- Joined
- August 3, 2000
- Messages
- 31,704
- Reaction score
- 8,365
- City, State
- NORTH IDAHO, 7B
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- B2 "Slightly" Modified
- Callsign
- FOURTEN
Allright dudes here she is in all her glory!
My 1992 Diahatsu Rocky 4x4 purpose built rig
You see we live back in the woods, 3 miles of old, built in the 80’s, logging road we call our driveway. DIRT EVERY DAY. North Idaho has a lot of this going on.
We moved here with several Polaris machines, we had two rzrs, a 6 seat ranger, and several atv and aces. This is how we used to see Colorado, it is how we used to plow the light fluffy snow in the high country of Colorado as well… that doesn’t work here in the pnw. The snow here has its own classification…don’t t believe me? look it up! Heaviest wettest snow In North America. Rzrs on tracks no match for this road…plus you have to add cabs, heaters, wipers, and then you will be replacing ball joints, pivot bushings, bearings and tie rods every season, u joints and brakes every other season. It became clear the Polaris machines are
Made for play and for weekend warriors….
Lucky for us they were also worth what we paid for them 10 years ago. So bye bye rzrs sold my 2014 xp1k and recently my wife’s 15 xp4… we kept the atv’s and the 6 seat ranger with the cab and heat. I have way too much invested in our 2018 ranger northstar to let her go just yet.
Well I needed something to do the road, to never leave the property, and something that is tough.
In comes a 92 Diahatsu!!!
Let me explain. My stepson (lives here too) was buying a 93 explorer from a lady, her dad had died. She also had two 1992 Diahatsu Rocky’s. He got them for $150 each, yes one hundred fifty bones each. One runs drives the other was for parts. I spent about 15 minutes under his $150 white Rocky (on the lift for a lookover) and decided I just have the other one! So I gave him $1800 for it, a fair price
Mine is red, has a hard top, and was left for dead, was to be used for parts because it did not run. The people we got it from thought it was fubar because it wouldn’t run and it wouldn’t roll. Well turns out they were dragging it around their yard in 4wd with the hubs locked… the reason it wouldn’t roll is because they wound up the drivelines so tight pulling it around locked in 4wd. I shifted it into 2wd and unlocked the front hubs…. Blamo! Rolls freely. The tire was wound up so tight that when we were loading it onto the trailer one tire got in to the top of the ramp and spun a full turn and a half in front of my eyes. I was like “dang that driveline was wound up!” Realizing what happened to it I decided this is one tough little sob to not snap a u joint or yoke… a full turn and a half of bind! Anyways that solves that issue. A jumper
Box and some ether and the engine fired right up… this is when I knew it was a sweet score
Now here we are 6 months later, winter is coming and the finally got the Diahatsu all fixed up and ready for service
She got new fuel pump, filter, timing belt and tensioner, plugs, wires, coil, cap and rotor, waterpump, thermostat, fresh oil change
That got it running and running perfectly! 127k miles on this unit, parts are cheap!! Not many available but what is out there is cheap.
Now that she runs I had to fix a few things, the rear leaf springs broken, one side super bad and sagging. So I rebuilt the leaf packs using supporting leafs from a ranger. Worked perfectly! 2” rear lift is the result. The front end is ifs with torsio bars, so I did a torsion twist and lifted the front 1.5” (6 turns on each side)
The exhaust had rusted out so I cut it all out and built a new exhaust, removed stock cat and muffler. I had a Gibson 2” muffler sitting around so I used that and a bunch of exhaust pipe and bits I had in the shop. As they used to say on monster garage “freebie!”
Fiddling with all the electrical fuses and relays, I was able to get the heater
Blower motor to work again, that is all it took.
So now I have a running driving stopping Diahatsu!
I love this thing. 1.6l dohc in-line 4 runs like a top. 5 speed manual, clutch feels like new. Manual t case high and low range.. I want to see if it can be twin sticked
Next I have all the interior out, the factory seats are getting some new foam and Walmart seat covers. This rig has purpose and will never leave the property,,, it is solely for commuting us up and down our road, hauling kids, gear, groceries, fuel and dogs. She will get custom racks and lights, she will have a rear mounted winch, a Ford ranger rubber floor will be trimmed down to fit
Right now I am happy with my purchase, forget Polaris utv they can never be as good as a Rocky! This little bugger is tough as nails. Fully boxed frame… Toyota product, she has found a new home… best part is we have two of these things!
