Builds New Mexico Pig Build (1 Viewer)

[abqcruiser]

Another pig trip under our belt! This time to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was, as always, too short but none the less a great trip.

The first night we stayed outside of Flagstaff, AZ at Lockett Meadows.

It's first come first serve for camping and fortunately we were able to find a spot. We were only able to stay the one night, but as we were driving out the next day, we did manage to meet a fellow mudder on the road. It was a brief meet and greet, but one of those moments that would have been better served around a fire with beers in hand. @ucantcme, hopefully we can meet again. Maybe after you get your troopy on the road.

Here's some pics of our travels around the north rim:

A few poser shots:

 

[abqcruiser]

A few more:

I did manage to meet yet another mudder at the north rim. Unfortunately I didn't get his name, but a kindred spirit nonetheless.
The pig did great! The only time I opened the tool box was to lone a wrench to a camper in need. The new wiper install was definitely tested with a sudden snowstorm and heavy rain on the trip back to ABQ. It wasn't a stellar performance, the drivers side wiper kept tracking too far left off the windshield. Hopefully, a minor adjustment will fix it.

 

[scrapdaddy]

Beautiful! Can't wait to get back out there. The wagon looks awesome, so worth the effort and a whole lot of fun!

 

[abqcruiser]

That part of our country should be on everyone's bucket list!

 

[bobm]

I Love this Country. Need to get out more

 

[PabloCruise]

Another pig trip under our belt! This time to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was, as always, too short but none the less a great trip.

The first night we stayed outside of Flagstaff, AZ at Lockett Meadows.

View attachment 1335025
It's first come first serve for camping and fortunately we were able to find a spot. We were only able to stay the one night, but as we were driving out the next day, we did manage to meet a fellow mudder on the road. It was a brief meet and greet, but one of those moments that would have been better served around a fire with beers in hand. @ucantcme, hopefully we can meet again. Maybe after you get your troopy on the road.

Here's some pics of our travels around the north rim:

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A few poser shots:
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View attachment 1335058

Poster Pig...

 

[ucantcme]

Hey ABQcruiser ucantcme here thanks for the short time we did have, My wife and I were going to ride our bikes on the weather-ford trail it's an old water pipe line that was built in the 1800s its ten miles long and is all down hill Wish I had time to do a walk around on your Pig, She sure is a beauty Wow! Great job on the rebuild!!! Next time you come through town drop me a PM and maybe we can get together

 

[scrapdaddy]

Cruiser Heads making friends, that's what it's all about!

 

[abqcruiser]

Hey ABQcruiser ucantcme here thanks for the short time we did have, My wife and I were going to ride our bikes on the weather-ford trail it's an old water pipe line that was built in the 1800s its ten miles long and is all down hill Wish I had time to do a walk around on your Pig, She sure is a beauty Wow! Great job on the rebuild!!! Next time you come through town drop me a PM and maybe we can get together

I'll definitely do that! I'd really like to go back to Lockett Meadow and spend a few days hiking, and now biking, around there.

The same goes for you, if you ever pass through Albuquerque let me know and I'll buy you a beer., or two.

 

[ucantcme]

Will do, I have relatives in ABQ NM and BELEN NM Ill let you know glad you made it home safe!

 

[PabloCruise]

I noticed on the campground website that you can reserve up to 6 months in advance. Might be a good idea to pick that date and keep an eye on when reservations start to fill up. Also might be a good idea to start this in a new thread in a few months.

Agreed on the new thread! Do you want to start since you have the best familiarity with the region?

 

[abqcruiser]

Agreed on the new thread! Do you want to start since you have the best familiarity with the region?

Man, time flies!

Pablo, I figured you were the expert on all things Colorado. My folks actually made the reservations. We just showed up. We could make it a joint effort and post a new thread. You have a better grasp on conflicting events, so I would be looking to you for the best target date to do this. I'll talk with my dad and get some more info.

Let's do this!

 

[1973Guppie]

Great pictures! It's just so cool to see the wagon out camping. Got to watch out for the stretchy nut syndrome. I look forward to doing the same type of back road camping. Good Job!

