Pretty quiet in here... what are you working on? (3 Viewers)

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New small charcoal grill. Oklahoma Joe’s Rambler. Building a table for it from scrap lumber and an old keyboard stand. Looks like I need another 5/4 board. Oh, and a new deck.

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Stripping paint. Almost finished but there’s a few stubborn spots left. Evaporust all the bad spots beforehand but there were a few spots underneath. I’ll sort those out after this.

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So zoned out from either beer or stripper fumes this guy rolled up on me:

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Spent the weekend building my RC 40. It’s a Proline body on a Traxxas TRX-4 chassis. Painted the inside of the body a copper rust color. Cygnus White for the top and bib, Dune Beige for the body.

Scratched up the body with a Brillo pad while the paint was still wet to give it some rust colored trail rash. I’ll probably put some white wagon wheels and a working replica Warn 8274 winch on the front.

Might also put some more trail rash on it.

I think it turned out pretty good.

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Be sure to use some form a gasket on the front of the washer in front of the retaining nut. It will seal the splined area and prevent (hopefully) gear oil from leaking out through the splined interface.
 
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Cut down a small tree yesterday. Started off cutting the limbs with a reciprocating saw, quickly escalated to borrowing a neighbors chain saw to chop the whole tree down. First time using a proper chain saw and now I want to cut down more trees!
Last time I used a "chain saw" was an electric one that plugged into an outlet. This was a lot more fun!

What I started with
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What I upgraded to.
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This tree went from a shrub to a tree.
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The one next that was against the house is gone now. Definitely picked 2 stupid hot days to do this..
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Preparing to install FJ40dash.com aftermarket dash pad. It’s a toss up for me now that I’m looking at one. Like OEM, there’s a piece of sheet metal for structural support. Unfortunately, like OEM it begins to rust right away. Took some Evaporust to clean it up, wiped off the residue w/acetone and painted it flat black with Krylon Colormax. The texture finish has inconsistencies that may annoy some. I’ll live with it knowing cracks will not be an issue.

Found a retaining bracket (Thanks @YellowJacket ). Stripper, Evaporust & now painted too.

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Prior to installing the retaining strip:

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I received the elocker RCV axles and am having a problem installing the long side into the elocker carrier. The axle ends are not taper cut like the FJ70 NLA long side axle (that may contribute to the insertion problem) and it only goes into the carrier only so far. I've have to grind down the lower bell flat a lot. At least 1/8" to clear the lower side of the birf. The birf is close to the diameter of the old welded Long birfs that were in there, but somehow need a lot more clearance. I can turn the front driveshaft, but the end isn't even in far enough to be a spline misalignment before it clanks against something.

Any advice is appreciated. I've had the knuckle on and off three times, and won't reinstall until I can get the test fit into the bell/carrier to work. I know the birf itself fits, because I can fit the short side axle into the long side no problem.
 
Is the locker engaged? Aside from the actuator, the e-locker is mechanically similar if not identical to the cable locker. I had no problems installing the long splined shafts with the diffs locked. If your locking cog is misaligned, you could use a small pvc pipe or maybe a broom handle to realign the cog/engage the locker.

After a bit of research:

Why E-Locker Should Be Locked Before Pulling Axle Shafts
 
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Is the locker engaged? Aside from the actuator, the e-locker is mechanically similar if not identical to the cable locker. I had no problems installing the long splined shafts with the diffs locked. If your locking cog is misaligned, you could use a small pvc pipe or maybe a broom handle to realign the cog/engage the locker.

After a bit of research:

Why E-Locker Should Be Locked Before Pulling Axle Shafts

Many thanks. I had that thought way in the back of my mind, so far that it only faintly rose recently. I checked out that great thread and posted a query whether I could just turn on the ignition, then flip the locker switch to on. I wonder if it could be that easy? The thread mentions using a broomstick to move the cog. I guess they're referring to pushing it through from the passenger side and pushing the cog down/up?
 
