Builds Gerry's Build thread: "If it happens again I'm buying an Abrams"

[MongooseGA]

Go for the LRA tank!

-- Classy: happy to help spend your money on your truck!

Someone give this guy's posts a disclaimer: "Caution: Adherence to Advice Above Comes with Wallet Pain".



No, actually... I'm going to finally have to break down and send my cluster in for rebuild ($$) and need to have the ML amp rebuilt again, just a few months outside of the warranty from last time (more $$).

 

[GTV]

Go for the LRA tank!

-- Classy: happy to help spend your money on your truck!

No worky on post May ‘04 100’s

 

[Kabanstva]

Not yet unfortunately. I'm still needing to replace my very dented original tank before putting that skid on. Hopefully soon.

Nice man. I’m probably just gonna order it anyways. It’s not priced too high. I was behind a FJ Cruiser this evening who had his factory gas tank skid plate all out of whack…hard to tel in the pic but that black piece hanging lower than his rear diff housing is his bent skid plate. Must’ve got caught on something.

 

[Kabanstva]

And yes all that white s*** on the cars is road salt.

 

[ClassyJalopy]

We should invite GA to come hang out with us on some winter trails!

 

[MongooseGA]

 

[Kabanstva]

Cmon man it’s just salt. Won’t hurt nothing! Hahaha

 

[MongooseGA]

Nothing outstanding going on. I rolled 315k the other day so today was oil and lube. 5 tire rotation is scheduled for tomorrow morning.


She's getting old, and I'm finding myself doing more maintenance now than building. That's OK, just part of the process. Over the last few weeks I've put together a laundry key of items to cross off this year (hopefully). Fortunately, everything mechanical is solid.


Aim lights
Pressure wash underside
Replace grease zerks on control arms
Find heat shield rattle
Check/ Tighten all suspension bolts
Fix rear locker
Remove and refinish sliders
Replace/ upgrade rear bumper latch and bearing
Replace fuel tank
Create skid plate access for drive shaft maintenance
Rebuild instrument cluster
Replace DRLs
Replace front seat skins
Replace LEDs in dash buttons
Build rear LCA sliders
Replace brake booster pump
Replace all fluids
Replace driver's door speaker


I think most of it just boils down to "that's what you get for what you do to that truck". The rest is piddly stuff.


Focus as of late has been on the SC and 560. Gerry is just trucking along.

 

[ClassyJalopy]

An excellent list!
Curious what you plan to do to create skid plate access for drive shaft maintenance. Is it largely to access grease zerks on the front shaft?

 

[D21FJ60]

i've said it before however many pages ago in this thread, but whenever I see this thread bumped I fully expect some sort of carnage when I click on it. Not that i'm disappointed, i'm happy for you, but still.

 

[MongooseGA]

An excellent list!
Curious what you plan to do to create skid plate access for drive shaft maintenance. Is it largely to access grease zerks on the front shaft?

I'm just going to make a hole. Correct, for drive shaft greasing. Sometimes if the zerks are positioned just right I can slip my gun hose in there, but it's not ideal.

i've said it before however many pages ago in this thread, but whenever I see this thread bumped I fully expect some sort of carnage when I click on it. Not that i'm disappointed, i'm happy for you, but still.

Don't you put that evil on me!

 

[BurnsCrew]

That’s a good looking truck right there.

 

[MongooseGA]

That’s a good looking truck right there.

Thanks man!

When are you sending yours down here? Do you need/ expect your front bumper to still be on it when you get the truck back?

 

[BurnsCrew]

Thanks man!

When are you sending yours down here? Do you need/ expect your front bumper to still be on it when you get the truck back?

Patch is coming in Feb 4th to grab it. Hahaha! I’m pumped to get the new transfer case gears in it. I’ll be picking up my new driveshaft this week. And yes, I do expect it to still be on the front end!

I’m itching to get some bigger rubber under the thing. After seeing Lee cruiser through the rock garden, the extra ground clearance was noticeable on his truck. At the current rate that I drive it though, that won’t be for a long time.

 

[MongooseGA]

So for a while now, my spare tire swing out has been kind of loose, thuds in to the bumper when closing and sort of drops off the bumper when opening. Not great. Additionally, after some trail rides, I can't get the friggin latch open because the arm has shifted so much from the vibrations.

