A Year of Hunting, a Cross-Country Flight, and My First 100 Series (1 Viewer)

[winestonecowboy]

LC is still in the shop, but should have it back any day now. In the meantime, in preparation for my trip I've ordered an awning which I hope to be able to mount into the stock rack with rivnuts (I've ordered Yakima MightyMounts as an alternative, just in case). Additionally, I've put together an Amazon order for a DIY solar system based around a 200W solar panel, MPPT charger, and a 100Ah LiFePO4 battery to keep my Starlink Mini and Macbook powered so I can work remotely while in BFE. This will be my first major project for the vehicle, and will hopefully serve as a bridge until I can get to a full dual battery setup down the road.

 

[winestonecowboy]

While I'm thinking about it, has anyone successfully mounted anything in the cargo cubby in the rear quarter panel? I believe the battery I ordered should fit in there, but I'm pretty sure it's all plastic, so I'm not sure how I'd securely mount it. I searched around on the forum but haven't been able to find anything conclusive.

 

[winestonecowboy]

Truck back from the shop. Drives like a new vehicle! New ball joints (555 upper/lower), tie rods (555 inner/outer), and shocks (OEM). Alignment looks solid, but there is still a slight bit of pull to the right, which I suspect is coming from a sticking piston on front passenger caliper. This specific piston was a PITA when doing the brakes earlier this year, and due to the fact that the pull is slight and intermittent, I am suspecting this. Will need to look into it further. Also, I'm sure the wheel bearings are not helping. No idea when the last time they were repacked/replaced. Additionally, I've noticed a leak from the transfer case. Will likely add some stop leak additive when changing the oil in the case and diffs soon. Running boards are removed, and awning installed. Will share a picture when I have one, but she's starting to look like a nice touring rig!

 

[winestonecowboy]

RE: battery question above, I was watching videos of 105 series mods while my truck was in the shop and didn't realize the difference in size in the rear cubbies. The group 24 battery I have will certainly not fit in any of the rear cubbies!

I've been playing around with different strategies to wire and setup my house battery system in the cargo area. Haven't been able to find the right solution. I was thinking of mounting the Victron MPPT into the smaller passenger side cargo cubby in the rear, and using anderson plugs for quick connect/disconnect, but I can't find a place to securely mount my battery. Plenty of spaces for it to sit, but a large unsecured lithium battery bouncing around off road and in the event of an accident is just a massive liability. I'm also wary of drilling holes as this was initially just supposed to be a temporary solution.

I've spent a lot on this project already, and am considering returning it all to Amazon and just buying the Slee tray, a second battery, and a DC/DC charger for the sake of simplicity and ease of mounting.

 

[winestonecowboy]

Bad news.. leak wasn't from the transfer case...

Have not experienced any oil leaking since owning it (around 10k miles now I believe), but I started noticing a few drops of oil in the past couple of weeks - nothing crazy. Oil pressure was reading same as it always has, and dipstick when I checked it a couple of weeks back was reading fine. I figured I'd just let it ride and keep an eye on it until the next oil change.

Well, it seemed to get way worse in the past couple of days, so I crawled under there and dropped the skid plate, and my god what a mess. Oil everywhere - transmission was covered in it. Went up top to check the dipstick - bone dry. Straight to the mechanic. I read up on this one and was hoping it was not a rear main seal.. just got the call. Lucky door number three: rear main seal. Mechanic said it's completely busted, and that he's never seen one this bad, which honestly tracks with what I saw under the truck. It looked like something exploded. $1500 to fix, which absolutely blows. My upcoming trip is now officially canceled.

I have not found any other experiences of such a drastic failure on this, and honestly haven't found too many reports of this happening on 100's at all. I'm wondering if this is the whole picture and if there could be something else gnarlier at play, or if I just drew the short straw here. Mechanic seems pretty confident it is the RMS as well, to clarify. Anyways, huge bummer.

 

[LXfromTX]

Bad news.. leak wasn't from the transfer case...

Have not experienced any oil leaking since owning it (around 10k miles now I believe), but I started noticing a few drops of oil in the past couple of weeks - nothing crazy. Oil pressure was reading same as it always has, and dipstick when I checked it a couple of weeks back was reading fine. I figured I'd just let it ride and keep an eye on it until the next oil change.

Well, it seemed to get way worse in the past couple of days, so I crawled under there and dropped the skid plate, and my god what a mess. Oil everywhere - transmission was covered in it. Went up top to check the dipstick - bone dry. Straight to the mechanic. I read up on this one and was hoping it was not a rear main seal.. just got the call. Lucky door number three: rear main seal. Mechanic said it's completely busted, and that he's never seen one this bad, which honestly tracks with what I saw under the truck. It looked like something exploded. $1500 to fix, which absolutely blows. My upcoming trip is now officially canceled.

I have not found any other experiences of such a drastic failure on this, and honestly haven't found too many reports of this happening on 100's at all. I'm wondering if this is the whole picture and if there could be something else gnarlier at play, or if I just drew the short straw here. Mechanic seems pretty confident it is the RMS as well, to clarify. Anyways, huge bummer.

Sorry to hear the bad news. Let's hope your troubles end there.