Builds Putting the rust demon at bay (4 Viewers)

[archie73]

So the new rims are 17’s with 4.5”of backspacing. I would have preferred proper backspacing, but I’ve been on the hunt for set of lug appropriate beadlocks for a long time and this is the first set I’ve found that I can afford. So I took what I could get. Wheel spacers

On the last couple trips to southern Utah, I have had the desire for a wider track on the trails, but I’d like to keep it where it is for street driving. So wheelspacers.

The new tires contact the spring when turning, before a flex test is done. So we need to get away from the springs. Wheel spacers.

The back clears the fender lip. Not so much on the inner fender. Wheelspacers.

Will the tires with wheel spacer contact the fender lip? Possibly. Body lift.

Is this all madness to justify my latest impulse buy? Possible, but I’m game to give it a try. The tires and wheel spacers will just be for wheeling trips, so I’m less concerned with stressing the wheel bearings. If I like the stance, I’ll keep an eye out for some 60/80 axles for the next iteration of the suspension, but I’m reluctant to do that for two reasons:

1. I don’t want the stance any wider for day to day driving
2. I’m kinda deep in these axles already- longfields, 4wheel discs & lockers.

So we’re on the hunt for wheel spacers. I thinking 1.5”. That should get me around a 60 axle width. I’ll be a little more stable and a bit more confident. Hope I don’t break anything. Knock on wood.

 

[White Stripe]

Hey man hope your doing well. I would go with 2.5" wheel spacers personally man. 4.5" back spacing is a lot and im not sure youll notice much difference with 1.5. The only thing it will do is put more strain on the trunnions and steering but i never felt it was a big deal personally. Do you have fj60 or mini truck arms yet? I wheeled all over the place with spacers and drove on the highway lots. Just make sure you torque them properly with a torque wrench.

 

[archie73]

Hey man hope your doing well. I would go with 2.5" wheel spacers personally man. 4.5" back spacing is a lot and im not sure youll notice much difference with 1.5. The only thing it will do is put more strain on the trunnions and steering but i never felt it was a big deal personally. Do you have fj60 or mini truck arms yet? I wheeled all over the place with spacers and drove on the highway lots. Just make sure you torque them properly with a torque wrench.

I ended up ordering 2”, so maybe we can compromise ? I know you’ve recommended going for more in the past, but I’m hoping I can get away with just a 1” body lift on top of the wheel spacers to clear these tires. I’m still not positive on the 37’s, but they have my mind spinning on cruiser stuff again!!

I have been rocking the mini truck arms since I finished the disc swap. They have done well. Knock on wood.

 

[White Stripe]

I ended up ordering 2”, so maybe we can compromise ? I know you’ve recommended going for more in the past, but I’m hoping I can get away with just a 1” body lift on top of the wheel spacers to clear these tires. I’m still not positive on the 37’s, but they have my mind spinning on cruiser stuff again!!

I have been rocking the mini truck arms since I finished the disc swap. They have done well. Knock on wood.

Oh those are 37s? I was thinking you got 35s. I usually recommend the 2" body lift just because the 40 body and frame seem like they are almost made for it. Everything just kind of fits. Curious to see how the 1" is to install.

 

[archie73]

Oh those are 37s? I was thinking you got 35s. I usually recommend the 2" body lift just because the 40 body and frame seem like they are almost made for it. Everything just kind of fits. Curious to see how the 1" is to install.

I’m a bit out from the body lift, first I need to get the other two wranglers off the beadlocks. I had a tundra on top of the tire trying to break the bead in the backside. They won’t budge. They are TIGHT. I’m going to hit them with the death jack like I did on the other one tomorrow. Then I can mount the last two tires.
I’m hoping that with the 80 p/s setup, it’ll will be a bit easier on the body lift. I made a big coil when I redid the cowl to frame brake line, so that shouldn’t be an issue. Not sure on the clutch line, but if that’s the battle, I’m confident on the outcome.

Wish me luck.

 

[archie73]

So I got them all mounted up for a test fit. The procedure is not to bad once you get the hang of it. They seem to hold air well. I still need to replace the hardware on the rims and put the balance beads in, but this is where I was trying to get.
I mocked up the wheel spacers and the wheel studs are way too short. This was expected, but I wanted to mock them up so I knew how long they should be for ordering new ones. Then I put the old tires under opposite wheels and “flexed” it out. Not surprisingly, the tires rub. Here’s the front first-

the contact point has moved from the inner fender behind the support to the outer lip. This is to be expected. Check out the clearance on the inside now.

