Hey all,
First time poster here. Was "kindly recommended" to this site by an "overly helpful gentleman" on another well known off roading site and upon investigation discovered y'all actually know how to be helpful, so i moved.

I just recently bought a '94 Pickup and am on the path to building it into an all around rig. I say all around because due to money and such i can't have a dedicated trail rig so this one needs to work and play equally hard without breaking the bank. As far as work goes i work on a farm so hauling stuff(including trailers) and navigating mud is a daily necessity. Being my DD it will not do a horrible amount of interstate driving but it must be possible, and in the area of play; well the more the better

So onto the truck:
94 Pickup DLX 4x4 4-cyl
22 RE with roughly 8K miles on it
35" BFG MT's
5.29 gears


It does need some work:

• Speedometer does not work, neither does the odometer according to PO it was broken during the engine swap and due to the presence of a supertach it was never fixed.
• Parking brake cable is broken.
• Door locks and ignition do not match(i have the ignition key). Learned this one the hard way. I think the PO mentioned it but i didn't remember till it was too late...
• The rear suspension is lifted on blocks, and the leafs are almost flat with definite axle wrap occurring during acceleration and deceleration especially on steep hill climbs. This definitely needs fixed asap before it hauls any loads.
• Rear right brake drum has a slow leak.
• Bed is not bolted on? Did not notice this for a few days.
• Paint job, before i fall in love with flat black. I could fry an egg in the cab and its only may...
• Can't really tell but I seem to be getting 12mpg. Need to do something about that, even with 35s a 22RE ought to do better. I would have thought.

So this thread is to keep track of my progress and document the evolution of this truck. I will post the work i do on it but i think in order to keep a cleaner thread and useful info in relevant places i would be better off to post questions in relevant sub forums? Please feel free to inform me otherwise if this is not the case.

Questions, comments, and suggestions more than welcome.

Thanks for your time and your future help,
Speed
(btw SpeedCrazy comes from a computer forum, i am not a racer)

 

Planned by suspension rebuild. Longer leafs, ditch the blocks and put in some much needed shocks. Exact parts to be decided once i get my speedometer working.
Not related? Well they are sort of, i want to figure out what kinda mpg i am getting before i decide to stick with 4" lift and 35"s i may have to drop back to 33"s. Which would of course change my spring and shock lengths.

 

I was told by a locksmith that a code is printed on the passenger door lock that you can use to get the correct key. I suppose you would access this by removing the interior trim but I'm not sure.

 

Great looking truck

 

Ah! That would be awesome, so then i just take that number to a locksmith? Or could any key place do it?(aka walmart)
Thanks man, it has a ways to go but im already in love with it. Beats my old nissan to pieces even with its problems, can't wait till i get them all fixed.

Realized when mentioning the rear suspension issues i did not mention i didn't have any shocks. That will account for some of the axle wrap and a lot of the ride quality, or lack there off. For safety and comfort i really want to go ahead and buy some but like i said earlier i don't want to invest in lift stuff to run 35"s is i end up going with 33"s. Or would that inch or 2 difference not affect the shock noticeably?

 

I took the door panel off(surprisingly easy, like could do it blind folded next time) and removed the cylinder. Couldn't find the number so i figured what the heck it cant be that hard... and had a go at re-keying it.
Long story short the key and tumblers are both too worn out to work. But i had fun
So on that front i either need to take the driver side cylinder to a locksmith or pony up and buy a new set of locks. The full set seems to cost 80-100 bucks
($40-50 for one cylinder or 80-100 for all four? No brainer)

On the suspension side of things, i have pretty much decided to go with a 3" lift set of springs and switch to 33"s when these 35"s wear out. That will leave me with a 1" rake but i can either fix that with longer shackles or drop the front. Probably will just leave it till i can afford to SAS it.
At this point i will leave it with 5.29s purely for price reasons and see how that effects the feel and mpg of the truck.

Oh and for some actual progress i bought some 3/8" bolts and finally bolted the bed on.

 

nice looking truck! That's pretty much how I want mine to look!

 

Lol thanks. No you don't, flat black picks up all the dust pollen and bugs, oh and what you can't see(i ought to post more pics) is that a can of red paint exploded inside...well under the seat...
I must admit i love the stance on 35"s just wish i could get better gas mileage. My plan as far as that goes right now is that im going to fix the suspension then start putting money aside for tires(which i will need before i go back to school in the fall probably). Gonna drop to 33"s and then save up to SAS it and at that point re-gear to 4.56 or 4.88.
More pics tomorrow evening if i remember, gonna have to power off right now due to thunderstorm...

 

I did mean the stance more than the color. I had an old 79 4x4 that as flat black with no ac and you are right. It showed everything and it as HOT. keep up the good work!

 

Here's my 88' and it has a great stance for having a 3 in. body lift and 33s.
I don't think yours would look bad at all with 33s. Preferably in opinion I wouldn't run 35s I think 33's is enough and I say this because I have multiple friends that run 35s and they all have low compression in their motors now hahah. You do have a nice looking yota though although you really need to get on that suspension issue. But really like 12mpg? That's horrible, I got the 3zve and I get like 21-22mpg in town dude.

 

Yes... i did not get my usual parking spot at the farm yesterday(between two trees for all day shade, i could have roasted a chicken on my seat)
I like that one. I'm definetly going 33"s, if for no other reason than i cant currently afford 35"s. I'm working on my suspension, a friend is going to fab me some shock mounts to fit between the blocks and the axle and that will do for now.
12mpg was using google to guess miles and then divinding by half a tank(19 gallon tank right?) so its just a guess as my odometer doesn't work. Working on that too...

 

check your speed of your speedometer against a gps unit. that should give you a percentage of which you can figure your true gas mileage.

 

Well thats why the odometer doesn't work, the spedo is not functioning. Trying to diagnose that without buying ridiculously priced parts is like pulling teeth with a hammer.

Edit: What gears are you running with those 33"s?

 

Nice looking rig...and its black

 

I have factory 4.56 gears and they work very well with my 32s. im guessing they would work well with 33s as well.

 

Good to know.

^^ Thanks kornhuskerwizard

 

I'm currently running a 4.88 gear with 33-10.50/r15 I'm highly satisfied with the setup. I'm also a 22re. I've had my truck as fast as 95mph with out hesitation. I can cruise 5th gear at 70 with out downshifting for hills. My gas mileage is around 20-25 mpg depending on my foot.

By the way. I am constantly pulling a 16' car hauler that ways around 1800#. I can pull in loaded pretty easily.

 

Good looking truck, thanks for the info.

 

Just for my own curiosity .... what rpms are you at hen you are doing 70mph on the highway?? with the 4.88s and 33s.

 

Soo time to update i think.
Been awful busy this past week and don't see it letting up anytime soon but i grabbed a few minutes this evening to pull the error codes now that i got a new bulb in the error light.
And unfortunately it wont tell me anything about my speed sensor, the only code i have is a #25 which appears to mean i'm running lean.... Coulda fooled me with all the soot under my bed =p

As for my shock situation: i now have a plan.

1. Find some shock mount plates at u-pull-it
2. Buy/find some square end u-bolts(so i can put my shock mounts back under the axle rather than 4" above it)
3. Buy some shocks.

Oh and on my way over to a friend's this evening i took an access road and finally got some mud on this beast, sooooo much more fun than my previous clunker, this sucker pushes a wall of mud out of a 6" hole where as the nissan crawled through the same hole. Ah... im hooked again