- Thread starter
- #201
I did find the oil drip, it's forcing itself through the oil pressure switch. Might take advantage and add an actual gauge, it's just a dummy switch.
Build TDI-J70 - LJ70 TDI Swap (Erika)
- Thread starter DirtSniffer
- Start date
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- Thread starter
- #202
Put the alternator diode in and now it charges and I can shut the engine off with the ignition. Unfortunately the battery light is still on, will need to look at that later.
Also found the cause of my turn signal turning on randomly, source was crappy wiring on the back of the trailer lights plug shorting the running lights to the left turn signal. Ripped it all out and working fine now. Only thing not working is the rear license plate light.
Took it for a longer drive, so far so good. I'll feel better about taking it on longer drives once I install the oil pressure sensor and gauge tomorrow.
First fill-up:
WMA near me:
Next up after the oil pressure gauge is the winch mount, then she'll be perfectly ready for a road trip...
Also found the cause of my turn signal turning on randomly, source was crappy wiring on the back of the trailer lights plug shorting the running lights to the left turn signal. Ripped it all out and working fine now. Only thing not working is the rear license plate light.
Took it for a longer drive, so far so good. I'll feel better about taking it on longer drives once I install the oil pressure sensor and gauge tomorrow.
First fill-up:
WMA near me:
Next up after the oil pressure gauge is the winch mount, then she'll be perfectly ready for a road trip...
Last edited:
The way my exciter wire is hooked up on the 606 is the exciter wire goes to 1 side of a bulb. And the wire on the other side of the bulb goes to positive. That way when the alternator is not charging, it grounds out the bulb. Then when it starts to charge, the light goes out because it is getting positive on both sides. The wire that goes to the bulb from the vehicle is powered by the ignition wire. And the diode goes in the wire that goes to the alternator. Hope that helps.
- Thread starter
- #204
That was my interpretation of the wiring diagram, and yet, the battery light stays on. Will be looking into it.
- Thread starter
- #205
The 70 has survived the drive to Burgess junction, albeit not without some difficulty. Saturday I drove about 560 miles to spearfish. The drive was pretty much uneventful up until the end, with a minor boost leak from a loose clamp being my only issue until then.
The last 10 miles to spearfish I had to hop on I-90, and it became clear pretty quickly that I had a fuel delivery issue and could barely hold 40 mph. Limped it to the hotel assuming the lift pump filter was clogged and just needed a swap out. Swapped it this morning with no improvement, and after some research I realized the ALH doesn't even need a lift pump. So @fjdiesel and I ran to a parts store and picked up some clear fuel filters and replaced the lift pump with one and were able to see that air was getting sucked in somewhere. We thought we found the source when we found a hose that had started to work itself off that I had removed the clamp from when I was trying to prime fuel and forgot to put back on, but it still sucked air. So we swapped the supply and return lines and it was sucking fuel again and we made our way to camp in Burgess Junction with it running fine the whole time. Will need to take a closer look at everything, but have not found the source of the air leak.
I will say I am impressed how well this thing is keeping up on the steep grades with the stock 90 hp tune, and I don't think my radiator fan has turned on once. Don't think it's even getting enough fuel to get hot.
The last 10 miles to spearfish I had to hop on I-90, and it became clear pretty quickly that I had a fuel delivery issue and could barely hold 40 mph. Limped it to the hotel assuming the lift pump filter was clogged and just needed a swap out. Swapped it this morning with no improvement, and after some research I realized the ALH doesn't even need a lift pump. So @fjdiesel and I ran to a parts store and picked up some clear fuel filters and replaced the lift pump with one and were able to see that air was getting sucked in somewhere. We thought we found the source when we found a hose that had started to work itself off that I had removed the clamp from when I was trying to prime fuel and forgot to put back on, but it still sucked air. So we swapped the supply and return lines and it was sucking fuel again and we made our way to camp in Burgess Junction with it running fine the whole time. Will need to take a closer look at everything, but have not found the source of the air leak.
I will say I am impressed how well this thing is keeping up on the steep grades with the stock 90 hp tune, and I don't think my radiator fan has turned on once. Don't think it's even getting enough fuel to get hot.
Great to hear its running well! I remember being pretty impressed how well mine did with just a Stage 1 tune originally, couldn't hardly get the EGT's hot even on hills. Once I went for more power EGT's started to climb a lot. I'll be really curious to hear what your mileage is like.