So the plan here is to remove the fender when these tires come out. I have an old set of fenders that have the classic rot above the supports. I’m hoping to use these to give some support to the front clip and cut them back enough to allow the tire to move feeely through the travel. Hopefully it works…

Here’s the rear and no I’m not even to the bump stop yet.

As you can see the contact patch is the rear lip. It’s more than just a kiss. The lug is making solid contact with the body. This is not gonna fly. My hope of using a body lift to clear the tire is looking like a waste of time. A friend recommended a shackle lift, but I’m already running longer shackle in the rear. Not sure any longer would be advisable. This leaves cutting the fender more…

Forgive my crude photoshop mock up. If I carried the fender shape back I think it might work. I’ve already enlarged the opening, which eases the pain of cutting.

If I want to use these tire ( and I do), then something has got to give. Body lift doesn’t seem to be the answer. SOA came to mind, but I don’t want that much lift. The cost of linking is currently prohibitive. So body mods are more than likely the only real was to get these tires to fit.

On a side note, I was at the grocery store the other day and came out to an another 40 parked next to me. There’s others in the valley, but not a lot so it was a nice surprise. I noticed it sat a couple inches taller than mine. The owner came out and we chatted. I asked about his suspension and he informed me he had the 2.5 OME with SR. This is the exact same setup as me. I didn’t ask but I think he had smaller tires as well. My springs must settled a bit. Since I drive and wheel it, I’m not completely surprised, but it did get my wheels turning…

 

[archie73]

Nothing on the beadlocks, maybe this weekend. I did take a poser shot to commemorate the coming wood burning season.

 

[archie73]

I’ve had a varying level of leaking oil from the what I hope is the oil pan on my LS. Initially I was just going to reseal the stock oil pan- it’s been fine, other than the leak. By fine, I mean just shy of ideal. I do get slight contact to the oil level sensor (unused) with the driveshaft. Mostly, it mashes the plastic- no real issue.

Since I was pulling the pan anyway, I decided to upgrade to the H3 (LH5) pan and pickup. It deletes the offending sensor and has a slightly lower profile. On the downside, this means it has a lower oil capacity.

A flex test is in order to check if it’s a better fit. Maybe tomorrow.

On a side note- RockAuto sent the wrong filter. Using the same vehicle presets for the oil pan, I ordered a filter. Unfortunately, I think it’s for the 5 cylinder. The correct one is the a/c delco pf48e. Napa only had their in house filter.

Made it home tonight and no drips so far. Oil pressure is good while driving, but idle seems a bit lower than usual. I generally idle at, or just hair below, the middle line, but now the pressure seems lower still. While driving the pressure seem normal.

I used Quaker state synthetic, for the first time. I usually tend toward the Mobile 1. Might be a touch lighter? No ticking from the valve train, so I guess I got that going for me…

 

[archie73]

In other cruiser related news I came across an ad on marketplace for a splitcase for $100. I couldn’t pass it up and even paid an extra $50 for delivery to Pocatello on our way home from Salt Lake City.

The case is a pile of parts that need identification right now. My plan is to loosely assemble it for safe keeping. The Ottram video pretty well lays out the process. First thing is to degrease the case- it has about an inch of crud build up on the frontside and generous amount on the backside. Think cement. The oven cleaner is working, but it’s a process…

By all appearances, it’s an early case: 34mm, manual shift and lacking the oiler pocket for the h55. This isn’t a big issue for me, I’m guessing this will end up behind a 4l60e/NV4500. From what I’ve read the 38mm case is more desirable, but these hold up just fine as well.

We’ll see if the gamble pays off. It alway interesting when you buy something in this condition. Let me know if there’s anything I should look for in the cleaning and assembly (loose).

 

[archie73]

This weekend I had the shop at work to myself, two days of wrench time. I had a punch list for this weekend. Some of it got done. Yesterday was the oil pan, it was supposed to a quick swap. The y-pipe took more time than it should to remove. When I redo it I’ll need to make access to the bolts better. That’s another day…

So today I worked on the punch list.

• Recentered the steering wheel- almost got it right.
• Changed the transfer case oil- not to much metal this time.
• Fill the swampers with air. They have new hardware on the rings and balance beads inside. Instructions said throw the balance beads in their special bags into the tires. The bags will break when I get them upto 60mph. I’m not sure I’ll ever get the swampers upto 60.
• Fix the broken bolts in the mirror arms. The arms were brand new when the pinch bolts broke on both arms. They were supposed to be oem, but I’m guessing not.
• Twinstick isn’t going in and out of 4wd. I was going to go back to the stock shifter, when I noticed the shaft hitting the crossmember. A little more inspection found a crack in my cobble fabbed crossmember. I grabbed a chunk of angle iron and drilled it for rosette welds. I bridged the crack by two inches in each direction. This should get me by until I cut out a proper crossmember.
• And lastly- I think I have the split case as clean as it will get for now. A can and half of HD oven cleaner, pressure washer and scraping implements has it mostly clean. At least I can touch it without my hand coming away dripping with oil. Now I just need to “assemble” it to find out what parts are missing.

