Builds '94 FZJ80 "Cotton"

[bucketman]

Sub

 

[roadstr6]

My White Knuckle sliders came in last Friday. I have not installed them yet but I did get them out of the box and painted them. I am seriously impressed with the quality of these sliders. Look at these welds. Beautiful! It will be a week or so before I am able to install the sliders. I'll post up more pics when I do. I ordered the sliders as full length (no mud flaps) and I ticked the option for DOM tubing. Obviously, no steps and not powder coated. Crossing my fingers that they fit nice. We will see.

 

[roadstr6]

I was not crazy about the freebie ProComp 9000 shocks on Cotton. They seemed to be a little weak for a truck this size. Body sway in the corners was a tad more than I was willing to put up with. I decided to replace my sway bar bushings with new OEM ones and install OME L shocks in the front only for now. The ProComps will do fine out back until I start really loading Cotton up with gear. The difference in handling with the OME shocks and new bushings is night and day. Truck feels much more planted in the corners and inspires confidence on the road. Hopefully I haven't lost too much articulation in my quest for better road manners. I doubt it.

 

[Comet]

Amazing results. Can't wait to see it with the sliders installed. As always, great work and an easy read.

 

[Starlord]

Subbed.

I have a mint 94 I got from my inlaws and have been doing some similar modifications. Just a heads up on the White Knuckle sliders. The top bolts above the Cat are a real PITA to install for our model year. Make sure you get everything started loose before tightening anything up. Good luck

 

[roadstr6]

Got the White Knuckle sliders installed on Cotton. No real drama. Passenger side was a little fiddly around the cat but I got all the bolts in. Overall I’m very happy with these sliders.

 

[Comet]

Yep, nothing short of AWESOME looking sliders. Great seeing you at CRR.

Travis.

 

[roadstr6]

I was fortunate enough to be given a spare set of rear mud flaps. My originals were in super shape...better than the ones I was given, so I decided to perform a flap chop on the freebies. The originals will go into my parts stash. My hope is that by trimming off a good portion of the mud flap, I might not get the flap and attached flare ripped off the truck by rocks on the trail. I used a die grinder with a cutting wheel for the cut and cleaned up the rough edge with a belt sander. After a little clean up with simple green, a blast of hot air with a heat gun brought the color back. A wipe down with 303 Protectant makes them look like new.

 

[roadstr6]

I decided that adding an oil catch can would be a good idea to keep my intake passages clean. I have done the homemade ones before using water separators meant for air compressors but I was always disappointed in how janky they looked and that they have to be dumped out pretty often to remain effective. I found this one for $34.50 on Amazon and decided to give it a try.

It's aluminum. Has a coffee cup sized screw-off container for decent capacity, neat little dipstick to check the level. I used the smaller fittings and 5/16 fuel hose to plumb in into my pcv system. I did have to add an o-ring on the dipstick. It should have had one, but it didn't. No big deal. The supplied hoses are garbage. I added a piece of stainless steel scouring pad material in the screw-off filter inside the lid. Overall, I'm happy with this solution. We will see how it does long term.

 

[roadstr6]

Olde North State Cruisers scored an insane group buy on roof top tents. The roof top tent company, Mombasa, was going out of business and the group bought all the tents they had left in stock for roughly 70 percent off retail. I got the RTT 9011 which is a 4 man tent. Install was simple enough on top of the Bowfin rack. With the tent on top and all folded and packed down, it was too tall to fit in my garage by a couple of inches. I ended up removing the last section of ladder (two pull pins) and stashing it inside the tent instead of on top. Now the truck fits in with an inch to spare.

 

[roadstr6]

Scrapped the offset caster bushings and replaced with stock bushings and Landtank’s 2.5” plates. Install was simple enough. I mocked up the plates, scribed the new hole locations on the axle mounting brackets and notched with a 4” angle grinder with a cutoff wheel. The plates solved my wandering steering issues. Steering wheel self-centers now. The truck feels much more confident in the corners. Great mod! All that’s left to do is to weld the leading edge for safety.

 

[roadstr6]

I picked up a used 4X4Labs bumper a couple of weeks ago and finally got around to installing it last night.

 

[Tahyoter]

Amazing progress... in less than a year? Awesome build.

 

[proudFJ80papa]

Is it possible to love you and hate you at the same time?

 

[roadstr6]

Is it possible to love you and hate you at the same time?

Don’t hate on me, dude. Love. Show me the love!

To be honest, this truck has gone way beyond what I had envisioned it would be. I have been super fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time to accumulate the parts I have to build it. It’s a nice truck but it’s far from perfect. There is still a lot left to do and what’s left is not the type of stuff that moves the needle on the cool meter. Leaks need fixed. PHH needs done. It could use gears. It’s at 180k and on the original HG so that’s looming.

 

[lumbee1]

Where did you get a USED 4x4 Labs bumper in great shape?!?!

 

[roadstr6]

Where did you get a USED 4x4 Labs bumper in great shape?!?!

In the ONSC for sale thread! @NCTrey133 had it for sale. He’s in Burlington. Talk about right place and right time!

 

[roadstr6]

My son Nathan and I went camping and 'wheeling with our 'cruiser peeps in the Pisgah and Cherokee National Forests last weekend. This was Cotton's maiden offroad voyage and the truck did great.

 

[roadstr6]

My a/c idler pulley was making noise so I pulled it and replaced the bearing with one from Amazon which is supposedly speed rated and "better" than the factory bearing. 30 minute job. Squawking is gone. Yay!

I've had some erratic idling and a couple of CEL's that present themselves as PO 26. I verified a faulty o2 sensor. I am starting to think about scrapping the PAIR system, leaving the old O2's where they are and buying two new ones to go into the manifold where the PAIR stuff connects. For now, I have disconnected both sensors. Truck runs the best it has ever run albeit with a CEL lit up due to the sensors not being hooked up. In addition, I decided to bump my base timing from 3 degrees (factory setting) to 7 degrees to see if I got any seat-of-the-pants power increase. Holy cow! I like the timing advance! I have not noticed any pinging whatsoever. My plan is to purchase the 89465-60110 O2 sensor kit and decide on my next move.

 

[roadstr6]

Cotton and his siblings: