Took a nice little drive with the family yesterday into the hills.
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What Did You Do with Your 80 This Weekend?
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Finally picked up some D-shakles for my slee bumper. And a while ago my buddy gave me the rooftop cargo basket off an xterra, so I picked up some hardware to mount it to the stock rack ribs. Nothing crazy heavy duty, its only holding the light stuff, sleeping bags, tent, clothing bag etc. Was gonna pull the factory rear bumper and hitch with getting a jawbone tire carrier in the coming weeks but my (broken leg/bypass/shredded knee recovery in progress) leg is pretty swollen, so its ice and elevation time. Maybe i can get out there before dusk and screw with it a bit. Oh yeah, gotta see why my pfran super fancy reverse light isn't lighting up... Only a month old and already having issues with one of them...
I finished the pre-shipping preparations and found an oil leak under my transmission. Crap. More money on the other end.
For those who do not know it, any kind of fluid leak is verboten on vehicles in Germany and will result in an inspection fail. Oh, well. It's only time and money.
Last night in my driveway for at least a year and a half.
Edited to add: that pool of water is wash water, not the leak.
For those who do not know it, any kind of fluid leak is verboten on vehicles in Germany and will result in an inspection fail. Oh, well. It's only time and money.
Last night in my driveway for at least a year and a half.
Edited to add: that pool of water is wash water, not the leak.
Kind of ironic given how bad German cars leak oil. If my E39 isn't leaking oil it's out of oil.
Helped a buddy of mine install an Led bar on his tacoma, repaired my leaking driver side knuckle, fixed a coolant leak that started on the way to rubithon, then installed my safari snorkel. Thanks @orangefj45 for letting me borrow the correct sized hole saw.
Oh yeah, a buddy picked up a light bar for his runner, and called me, said (for you one too!) I said OK, can't afford that for a while, but thanks though! He said it's a 46" (I'll get the brand info/specs(I've heard of them, pretty good rep iirc)) and they were discontinuing that particular size, so closeout was something ridiculous, like $175! I'll see him tomorrow, and have my new toy in hand to show you guys and see if there's more available. I'm just stoked I'll be in to it less than 200, when I was saving to spend at least 6-700!
Yes.
Austin to Padre Island National Seashore with the family
Last weekend, on the Rubicon, the Slee rear sway bar extenders on my 94 loosened up at their frame connection point and the DS actually fell off. So this weekend I went underneath intending to remove the rear sway bar and call it good. But after taking a harder look at the situation and noticing how beat up the sway bar is I decided to welded the extender brackets to the frame in order to retain the sway bar because it obviously provides protection to the rear diff, parking brake cable and lower shock mount and control arm mounting areas. I am happy with amount of flex afforded with the sway bar in place because the rear flexes more than the front does with sway bar disconnected anyway.
Finished my de-smog
A while back I did the EGR delete, but I have commitment issues so I left the smog pump and air injectors in place. Well the stupid air injector valve broke while I was trying to remove the smog pump to get to the alternator so I just finished the job. I left the pump that blows air onto the engine, because I really think it helps things cool down. The alternator is a stupid easy job now
. Only 15 minutes to R and R.
I also mounted the fire extinguisher I've had rolling around in the back.
Now I just have to get the 90 amp alternator I have installed. Finding the right mount is like looking for unicorn teeth, and my paranoid wife doesn't want me grinding the alternator.
A while back I did the EGR delete, but I have commitment issues so I left the smog pump and air injectors in place. Well the stupid air injector valve broke while I was trying to remove the smog pump to get to the alternator so I just finished the job. I left the pump that blows air onto the engine, because I really think it helps things cool down. The alternator is a stupid easy job now
. Only 15 minutes to R and R.I also mounted the fire extinguisher I've had rolling around in the back.
Now I just have to get the 90 amp alternator I have installed. Finding the right mount is like looking for unicorn teeth, and my paranoid wife doesn't want me grinding the alternator.
