1997 Sketchy SleepyDad build

Those are some friends you got lol all my friends run for the hills when I being up tools or cars in different sentences lol

That looks awesome. How labor intensive is it to break the body from the frame?

You got brakes, harness, AC, Electrical stuff. And body mounts. I'm sure I'm missing other stuff.

Awesome work. I'm envious

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 
STI_MECE said:
Those are some friends you got lol all my friends run for the hills when I being up tools or cars in different sentences lol

That looks awesome. How labor intensive is it to break the body from the frame?

You got brakes, harness, AC, Electrical stuff. And body mounts. I'm sure I'm missing other stuff.

Awesome work. I'm envious

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

pickup body, roll frame out, roll new frame in, lower and adjust only takes 30 mins. I did a ton of prep work. I like things to go as planned when the time comes.

radiator, heater core lines, rear heater lines, ebrake cable, fuel lines. AC can stay with the body. I ended up pulling the starter wire harness out from the fuse box and doing that with the frame.

I have been working on that frame since this last spring. a couple of hours after dinner whenever I could sneak out into Santa's workshop.

it's a boat load of work, but that depends on your end game. I like the "looks like it came from the factory" appearance once I'm done. I take my time, no rush I want things to turn out looking nice and be serviceable.

if you have access to a lift and some help you could totally do it in a weekend.
Would be a couple of 10-12 hour days. just really depends on how far you want to go and what condition the donors are in. other than the engine, trans, steering rack, and 3rd member nothing else was usable. rust belt 21 years of winter rusts things into solid non serviceable globs.
 
sleepydad said:
<a href="https://imgur.com/wK9pYBB"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/wK9pYBBl.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>
Click to expand...

You have access to what makes this so easy Post lift, Dollies, extra hands, you have it covered. Lookin real good.

Did you use Energy Suspension's body mount kit or something else ?

With body off would have been perfect time to add bigger and more drains to shock buckets that bugs me every time I wash mine after wheeling, ha.
 
96RedRunner said:
You have access to what makes this so easy Post lift, Dollies, extra hands, you have it covered. Lookin real good.

Did you use Energy Suspension's body mount kit or something else ?

With body off would have been perfect time to add bigger and more drains to shock buckets that bugs me every time I wash mine after wheeling, ha.
Click to expand...

I paid for access 2 the lift. we worked out a cash deal at the end of their day on Saturday. worked out perfect. I pulled in some favors for the grunt work.

rented a car dolly to shuttle things between my house and the station. it was their first ever body/frame swap so everybody was curious and helped a bit. they are just a service station so they mostly do tires/brakes. great group of guys we all had a good time (I think).

100% yes those are my dollies. I figured it would be a nightmare to try and align things without them. it made it easy to nudge this way and that. It went down and we only had to tap one the fronts a couple times to get it to settle down. nothing got crushed or rekt. I did have to mess with the rag joint a bit but it also slipped into place.

Yes I did go with the energy suspension mounts, they also aligned perfect and everything seems legit. once I get it back on the road I can make a comparison to the OEM mounts on my other truck. still waiting a on new radiator to come next week. should be running by next weekend I would think.

I think the prep-work is everything in something like this... if you don't plan ahead and think things thru you can get into a really bad spot.
 
Last edited:
holy lift batman

pinky is all back into running condition minus the rear bumper... will need to figure something out with that.

the toytec 3" lift is way.... more than the icon 3" lift. or maybe because pinky has lost 20%-30% of his body to rust?

I had a couple of coolant leaks because I forgot to move the clamps into place, DOH!

bleeding the brakes was a biach. the only thing that worked was a combination of the pressure gizmo on the master and a vacuum bleeder from the caliper side. it took 3.5 jugs of brake fluid to get the entire braking system filled back up. the vacuum bleeder is a good addition to any shade tree setup.

<a href="https://imgur.com/diVc4M4"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/diVc4M4l.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>

brake bleeder setup... run the master @ about 15 psi and the vac full tilt boogie and things flow enough to get the trapped air out of a new system.
<a href="https://imgur.com/MxXbKjY"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/MxXbKjYl.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>
 
I am a fan of my motive bleeder. I just use it to create pressure on master cylinder resivoir after I top it off then I'll go open bleeders, you know the drill.

15 psi seems a bit high though lol I'll run 3-5.

Glad it worked! It does take some time to get that fluid through those empty lines!



Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 
the trip end here for now

I decided I would move over my 4xinnovation bumpers to this truck. gives me an excuse to get something else for my 2000 next year.

I still have a lean code giving me an engine light... I think it's the O2 sensor as it just seems to go dead all of a sudden. not sure and I also have an air bag sensor light on? not sure what that is about. also need to pickup a flasher relay to avoid turbo flasher mode.

