'93 80 vs. '97 LX

[DSRTRDR]

and we also passed on an LX someone here in Arizona is selling for a really reasonable price --- low-mileage and triple-locked, so really, really tempting --- but what drove our decision in the end: it's black

plus, we really don't have space for another one: our "truck jail" (RV storage facility for the Blazer that has another empty spot right next to it . . . ) isn't accepting any new contracts this year

 

[DSRTRDR]

in more exciting news:

I am tasked with preparing both 80 series for a trip from Arizona to Yellowstone and back, with backroads and wheeling in-between, in early June

so the last two days of forensics revealed:

the 80 would benefit from another day of wrenching - although it could be driven as is, there are a few things I'd like to address or upgrade - like extending the bumpstops, for example

the LX needed very little, except for grease - although the hot-feet-gasket is still very high on the list of things yet to do, and it still remains a member of the no-D-light club

weird things discovered in the process:

the 80 transmission features a wiring harness bracket with no harness in it - meanwhile the transmission harness hangs loose with another one of those harness brackets on it, unconnected to anything - go figure

the 80 also features a custom abode for yellowjackets or somesuch on the firewall . . . (@richardlillard1 has the pic) - I suspect it got put in in Baton Rouge

the LX's rear ABS wiring harness apparently is not to '97 spec, but resembles a '93/'94 model harness - with only two POs, it's anyone's guess whether this happened with the TX or the AZ PO

 

[DSRTRDR]

new rear shocks for the 80 (OME heavy) went in this Friday - as did the @Hitit66 bumpstop extenders

meanwhile, my major goal was replacing the shifter handle - but was advised that once the console is out, I would likely find the transfer case shifter boot rotted out, so should plan on replacing that, too - parts ordered . . .

sorry, I didn't take a play-by-play series of wrenching pics, but it gets you wondering about engineers' minds, for sure . . .

and "since I am in there . . ." the neutral safety switch override button I had sitting on a shelf for a few years was also on the list of things to wrench onto the truck . . .

 

[DSRTRDR]

ratted out leather on the shifter handle

there's a big hole in the black rubber boot right where the shifter linkage in the middle of the pic goes down to the transmission . . . just to the left of that shiny brass tab looking out from under the carpet on the right side . . . (looks almost like an Apple logo)

couldn't get the right angle to make the red creeper underneath the truck show through the hole, sorry

 

[DSRTRDR]

and for those annoyed by the hard shift between 1st and 2nd gear while in low range in the early 80 series: the cure is to remove the transfer case switch from the transfer case - amazing - the truck now believes it's always in high range, even when manual put into low range, so the shift pattern follows the high range map and is much smoother - requires more manual shifting while in low, particularly on downhills, but the nicer ride is sure worth the trade-off

 

[ChaseTruck]

It's been quite a while, but a Slee Shortbus finally materialized for the LX:

Winch is a Warn M8000 that has held the garage floor down for 2 years, with 75 feet of 3/8" synthetic rope, fairlead is Smittybilt. Not sure I'll leave the control box up there, good air flow to the radiator is important in AZ (for now it'll stay, and I'll lengthen the ground wire from the plug a bit so it's not so tight against the winch motor). On the 80, I simply mounted the contactor to the frame on a little bracket.

 

[-Spike-]

Not sure I'll leave the control box up there, good air flow to the radiator is important in AZ

My entire winch and box is in front of the grill with no issues. Plenty of room for the air to go around.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

My entire winch and box is in front of the grill with no issues. Plenty of room for the air to go around.

Do you also have a Super Charged now?

 

[ChaseTruck]

Here's the setup on the 80 - you can still see the barcode on the sticker from Ace Hardware ; it has held up reasonably well, and has worked when called upon (which was, admittedly, only once so far....). All thew controls are either in cab or under the hood, with a section switch between the two modes.

 

[ChaseTruck]

Some extended dirt road driving over Christmas & New Year's have me looking at improving the suspension on the '93.
Thanks for all the feedback in this thread: Suspension recommendation for 'Underlanding'

Here are some measurements/guesstimates, in inches, on both trucks:

We don't really know what lift went on the '93 many years and 3 PO's ago, but what I thought was a 2" lift is more like a low-ish/sagged 1". No wonder I can get the front 315s to rub fairly easily.

With respect to ride quality - here is the first step for the '93:

Thanks to Exit Offroad (exitoffroad.com) for a quick transaction; these are for the front of the '93.

First drive impression is that the front has quieted down significantly, and all the 'rough road' driving feedback is now coming from the rear. With the grime off the old shocks, I could finally see that they were OME N73.

Tires on both trucks are now ProComp XMT2, 315s; test drive was at 18psi. Could have gone lower but I wanted to get a feel for what the shocks are doing.

The springs on the LX are noticeably softer compared to the 80, looks like an actual 2" lift; coil wire measures 17.4mm (a little less on the '93, both measurements including grime...). Not exactly sure how to count coil windings - I come up with ~9 for the '93, and 9+ for the LX.

Game plan is to bring up the front on the '93 to a real-world 2" with the softest spring I can find, and at that point address caster - we'll see whether the current yellow bushings will still cut it. Then address the rear.

 

[ChaseTruck]

And thanks to @richardlillard1, @inkpot, and Travis for curing the vacuum whistle on the '93 that I couldn't find (I guess I didn't spray enough brake cleaner or propane down there... but I now own a stethoscope):

That's the bracket for the hard line to the brake booster cutting into a vacuum line made of fossilized rubber. They also changed all the vacuum lines under the intake including 2 VSVs. The PHH is gone, as well, together with the metal pipe; there's now a rubber hose going directly to the newly replaced heater valve. The PHH, by the way, was replaced with a silicone hose kit at some point in the past by one of the POs; that silicone hose wasn't leaking, but looked egged-out upon removal.

