Whilst crawling around under the truck looking at brake lines, I discovered another Red Flag: A humungous hole through the frame at the driver's side rear cab mount. All the way from top flange to bottom flange and about 5 inches wide. Wasn't visible from the outside of the rail but noticed a lot of rust scale laying on the inside of the frame and when I hit it with the needle gun, the whole thing disintegrated.

Could probably be fish-plated on the inside and welded up, but not something I'm comfortable with doing.

Also found a wet brake line at the left rear wheel cylinder and the lower half of the backing plate is completely rotted off.

Looking more and more like Bulldozer, Part Deux...

You need projects like that once in a while, Wait till the timing belt goes tits up in the middle of a storm and every 8mm bolt snaps off the timing covers, crank pulley rusted on, etc.. But it builds character.

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Originally posted by rizzle:
You need projects like that once in a while, Wait till the timing belt goes tits up in the middle of a storm and every 8mm bolt snaps off the timing covers, crank pulley rusted on, etc.. But it builds character.

That exact scenario is why I'm gonna take Neighbor Dan's money and run...

He's seen the frame and his offer is still good, we just have to do a fishplate patch on the hole. I'm not nearly a good enough welder to work that far out of position, so I'll make a pattern that fits using Cardboard Aided Design and we'll cut some flat stock and bolt it on the inside of the frame.

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Originally posted by PHPaul:

quote:

Originally posted by rizzle:
Free bulldozer would be way more better . Sounds like a good deal on the Toyota though.

Yeah, that actually ended fairly well, considering...

Plan is to pull a battery out of one of my spare tractors and see if the engine spins over and at least tries to start. If I can get it to start and run for plugs, wires, filters and an oil change, great. If not, I can scrap it to recover the towing charges and steal a few parts off it for my stash.

I'd pull all of the spark plugs, fill cylinders with marvel mystery oil for a few days, bar the motor over by hand, before attempting to start it. 5 years is a long time for a gas motor to sit without being turned over.