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Bradzuzu's 2000 Amigo rebuild...

397K views 3K replies 94 participants last post by  bradzuzu 
#1 ·
So long ago I started out with my 91 amigo built it up, loved it to death, and for my family traded it to my friend along with my boat for his toy hauler. Good score for the most part :) , if you like dry rot repair.... Around the same time a good friend of mine was loosing his house. He had bought a brand new 2000 amigo for his wife (she had always wanted one) after doing a few mods here and there, say a years time of them enjoying it. She was ran off the road into a concrete barrier smashing the whole right front side. Her dreams where crushed !!! They bought it back from the insurance co. figuring on fixing it. Dreams and plans withered, time went by... 4-1/2 years infact !!! Left to rest in a field waiting...
It just so happened that he really wanted a Manx buggy and I just happen to have one :) !!
Dongle trade commenced and I was the proud owner of a totaled 2000 amigo with 32,000 miles on it. What more could anyone ask for !!! Flat tires and and bein stuck in the dirt are a real bad mix !!! Got it loaded on the trailer and back to my shop/work to begin inspection. At this point I had no idea if the engine block itself was broke/cracked. Winter and the accident two bad combo's !!!
One thing the battery tray was practically imbedded in the right valve cover. I chained my company bobcat to the hitch and grabbed a trackhoe to start pullin. Valve cover had chunks busted
Out of it some fell in.... Bad start !! But the hood was down and no aparent water damage had taken place. A good note the engine looked fine even though the motor mount was smashed into the frame no breakage. My friend also in the trade gave my another 99 amigo (parts rig) running and driving vehicle that had been put on it's side :( ... And last but not least a frame from a 99 Honda passport with a stripped but good body. Guy had parts let me tell ya lol. He knew I would get the fire and do something with all this stuff... So after pulling and unbending the mess I wanted to atleast hear the engine run, before going any further. After a few attempts of a no go, I started lookin deeper. Ahhh !!! Cut wires going to the crank sensor ... Bam she fired up and purred.




So trying to figure out the best grand scheem of things I started pulling the 99 apart first. I needed a good chassy to roll on. Oh course my buddy just had to take that one to the coast for a beating and bent the frame on it to. Somewhat easy fix after pulling the body and power train. Good ole bottle jack/plate steel and a welder. Now that that was ready ,I pulled it out to bring in my 00 to begin final inspection and prep for assembly .... So I thought !!! In the process of getting the 00 running ,crappy rusty water was leaking out from underneath ???

After removing the other body this one went a little quicker.
Back to the engine and the rusty water... While pulling the body I removed the clutch slave soaked with water and rusty as hell ... Now what !!! With the engine sittin on the floor I separated motor and trany, not to my surprise but sadly full of water ,rusty nasty mess.... Clutch WAS brand-new !!!
I cleaned up the bell housing / flywheel and back of the engine, lucked out. New clutch and that part was done.
 
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#2,478 ·
Haha thanks guys !! It seemed like it was going to stay on the 99th page forever !!

Here's what happened to my tire



The tire shop fixed it with a nice heavy duty patch but I used this as a good excuse to get new tires ... I drive way to much to deal with flats, or worse...



The spare (worn down) matched the tread size but I could still feel the possy kick it around a little so I wanted to get it fixed before driving home ...





The new tires have some serious cleats !! Toyo's are heavier , noticeably heavier and I'm hoping they won't effect my mileage to much (that would really be a bummer)... I measured them and they are a true 33" tire so that changes the gear ratio slightly as well... They ride great and aren't very noisy so those to combinations are a bonus...
 
#2,479 ·
Here's a few pics from the trip



Ray did awesome and seems to enjoy trails just as much as sand !!



Wouldn't want to hit this at night not knowing its there , could turn ugly real quick !!



Stinky and migo hangin out :)
 
#2,482 ·
Thanks guys !!

I gotta get caught up on trips and pics !!

This was a local spot about 15 minutes from my house , best part I was with fellow zooists !! Eric and Ray are pretty cool guys to hang with ..











The clouds looked fenominal that day almost like they where going to explode but never did ..

Ray snapped this one for me :)

 
#2,483 ·
This lady Sunday Brent was down from Alaska and we all planned a local get together meet up ..

We had a pretty good turn out and a great time was had !!







Some of the guys and gal took off before we where able to get a group pic , I wish we all would've been in the pic ..



Even did some parts trading !!



Justin brought me a 1rst gen fuel tank to test fit in the amigo :)
 
#2,484 ·
Did that tank whistle all the way home? I realized later that day that we never got a look under your hood to ooh and ahhh over the turbo setup. I got to show off my shiny engine and I think Dustin had his hood up to show the DOHC swap, but no turbo porn. I guess we were all too distracted by Brad's neck to think to ask to see anything more.
 
