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These trucks have some kind of love affair with blowing 71's. Mine is intermittent as well.

I was too tired to tell this story last night, but the coffee is kicking in now. So yesterday after I get all the crap back together, I double-check that everything looks good and go to start the truck. I get one tiny "whir" out of her, then dead. I mean like EVERYTHING is dead. No lights, no ignition, no nothing!

I'm thinking crap, I wonder if my fuseable link went... I called up FloridaCruiser813 and talked over some things... but it just wasn't adding up. So I put my multimeter on the leads on the battery - and nothing! I wasn't getting any voltage past the battery terminal.

Well, I'd changed out the terminal because the I hate the old one - it has these damn nuts under the terminal, and they're always falling out. Well apparently the new one assumed you had your starter wire as bare conductor (mine has a lug on it), so I guess that's what's supposed to make the connection for the stuff you strap onto the nuts. Oh well, whatever. Changed it out, and whadda know... I have power again.

Then it wouldn't start. Turn the key, nothing. Some quick thinking had me reset the alarm, however, and she was back in business.

I hate crap like that. ESPECIALLY after you do a lot of work on the truck!
 
Heh.

More updates tonight... got the TJM kit in the mail today, tackled the front this evening. About an hour and a half, got it all done (the front, that is).

I went from about 19" between hub and fender to about 23" now. That also includes my new 1" body lift. I'll post pics and such later.

Overall the job wasn't bad - I think I might have spent more time futzing with jack stands than I did with any one problem. Sooooo happy to have a rust-free rig....
 
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Lift is done!

Just got back from a test drive. The only casualty was my rear swaybar bracket - it's busted, but sudo-functional. I'm hoping it'll hold out until I can bash the crap out of it at GSMTR. Who knows, maybe I'll bend it back into shape...

Anyway, front end went from 19" to 23", and the rear went from 20" to 24".

Here's a pic of my old springs and bump stops:

IMG_2368.jpg


And the new TJM's after the front was re-assembled:

IMG_2432.jpg


Here you can see the front end after I got it done:

IMG_2429.jpg


Back to before:

IMG_2395.JPG


And here's a shot I just took on my test-drive:

IMG_2435.jpg


I swear it takes the bumps as well as my wife's merc GLK, although it's certainly not as stable (car vs. truck). I have the TJM's set to 'soft' right now, I'll play around with the settings in the next couple of days... but this setup is great.

I think I might need another 1" spacer in the front to cure the stinkbug, but I'll let it settle out a bit before making that call.

And oh, the only issue I have now is a little linkage problem with the tranny. I need to play with it again - sometimes when you shift to "D" it goes to "2". Bump it a little and it goes where it's supposed to, so I'll fix that.

It's a really nice setup, so far I have no regrets, but I'll save my judgement until after GSMTR!
 
Hmmm. I just realized that pic of the measurement must be wrong. The bump stop can't move from the top of the spring seat - I must have had the tape in the wrong place. Oh well, add 3", not 4" :)
 
NOW you offer!
 
I would go ahead and get the spacers! I thought the same thing and finally said the hell with it and ordered a set 30mm from MAF. Now ive got 50mm spacers all the way around . Looks damn good
 
I went over to a local metal fab place today and had them duplicate the light brackets. Nice guys - I was originally only going to do 2 of them, but he said "hey, for another $20, I'll make you a whole bunch". So he made 9 of them.

IMG_2438.jpg


They welded 4 of them on, two "up" and two "down" in the middle of the bumper. I'll probably move the lights later tonight and see where I like them better.

IMG_2436.jpg


IMG_2437.jpg
 
Moved the lights.

They're not aiming correctly, but what the heck should I expect for $18 or whatever I paid. These are just there to give me something more than my brights, and hold me over until I figure out what I really want.

IMG_2439.jpg
 
You want Hella 4000s!
 
