I spent most of my Sunday driving. I drove to the Arkansas/Mississippi border about 3 hours away to buy a front and rear axle from [MENTION=142122]96RedRunner[/MENTION]. (Thank you again by the way!) Then drove back, unhooked the trailer, ate a late lunch, then drove an hour and a half to Russellville to meet someone that was selling a 98 V6/manual/4wd to test drive. It was in a little rougher shape than I was hoping for and ultimately ended up not buying it. I did learn some important things while test driving it:
-Grey interior is even worse looking in person (in my opinion).
-Non sunroof headliners have so much more headroom! I’m jealous!
-I definitely have a slight input shaft bearing noise in my current transmission.
-Clutch engagement point is roughly the same.
-Clutch start switch engagement point is roughly the same.
-My engine rpm’s remaining high while coasting in neutral is not normal (or at least this one didn’t do it).
-Victory 4x4 roof rack makes more wind noise than I would be willing to tolerate. Not that I actually need or want a roof rack, but it’s nice to know for the future.
On the drive to pick up the front and rear axles I got 19.7 mpg towing a 6x12 single axle utility trailer without a tailgate. Not bad! I only got 17.6 mpg on the way back though which is still pretty good in my opinion. About 7 miles into the return trip I hit a ridge in the road that I thought was going to catapult me to the moon. It ended up shifting the rear axle on the trailer enough to where the wood blocks it was on shifted from underneath it so I had to spend 20 minutes on the side of the road in 110 degree heat index rearranging the rear axle on the trailer. The rest of the trip home went without any problems though.
The rear axle I bought doesn’t have any of the brake lines, brake cables, wheel cylinders or shoes/hardware which isn’t a problem. I’m planning on going through this axle and replacing the wheel bearings/seals/retainers and installing midcoma’s rear disc brake conversion kit. I’ve already got the pads and calipers needed to go with the kit. I did order the brake line junction for the rear axle and an axle vent valve from Toyota dealership next door to my work. They should be here any day now.
I’m still working on drywall for the kitchen/dining room renovation which has taken top priority to every other project I have going right now unless it is pressing maintenance. If anyone here is considering doing their own drywall work just don’t. I really should have paid someone to do this and saved myself a lot of time and suffering. Drywall work sucks!
