Two new Monroe 32207's under the rear of my '92 Daihatsu Hijet today...

    Found out that the wheel spacers I was going to also install have too small in diameter holes for my studs to come through.

    Win some, lose some!
     
  3. darisb

    darisb Member

    I replace the v-belt on my 1990 Hijet. About once a month, since I bought my truck last fall, my battery would be too week to start my truck. I would charge the battery and it would run fine for about a month. I was getting ready to have the alternator rebuilt, when I noticed that the v-belt was really loose. I went to tighten it and discovered that the alternator was already adjusted all the way out. I did some research, and almost bought a Napa 15310. I compared it to my old belt and it appears to be about the same size. I picked out a 25795. That was too small. I returned it and bought a 257300 (same dimensions at their 15300). That fit perfectly. The alternator is centered in the adjustment range. I checked the alternator output with the choke on and it was 14.2 volts. Unnecessary purchase avoided.
     
  4. Ronin

    Ronin Active Member Supporting Member

    Nice when that happens. :)

    Just an oil change, and filter... with the new exhaust and recent tappet adjustment she purrs like a greased duck.
     
  5. Ronin

    Ronin Active Member Supporting Member

    Find your local neighborhood machine shop and get 'em drilled, or if you've got a drill press have a careful go... how much larger do they need to be?
     
  6. ttc

    ttc Active Member

    Finally chopped off the muffler and put on a more free flowing muffler. Not to loud too
     
  7. Gus the wise one

    Gus the wise one New Member

    Me I got my truck running, mostly, and took it out for a drive. BIG SMILES, all around.
     
  8. Gus the wise one

    Gus the wise one New Member

    Today I changed a fuel line now starts much easier. Also changed spark plugs.
     
  9. Tuskano

    Tuskano Member

    Haven't been on in awhile... but got a fiberglass battery cover in the shape of a NOS bottle complete with a sticker to make it look official. That has been the latest mod.

    And attended a car meet down in Portland back on the 3rd of July.

    Oh... and expanded my scooter addiction. Big heavy thing.
     
  10. ttc

    ttc Active Member

    what scooter is that on the truck in the last pic?
     
  11. Tuskano

    Tuskano Member

    It is a 2004 150cc Diamo Velux. A Chinese scooter that came with a convertible hardtop... sadly it flopped on sales numbers
     
  12. Ronin

    Ronin Active Member Supporting Member

    A brand new set of Dunlop 6-ply LT rubber, and passed inspection. GTG for two more years.

    Steady on//
     
  13. theguide

    theguide Member

    20160729_152501.jpg 20160731_153542.jpg 20160803_145519.jpg My girlfriend and I took the dogs (not the chicken) for about an 80 mile ride around my camp here in Maine :)
     
  14. ttc

    ttc Active Member

    Truck looks good did you fab all the brush guard? I have been looking at quad ones for parts to fan on and a winch Mount
     
  15. theguide

    theguide Member

    20141122_120220.jpg1.jpg 20141122_120227.jpg1.jpg 20160717_201702 (1).jpg

    Thank you,
    It started out as a full size pick-up brush guard and I heavily modified it to fit the mini truck. I had to narrow it by 18" and beef it up for side pulling with the winch. like everything I build its way overkill but I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. I attached a few pictures of the brush guard I bought off craigslist for $40 before I started cutting it down to fit. I also built the rear receiver bumper and installed LED lights in it.
     
  16. kbrucetupper

    kbrucetupper New Member

    Where did you find those?
     
  17. Ronin

    Ronin Active Member Supporting Member

    Buddy has a shop, rubber was in stock.

    Note my location. :D
     
    kbrucetupper likes this.
  18. Ronin

    Ronin Active Member Supporting Member

    Nice truck T.Guide, and your work on those bumpers is superb.
     
    theguide likes this.
  19. Push-rod

    Push-rod New Member

    Put side boards on the bed. All real dump trucks are supposed to have side boards.
     

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  20. ttc

    ttc Active Member

    I have been building a road on my property, wish i had a true dump box to save beating up my 3 way dump[​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2016
    Bobacuda likes this.
  21. ttc

    ttc Active Member

    [​IMG]

    My wife and son picked up a 82 gs650g
     
  22. mad659

    mad659 Member

    Bucket seats on mine a couple of days ago. Should have done it alot sooner.
     

    Attached Files:

  23. I'm not really sure how many more years I'm going to get out of my mini truck. I didn't look at the passenger side, but as I was working on the truck yesterday, I noticed that the drivers side strut tower cap has a crack. I suppose it's possible that I could cut and weld it, or weld a piece of steel over it to reinforce it, but I don't know how much it would help. Over the last few weekends, I've been taking the bed sides and tailgate apart, scuffed, primed and painted the outside, and sprayed new truck bed lining on the inner surface. I went with almond/tan color instead of the original white. I wanted to treat the rust spots and clean up the appearance a bit. At some point, I want to remove the bed itself, then paint the sides and underneath.

