my mazda

about a year ago, i started searching for an rbv to buy, being that rbv's are all that i have bought. ive owned 3 rangers and an explorer. i knew my girl friends dad had this little mazda, after several failed attempts to obtain the truck from him in the past i decided i would try one last time. called him up, he said it needed a new slave. 500$ and a 2 hour drive home without a clutch i owned a 1994 mazda b4000, with 300k miles. honestly shifting without a clutch that whole way wasnt that bad. the worst part was that i had no speedometer and the dash lights did not work.

bought this truck to build it for wheeling, it is not nor will it ever be a street queen, it gets driven to the trail and then on the trail, if need be it will be a spare vehicle. this truck will keep the ttb, unless i start breaking lots of things. but ive already looked into custom chromolys for the ttb, and i want to try that route before an axle swap.

at the time i was in the middle of moving, so i had a shop replace the clutch and all the normal components, while in there. i did not want to drop the transmission again.

i dont have many pictures of it in the early stages, but lets just say it was a pile, ran like crap, needed new tires, a whole new front end, hadnt been washed in who knows how long. mismatched tires and rims. was not a jewel by any means. drove it for 6 months fixing whatever i could find was wrong with it, before i decided to build it and wheel it.
somewhere in the early months i rebuilt the front end with all new parts.

earlyest photo i have, new rims and tires sitting next to it.



asked my girlfriends dad if he had any rims (owns a junkyard) gave me these, so i mounted them on my free tires. shop refused to balance them, got lucky any ways, never had any vibrations.







i had a clunking sound every time i took off, thought it was the u joints in the drive shaft. so i did a clutch in my moms car for her, in return she bought me a 1 piece drive shaft.



all painted.



turns out it wasnt the u joints, and the larger diameter shaft just made it worse.it was hitting the bottom of the cab at every bump. i HAD to take the truck out of town. so out came the sawzall.



turns out the next week my girlfriend bought me a 2 inch body lift any ways.



drove it with the 31s and a 2 inch body lift for a few months, saving up more cash for more upgrades, then i pondered on 33s or 35s, ordered some 33x12.50xr15 hankook dynapro mt, 800$ mounted and balanced. so far i love these tires. bought a aussie for the dana 35. tryed to order a lockright for the trak lok 8.8, after a few weeks of it not shipping i returned it and tryed to buy a detroit for the 8.8, it was on back ordered for 8 weeks.

so i got a refund and bought a 42 inch led light bar off ebay. i have yet to have any problems with this light bar, and i would recomend it. 150$ at my door.

put all this in within the last 2 months and wheeled it quite a bit.





hit a tree



did the c/e clip eliminator when i installed the aussie



10 psi, these tires air down great!


no flares on the front, got more than one ticket for this



31 next to the 33



i think these look terrific mounted up


this thing isnt very tough, bent it the first trip out, but its still holding together


flares on, 2.5 inch surface mount, there barely enough


my tiny garage, with the 42 inch light bar mounted. rather have this garage than no garage tho. bit small with 3 dirt bikes in there.



light bar at night, cameras dont show the light very well.



42 inches is just about perfect, 44 inch probably wouldnt fit without some sort of brackets.



snorkel mod



wheels were dirty


wheels all cleaned up, shine pretty good.



went up to the property, didnt air down, was just screwin around. aussie preformed flawlessly. drug frame and pushed snow the whole time.























took this off





all cleaned up, as many scratches as it has it still looks good.



saw this one a wheelin trip



burried to the ttb, had to be pulled out by a one ton.





3 days after i washed and waxed it we took a trip to hoover



thanks for looking.

Thats a nice lil mazda dude!

Thanks, I try.. but its still a trail truck before any thing else.

Went back to Hoover side of the road is a slush box. Got pulled into it the first time then decided to play in it. You can see where I drug going both directions.













Here's what little video I have uploaded. I have some of the f250 in that same spot and me spending 5 minutes pulling him out. I feel that its rather boring to watch tho. Ill upload it if its requested tho. Try and finish uploading stuff later.

