thatcabledude
GOLD Star
What Did You Do with Your 80 This Weekend? (64 Viewers)
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Dissent
Questioning my life choices...
Thanks. I didn't see them on the web site, maybe I'll give them a call when it's time. 17" makes more sense for 315s.
thatcabledude
GOLD Star
Cleaned the front cloth manual seats I picked up last week. I plan to get tan covers long-term but they cleaned up way nicer than I would have thought with a drill rotating brush and tide/water mix. These seats feel a good 25 lbs. lighter than the electric leathers and allow me a lot (approx. 1 ft.) more buffer between the seat and sleeping platform. Not to mention they won't suffer the stripping gear issue or some electrical problem. I'm in the process of cleaning the second row now and may install that to match.
Super easy. Hardest part was drilling out the holes on the new arms so the bolt would fit. I connected existing wires to horn tabs and connected each horn ground tab to the bolt on back of each horn. Whole process took less than 30 - 40 minutes. Love the sound and very loud.
Listed the cruiser in the classifieds section, it’s been a great truck but time to move on.
ElPolloBlanco
SILVER Star
It wasn't this weekend, it was a couple of weekends ago, but I got to go do this.
You live in some of the greatest wheeling territory on the planet. What are you going to use to wheel instead of an 80 series?
Departure angle: no, none at all.
Loss of ground clearance: I may have lost about 1/2 inch. I don't feel confident in my response, however, because I had to fabricate new brackets on the driver's side of the tank. The long range tank is designed to use the "short" portion of the existing tank straps. Mine were completely destroyed, so I had to come up with an alternative. This is a long way of saying "I'm not exactly sure how the tank sits if you use the existing straps". It tucks up nicely, and the leading edge is protected by the cross member. I'll try to grab some pics shortly.
Quick question. I want to check my wheel bearing preload I set a couple months ago. Do I need to jack it up and remove the wheel? Or can I just take off the drive flange in place?
I would jack it up and remove the wheel to actually check the preload. I don't think you want the bearing loaded while you're adjusting it, and it also seems like it would be pretty hard to get the cone washers out of the drive flange with the wheel in the way. I normally end up whacking the hub pretty hard with my brass hammer. Just my 2 cents
TMI beadlocks finally done. Sandblasted all wheels (they were a rusty/powdercoaty mess). Rattlecanned. They’ve held 32psig for a week and test drove her for gas, and no shakes, wobbles or shimmies!!!!
Those bumpers look soooo damn good! I would love to have one.... but there's nothing wrong with my stock LX bumper, and those ARBs are quite pricey. There are a lot of 80s on this forum with them, though. Is there a place to get them reasonably priced?
I got mine off of Ebay using PayPal credit. You can pay it off interest free within 6 months. It was 1200 for mine with free shipping.
Finally finished my crawler. Lockers, dual cases, 5spd conversion, supercharger, RCV shafts... it should work.
Look for local 4wd swap meets, I got mine for 500$ and a handshake and it had never been mounted
george.arnold
SILVER Star
Talk to Kyle @treatyoakoffroad
He is the man for Dobinsons, and IMO they sell a better bumper than ARB
Wrapping up my interior. Test fitted my OEM switches for Aux fan, Light bar, And Bumper lights. Shame the fan switch is mounted upside down. It came from Dubai so it must have been mounted elsewhere is the cab.
With the solid front axle and everything you have listed above, that should be a super wheeling platform! Great job!
Long response but to answer as completely as possible, this is the only way.
90 percent of the airflow isn’t blocked by the lights because of the space around and behind them. To block off 90% you would have to literally stick a sheet in front of the a/c condenser then cut out 10% off of that sheet. Not trying to be a smart a$$ just sayin’.
The grill still has 100% access to open air. The fan clutch’s condition/efficiency dictates airflow. above a certain speed, the radiator’s fins and the fan itself will block more air than some lights spaced 6” from the grill. It’s all about the fan. And then there’s the a/c condenser also blocking some air. The only way that air gets through the radiator is by the fan pulling it through.
As for the grills, they help in slow speed “hot” operation. I reasoned that the fan system pulls hot air after heat exchange, it needs an exhaust to realease that hot air. I placed them in the middle of the hood since this is where hot air will likely collect when the engine is off to help with heat soak. After 30 minutes with the engine off, I am seeing 10 degrees cooler than without the vents.
I use a Koso gauge with sending unit installed on the upper rad hose. Before the vents, in 95 deg to 100 deg ambient temps, I would run 190 deg at a dead stop off road. Now, it runs 185 deg.
I can’t say the temp drop is from cooler coolant or engine temp. Might be from hot air moving away from sending unit itself.
I wish I had the forming tools to make these but Rod Louvers made them for me.