Anything you have to redo, tweak, etc. I've got a whole list.

nuts do stretch quite a bit especially after all the years of abuse......

, sorry I could not resist.

 

[abqcruiser]

Snow Pig.

And a Christmas tree run.

 

[xtremeVA]

It's inspiring to see you using your beautiful restored pig in all seasons! We face the evils of salty roads in the east, but I'm ready to do a couple donuts in a snowy parking lot this winter!

 

[abqcruiser]

It's inspiring to see you using your beautiful restored pig in all seasons! We face the evils of salty roads in the east, but I'm ready to do a couple donuts in a snowy parking lot this winter!

You read my mind! I really wanted to re-create that Vavoline commercial, but I had the wife, kid, and dog in the back. My wife and son might have gotten a thrill out of it, but it probably would have given the dog a heart attack.

Cheers!

 

[PabloCruise]

Snow Pig.

View attachment 1369043

And a Christmas tree run.

View attachment 1369044

View attachment 1369045

Beautiful!

Can you fit your Pig in a garage with that rack?

 

[abqcruiser]

Beautiful!

Can you fit your Pig in a garage with that rack?

Some day, when I finally get around to building one.

The top of the rack is just over 7', so it wouldn't fit in a standard garage.

 

[abqcruiser]

Back to work;

Everything that I haven't replaced or refurbished is now rearing its ugly head.

Prior to these problems with the pig I had been helping a friend with his fj60. He had been dealing with an awful noise coming from where he was convinced was in the transmission. Long story short, I helped him rebuild both a transmission and transfer case that he bought off another rig. When it came to the day to do the transmission/transfer swap, we started by removing the driveshafts and noticed that the stake nut on the rear pinion flange had loosened so much so that I could remove it by hand. Turns out that his problem all along was a trashed rear third member. Lessoned learned, start with the simple diagnosis first and then move on from there. Good news for me is that i now have a split case tansfer and a later 4spd transmission for one hell of a deal, and the knowledge on how to rebuild them.

So that story leads into what I've been dealing with on the pig. I've been trying to diagnose a noise that I've been hearing while in 4wd. It's definitely up front and only occurs when going down hill or my foot off the gas. It goes away under load. The noise is hard to describe, definitely mechanical, maybe a light grinding noise?

So here is what I've done so far. Lock the hubs and ran it in 2wd, no noise.
Unlocked the hubs and ran it in 4wd, no noise.
Removed driveshaft, checked pinion angle with transfer case angle, out about 3 degrees. Replaced 4* shims with 6* shims. Pinion angle is now within 1* of transfer case flange angle. Drove it, noise is still there.
Checked the front drive shaft, which was rebuilt with new u-joints a few months ago, slight movement up and down on the yoke. Yes, the driveshaft is in phase. I might take the driveshaft in and let someone take a look.

Knowing that I've never gone through either front or rear differential, I decided to also check there. I bought the needed tools and read up on rebuilding third members. This is definitely not a post on how to rebuild a third member. I did this as an excuse to try and resolve the noise issue and learn something during the process. It's a bitch to do it correctly, and figuring out what is the proper meshing of the pinion and ring gear is like trying to read tea leaves. i used the FSM and gearinstalls.com as a resource for setting things up. Here's a few pics for posterity:

It took at least a dozen attempts for me to get the shimming right, I hope. The front third member had signs that it had been rebuilt before. I decided to move that to the rear diff. Speaking of the rear, here's some pics of it removed:

As much as I can tell, it appears due to the pitting and rust that water, at one time, got in there while it sat. The chipped teeth tell a different story as well. Possibly a loose bolt that rattled free at one time? Everything was intact though when I pulled it.

So now both front and rear third members are rebuilt, as well as new bearings and oil seals installed. I rebuilt the front end awhile back so no need to go through that again.

Did it fix the noise problem you ask? Dunno yet.

I had read about the stake nut on the transfer output front shaft loosening over time, and possibly causing vibration issues. I checked it today. It was definitely loose, so re-torqued and staked the nut. Maybe I'll re-install the driveshaft tomorrow and see if that has remedied the problem. Feel free to offer up suggestions.

 

[PabloCruise]

I hope this fixes your noise issue!