RHD JDM mall crawler

[Oregon trail]

And last of all for today where it sits now. Totally driveable. minus having to run new wiring to rock lights, EOM seatbelts and center counsel And plugging the ARB switches and small things back up it’s done. So weight wise it’s lighter now. My last weigh in it was at 6,300 with a half tank and no spare. Had some tools as well. Now with a spare but no tools and a full tank it’s 6000lbs! Somehow I added all this tube and made it lighter! I attribute much of this to losing the sunroof, the seats being lighter and stripping out alot like drawer systems and things like that. Also even though this project used 9 23 foot sticks of tube there’s chunks I didn’t use and a good bit was new sliders and other such things. I am surprised how much less it weighs though it’s kind of crazy.

Out of everything I have done so far I will confidently say this was the hardest project I’ve done. It’s not perfect and it was my introduction to tube work but it’s stout for sure and you can feel the 300lbs less just in town. And I did have one pic of a mostly finished interior.

 

[Oregon trail]

right before last weekend I came home from a work trip and got into the remaining interior that needed assembled. I found on eBay a wrap to go over the center counsel top. The cover was kind of a pain to install but I ended up using some contact cement to keep it all in place and not lose. but I wanted to change the rest of the color of of the counsel. I’m not sure it will hold up but I bought some interior paint in black. I used this for the trunk plastics and the steering wheel center and liked it so we will see how it holds up.

I also needed to block off the open din from the single din head unit I bought. I made this from some aluminum I have and then used some 3m VHB to attach it. I also painted it with Seymour 316 stainless. I also stuck my radio face to this block off plate once it was assembled.

The only thing I have installed yet is the new dome light switches and the boost and EGT gages

 

[Oregon trail]

I went snow wheeling last weekend as well and along with driving around town there’s more creaks and pops than when I parked it. Mostly sounds like suspension joints so I started pulling them and servicing all the barns off-road flex joints. I wanted to be lazy and do them one at a time but after one I’m gonna get it on jackstands then pull the springs and all the links at once.

While they are apart I also plan to paint them with the same Seymour 316 stainless paint I used on my steering and cage. It’s help up much better than the clear I did the links with.

 

[ThreeEyedBandit]

Kind of funny, around this time every year I need to go through and grease all the joints in my 80 also. Must be a linked 80 series thing

Not sure where you head for snow, but in the next couple of weekends I am hoping to get up towards Wagner or Dutchman and see how bad the drifts are.

 

[Oregon trail]

Kind of funny, around this time every year I need to go through and grease all the joints in my 80 also. Must be a linked 80 series thing

Not sure where you head for snow, but in the next couple of weekends I am hoping to get up towards Wagner or Dutchman and see how bad the drifts are.

I had one creaking for couple months but after it sitting for nearly 2 months there’s a few that are pretty loud and annoying. I tried using the flush zeros but those didn’t let anything in after pull them apart.

Are you in southern Oregon? I’m not a big snow wheeler although I want to do more now. Usually I go out highway 62 Twards lake of the woods somewhere. Last weekend we went around gold hill area and that was a lot of fun.

 

[ThreeEyedBandit]

I am, in Phoenix. Usually big into snow wheeling, but this year have been pretty lazy. Also with a new tiny person time is pretty limiting.

I had a couple of the Barnes joints that wouldn't let grease in until I tore them apart, after that for some reason they grease just fine every time. I was also pretty smart and didn't grease them when new, waited until I had them all installed and the zerks not accessable before I tried... A good snow season seems to wash grease out of them, but so does driving in the summer. Just part of rebuildable joints.

 

[Oregon trail]

Shoot that explained a ton! Mine are barns and I did not grease them prior! They must have had a little grease in them and there was a tiny amount bust mostly dried out and caked.

Yeah I live in white city but it’s awesome there’s another linked 80 in the valley. I haven’t met basically anyone who actually wheels there 80 locally.

 

[ThreeEyedBandit]

Shoot that explained a ton! Mine are barns and I did not grease them prior! They must have had a little grease in them and there was a tiny amount bust mostly dried out and caked.

Yeah I live in white city but it’s awesome there’s another linked 80 in the valley. I haven’t met basically anyone who actually wheels there 80 locally.

There use to be another snow wheeler around in an 80, but haven't heard from him in years. Plus a couple from GP, but life seems to have slowed most of us down. I have a couple friends that are usually good for short notice trips, tentatively planning a Eubicon and Fordyce trip later this summer(but will probably fizzle out).

Otherwise things are pretty squirrley for me lately, but try to get out when I can.

If you see this turd on tiny 37s wobbling around make sure to get our attention, it's a little rougher now.

 

[Oregon trail]

I’ve done quite a bit on the cruiser since the last update. While servicing link joints I found a tiny crack in a weld starting to form. I’ll admit it was a terrible weld but I caught it at maybe 1/4 long. So I ground it out and welded it back up then supported the front of the link mount.

Right after this I had nearly all link ends come loose that I serviced. The snap ring was not seating all the way to so I went in and seated them all with a hammer after having multiple fail.

I then had an unexplained loud bang come from somewhere. I thought it was my Tcase but it drove fine after. I ended up ordering high and low range gears and tore into it.

I also bought part time hubs and welded up the rear of the center diff to turn it into a spool. I started by doing a few root passes with my Tig machine then fill passes with my mug welder.

When I tore into my transfer case I never found what made that loud bang. So it assembled it all back up and drove around but learned my front locker now no longer engaging and the compressor would just run continually.

 

[Oregon trail]

Since the front locker was now no longer functioning I figured I needed to pull the 3rd member and maybe I would find the reason for that noise. And I sure did.

My diff through a bolt, not one or two bolts were loose but every single one was loose. There was lots of carnage in that front differential. Metal chunks and all. I brought this to a shop to fix since that’s the one thing I don’t do is diff work. Thankfully nothing serious had broke yet.

