The Resurection of 'The Beast'

[Southeast Overland]

Steve, do your neighbors complain about the pig project sitting on the driveway ruining the resale value of their homes?; mine did to the and that is a great incentive to make a pig look respectable

Lou

They haven't complained yet. I've spoken to all about it and they seem OK. I do try and pull it into the garage every night.

 

[CandyPants]

Still working on the hinges. I think my rear hinges will work for the time being but the front ones have gotta go - soon - they are horrible. I think I'll have one hinge coming from k9crazy but I need another and I'm not sure what side I'm getting from k9 .

OK, I hear ya Juicebox.

Now that the piggy has left the barn for a temporary stay at the spa, I can take a look at those hinges and send them up to you. Sorry for the delay.

 

[Southeast Overland]

OK, I hear ya Juicebox.

Now that the piggy has left the barn for a temporary stay at the spa, I can take a look at those hinges and send them up to you. Sorry for the delay.

No prob - wasn't directed at you!

I just reattached my front drive shaft and am working on undercoating the driver's floor. I found a little more rust that I have to deal with but that can wait until after PPR.

Before I have to pick up my puppy from the 'big snip' this afternoon I hope to finish painting my last door ODG, get the undercoating applied to the driver's side, and maybe work on on my door panels...we will see.

 

[PabloCruise]

That was my only real choice here. If mud flying up from the rear wheels becomes a problem I can add the rubber flexible flares from JC Whitney but I'm not a big fan of their looks.



Thanks...I think.

The old pinion seal was a b#(*%@ to get out (it came out in pieces) and the new one was a huge b#(*%@ to get in properly. In the end I think everything is in how it should be - or let me restate - I hope everything is in how it should be. I need to get a big torque wrench to make sure the staked nut is on well enough. I only tightened it up with about a 14 inch wrench. I am going to fill the front diff, hook up the drive shaft, make sure the hubs are unlocked and hope all is good until I can drive about 10-20 miles to have someone double check my shoddy work. I think I read that I need to crank the staked nut down to 150 ft-lbs...can someone confirm?

145-173 ft-lbs

Read more about why pinion seals leak: https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=49036

 

[Southeast Overland]

145-173 ft-lbs

Read more about why pinion seals leak: https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=49036

I read that thread previously - I now consider the pinion seal swap a one banana job with three and a half banana consequences if you mess up.

Little status update for today (still not done with work yet) - last door painted - inside of rear quarters painted a bit where some work had left bare spots. Driver's floor undercoated, little painting done on front of truck, some touch up painting done to underside of sliders - about to paint the front bumper.

I'm contemplating tearing apart the rear tailgate to start with some patches there - either that or tearing out the headliner to get at some rust.

 

[yooper]

T

Tomorrow I hope to get the front diff filled. One PO of my Piggie cranked the front diff drain plug down so hard it took about two straight minutes with the impact wrench to get the drain plug out. I didn't see a washer so I need to check and see if one is supposed to be there. The diff fluid was pretty dirty. While I'm at it I'll change the rear diff fluid too.



That would be me. Are you sure there wasn't a washer there? I have a little tackle box full of new Cruiser diff, TC, transmission and oilpan drain plug washers and I almost always put on a new one. Very unusual for me not to have put a washer on. Sorry about the tightness. That diff oil had about 200 miles on it before you drove it home, so I'm surprised it was dirty already. I wonder if grease is getting in past the inner axle oil seal...

How did what you could see of the insides of the front diff look? How much metal was on the magnet in the drain plug? Remember it was the front diff that was noisy for a while after I did the knuckle job, and then it stopped making noise miraculously one day...

 

[Kaderabek]

Yooper....



TJK

 

[Southeast Overland]

Yooper....



TJK

Yooper is ripped!

Yoop - if you changed the diff oil 200 miles before I picked her up then I'll bet its the newb in me that thought it was dirty but it wasn't. I am a little worried about the lack of noise from the front diff but I didn't see any shavings to speak of but I didn't open the diff up to inspect. I'll put that on my list to do.

I'm working on posting some pics - stay tuned.

 

[Southeast Overland]

OK kids - here are some pics for you.

Pic 1) Headliner is ripped out (except for a small bit in the rear). It rained bits o rust - good times. I haven't explored under the factory insulation and don't know if I want to...

Pic 2) I dealt with a little rust on the inside of the rear quarters - over coated w/ Rustoleum.

Pic 3) Rust on the passenger A-pillar, luckily its surface only.

 

[Southeast Overland]

And a few more!

Pic 4) I'm stickin' with the Pig! I'm working on repainting the front bumper. Sometimes I need to take a break from rust or mechanical things and do something easy. I still need to hit the bumper w/ 80 grit, then 220, then I'll paint. I thought about doing POR and then top coating but Rustoleum raddle cans might be enough.

Pic 5) Mudrak's seal - does anyone have any directions about how to install this sucker? I did come with a seal for the backside.

Pic 6) This is a side view of the 'contraption' I put together to seat the pinion seal. Its a PVC clean-out piece with a metal cap.

 

[Southeast Overland]

Last pic.

Pic 7) side view of my contraption wiht the pinion seal.

I also undercoated the driver's floor patches but didn't take any pics of that.

I can't that this took 8 hours - good grief.

I have to work tomorrow out of town but will get a full day in Friday on the Piggie. After that its back to working on her only on evenings.

The last BIG thing I have to get done is the ebrake/tcase work - install the Mudrak seal and install new ebrake shoes springs...o, and a tcase output seal.

 

[Kaderabek]

You're in South Carolina -- you have no excuse for the condition of your Piggly Wiggly sticker!

TJK

 

[Southeast Overland]

You're in South Carolina -- you have no excuse for the condition of your Piggly Wiggly sticker!

TJK

The Piggly Wiggly sticker is in good shape - its covered w/ masking tape. I gotta keep it stock! LOL

 

[Kaderabek]

I'm much relieved.

TJK

 

[cruiser4life]

Wow. Kudos on the great work Steve.

I never went through this thread until now but having seen your pig in person in February just after you got it home, I am thoroughly impressed with your work and progress!

Keep it up!!

 

[Southeast Overland]

Wow. Kudos on the great work Steve.

I never went through this thread until now but having seen your pig in person in February just after you got it home, I am thoroughly impressed with your work and progress!

Keep it up!!

Thanks! Hopefully it will make it to Cruisin' the Parkway and the Annual Meeting.

I got a couple hours in already this morning. I so far have cleaned out the passenger drip rail and partially bent it back into shape. Yoop and Kad will recall that it was bent to all hell and back. Once the Metal Ready has dried that its soaking in now I am going to put some POR15 into the open areas, then bend together and back to 'normal' shape while the POR15 is still wet and once the POR15 gets very tacky I'll put POR (the tube/caulk stuff) in the top of the drip rail to seal it up nicely. I'm still considering chopping the whole drip rail off so I can replace all the rusted metal. I will still want to attach a light Yakima rack for the occasional carrying of kayaks and light gear to the trail head and to deal with this I'll weld in a few 16 gauge pieces of metal on each side for reinforcements and then put the Yakima raingutter mounts ontop of that.

 

[Kaderabek]

I think that drip rail is a bad design. Holds water.

And then it got squished.

TJK

 

[Southeast Overland]

I think that drip rail is a bad design. Holds water.

And then it got squished.

TJK

Drip rail just got unsquished. Its not perfect but its good enough for a light rack again. I have a coat of POR15 getting tacky then the POR caulk stuff will go on.

But - I had to beat the FOOL out of that drip rail to get it back up and I ended up cracking the rear passenger glass at some point. Dang nabbit!

Oh well - I guess I'll have to find some glass (not a big deal) but that weatherstripping is expensive!

 

[Kaderabek]

Ouch.

I bought glass after the flop for $38 locally. No big deal.

You should note that in the flop photo there is something on top of the truck. What is that...? Aha! A rack!

TJK

 

[Southeast Overland]

Ouch.

I bought glass after the flop for $38 locally. No big deal.

You should note that in the flop photo there is something on top of the truck. What is that...? Aha! A rack!

TJK

I've seen glass going for often $20 a piece and I know of several Pigs I could probably pull glass from - its the seals that hurt!

I learned from your flop pic with the rack. I'm probably only going to use the rack for getting to the trailhead and setting up camp. I can take the rack off (I already have it from previous adventures) in a few minutes.

I've put POR Patch in the passenger drip rail and it came out much thicker this time - I'm much happier than last time when it was very watery. I guess the tube had settled out some since I didn't use much the first time.

I also finished painting the front bumper and I am proud to report that the 'Pig' is safe.