My 1992 Diahatsu Rocky 4x4 purpose built rig
You see we live back in the woods, 3 miles of old, built in the 80’s, logging road we call our driveway. DIRT EVERY DAY. North Idaho has a lot of this going on.
We moved here with several Polaris machines, we had two rzrs, a 6 seat ranger, and several atv and aces. This is how we used to see Colorado, it is how we used to plow the light fluffy snow in the high country of Colorado as well… that doesn’t work here in the pnw. The snow here has its own classification…don’t t believe me? look it up! Heaviest wettest snow In North America. Rzrs on tracks no match for this road…plus you have to add cabs, heaters, wipers, and then you will be replacing ball joints, pivot bushings, bearings and tie rods every season, u joints and brakes every other season. It became clear the Polaris machines are
Made for play and for weekend warriors….
Lucky for us they were also worth what we paid for them 10 years ago. So bye bye rzrs sold my 2014 xp1k and recently my wife’s 15 xp4… we kept the atv’s and the 6 seat ranger with the cab and heat. I have way too much invested in our 2018 ranger northstar to let her go just yet.
Well I needed something to do the road, to never leave the property, and something that is tough.
In comes a 92 Diahatsu!!!
Let me explain. My stepson (lives here too) was buying a 93 explorer from a lady, her dad had died. She also had two 1992 Diahatsu Rocky’s. He got them for $150 each, yes one hundred fifty bones each. One runs drives the other was for parts. I spent about 15 minutes under his $150 white Rocky (on the lift for a lookover) and decided I just have the other one! So I gave him $1800 for it, a fair price
Mine is red, has a hard top, and was left for dead, was to be used for parts because it did not run. The people we got it from thought it was fubar because it wouldn’t run and it wouldn’t roll. Well turns out they were dragging it around their yard in 4wd with the hubs locked… the reason it wouldn’t roll is because they wound up the drivelines so tight pulling it around locked in 4wd. I shifted it into 2wd and unlocked the front hubs…. Blamo! Rolls freely. The tire was wound up so tight that when we were loading it onto the trailer one tire got in to the top of the ramp and spun a full turn and a half in front of my eyes. I was like “dang that driveline was wound up!” Realizing what happened to it I decided this is one tough little sob to not snap a u joint or yoke… a full turn and a half of bind! Anyways that solves that issue. A jumper
Box and some ether and the engine fired right up… this is when I knew it was a sweet score
Now here we are 6 months later, winter is coming and the finally got the Diahatsu all fixed up and ready for service
She got new fuel pump, filter, timing belt and tensioner, plugs, wires, coil, cap and rotor, waterpump, thermostat, fresh oil change
That got it running and running perfectly! 127k miles on this unit, parts are cheap!! Not many available but what is out there is cheap.
Now that she runs I had to fix a few things, the rear leaf springs broken, one side super bad and sagging. So I rebuilt the leaf packs using supporting leafs from a ranger. Worked perfectly! 2” rear lift is the result. The front end is ifs with torsio bars, so I did a torsion twist and lifted the front 1.5” (6 turns on each side)
The exhaust had rusted out so I cut it all out and built a new exhaust, removed stock cat and muffler. I had a Gibson 2” muffler sitting around so I used that and a bunch of exhaust pipe and bits I had in the shop. As they used to say on monster garage “freebie!”
Fiddling with all the electrical fuses and relays, I was able to get the heater
Blower motor to work again, that is all it took.
So now I have a running driving stopping Diahatsu!
I love this thing. 1.6l dohc in-line 4 runs like a top. 5 speed manual, clutch feels like new. Manual t case high and low range.. I want to see if it can be twin sticked
Next I have all the interior out, the factory seats are getting some new foam and Walmart seat covers. This rig has purpose and will never leave the property,,, it is solely for commuting us up and down our road, hauling kids, gear, groceries, fuel and dogs. She will get custom racks and lights, she will have a rear mounted winch, a Ford ranger rubber floor will be trimmed down to fit
Right now I am happy with my purchase, forget Polaris utv they can never be as good as a Rocky! This little bugger is tough as nails. Fully boxed frame… Toyota product, she has found a new home… best part is we have two of these things!
But seriously, I love these things. My old buddy literally drove us up a tree in one.
