M715 Hauler / Crawler Build

[KaiserM715]

I pulled a bench seat from an 82 Ford pickup. I modified the fwd mounting foot a little to make the mounting bracket a little simpler. The mounting feet line up well with the flanged u channel under the cab so you can bolt through more than just the floor pan.

Cut in some tail lights as well.

[md1970]

I found any fsj seat to me an exact bolt in with no mods at all. only yo have to remove the battery box mounting brackets or they will hit bottom of seat

[KaiserM715]

I’m finally done with the wiring; I used a Painless universal kit. I’ve still got a couple of gremlins to work out but it’s pretty minor (no right turn signal, fuel gauge reads opposite). I used a terminal block for the tail light connections in case I ever need to take off the tail gate, also makes the trailer plug easier to setup down the road.

New drive shafts front and rear.

New windshield.

About 5 gallons of 90 weight in all the appropriate places.

I hit the milestone of being able to pour gas in the filler and firing the engine from the cab.

Next up is to build the exhaust, finish up the engine timing, setup the manual choke, fill the power steering system, bleed the brakes…

[venominjected]

Stunning execution, organization, and thought went into this before and during this build.


Excellent!

[Von]

Looks great! Tons better than the "quick and dirty get it done now!" 350/700r4 swap I did.

I started to go with a universal harness kit but thought I'd save a couple of bucks and make the wife happy(er)... Rewired the whole thing myself, which kept it in the back yard an extra week, which ended up making her less happy...

[Don Cavey]

Looks great and I love seeing that manual transmission!

[KaiserM715]

Thanks for the compliments guys… I’m finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Exhaust is done. I used the 2.5” tubing kit from Summit, the Summit X pipe and two 40 series Flowmasters.

[KaiserM715]

I've never been a fan of the exhaust u-bolt clamps, but I gave them another shot anyways... rather than fighting leaks and slathering silicone in the tube joint, I opted for two more sets of three bolt flanges and some nice graphite gaskets (Remflex Inc.).

It sounds great!!

[KaiserM715]

Well… after two years (almost to the day) since I bought it, I finally made the maiden voyage. Just a few laps around the block. I’ve got a couple of minor bugs to flush out but everything went pretty well. Working now to get a stated value insurance policy with State Farm and then I’ll start putting some miles down.

A picture of it flipped 180° in its home.

[KaiserM715]

Just wanted to tag this one up for reference.