I’m getting closer to my Moab trip and I don’t think the swampers are gonna make it on the trip. Every time I think I have a plan to make them fit, I shy away from it. They will wait until I figure out how to make them fit properly. We have couple rigs(brand new Bronco and a stock-ish CJ) for this trip that’ll likely keep us off any hairy trails anyway.

 

[archie73]

Splitcase is assembled- no pics, but it looks like any other. It’s pretty straightforward. Of course, I didn’t assemble it for use, but it shouldn’t be to much harder when I put it in service.

It’s always a gamble when you put something together that you bought as a pile of parts and pieces. Is it all there? Is it even usable? However, given the price, it’s shockingly complete. The major missing piece is the idler shaft retaining "clip". Worst case scenario I could just make a new one out of scrap.

I know this isn’t for anyone else, but it will give me a point of reference I when I try and use it in the future and need to know what it needs:
PTO cover bolts (2)
Idler shaft retaining chip(?)
Case bolts (3)
Mounting bolts long (1) & short (1)
Input shaft/gear nut & washer
Filler plug (1)

Anything else should come in a rebuild kit. No visible cracks or damage to the case. The gears all looked to be in good shape- no chips or excessive wear patterns. Now to find a place to put this thing…

 

[archie73]

There should of been an adult present…

I went and did a thing…

The mouse pee is strong with this one…

I was planning for the future…

It doesn’t run…

But it does turn over-

Not sure how this is going to go yet, but it’s mine now. So it’s likely bone stock, I haven’t seen that much black spaghetti under the hood since my 85 4R. I hate vacuum lines!!! As mentioned it’s got some unwanted residents- the hood liner looks like Swiss cheese. They must have been at piece with the wasp nest though. I stopped at the car wash and evicted the flying residents.

I took the trailer and winch out to get it. Winch suffers from neglect.
So the wiring on the winch needs help, but not today. The jumper cables and jump box are missing from the pickup. s***e!!

I used a ratchet strap to help the winch on the load and eventually I won.

It’s not exactly a cherry survivor, but it’s not as bad as some. It has rust and dents. If you squint it’s not bad. It was well used. There was a PO, he had foam. He also was able fashion a tailgate repair. I’m not pointing a finger at this one, it’s functional.

But it turns over. Slowly. That was extent of my investigation so far. Getting it running (or not) is the next step. I have a plan for both eventualities:
A) If it runs well enough to drive- sell it. I don’t need another project distraction or yet another rabbit hole.
B) If it does NOT run, strip the axles, springs, Tcase, transmission and steering for a future project. (More on this at another time). Sell the rest. I’d hate to scrap it, but honestly my wife will only tolerate a derelict vehicle for so long. And I’m more found of her than it.

So for now it’s tucked away, but I need that trailer in a little over a week to go to Moab…

 

[rkymtnflyfisher]

That's how addicts are created.

 

[archie73]

That's how addicts are created.

It will serve a higher purpose….

I got off the trailer today.

I got under it and the frame is toast.

The mid section doesn’t look any better. I thought maybe the leaking oil would have preserved the frame, but no.

I poured gas down the carb, it pours out the bottom onto the manifold. I tried to get to start just for giggles. Nothing.

This thing is officially a parts rig. I’ve got dibs on the axles, springs, transmission, transfer case, driveshafts and all the steering components. Not sure what that leaves, but if anyone has a desire for the rest I’ll put an ad up in the classifieds when I get around to stripping it.

 

[rkymtnflyfisher]

That's a bummer, it looked like it had some solid potential.

 

[archie73]

That's a bummer, it looked like it had some solid potential.

The guy who sold it to me told me it had a rusty frame and it was sold as a parts vehicle. I had assumed it was a total West Coast vehicle and it wouldn’t be this bad. Makes me wonder if originally it was from the East Coast or maybe the Midwest. My 40 is a New England truck and I repaired the frame, but this is beyond what I had in terms of frame rot. As much sheet-metal rust there is it seems the frame is worse than the body honestly. It’s OK though I bought it cheap enough for it to be a parts vehicle.