The shop cleaned up the gouges in the ARB locker plus I had them do all new bearings. I also had the air collar replaced. the gear set was in good shape. Infact they thought the bearings were fine but when they started assembling the differential it felt gritty and so I asked them to replace the bearings. There were lots of metal in the oil anyways so better to do it now .

I’ve heard very mixed things but ultimately I came to the conclusion that some ARB lockers are not very true and have a habit of throwing ring bolts even when lots of red lock tight is used. So today I Tig welded one face of each bolt and a bit of the ring as well. Some ultra 4 racers told me this is what they do to keep ring gears on. Either way it won’t be a problem again. It’s all installed now and the locker works. Only need to reassemble everything now.

I also found out my wheel bearings went bad super fast. The grease was soupy and metallic looking and was no longer red. So I replaced those again with some Koyo bearings

 

[Firemedic831]

I do not think that ring gear is going to fall off .

 

[Oregon trail]

I do not think that ring gear is going to fall off .

Yeah….. I definitely went way over kill. Kind of an over reaction after seeing every bolt loose on the carrier and being told how lucky I was the holes didn’t get wallowed out.

 

[cruzinfj1]

Yeah….. I definitely went way over kill. Kind of an over reaction after seeing every bolt loose on the carrier and being told how lucky I was the holes didn’t get wallowed out.

Definitely keep us posted on how it holds up- Id have no problem doing the same if it helped it live. I'm starting to look at aftermarket housings, and a 9.5" as I know its a ticking time bomb, not even the $$ part of it, its getting parts.

You've had a couple busy months with everything going on under there!!

 

[Oregon trail]

Definitely keep us posted on how it holds up- Id have no problem doing the same if it helped it live. I'm starting to look at aftermarket housings, and a 9.5" as I know its a ticking time bomb, not even the $$ part of it, its getting parts.

You've had a couple busy months with everything going on under there!!

I’ll definitely do that! I’m only hoping it holds out for 2ish years unless I get a great work bonus or something. Plans to save for 05+ super duty axles and fully build those out. That’s not the expensive part though while I’m doing that I really want to do coilovers and adapt to a Atlast which means either doing a northwest fab black box or more likely a 8 speed conversion that will let me go to a atlas. All in I’m sure it’ll be 20ish grand.

 

[Firemedic831]

I think i would opt the drill the bolt heads and safety wire first . . We rebuilt a diff last year on the Rubicon and if it was welded would have added just another level of fun . Not so much as not being able to cut the welds with a grinder but the bolts would be junk after . I have a few spare 9.5 diffs if you want to build up a spare

 

[Oregon trail]

I think i would opt the drill the bolt heads and safety wire first . . We rebuilt a diff last year on the Rubicon and if it was welded would have added just another level of fun . Not so much as not being able to cut the welds with a grinder but the bolts would be junk after . I have a few spare 9.5 diffs if you want to build up a spare

That’s a fair point there. Maybe a reason to buy some bolts to keep with me now. This is the front 8” but spares may not be a bad idea. I’m hoping because I left the 4:10 and combined with the high range Tcase gears and lower range gears it puts me in a happy spot between durability and gearing. Plus the diesel makes up for a ton power wise.

 

[cruzinfj1]

I totally agree with you, @Firemedic831 as it would be bad to fix on the trail, and the safety wire idea on the bolts. I guess Im wondering how much stronger that ring gear and carrier are welding them like that.

Thought SD's are drivers drop, well LH, so what kinda can of worms are you opening there??

 

[Oregon trail]

I totally agree with you, @Firemedic831 as it would be bad to fix on the trail, and the safety wire idea on the bolts. I guess Im wondering how much stronger that ring gear and carrier are welding them like that.

Thought SD's are drivers drop, well LH, so what kinda can of worms are you opening there??

I totally agree with you, @Firemedic831 as it would be bad to fix on the trail, and the safety wire idea on the bolts. I guess Im wondering how much stronger that ring gear and carrier are welding them like that.

Thought SD's are drivers drop, well LH, so what kinda can of worms are you opening there??

I’m gonna guess not much. It’s not like there’s much weld there. 1” stitches 3” apart. I figured it’ll keep anything from moving combined with the torque of the bolts.

Oh I’m opening a whole can of worms. The kind that I either convert to a passenger side drop or ditch the tank ajd do a custom fuel cell ajd go driver drop still. I’m leaning that way. Then maybe go to a traditional 4 link it maybe duel triangulated 4 link and build the new tank around all that. When I do all that I’ll also tub the inner fenders front and rear. Either 14” or I really want 16” coilovers too and atleast 42s. Hence it being super expensive to do.

 

[SNLC]

16” coil overs are massive!

Thats was my Patrol crawler 15yrs ago on 16” c/os. 40” rubber as well. The portals made it tall and keeping things low with a full bodied rig is tough. We also boxed in the rear body (wheel wells) with the c/os. Flexed absolutely awesome though, thats only about 1/2 way there in the flex up pic.

Cheers

 

[Oregon trail]

16” coil overs are massive!

View attachment 3638258View attachment 3638259View attachment 3638260View attachment 3638261

Thats was my Patrol crawler 15yrs ago on 16” c/os. 40” rubber as well. The portals made it tall and keeping things low with a full bodied rig is tough. We also boxed in the rear body (wheel wells) with the c/os. Flexed absolutely awesome though, thats only about 1/2 way there in the flex up pic.

Cheers

That’s amazing! I’m sure I don’t need 16” and it’s probably a bad idea but I’m obsessed with the idea of having lots of up travel and droop so I can go fast and have all the droop crawling. But I may change my mind it works super good now with 14” of travel even when it drops a coil from the perch