Builds Putting the rust demon at bay

[archie73]

She was thirsty

Popped the shifter cane out and dumped in the juice. This is by far the best way to fill this transmission. Years ago, I had read about this trick. Trouble was I would only remember after I had made a total mess trying to access the fill hole. No mess. No cursing.

 

[archie73]

Time to leave the land of a cozy fire…

… and go to the sand & sun

Barely touched the truck since the last trip last fall. Fender is still messed up (I’m working on a set of tube fenders). But here we go.

The LS doesn’t seem to like cold weather starts- I hope. Pops right over, but stumbles afterward. Sometimes I can feather the gas, like a carb; sometimes that doesn’t work. After it warms up it runs great. If this persists in St George, I’m going to need to start diagnosing the issues.

 

[clrussell]

Time to leave the land of a cozy fire…
View attachment 3844244… and go to the sand & sun

View attachment 3844245

Barely touched the truck since the last trip last fall. Fender is still messed up (I’m working on a set of tube fenders). But here we go.
View attachment 3844243The LS doesn’t seem to like cold weather starts- I hope. Pops right over, but stumbles afterward. Sometimes I can feather the gas, like a carb; sometimes that doesn’t work. After it warms up it runs great. If this persists in St George, I’m going to need to start diagnosing the issues.

Interesting.

I wonder if coolant temp sensor is messed up (for ecm reading)

 

[archie73]

Interesting.

I wonder if coolant temp sensor is messed up (for ecm reading)

Could be- I’m better at replacing parts than diagnosing problems.

If the coolant temp sensor is bad, shouldn’t I see erratic readings from the ecu temp gauge? I’d have to double check, but I’m pretty sure it goes up to 190 in a steady rate. OR is the sensor you’re talking about separate from the coolant temp sensor for the dash gauge?

 

[clrussell]

Could be- I’m better at replacing parts than diagnosing problems.

If the coolant temp sensor is bad, shouldn’t I see erratic readings from the ecu temp gauge? I’d have to double check, but I’m pretty sure it goes up to 190 in a steady rate. OR is the sensor you’re talking about separate from the coolant temp sensor for the dash gauge?

It will be a different sensor.

Do you have any sort of scan tool?

 

[archie73]

It will be a different sensor.

Do you have any sort of scan tool?

Yes, I use the OBDLink MX+. It’s pretty good, but I recently found out on my tundra it only shows the first layer of codes. I had an intermittent crank-no-start issue and it showed no codes. A friend hooked up TechStream and it had all the codes I needed.

 

[clrussell]

Pull codes, if nothing there read data and post a screen shot. I’ll see if I can help.

 

[archie73]

Pull codes, if nothing there read data and post a screen shot. I’ll see if I can help.

Thanks for the offer. That’ll be a day or two. It’s loaded on a trailer and headed to St. George today. I leave Sunday.

Congratulations on the new cub. Glad mom and kid are healthy.

 

[clrussell]

Thanks for the offer. That’ll be a day or two. It’s loaded on a trailer and headed to St. George today. I leave Sunday.

Congratulations on the new cub. Glad mom and kid are healthy.

Thank you!

Definitely reach out if you have any trouble shooting needs in Utah. Be sure and post a lot of pictures, I’m living through you guys for a while.

 

[archie73]

So I’m in Utah, 65 deg and the engine is starting up just fine. Mystery continues

Engine is way over revving when I get twisted. Found a loose motor mount when we got back to the rental. Hopefully that’s the fix

 

[archie73]

So I know this is hard to judge with the truck sitting still on level ground, but how do we feel about this amount of bulge

This at 10-11psi. I can’t say I was getting a ton of sidewalk flex yesterday, but I was behind the wheel and it’s hard to tell. Traction felt ok, but struggled more than I expected.

The tires are great on the highway, so I’m not complaining. My wife drives it as well and she doesn’t need poor performance. Overall I’m happy with them; they just have more trouble offroad than I expected.

 

[clrussell]

So I know this is hard to judge with the truck sitting still on level ground, but how do we feel about this amount of bulge View attachment 3847563
This at 10-11psi. I can’t say I was getting a ton of sidewalk flex yesterday, but I was behind the wheel and it’s hard to tell. Traction felt ok, but struggled more than I expected.

