a couple of minor "annoyances" I'd love to fix... (3 Viewers)

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A

adavis

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Feb 27, 2013
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Oakesdale WA
I love my 73....don't get me wrong. It is completely stock (aside from 31" tires) and is a true pleasure to drive. It runs great, stops straight and goes down the road smoothly.

The weather is about to change here so I chose to drive it to work on Friday for probably the last time this year. My drive is 40 miles each way on 2-lane country highway, through the rolling hills of the Palouse in Washington. I rarely see taillights on my drive to work which means I don't really have to focus on bad drivers....just enjoying the drive and scenery. That gave me time to find two things I'd like to fix and hopefully the great IH8MUD wealth of knowledge will make these easy....

1st....my spare tire rattles against the back door. It really isn't so much of a rattle as a thumping. It is the stock 1973 tire carrier that I have a stock wheel with a 31x10.5x15 tire mounted to. I had to install a 2" spacer behind the wheel to get the tire not to touch the body but other than that it's stock. I replaced the little rubber bumper. Is there any trick to quieting this? The latch at the bottom is in good condition. I've noticed that the top of the tire will move fairly easily even when the bottom is latched and I don't see any real way around this, other than adding more padding to the rubber bumper, but is that really the only way? I understand that I've added a little more weight with the larger tire but I'm hoping that I can quiet the thing down.

2nd......I'm fortunate enough to have a Fairey Overdrive installed in my Landcruiser. The original owner had the dealer install it when he bought it, at the same time his friend had his installed. When I bought it from him he mentioned that the dang overdrive whined, but his friend's overdrive was quite. Honestly over the last year I've been focused on getting everything ironed out after it sat for almost 20 years and really haven't paid attention to the whine. Now that everything is pretty much dialed in it has given me the time to notice the overdrive whine and now that I've heard it I understand why he was annoyed by it. The sound is higher pitched and is present from about 15mph up to 60+mph. There is a "sweet spot" where it seems to be quieter around 55-60mph. It makes the noise on acceleration or deceleration. I'm guessing it is due to straight cut gears in the overdrive, but I'm hoping there is some "trick" to make it go away. When I got the FJ40 I had to replace a roll pin in the overdrive (I did a thread on that project) and when I had it apart it looks like new. When it was back together I filled it with standard 80-90W gear oil. I would just accept it as the way it is if it wasn't for the fact that Larry (the original owner) said that he was jealous of his friend's Fairey OD because it was quiet.

Don't get me wrong....both of these things are just little annoying things that I'm being picky about. I'm still amazed at how fun this thing is to drive and how well it drives. It's a blast and I'm honored to own it. If I can fix these two little things it will be that much more enjoyable to drive. THanks for any and all advice you can provide.
 
brian said:
The gear noise is almost certainly from the transfer not the overdrive....they are all loud.
Click to expand...
I don't recall my 72 having as much of a whine, but that's been a while ago.

Are there any "tricks" to quieting the beast? The only thing I can think would be to add heavier gear oil but is that a bad idea?

The sound isn't horrible but it would be nice to quiet it down. Obviously I don't want to risk damaging anything in the process but if there's a simple fix I'm all for it.
 
No straight cut gears in a Fairey overdrive.

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Does it make noise when your not using the od?
 
Does the whine stay the same at the same speeds with or without the OD engaged and not engaged? While the OD gears are always spinning they spin slower with the OD off and have no load on them. If the whine is the same at the same speeds all the time it's most likely your transmission idler gear shaft/bushings.
 
For you spare tire if the hinges seem tight I would use a piece of steel attached to the barn door where the adjustment is at the top using double stick tape. Then tighten the adjustment on spare tire carrier to prevent any rattle. May use another piece at the bottom where the fixes pad is on the carrier. Doing this spreads the pressure over a larger area and less likely to dent the barn door. That is a common problem on both the barn door and tailgate on FST models
 
@Living in the Past I believe the whine is about the same pitch regardless of speed (for the most part) but it gets louder the faster you go. BUT there is a "sweet spot" speed that it almost goes away. Now that I think about it, that speed could actually be just my flat land cruising speed and maybe it's not whining because I'm not accelerating or decelerating?? I'll need to do some more driving and focus on just the sound to get exact, correct information (sorry I was actually trying to IGNORE the sound on my drive to/from work on Friday). I'll do some testing and respond back with info.

Thanks for the advice on the spare tire rattle. I'll triple check for play in the hinges, but when I initially heard it that's the first thing I thought, and both hinges seemed tight. It seems like there is a lot of flex in the spare tire mount simply as it's designed (with only the 2 hinges and the latch at the bottom corner) so I was wondering if I might just need to crank out that bumper to put more pressure on the rear door when the latch is hooked. Is there any sort of plastic "bushing" on that latch? I thought I'd seen a plastic piece that went over the latch to maybe take up play or something??

@whitey45 So basically I'll deal with the whine until I pull the engine to replace the small oil leak from the rear main seal is what you're saying? Or is the whine a sign of a major problem with the transfer case that I need to get fixed ASAP?
 
If it whines engaged or not, then its probably the case. You can probably replace the bearings in the od unit too.
 
They can go along time with the whine, it usually ends up wearing the idler shaft( but its replaceable)
 
@brian Yeah I think it does sound a lot like that. What did you record that with? I'll see if I can get a decent recording on my new iphone and post it on here.

So that's the transfer case? Is that just the way it sounds or is it the sound of a problem??
 
A quick temporary fix for the spare tire rattle is putting a wheel barrow inner tube between the tire carrier and door. My rattle mysteriously went away when I mounted a 10.5 x 33 Dick Cepak tire on it instead of the 9.5 x 33 B.F. Goodrich (which aged out).
 
S22 ultra with the windows up.
I have 100k miles plus on this trans/transfer, so as far as i can tell its not a big problem, if it is one.
 
@TEakins I think I know exactly why that wider tire fixed your rattle. If I didn't mount that 2" spacer behind my 10.5" tire it would press against the body, causing pressure which would not allow it to rattle. I didn't like that idea because I was worried it would rub my paint.....but it could be a solution if it bothers me that much. Thanks for the info.
 
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