    [​IMG]

    Yesterday, I disconnected the 6" off road lights a previous owner had installed, replaced the wiring harness and installed a quick disconnect at the back of the cab, removed the mounting bar, cleaned up and painted rust spots, added a grommet where the wires passed through the cab, painted and re-installed the bar. I've also ordered some LED lights to replace the old 6" pods. Even though the old pods were chrome, the pods were prone to rust and the chrome plating on the reflector itself was peeling off, lessening the effectiveness of the lights.
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  24. Today, I did some work on the electrical. I disconnected the wiring that a previous owner had installed for operating the off road lights at the top of the cab. Instead of using a relay, the existing wiring went from the battery, to the switch, then to the lights and finally to a ground. Best I can tell, they never used a fuse. I dug through my boxes of wiring and came up with 8ga power wire, 12ga and 14ga speaker wire, a fuse block and some relays. I hit up the hardware store, Wal-Mart and Radio Shack and bought up just about all of the 12 gauge blade connectors I could find. I also looked for 1.25" plugs to cap the end of the crossmember but I couldn't find any so I've ordered some online. The battery is on the port side of the vehicle but the wiring harness is to come down from the starboard side so I used the round crossmember to keep the wires from hanging up on anything. Once the caps come in, I'll drill holes in the caps, install them with the wires passing through the center.
    [​IMG]
    This side isn't done very well yet. There is a splitter in place inside the crossmember and that parts fine, but the rest of the wiring is kind of a mess. I'm running twice as many wires as I currently need as I plan to add a small light bar in addition to the two light pods already in place. I ordered a couple waterproof relays that I'll use to replace the relay I currently have installed. Once parts arrive, I'll be able to clean up the wiring.
    [​IMG]
    Alrighty, so the previous owner had a pull up / push down switch in place at the back of the arm rest, the round hole by the 2WD/4WD label. There was a hole drilled up through the floor right near there and there was a fairly rigid 12ga wire connected to the switch. The other side of the switch ran up the back of the cab and through a 1/2" hole drilled in the back. I'm not using that route. The switch for the light pods have been moved to the lighted toggle switch below the handbrake. I'll later have a second switch next to it when I do a light bar install. I used the existing 12ga wire run by the previous owner to connect to my new switch but power for the lights don't run through the switch. I'm waiting on some 5 amp fuses to be able to properly wire up the switches. The previous owner had a pair of chrome 6" 55w lights on top of the cab. I've removed those lights and am currently working on the wiring harness for a pair of new 36w Cree 7" flood lights. Each light should draw about 3 amps instead of the 4.5 amps that the previous lights operated on. The light bar I'm looking at is a 4-row 180 watt 15" light bar, half flood and half spot. Should draw about 15 watts.
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  25. I finished wiring the lights on the mini truck. I'm not sure how happy I am with the outcome, but they are connected properly and they work. I don't think the platforms that the lights sit on are perfectly horizontal. I wanted to sleeve all of the wiring harness in black tubing but I ran out. Each light has it's own fuse, right now connected with 10 amp fuses because I don't have anything smaller but I'm going to lower them to 5 amps once I get them. The fuse holders have a red LED on the housing that lights up if the fuse blows.

    https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/14232012_10211184849201190_6841113062473096331_o.jpg
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  26. Today, I started on another project that I didn't really plan on. I knew that the front bumper cover had a number of scuff marks and a few small cracks so I wanted to take it off and examine it more thoroughly to see what needed to be done. Some of the cracks were fairly substantial so I decided to try to address it. First pass with Gorilla Glue. With the bumper cover off, I also decided to clean up the rust spots on the cab, seams were metal panels came together, the doors rubbed against the bumper cover and so on. It might be a bigger job than I planned for, but it needed to be done.

    After the first pass with Gorilla Glue and cleaning up the exterior surface, I'm going to lay down expanded metal patches intended for drywall repair, then bold those to the cracked areas. I'll be sanding down the exterior where there are some pretty good gouges. I may or may not treat those areas with body filler before sanding again, priming and painting, probably a satin or semi-gloss black.
    [​IMG]
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  27. darisb

    darisb Member

    I bought some Carlisle All Trails for my HiJet. I plan on getting them mounted Saturday.
     
  28. darisb

    darisb Member

    I took my wheels and new All Trails to a tire shop to have them mounted. The shop called and said they didn't like the way the bead looked on one of the tires. I called the place I ordered the tires from and they shipped another tire out today. I'll probably leave the HiJet on jack stands until next week. I also want to check the oil in the rear differential while I have it up on jack stands.
     
  29. My new water resistant relays came in yesterday so I revisited the wiring for the off road lights. Wiring the lights starts at the battery with an 8 gauge wire connected to a fuse block and a 30 amp fuse. On the other side of the fuse, I split the 8 gauge wire into a pair of 14gauge wires, running them through the crossmember in front of the rear axle and capped both sides of the crossmember with plastic hole plugs. Next, I located a 3/4" hole in the bottom of the frame rail, installed a rubber grommet and snaked the wires through the frame rail, forward to the back of the cab, using a pair of small holes to exit the frame. Power to blue, red to lights, black to ground.

    I'm going to be replacing the wires I previously ran to the switches in the cab. They're 14 gauge wire and the shielding is a little heavy for what is needed. I'll be running a pair of 16 gauge wires from the white leads on the relays to a pair of mini ANL 5 amp fuses, then to the switches in the cab and finally to ground. I'm trying to keep the wiring as clean as I can but that's hard to do.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  30. darisb

    darisb Member

    These tires are not going to be easy. The nobs on the inside of the front left tire rubs the springs. The nobs on the right front passes through the space between two coils. I found some 1/2" wheel spacers. I don't want to space the tires out too much. I was looking at the left front tire and wheel, and it is not centered in the wheel well. It's closer to the front of the vehicle. The right front is fairly centered in the wheel well. I need to see of I can adjust the left front strut back a little. If not, on a good bounce, the tire is going to make contact with the bottom edge of the door and the wheel well.
     

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