 

[archie73]

Another trip to the desert is in the books. It was good to hang with the guys again. One of them pointed out we’ve been doing this for the last 25 yrs. We started the trip as a mtn bike adventure and in the last 6 years we’ve been incorporating the rigs into the trip as well. Not everyone makes it every year, but it’s a rotating cast of 12 ppl or so.

Unfortunately , I had a bit of bad luck a week before the the trip. I was mtn biking with the kid and his friendsand broke my collar bone. Broke it on Friday; surgery on the following Tuesday. I waited for the nerve block to wear off, to see if I could row the gears. That was torture, waiting for the my arm to start responding again. Friday I finally was able to go for a test drive; loaded it on the trailer Saturday. Drove down Sunday!!!

So without a bike I was shuttle bitch the first day. Kinda boring, but you can’t beat the scenery up on the Gemini Brdges area.

The next day we wheeled Amasa Back!

Everything was going great until the CJ started having trouble getting into gear. We limped it along until we found a place to get it out of the way and continued on. The trail was great, nonstop fun with lots of rocks! We were having a good time, but with concerns of limping the jeep out, we turned around before the main event.

The jeep got into gear well enough after pulling the cover and we were able drive it down the trail on its own power. Funny how much faster things go when gravity isn’t fighting you. Until you have to climb out over the gatekeeper. It’s a six(?) foot rock wall climb that has a bunch of baby head marbles at the bottom. You know that moment where you see your over your head? What are you to do? Pull winch!!

Funny thing is if you totally ignore your winch, when you need it- it might not save your bacon. So about that six foot wall… The winch goes out, but doesn’t want to pull back in. The solenoid for rewind function clicks away, sometimes. The guys pulled me up over the rock wall. We wrapped the winch line around the bumper and I drove back to the house. To rub salt in my winch issues, the synthetic rope chafed and got cut about ten feet short on the drive home. That night I learned how to splice a synthetic winch line back together. As a short term fix I swapped the solenoids so at least I could power in. The next day I got to test it…

 

[archie73]

With me and the bronco guy being on injure reserve (elbow issue), we skipped out on biking the next day. As we were heading out to SteelBender, we got a text that said the JK driver had just broken his collarbone. (This makes 4 in 3 weeks of people I know- wtf). They were headed to the ER, so we headed to the trail.
For whatever reason, we ran it backwards- south to north.

Really most of the trail (at least in this direction) is a bumpy ride with occasional techy sections. By that I mean it’s just my style. I get to use my locker switches and play with one or the other. Until you get to the wall(s). The first one is intimidating- it is a vertical 5 feet that’s undercut. There’s a couple of boulders to get your nose up on, but after that you need to scale the wall. This puts you on a landing and leads to the next wall. This one is bigger. There’s a doable climb to the side that is filled with pitfalls and has a tip over scale of high.

Before we could go up 4 razors had to come down. Watching them slide over the first wall. They are low slung with a longer wheelbase. I have to admit it looked doable- for their setup. With my short tallish proportions , I’m uncomfortable with the high likely hood of rolling forward after landing on my bumper. Fortunately we were going in the opposite direction.

The bronco went right up it, possibly with panache. So I nosed up and gave it a shot. After I couple attempts, I hooked up the winch and pulled myself over the shelf. 1 down, 1 to go. The climb on next one is steep and lumpy. If rolling wasn’t enough of a consequence your also facing the chance of rolling off a steep hillside stakes are high, higher than I like.

Once again the bronco made it up nicely. Given our similar dimensions, I tried to emulate his line choice. On second try I got as close to rolling as I was comfortable and pooped myself just a little bit. I hooked up the winch to large boulder and pulled myself up. Unfortunately, we miscalculated the distance and I ended up at the end of the winch line before I was off the incline. My buddy quickly positioned his truck to winch me off the incline. You can see the static strap that I was hooked up to under my passenger side tire.

This is how I felt getting off the obstacle…

After this, the rest of trail felt pretty tame. Lots of bumpy trail with a couple areas to use the lockers. We did manage to accidentally take the “safari” route. Not bad, but we were both ready to get off the trail, so I can’t say we enjoyed the extra couple miles.

All in all, it was great day of wheeling. I field tested the splice in the winch rope and made it out without a scratch. We got back to the house as steaks were cooking and started enjoying the evening. Tomorrow Kane Creek- backwards.

 

[rkymtnflyfisher]

Freaking solid! Broken collarbone and all!

 

[archie73]

Freaking solid! Broken collarbone and all!

Wonders of modern medicine. I’m not saying there isn’t a learning curve to what I can/should do, but honestly it feels pretty good all things considered. Not supposed to lift more then 5#, I’m a slow learner on that one. Doesn’t help I broke my dominant side.