Can hear the 300k mile 4.0 bouncing off the rev limiter. She just keeps goin.

http://s833.photobucket.com/albums/zz252/swynx987/?action=view&current=20140406_184159_zpsffb140ed.mp4

My buddy in the f250 with a 460 and 35s didn't make it as far as I did, made it about where I stopped in reverse. Thanks to the aussie locker. He flooded out in that spot and I had to pull him out only took 30 or so pulls to get him out.

Both of our steering boxes are leaking at the Pittman arm after going through that.

Didn't take many pictures because most of the holes are just to deep. Started going into one whole and the mud itself was above my bumper and being pushed by the oil pan so I backed out. I do have more to upload once photo bucket cooperates.

Came home and lubed her up to find the beams filled with mud.

Thanks for looking.

One of my favorite photos thus far



One of those "betcha can't" moments.... hit reverse and dug in. Had to be pulled. Tough ass bumper. Damn thing didn't take any damage.



As you can see this thing was filthy after the 7 hours spent in the mountains.



Tore it down to clean it all up and shim my sagging coils. I had some old washers laying around from my radius arm bushing kit that I used. Worked perfectly. Took an old center concsole and made some mud guards for my door hinges too.



Took 3 hours to scrub it clean. I use zipwax. Its soap with wax in it. I like it.



Then I picked up this with a 4 foot antenna for 10$. Looked on eBay they want 100$ used. Thanks Dylan.



Girlfriend said to get the boxes out of the kitchen. So I did.

My buddy says its camouflage. First time he saw the truck it was covered in mud. He came up and. I just happened to be starting the wash. Said he had no idea it was paste white.

Cool truck, man. Looks like it can hold its own.

im actualley surprised at how well the locker in front and limited slip works, its a very rare scenerio where i get stuck because all 4 wont spin.

Hey Man could you please show me how you ran the wires into the cab? I just ordered a 42" light bar for my 93 ranger and I have no clue about how to run the wires on into the cab lol. Thanks.

Run a wire from the positive on the battery through a fuse that goes to the #30 on the relay.

#86 goes to a ground.

#85 goes to the on position of your switch, then run a wire from the off position back to your battery power.

Then I run a wire from the #87 to my light bar, then ground your light bar.

I run all the wires from the light bar down the a pillar on the drivers side.

I would also advise installing an indicator light as I have found myself driving around in the day with it on and did not know it.

To do this... run a wire from your toggle switch positive (on) wire to the indicator light then also ground the indicator.

Sorry for the delay in response I haven't been online much.

Also I have tons to update on my thread

Looks like your truck has been through many adventures. Nice!

Subbing

i have actualley been working on this lately, progress has been slow as ive been putting bills first... i have quite a few pictures to upload..

updates... went to the pull and save pulled a sohc.

at this point the truck has been in the garage for 6 months with no drivetrain

i built some extended radius arms, extended 12 inches, kept the donut style bushings (because of mud), put in a set of 3.5 eb springs from the bronco grave yard (320 ppi, for road usage), lifted the rear using belltech 6400 shackles, super packed the limited slip rear, added f250 shock towers

my goal is to have a dana 35 ttb that will support long travel on 37's, i do not plan nor do i want to sas this truck, i want to keep the ttb.

pulled apart the old engine













picked up a 1996 engine, swapped the intake, drivers side exhaust manifold, motor mounts, and all the old sensors onto it. i did not have to swap the oil pans.

the gear box was leaking, so i pulled it apart and put new seals in it. there are 28 ball bearings in this thing!









it does not leak anymore, and i feel like i have more steering input.

decided to super pack the rear limited slip, since i had the original cover, i decided to replace it as well.







this is the not super packed unit, you can see that there are only 3 tabs sticking out.



this is the super packed unit, you can see that there are 4 tabs sticking out, being as that i replaced a steel plate with a clutch pack.



at this point the spider gears wouldnt just rotate in like usual, i had to hammer them back in, along with the pin...



it was hard to measure but it did take up about an 1/8" of room after the super pack, if you look closely you can see the difference in the spring.

if you want positive traction to both wheels and cant justify the 500$ for the limited slip unit locker, i would recommend this, as i only paid 80$ for the clutches.

i have very minimal fuss about this and will continue to use it. it makes no noise in a parking lot, or when turning. the only time i even notice it is in low traction areas, thats when it does act like a spool.