My Blue Beast, which is no longer blue (1 Viewer)

[65swb45]

Bling!

 

[tlaporte]

Spent a good bit of time away from home this summer so the truck sat in the garage, which gave me an opportunity to really see the extent of the oil leak:

I forgot to put something for a size reference but that’s about a 10” diameter circle or so. Been sitting about three months.

The drip appears to come directly at the bottom of the bell housing:

I’m no mechanic but I’m going to guess that that means a big job to fix it. Is that the “rear main seal” that I’ve seen mentioned before?

 

[65swb45]

Simple test: put a little of that oil between your thumb and forefinger (yeah, diesel is going to leave a mark like you’ve been fingerprinted! (Keep your friends guessing )
Then, before you wash up, pull the dipstick and do the same thing. If they feel the same, it’s an engine oil leak. If they don’t, you need a new input seal in the trans.

 

[tlaporte]

My first test suggests that they are the same. There is a slight difference in what is leaking out only in that it feels dirtier, probably because I swiped my finger along the bottom of the bell housing to get my sample. I’ve wiped that section clean and will test again later this evening to confirm my suspicions, but they look the same, and apart from the grittiness they seemed to feel the same to me.

 

[65swb45]

 

[tlaporte]

Yeah. Checked again tonight and I believe it’s engine oil.

 

[tlaporte]

Doing some archaeology on the paint. The lower portion with the two holes is the OEM Army Green (paint code 000 ) that was covered over from all of the subsequent repaints by a snorkel mount.

The upper portion is the result of ten minutes of 0000 steel wool, acetone and elbow grease. I slowed down at that point because I was afraid of being too aggressive. Not really sure what the plan is, I just had a few minutes of time to mess around and I certainly wasn’t going to make things any worse than they are. I think I’m going to clear some things out of the bed and try to remove the blue paint that’s in there.

 

[tlaporte]

Thread revival. Life gets in the way. Sadly the truck has sat in my garage for the better part of a year and a half.

Today I continued on the process of replacing the 20-year old tires. I removed the front wheels and dismounted the tires. I was planning to get the split rims blasted and painted or powder coated. I wondered if anyone had an opinion on their condition prior to doing that work. There is some deep pitting in places, as seen in the photos below.

 

[crustyBJ60]

Thread revival. Life gets in the way. Sadly the truck has sat in my garage for the better part of a year and a half.

Today I continued on the process of replacing the 20-year old tires. I removed the front wheels and dismounted the tires. I was planning to get the split rims blasted and painted or powder coated. I wondered if anyone had an opinion on their condition prior to doing that work. There is some deep pitting in places, as seen in the photos below.

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That’s pretty wasted. Plus the riveted splits just add extra places to leak/corrode in the future. Save your time/money on those ones.

I’d look for a better set of welded splits. They’re out there.

Troopy is like fine wine, gets better with age

Don’t sweat it.

Cheers
Crusty

 

[gr8ful]

Thread revival. Life gets in the way. Sadly the truck has sat in my garage for the better part of a year and a half.

Today I continued on the process of replacing the 20-year old tires. I removed the front wheels and dismounted the tires. I was planning to get the split rims blasted and painted or powder coated. I wondered if anyone had an opinion on their condition prior to doing that work. There is some deep pitting in places, as seen in the photos below.

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That first one doesn’t look too bad, but those others are pretty rough for sure. I’ve got stacks of extra splits collects over the years here in Colorado. Happy to help complete your set!

 

[tlaporte]

Thank you @gr8ful .

I sent you a PM.

 

[gr8ful]

Thank you @gr8ful .

I sent you a PM.

Sorry! I saw your post & then totally forgot to get back to you later when I was able. Responding now!

 

[tlaporte]

My thread and progress is the antithesis of a typical Tilda Bogue thread.

I pulled the seats awhile ago and got going on freshening them up. Got new base seat frames from Cruiserparts due to the rusted out condition of mine. In the early dismantling process I probably went a bit too far and I removed the steel coil that provides tension to fold the seat back forward on one of the seats. Now I’m in the position of trying to put it back and I can’t figure out a way to do it safely.

Two pictures, one showing the two seats for a comparison and one closeup of the passengers seat where I need to get the coil back in place:

I’m thinking that I need to use the attachment point as my lever arm, with maybe something like a small rope or wire wrapped around the head of the coil spring, pulling it toward the attachment point.

I’m open to suggestions. I’ve been trying to imagine how they might have done it on the production line. I suspect there were specialty jigs or tools involved.