I have put maybe 200 miles on it so far and the Eibach and poly body mounts ride ok. not as nice as the OEM/Icon setup on my 2000 for sure.

however for a budget setup it's not bone jarring. stiff and firm yes but it still rides pretty nice. it rode way worse with the old OEM 22 year old stuff. was like driving around on a board.

also need to trim those fender liners and maybe saw some other dead weight stuff from up front. trusty rusty is set to make it another winter, finger x'ed

<a href="https://imgur.com/nm8XpXo"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/nm8XpXol.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>

<a href="https://imgur.com/cmgaLds"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/cmgaLdsl.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>

<a href="https://imgur.com/LV5Ttpt"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/LV5Ttptl.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>
 
Hey sorry I did not see these

MStudt said:
I'll deliver mine for a frame swap! How much?

Mike
Click to expand...

I would totally do this again, it was a lot of fun. if I had a big pole barn with a couple of stalls and a lift I would take orders. sadly that is not the case. My wife told me I would not be doing this again until I finish her master bath remodel or I would be throttled in my sleep.


APhelps said:
how much difference does the poly bushings make?
Click to expand...

I posted above but... my other truck I replaced the mounts with all OEM toyota and have an Icon setup. that I can use for comparison. I also have a land rover so I can also compare based on that ride.

From what I can tell the poly mounts are much firmer but it's not harsh or jarring. The toyota rack setup is kind of mushy IMO where the poly bushing are tight. the steering with poly bushings is very responsive. so you can probably think of the same with the body mounts. I can feel the road and terrain more but it's not bad. I'm ok with a little feedback from the road.

some people like the super soft ride and your not going to get that with Poly bushings IMO.

hope that makes sense?
 
sleepydad said:
I also have an air bag sensor light on? not sure what that is about.
Click to expand...

Maybe you've done this already, but check that this sensor under the battery tray is plugged in snuggly (see below). This is the airbag sensor and will cause the airbag light to be on (don't ask how I know).

oo4KVd7.jpg
 
weekendclimber said:
Maybe you've done this already, but check that this sensor under the battery tray is plugged in snuggly (see below). This is the airbag sensor and will cause the airbag light to be on (don't ask how I know).

oo4KVd7.jpg
Click to expand...

the SR5 97 only have the airbag sensor up under the center bezel. I think they added the impact sensors up front in 99?

I don't have those sensors in the engine bay.

I think it might be about the seatbelt sensor, I also added driver and passenger seat heaters to this truck :) since it's the winter beater.

I grabbed a nice passenger seat belt out of a 98 from the junk yard because my drivers side seat belt was starting to tear. I have been reading up and there is something about the seat belt tensioner needing to be set correctly?

like I said not sure yet... need to dig around a bit and maybe figure out what I missed? who knows I forget to plug stuff back in sometimes and then have to go digging back into it and find it.
 
sleepydad said:
I grabbed a nice passenger seat belt out of a 98 from the junk yard because my drivers side seat belt was starting to tear. I have been reading up and there is something about the seat belt tensioner needing to be set correctly?
Click to expand...
Tensioner should only be an issue on the '99+ trucks, they have the pre-tensioner squib in them.

-Charlie
 
sleepydad said:
I decided I would move over my 4xinnovation bumpers to this truck. gives me an excuse to get something else for my 2000 next year.

I still have a lean code giving me an engine light... I think it's the O2 sensor as it just seems to go dead all of a sudden. not sure and I also have an air bag sensor light on? not sure what that is about. also need to pickup a flasher relay to avoid turbo flasher mode.

I have put maybe 200 miles on it so far and the Eibach and poly body mounts ride ok. not as nice as the OEM/Icon setup on my 2000 for sure.

however for a budget setup it's not bone jarring. stiff and firm yes but it still rides pretty nice. it rode way worse with the old OEM 22 year old stuff. was like driving around on a board.

also need to trim those fender liners and maybe saw some other dead weight stuff from up front. trusty rusty is set to make it another winter, finger x'ed

<a href="https://imgur.com/nm8XpXo"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/nm8XpXol.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>

<a href="https://imgur.com/cmgaLds"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/cmgaLdsl.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>

<a href="https://imgur.com/LV5Ttpt"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/LV5Ttptl.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>
Click to expand...

I do like that back tire holder. Very decent change from the original position. :)
 
sleepydad said:
From what I can tell the poly mounts are much firmer but it's not harsh or jarring. The toyota rack setup is kind of mushy IMO where the poly bushing are tight. the steering with poly bushings is very responsive. so you can probably think of the same with the body mounts. I can feel the road and terrain more but it's not bad. I'm ok with a little feedback from the road.
Click to expand...

Did you notice increased driveline noise when you changed to poly body mount bushings? I agree that the ride with poly bushings are firmer but not in a bad way & definitely didn't feel harsh. My main issue was the increased driveline noise in the cabin, similar in volume to old mud tires or bad wheel bearings. When I initially spoke with Roger (4Crawler), he thought there could be an actual driveline issue. I didn't notice any obvious problems from a quick inspection so I thought I'd install new OEM body mounts to see what would happen & the excessive noise went away. I then swapped in the polys for a second time and the loud driveline noise returned. Roger thought due to the increased density of the poly body mounts that it may be transmitting/conducting more noise into the cabin but he said my case was the first occurrence he's heard of. I haven't read of anyone else with poly body mounts report this either.
 
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