The tires are great on the highway, so I’m not complaining. My wife drives it as well and she doesn’t need poor performance. Overall I’m happy with them; they just have more trouble offroad than I expected.

To my uneducated eye that looks good to me. Maybe try like 8psi today and see what happens. 40s aren’t that heavy.
I run 18psi in my front for daily driving on 35s.

 

[Chungas Revenge]

You know your way around a set of tires for sure. Are you getting nice even wear at 18psi.


@clrussell

 

[clrussell]

You know your way around a set of tires for sure. Are you getting nice even wear at 18psi.


@clrussell

Well they have about 500 miles on them. So they look great

 

[Chungas Revenge]

Nuff Sed…

Well they have about 500 miles on them. So they look great

 

[archie73]

To my uneducated eye that looks good to me. Maybe try like 8psi today and see what happens. 40s aren’t that heavy.
I run 18psi in my front for daily driving on 35s.

I like 25-28 on the street. Seems to get good performance and softer ride. My buddy showed up with 35 psi in his 37’s; they were crowning pretty good.

8psi- I might try it, but I’m scared…

 

[Chungas Revenge]

I like 25-28 on the street. Seems to get good performance and softer ride. My buddy showed up with 35 psi in his 37’s; they were crowning pretty good.

8psi- I might try it, but I’m scared…

Bead locks in your future?

 

[archie73]

Bead locks in your future?

Got some with 37’s ready to go on, but I’m not sure I want to commit to what it needs to fit- unless I stick to mall crawlin. Or maybe find some cheap 35x17’s…

 

[archie73]

Well I’m back to land of the snow. Missing the warm weather. Back to work on Monday. Boooooo

It was a great week- warm weather through out. Did some mtn biking with the boys and rode some new trails: Guacamole and Cliffrose. No one got hurt. Yeah

As far as wheeling goes, time was a little more precious, so it was more limited this year then past trips. On top of this, we squandered a bunch of time just wandering around. Which was fun to, just not efficient. We did poke around in the Maze and did what we were comfortable with. Didn’t try The Drop or any of the buggy lines, but we had fun.

I did get a bit of a scare- I was doing a quick steep climb with a small ledge at the top. I was about to the top when my transfer case popped into neutral. When this happened I pumped the brakes. This made my frontend rise up. Felt like I was tipping back. Having felt this sensation before, I released the brake and let gravity take the cruiser back to flat ground. After taking a second to make sure I didn’t poop myself, I tied the lever into the low position and let the cruiser walk on up at idle. No more drama, just jangled nerves.
After that I was hesitant, but after a couple roller type obstacles we were back on track.

Overall, it was a good trip. No major upsets. No major damage or breakdowns. I did loose the ground for my cooling fan due to all the bouncing around, but once I identified the problem it was a simple fix. The Tcase only popped out of gear the one time and I had just put it in gear, so I’m hoping it was just operator error.

The United By Bronco Rally was going on our last two days. Weird mix of shiny new Broncos and single use crawler EB’s. On one of the taller dunes they had a hill climb drag set up. We had a beater EB in our group so they wanted to see the cruiser against the EB. I was confident I’d make it to the top, but unsure of if I’d beat him.

The EB is one hell if a crawler. It’s got a efi 5.0 and mean growl. But the 5.3 loves sing. I threw it in high range 1st gear and and put my foot down. Went up like it was nothing. I let up on the gas at the top for fear of launching off the top. Kinda makes up for not being able to keep up when crawling. Kinda.

 

[archie73]

Things that need attention; this list is more for me than anything else.

1. Fix field repair on fan ground
2. Touch up paint, oops
3. Finish tube fenders; need to order sheetmetal and paint.
4. Reorganize tool/spare/recovery storage
   1. I’d like to find away to improve my forward-aft weight distribution. I feel tippier than the Bronco. He’s a little wider, but otherwise we are vary close in proportions.
   2. I have a fair bit of stuff behind the rear axle. I’m staring to think too much. Moving the tools and such into the cargo space for wheeling could help with this.