January Meeting

[bhmmapping]

new knobs finally came in!

Alrighty, last update here before I move it over to the 80's section for the full writeup. The new shifter knobs came in last night and they are awesome, better than I expected. I ordered these from a mud member, amaurer. He has a web site, cruiseruser.com. I made some cheapo extensions for the shifter knobs by welding a nut on the top of a bolt. There is some thread locker on the knobs in the pictures, it is cleaned off now.



Now I'm just waiting for the marlin inner axle seals to come in from IPOR so I can install the front aussie locker, new tie rod ends, and the locking hubs.

 

[uabericm]

Very nice.

 

[Land Speeder]

Matt is it too early to tell the gas mileage?

 

[bhmmapping]

Matt is it too early to tell the gas mileage?

Get outta my head! funny you say that, I was just thinking about that. It is too early because I haven't really been driving it yet. I ordered the marlin seals from IPOR a month ago, but they are waiting for more to come in. I don't feel comfortable driving it on the road right now. The combination of bad TRE's, low caster, no swaybar, and 2wd makes it unstable at speed.

I hope the MPG will improve, I was averaging just under 12 with the auto, which IMO is not that bad for a 3fe 80. The only reason I can see it not improving is because of the higher RPM's on the highway. I have postponed some planned maintenance to get a better idea of the actual difference the manual makes.

On another note, I adjusted the clutch pedal height when I installed the new knobs and it has made a night and day difference in how smooth it shifts. the clutch was so short before that I was chirping the tires every time I turned.

 

[bhmmapping]

full writeup posted in the 80 section:

https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-...speed-manual-transmission-into-1992-fj80.html

It didn't seem like that much freaking work until I started trying to document it. I'll be interested to see how much interest it generates over there, I probably should have titled it "bling manual transmission swap to improve 3fe MPG"