 

[ChaseTruck]

New stance...

That's with slightly used OME 850J springs in the front, courtesy of @richardlillard1, @inkpot, and @twalker9480 . Bumpstop distance to the pad in the front spring is now ~4" (up from 2.75"; stock is ~2"), equalling a 2" lift. I have 863s for the rear that I got as a package. The J springs took care of the rake that the truck always had, so I'll leave it this way for now. No idea what springs are in the rear, and it'll remain that way for a while.
It has yellow bushings, always was a bit firm to steer; that's gone now. Tracks nicely on the highway.

Still not as soft on the trail as the LX with unknown OME springs and a few 10mm spacers.

Oh, and a (the?) vacuum whistle is back...

 

[ChaseTruck]

Another update after quite a while - the '93 is in the capable hands of @richardlillard1 , @inkpot , and @twalker9480 . Blue-ish (maybe white-ish?) smoke when getting on it after long idle (e.g. airing up) together with some strange acrid smell, oil consumption, high hydrocarbons at idle, no temperature issues, no exhaust gases in coolant detectable with kit - valve stem seals, perhaps? With ~230k on it, it was decided to take the head off (rather than doing the seals while pressurizing the combustion chamber), and do the head gasket in the process.

Looks like that decision came just in time: picture is #1. No idea what the gunk in the coolant passages is. When we got the truck (2012), it had green coolant; that's what I've used ever since, with semi-regular system flushes.

Thanks to Wits End @NLXTACY for quickly supplying the parts for the repair.

 

[DSRTRDR]

well, Labor Day weekend, as we were on a trail, the LX started to become erratic on the brakes: brake pedal reacts hard to push, and as I push again, it seems fine - next time braking, first push is fine, second kinda hardish - let the truck roll a bit forward, brakes work fine - and also just fine the next time around, but further going downhill, hard-as-a-rock pedal - which resolved itself upon driving some more . . .

and so it went for about an hour, with progressively more episodes of hard brakes . . .

and, having just been through this in the 40 last year, I knew exactly what the problem was . . . - being on a trail with steep inclines was like sitting on a time bomb; I just wanted to get off the steep sections of the trail, pronto - which, fortunately, the truck had the good sense to abide: the brake booster only finally completely failed just as I got onto the flat section in the creek bed . . . PHEEEWWW

from which there was still a 10 mile ride back to asphalt, but with moderate descents, so keeping the truck in LO, shifting manually, and in the steeper sections with 2 feet on the brake pedal, I made it back to the highway

after airing up, Michael decided he was going to drive the truck home for the next 20 miles on the highway (I followed in his Blazer) - fortunately, traffic was light, and there are only 3 traffic lights between the trailhead and our house . . .

where Michael had to go into low-range again, shift back to first gear, and -even though there are Marlin low-range gears in the transfer case- still had to put both feet on the brake pedal to control the truck going down our steep driveway into the garage

 

[DSRTRDR]

so, just yesterday, we installed the new brake booster - what a PITA - intake manifold is in the way every which way you happen to manage to turn the damn booster

several other snags were encountered, but with @richardlillard1's "supervision" the install went a lot faster

our major objective was not to disconnect brake lines, which we managed to avoid - truck's brakes today feel normal again

 

[DSRTRDR]

thanks to Richard for stopping by on a Saturday

and while we are at it, we really also should get some new brake fluid into the system . . .

 

[ChaseTruck]

Haven't updated in quite a while. On the '93, head gasket surgery was a success, the annoying whistling sound was finally (after ~ a year... ) found to be caused by a small hole in the lowermost hose on the S/C, transmission solenoids were changed - all through the capable hands of @richardlillard1 and @twalker9480. And the tires look old and dry. Since 4WP gave up their presence in AZ, we'll try Discount, and something other than the ProComp MT II. I really liked those, they performed well, but I would prefer something a bit more quiet.

The fan clutch in the '93 was working really welI: with ~50k fluid in there, it kept the truck cool, but seemed to steal a lot of power. I have a blue fan clutch with 25k fluid in there right now.

First real test on Sunday, Apache trail outside Phoenix, temperature in Apache Junction was 107°F; A/C on the entire day. Temps on the freeway at 65mph were ~192°F; temps at the end of the climb from ~1700ft in AJ up to 2900ft (paved road, 20-40mph) were 201°F. Heat soak during the stop (engine off) to air down was 214°F; during the following descent temps went down quickly to 185°F. Idling while stopped to air up 6 miles later brought the temp to 212°F; engaging the hand throttle to ~1600 rpm brought temps down to a stable 192°F. Highest temp while driving was 210°F on the freeway climb up Mt. Ord (from 3000ft to 4600ft, ~5 miles), that was in 2nd gear, 4500-5000rpm, to accelerate out of a left-lane 45 mph slowdown. Once back in 3rd, temps dropped again, reached the summit at 201°F. Temps on the descent on the other side went as low as 179°F. The rest of the drive to Fountain Hills was at 192-198°F.

Overall, reasonable performance, but it's not really hot here yet (yes, 107°F doesn't count as 'really hot'). With the previous 50k fan clutch, temps weren't going as high and weren't fluctuating as much. Perhaps time to try 30-35k fluid, we'll see.