I think if you see the how the cog is moved into place with the fork that holds it, you’ll understand how a disengaged locker could result in the cog being slightly off axis while the axle shaft is out. Engaging the locker beforehand eliminates this possibility and makes sure the splines are aligned too. So, there’s potential for two snags here. 1.) The cog has a bit of play while disengaged and resting on the clutch fork. 2.) the splines aren’t guaranteed to be aligned.

I have a spare cable locker and a spare long-splined front axle from a 70-series. When I performed this mod... there was no options for aftermarket e-locker/cable-locker inner axle shafts so I made sure to have a spare for the front (70-series) and rear axles (60-series FF axle). If I‘m at the garage, I’ll take a picture to illustrate what I’m talking about. You might make matters worse if you don’t know where to place and angle your aligning tool (broom stick, pvc pipe, etc). If I remember correctly, on a cable locker the cog can fall off the clutch fork completely while disengaged. The opening of the clutch fork is away from the pinion. The cog can move laterally in that direction toward the pinion and away from it.

Updated w/photos The locking cog has way more play than I thought and easily falls off the fork when the locker is not engaged.

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I think if you see the how the cog is moved into place with the fork that holds it, you’ll understand how a disengaged locker could result in the cog being slightly off axis while the axle shaft is out. Engaging the locker beforehand eliminates this possibility and makes sure the splines are aligned too. So, there’s potential for two snags here. 1.) The cog has a bit of play while disengaged and resting on the clutch fork. 2.) the splines aren’t guaranteed to be aligned.

I have a spare cable locker and a spare long-splined front axle from a 70-series. When I performed this mod... there was no options for aftermarket e-locker/cable-locker inner axle shafts so I made sure to have a spare for the front (70-series) and rear axles (60-series FF axle). If I‘m at the garage, I’ll take a picture to illustrate what I’m talking about. You might make matters worse if you don’t know where to place and angle your aligning tool (broom stick, pvc pipe, etc). If I remember correctly, on a cable locker the cog can fall off the clutch fork completely while disengaged. The opening of the clutch fork is away from the pinion. The cog can move laterally in that direction toward the pinion and away from it.

Updated w/photos The locking cog has way more play than I thought and easily falls off the fork when the locker is not engaged.

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Many many thanks for your super response. That WAS my problem. I used a length of pvc tubing to push the splined collar towards the fork. Got the axle in all the way, and managed to lock it by activating the locker on switch, then turning the front DS around and back and forth. Heard the loud click! Both wheels turned. Yahoo! The only bad thing is I stretched the marlin eco seal with all the pushing down on the axle to no avail, so will have to swap in a new one. Thanks again.
 
Nice @Blue77FJ40 I‘m glad you were able to get it to engage. Bummer about the eco-seal. Didn’t realize those things were so pricey.
 
Dad's S class decided it wanted to become a low rider. Had warned him there's something going on with the car and he took it to a friend that said everything with the suspension was fine. Well it had been sitting according to the lowered life style "sitting flush" and wouldn't raise. Came home a couple days ago and noticed it was sitting real low! He kept fighting that there wasn't an issue until finally Saturday the dashboard told him vehicle too low visit dealership.

Luckily all I had to do was trace lines to the compressor. One was cracked and cut the cracked part and put it back. Then found another line that had popped out and got that back in properly.
I wonder how much the dealership would've charged for that...

Also I want to know who thought flower shaped lug nuts was a smart idea!!! :bang:

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Wit's end fan clutch swap...

Forums/facebook posts - "10 min job" (maybe for California trucks as usual)

**immediately rounds off last nut on old clutch with no contingency plan or tools in play, has to go to home depot and buy extractor socket set and dremel cut off wheel and then leave all the s*** in the garage to come back to because work takes up the majority of the day meanwhile the cruiser is sitting once again because I still haven't had time to work on it**

Usual feeling when I do anything myself on this thing:

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At least she looks cool at the mall:

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New fan might have been a less stressful resolution. Plus that's 24 year old, many times heat cycled plastic. I think there's even a higher CFM fan that was used for the trucks that were supercharged?
 

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