Not an option at the moment to replace it with a new one if it can be cleaned up. Just started working again. Have other priorities at the moment. Like food.
That makes sense now. I thought you were just taking the car there and drive it around for a while, then come back.
In my case I figured about $3000 in shipping the car to and from Europe is not a good option, instead I would just buy a used Patrol for that much and maybe even sell it at the end of the trip.
Drove the 80 to the local HF to buy a multimeter, a 4" magnetic parts holder and a alb rubber mallet all for $4.34.
Cruiser entered the weekend looking like this.
We're heading up to Steamboat this weekend so I spent the last couple of weekends getting her ready for her first extended excursion.
First order of business was to replace the dry-rotted Toyos with 285 Duratracs. I ran the Duratracs on my old Xterra and was impressed with their performance, especially in the snow. Pretty stoked to see how they are with the cruiser.
Next was getting rid of the damn flashing light that lit up every time I tried to engage the rear locker. After making sure it wasn't the electrical connection, I ordered up a used actuator from Cruiserparts and went about ripping and replacing the old one. I wasn't keen on dropping $400, but I didn't have time to rebuild the old actuator. My thought is to either rebuild it and sell it or rebuild it and add it to the parts collection.
The install wasn't as gnarly as I expected it to be despite running into a snag early on. I couldn't pull the thing off. Rather than looking at my FSM like a responsible and intelligent mudder, I took the noob way out and asked Landtank for help. Thankfully he's an upstanding citizen and pointed me in the right direction. With his help and the FSM, the rest of the job went smoothly. And shockingly, it worked. No more flashing light!
From there all that was left was to replace the oil sending unit, swap out the charcoal canister (did the GM mod), double check the fluids, and, because it was only 7 bucks a can and why the hell not, plastidip the hood.
After five months of baselining the thing she's finally ready to get muddy!
We're heading up to Steamboat this weekend so I spent the last couple of weekends getting her ready for her first extended excursion.
First order of business was to replace the dry-rotted Toyos with 285 Duratracs. I ran the Duratracs on my old Xterra and was impressed with their performance, especially in the snow. Pretty stoked to see how they are with the cruiser.
Next was getting rid of the damn flashing light that lit up every time I tried to engage the rear locker. After making sure it wasn't the electrical connection, I ordered up a used actuator from Cruiserparts and went about ripping and replacing the old one. I wasn't keen on dropping $400, but I didn't have time to rebuild the old actuator. My thought is to either rebuild it and sell it or rebuild it and add it to the parts collection.
The install wasn't as gnarly as I expected it to be despite running into a snag early on. I couldn't pull the thing off. Rather than looking at my FSM like a responsible and intelligent mudder, I took the noob way out and asked Landtank for help. Thankfully he's an upstanding citizen and pointed me in the right direction. With his help and the FSM, the rest of the job went smoothly. And shockingly, it worked. No more flashing light!
From there all that was left was to replace the oil sending unit, swap out the charcoal canister (did the GM mod), double check the fluids, and, because it was only 7 bucks a can and why the hell not, plastidip the hood.
After five months of baselining the thing she's finally ready to get muddy!
The vehicle shipment was written into my current contract. If I don't ship a car, I lose the money. No brainer, really.
Except I have to chase down minor oil leaks and fix cracked taillights I normally wouldn't even bother to.
I've repaired 3 or 4 of these over the years. I use fine grit emory cloth on everything that isn't clean and turn the rockers around so that the high-wear parts are on a fresh surface. First one went for 3+ years until I sold the truck.. Others I haven't heard about. The ones in my LC are going on a couple months.. I expect it to last a long time.
Tried cleaning it. Swapped rockers from rear to front since I never use those. They were all pretty gummed up. But I didn't really look at them closely so I'm going to take it apart. Again. And check everything.
My window is stuck part way up. Which isn't the end of the world since it's supposed to be 85 all week. I don't have air so I don't care much. But I don't have any spare $$ for a couple more weeks to order a new one. So I will keep at it and try to fix it.