Well not any more.

Yesterday I opened the housing to see how it looked. Pretty gross. Pulled the nut and checked out the bearings. Holy s***, they're toast. No wonder it's acting the way it is. Even the bearing races were very corroded.

Yikes. The darkness isn't grease- these pieces all went through my parts washer. That's straight up corrosion

The interior of their housing was pretty gunked up. Looks like the seal on bottom failed or I never had it installed properly to begin with. So new everything went in today and man is it satisfying. No more "thunk" then having to lift the tire up on to the bumper.


Worth noting: the nut that holds these pieces together was likely not torqued enough when I installed it. Today I set my Ridgid mid-torque impact gun to level 1 and with 2-3 uggaduggas, it's perfectly snug now with no play and smooth operation.


She got the first real bath since COTR yesterday. I forgot what color it was supposed to be. I've also stripped the armor from the truck for cleaning and maintenance. Looks kinda silly now.

 

[2000UZJ]

Lookin' good! See you around Atlanta (again, lol). I probably should also inspect the spindles on my rear bumper. I have a little chatter from the rear, but I believe it's the safety pins rattling over speed bumps.

 

[WickedPickle]

So for a while now, my spare tire swing out has been kind of loose, thuds in to the bumper when closing and sort of drops off the bumper when opening. Not great. Additionally, after some trail rides, I can't get the friggin latch open because the arm has shifted so much from the vibrations.

Well not any more.

Yesterday I opened the housing to see how it looked. Pretty gross. Pulled the nut and checked out the bearings. Holy s***, they're toast. No wonder it's acting the way it is. Even the bearing races were very corroded.

View attachment 3266691
View attachment 3266692
View attachment 3266693

Yikes. The darkness isn't grease- these pieces all went through my parts washer. That's straight up corrosion

The interior of their housing was pretty gunked up. Looks like the seal on bottom failed or I never had it installed properly to begin with. So new everything went in today and man is it satisfying. No more "thunk" then having to lift the tire up on to the bumper.


Worth noting: the nut that holds these pieces together was likely not torqued enough when I installed it. Today I set my Ridgid mid-torque impact gun to level 1 and with 2-3 uggaduggas, it's perfectly snug now with no play and smooth operation.


She got the first real bath since COTR yesterday. I forgot what color it was supposed to be. I've also stripped the armor from the truck for cleaning and maintenance. Looks kinda silly now. View attachment 3266696

I like the road tires.
My dissent has gone through two sets of bearings. They actually snapped the thin metal on the top of the roller bearing. This last round seems to be holding up and I added some spacers to lift the arm up which helped with the interference.
Now I try not to use the arms unless I have to get into the back.

 

[MongooseGA]

Lookin' good! See you around Atlanta (again, lol). I probably should also inspect the spindles on my rear bumper. I have a little chatter from the rear, but I believe it's the safety pins rattling over speed bumps.

I swear there's always something making a noise. Drives me nuts.

I like the road tires.
My dissent has gone through two sets of bearings. They actually snapped the thin metal on the top of the roller bearing. This last round seems to be holding up and I added some spacers to lift the arm up which helped with the interference.
Now I try not to use the arms unless I have to get into the back.

Good to know it's not just me. I may use your spacer idea if this ends up sagging any over time.

 

[abuck99]

Hmmm ….. pumped some grease in my swing outs the other day- since they dont actually “rotate” more than 90 degrees, I hadn’t ever considered the bearings to wear out-

Huh

 

[MongooseGA]

Little things, but crossing things off my list nonetheless.

The other day I pulled all of my rear control arms to service them. Because of their location in the housings/mounts, getting my grease gun on some of the zerks has been nearly impossible. The result: my truck has horrendous squeaks. So the move was to ditch the existing 90* zerks and replace with some angled ones. I also cleaned them arms and joints up before going back on to the truck.

I bought a LocknLube coupler for my grease gun as well. Way easier to get it firmly on and easily off the zerks.

While I was down there, I went ahead and removed these LCA 'skids' that have been on for a while. They worked for a while, but then they didn't. Ultimately I will build a plate steel surround for that mount, and weld a slider bar diagonally up to the frame.