Just my .02 but I would paint the space between the valance and the bumper black. That's what I did on my homemade bumper I had on my old 91. There was a 1-2in crack between the two. Like I said my .02 . Can't wait for a wagon run at GSMTR :)
 
That's not a bad idea. I'm thinking about rhino-lining the bottom part anyway... might just be a good reason to do that... not that I need them....
 
Another day, more work done!

So last night I finished wiring up my +12V outlets in the cab. I'll take pictures later, but I put in a 4-way that's switched off the ACC, then a 2-way that's unswitched. I wanted one that I could use for two things - one, if I wanted to charge something with the car off, and two, I have a small solar charger/battery maintainer that I wanted to use as well.

I also went up to my mechanics shop for an alignment since I've done all this work to the suspension. Glad I did. The toe was way off - +0.02 on the left, - 0.15 on the right. So they went to work on trying to adjust it... but the tie rods wouldn't budge! Too many trips underwater, I'm sure.

So out came the torch... heated up the ends, and they finally relented and began to move. I'm pretty sure he messed with them for about 45 minutes trying to get it perfect. He ended up at +0.03 on each side by the time it was said and done, but watching him work on it was like a game. I learned a lot about toe-in on these trucks, however.

After I got home, a nice package was waiting for me - it was the A/V cable for my double-din receiver. I have an Eclipse head unit I've carried around from a few trucks I've had, and along the way I'd lost the cable that provides for video-in on the unit. So I hooked it up and set it so my iPhone can play audio & video thru the head unit. My daughter was thrilled, of course, to be able to see the Power Puff Girls in the truck. Personally, I'm just happy to finally be able to play Pandora in the truck and have it sound decent!

The pre-GSMTR list is pretty small now. I picked up a couple of 10.something M12x1.25 bolts for the pintle hitch I have, and I've got a CB radio kicking around that I think I'll install and tune for the ride up. Other than that, I'm just playing around with the shock settings to see what's what and make sure there isn't anything I've missed...
 
Took some pictures, as promised. Got the pintle hook installed:

IMG_2462.jpg


IMG_2460.jpg


Here's what the iPhone support looks like:

IMG_2463.jpg


(I also removed the craptacular wood trim as well, which you can see in that picture)

And the 2-way, constant on 12V sockets (right) and the 4-way switched outlets (left):

IMG_2467.jpg


I'm also installing a CB radio on Monday as well.
 
Northern tool. I didn't see it on their site, but the store in S Orlando had them on the shelf. I think it was $50? I also had to buy 2x 12Mx1.25 bolts, but that was no big deal.
 
Well, GSMTR was awesome. Hope to see you there next year if I didn't see you this year!

I'm really happy I put all the work in that I did prior to going. It would not have been fun installing anything up there (taking away from the already short time I was there). And if I hadn't done what I did (maybe not including the body lift) I wouldn't have been able to really even run on the 'easy' trails without causing body damage.

That being said, I didn't escape unscathed. There was one rock that I came off of (twice) that really liked my exhaust. It got pushed up so it was pointing at the back of the fender flair, which eventually resulted in a melted flair! Whoops!

photo+1.JPG


I also must have kissed a tree or rock, as my left rear fender flair has a nice scrape on it, and it's loose now. I guess that means a de-flairing is in order at some point, followed by a lower bedliner paint.

She performed very well overall, I even got upto 15.5 MPG on one section (drafting behind Cliff or Luis mostly, running around 65MPH) not accounting for the tire size difference.

Here's the video I put together from some of the trail rides we did:



I'm still sorting out pics, but I've had a few good ones so far that I found. Here's a couple:

IMG_3592.JPG


IMG_3593.JPG
 
It was a blast. And oh, by the way... I LOVE those TJM's! I played around with the shock settings a bit, but being on the softest setting made for a great experience on the trail. On-road I've been putting them around 3 up from the softest for a compromise for handling.

Also, the tires were GREAT as well, although I wish I could air down a little more. I put them at around 15, and didn't want to go too much lower due to the sidewalls bulging and no beadlocks!
 
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