weekly update
In my hunt for the boost leak I'm tracing the system. I started at the gasket on my turbo compressor side. Perhaps this is not seating right when I put the housing on it so I thought I'd try out some Hi-temp (testing, won't be high enough in the long run) sealant to keep the gasket in place while mating the housing.
I took it for a run the next day and still have a good leak so I'm going to try finding a thicker o-ring to replace the flat gasket that came in my rebuild kit. My initial search at the local hardware store didn't turn anything up so I'll probably have to go somewhere more industrial. While I had things apart I had good access to the wastegate-to-hardline connection so I tightened that up too.
While I let that sit I started on my hydroassist. I bought the trailgear kit way back before I started tearing down the cruiser and it has been waiting all this time. The brackets made it easy but I did modify the axle mount to get the ram lined up as well as possible with the tie rod. I tacked it all together and cycled the steering for clearance. Everything worked out so I started welding it on. I painted it up and got ready for hook-up.
I wanted to keep the tie rod adjustable instead of popping out the TREs to for alignment. If this doesn't end up working I'll just weld it on like many already have. This sleeve is to keep the tie rod mount in place.
Here's the adjustable mount with the ram installed.
Ram from the front.
Pics from the rear.
Hoses hooked up and system bled. I used pirate tech
Pirate4x4.Com - Extreme Four Wheel Drive on porting steering boxes to figure out the lines and Brokenparts confirmed it for me. The bleeding was really simple and didn't take long, I did loosen the adjuster lock nut and let the box bleed shortly while cycling the system. It was a little messy but I didn't loose much fluid. The caps I had on there I'm keeping in the rig, that way I can cap the box in case I get a hole in the line from whatever. Rams are cheaper than LC steering boxes. I thought I had tightened up the box (adjuster nut on top) but found I was able to get another 1 1/4 turns by tightening, start rig and cycle steering, tighten some more, etc. This adjuster meshes the sector shaft teeth into the piston teeth. Mine was too loose allowing too much play and contributed to my DW. With the box tightened and the ram hooked up I don't have DW anymore.
I tried to get my tires balanced traditionally with the airsoft pellets and the reading kept coming up in different spots on the balancing machine so they weren't able to balance them and didn't charge me for anything. He explained that they can usually do it with equal internal balancing media so that leads me to believe that the airsoft pellets are still too big to distribute as well as smaller media can. Instead of popping the bead and sucking those out I might look into getting a set of street tires and keeping the 38s for wheeling. The
thought that was the better idea so it sounds like I've got approval. I'll probably be looking for some AT BFGs no smaller than 35s, just depends on what's available. I'm also toying with the idea of getting myself some tire irons and learn how to mount/dismount my tires. Then I could try out different media or check to see if the airsoft pellets I got were of sucky quality and are disintigrating inside.
Last night I was tightening the intake manifold bolts (really a cover on the 4bt as the head and intake are one piece) as a possible boost leak area and snapped one. Of course this happens at 7:30 pm and I have to work today so I pulled the cover plate off to see if I could get it out.
It's funny how we feel "lucky" when a snapped bolt sticks up far enough to get some vice grips on to twist it. It came out without any effort but during the cover plate removal the old gasket broke and wanting to get it drivable so I don't leave my wife without a car AGAIN I scrapped off the old gasket, cleaned it, and layered on some HI-temp sealant so I could slap it back together. I did notice something interesting while I was in there. It looked like the rear of the gasket might not have been sealing at one point and allowed moisture in causing some rust.
I'm not loosing any coolant and it looks like this has been here a while so maybe this happened before I got it.
I am missing one bolt for the intake horn right now but the tapped holes on the right side (where my missing bolt is) of the above pic don't go into the intake area like the ones on the left do, so the left side is where possible leaks from the bolt holes can be. I drove it this morning and the boost gauge doesn't flutter as much but it still flutters so it's back to hunting. I still cannot break the 20psi mark and was only seeing 18psi max on the way to work this morning. The wastegate has been tested, is working and should allow more than that with me adjusting the rod length so it's not the problem. I also capped off that line out of the intake cover to see it I had a crack in the hardline and I saw no difference. I'll see how much a set of intake gaskets are and see about replacing all the intake bolts since I can't seem to get some of them to take 30-35 ftlbs of torque. They keep turning and the threads are all OK so I figure they are stretching.
I also struck out at a scrap yard yesterday looking for tube to build bumper and slider protection. I was looking for 1 3/4" .120 wall. I did get longer bolts for the battery straps and those are now secure. Also gave it a wash and started detailing the roof to clean up the paint and get some protection on it. I'll eventually do the whole thing, the first time takes the longest.