Unfortunately my swap has been dragging out, otherwise I'd try and meet up with you guys in WY.
Unfortunately my swap has been dragging out, otherwise I'd try and meet up with you guys in WY.
- Thread starter
- #207
Post trip report.
The 70 ran great all week and the whole drive home after the fuel line bandaid. The filter has accumulated a good amount of reddish sludgy looking bits, so I think it's gunk from old off road diesel sitting the tank for years. I will be dropping the tank to clean it out and run new, larger fuel lines and re-do the sending unit and filler neck. Also going to look into a nicer filter setup.
Cruises 75 no problem, and could barely get the EGT over 1100 on the long grades. Although, it does struggle to maintain 70+ going up the grades, usually doing around 65 by the tops. Coolant temp generally hovers around 201-206 whether cruising, going up grades, or on the trail. Highest I saw was about 210 briefly. The fan is supposed to turn on at 210, seems to kick on closer to 205. It's also supposed to turn off at 195, but annoyingly stays on till about 145. Seems to be a heat soak issue with the aluminum thermocouple housing on the radiator hose, I plan to weld a bung to the radiator top cap and put the sensor there.
It became clear after getting into some tougher stuff that the limited slip in the rear is not in fact limiting much slip. I believe there is a way to test this by lifting a tire and using a torque wrench on a lug nut, but it was obvious it was not doing much. Was a bit frustrating on some stuff I know I would have easily walked up in previous rigs with rear lockers, but I suppose I have been a bit locker spoiled and it's good to be forced to take a better line. But I prefer to crawl up stuff and not break things bumping over stuff. So it will be getting something, maybe truetracs.
Being I was driving it most of the week, I do not have much for action pics. Waiting on the group photo dump. But here's one @sogncab took instead of recording a video right before it got about up to the doors. (I'll never forgive you)
Passing through spearfish this morning we spotted a 40 on the road in town below from the highway. He ended up at the Napa 2 blocks down from the coffee shop we were heading to, so stopped to say hi. May join us next time we are in the area wheeling next, I'd love to see a stock 40 wheeling.
Great trip, lot left we didn't do but plenty left to explore another time. Glad the 70 made it, much more memorable trip with it. Now I've got my work cut out for me with repairs and upgrades...
The 70 ran great all week and the whole drive home after the fuel line bandaid. The filter has accumulated a good amount of reddish sludgy looking bits, so I think it's gunk from old off road diesel sitting the tank for years. I will be dropping the tank to clean it out and run new, larger fuel lines and re-do the sending unit and filler neck. Also going to look into a nicer filter setup.
Cruises 75 no problem, and could barely get the EGT over 1100 on the long grades. Although, it does struggle to maintain 70+ going up the grades, usually doing around 65 by the tops. Coolant temp generally hovers around 201-206 whether cruising, going up grades, or on the trail. Highest I saw was about 210 briefly. The fan is supposed to turn on at 210, seems to kick on closer to 205. It's also supposed to turn off at 195, but annoyingly stays on till about 145. Seems to be a heat soak issue with the aluminum thermocouple housing on the radiator hose, I plan to weld a bung to the radiator top cap and put the sensor there.
It became clear after getting into some tougher stuff that the limited slip in the rear is not in fact limiting much slip. I believe there is a way to test this by lifting a tire and using a torque wrench on a lug nut, but it was obvious it was not doing much. Was a bit frustrating on some stuff I know I would have easily walked up in previous rigs with rear lockers, but I suppose I have been a bit locker spoiled and it's good to be forced to take a better line. But I prefer to crawl up stuff and not break things bumping over stuff. So it will be getting something, maybe truetracs.
Being I was driving it most of the week, I do not have much for action pics. Waiting on the group photo dump. But here's one @sogncab took instead of recording a video right before it got about up to the doors. (I'll never forgive you)
Passing through spearfish this morning we spotted a 40 on the road in town below from the highway. He ended up at the Napa 2 blocks down from the coffee shop we were heading to, so stopped to say hi. May join us next time we are in the area wheeling next, I'd love to see a stock 40 wheeling.
Great trip, lot left we didn't do but plenty left to explore another time. Glad the 70 made it, much more memorable trip with it. Now I've got my work cut out for me with repairs and upgrades...