#2,485 ·
Ha !! Yeah evil Ray and his sneaky pictures ... The tank didn't whistle at all but Tuesday when I drove the migo to work i was taking the last highspeed corner off the exit and it slid to the gravity side of the rack making a loud thwang sound , kinda scared me !! Luckily it didn't fly off , it did come unhooked ... There's always next time to look under the hood :)
 
#2,486 ·
Great pictures, must be nice to be so close to so many neat places to off road, and also, I just had to be on page 100. If I live to be 100 I'll never have a post that reaches those epic numbers. Congrats on that!
 
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#2,488 ·
While out on the trails on Friday I crossed paths with an 80s Toyota pickup that had a dual transfer case setup which made me think of you, which quickly led to the realization that I'd lost track on where you were with yours...? Are you still tinkering with this, or did it get pushed to the back burner with everything else you've been doing over the past little while?

Jonathan
 
#2,489 ·
Oh I think about it everytime I walk past the darn thing ... The skinny of what's been going on with that is the feeling of a brick wall :) It's going to be a big job !! Dustin brought me that rear fuel tank and I measured it up , there is no way it would work , at least in the amigo , I think it'd be perfect for a rodeo though ... So that leaves me with working around my fuel tank or building one for the rear area (to many directions I tell ya) , the clutch is going to need to get replaced on down the road so when that happens a will switch out the back section of my case and take the plundge !! I hate to mod so much to where I worry about the long distance reliability (short rear driveline = steep U joint angles) if they are horrible then I'll have to rethink this build for the amigo ... I could always readjust the pinion angle though , and shock mounts , and link lengths , and all the other stuff in the way :shock:

I really do want to do it though ...
 
#2,490 ·
How long is your rear shaft now? Subtract a little over a foot and you'll have a ballpark for what you'll be left with after duals. No doubt you'll be rockin a CV at the case and rotating the pinion up. Might end up with one of those high-dollar high-angle driveline shafts.
 
#2,491 ·
I wanna say you have to subtract 14"s but now I can't remember , I built a new rear shaft , it's tacked anyway just in case something has to change ... the manual late model migos have a pretty long rear drive shaft , but adding that second case takes about a 1/3rd of it ...
 
#2,492 ·
Just started reworking the original manifold for deq and figured I'd try some modifications





Hopefully I'll be able to get it to flow better ...
 
#2,493 ·
Quote "I figured I'd try some modifications" - I nominate that for the "understatement of the year" award!!
 
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#2,495 ·
I got a little more done







I'm not sure how I'm going to do this yet ..









I worked late today so I'm using this time to ponder lol
 
#2,496 ·
Toccoa said:
I have no idea what you are doing, but I know it will be awesome! 8)
you know me , get bored and try something difficult ... The bonus of all this , I have a couple of spare intakes in the event this doesn't work so good :)

Deq's sneaking up fast !!
 
#2,497 ·
Is this the beginning of a supercharger manifold? :)
 
#2,498 ·
I doubt this manifold could me modified to fit a super charger , but with enough interest I could persue building one of those !!
 
#2,499 ·
I had to copy and paste my confession this morning :)

Guilty pleasures post # 123,344,656

I stopped off at the tire shop to pay on my tab just like any other tire lover by fan does .. I strolled out to the used tire racks with my nephew n law look big for a possible set for the wife's xterra ... this is where temptation took over and my heart beat rose ,, for right there in front of my (kid in a candy store) eyes sat a set of 37.5/17's that would fit my buggy ...!!! My ford needs tires too , I could so put the buggy 35's on the ford (with wheels) and buy another set of matching wheels to mount the 37.5's on the buggy , or vise versa, or switch the migo over to 3/4 ton and switch between all three !!!

See how this painfully makes perfect sense !!

The world is full of hard cruel decisions my friends , oh wowas me :(

Thus also gave me a great idea on how I'd switch a 44 over to a full floater axle !!
 
#2,500 ·
bradzuzu said:
My ford needs tires too , I could so put the buggy 35's on the ford (with wheels) and buy another set of matching wheels to mount the 37.5's on the buggy , or vise versa, or switch the migo over to 3/4 ton and switch between all three !!!
So did you end up caving into temptation??

Jonathan
 
#2,501 ·
I'm going on a trip next week , when I get back I'll check on them , I'm not sure I would go with bigger tires on the amigo or not , the late models don't have much fender well room :(

We will see what fate brings !! :) it's actually a great plan though , my ford has 16.5's which are pretty much fazed out ...

Then there would be that little side project to build a full floating 44 , that sounds like a fun project !! I could also put my new wheels onto my wife's xterra (the gears are spinning in my little head)
 
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