Whatchu Workin' On?

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I have some bad front lower control arm ball joints and the tie rods were pretty wore. Just got some oem ones in the mail to replace both sides. They say to replace the whole arm as your not supposed to press it out but it has been done. I am going to try and replace all the bushings and ball joints on my original set so next time I will be able to just swap them out again. Ordered some tie rods as well and have an alignment for Friday. Helped my friend take his winch off his old bronco that is sitting on the side of his house and we are running up to Denver to drop his Toyota truck off to get his bumpers and sliders he wants. I may end up purchasing a few things for the fj while I am there too.
 
When I get the ball joints I will definitely take you up on that. One guy said his 12 ton barely worked. It is just one thing after another now on all the vehicles it's a little hard to keep up.
 
The whale is so close to being back on the road. I got quite a bit done tonight. Radiator and AC condenser are in place. All but 2 hoses are clamped in place. Made a make shift motor mount out of the wrong mount (I'll swap it when I get the correct one). Finished a couple more connections in the engine bay. Also picked up all the fluids I need.

Still need to finish the transmission and transfer case linkages, and I have three plugs near the alternator that I need to trace down. Really looking forward to getting this thing done!
 
Andrew, any chance you know where these three guys go?

They come off the same loom as the injectors. I can't remember if there was anything I unplugged when I did the smog delete? I don't think there is, but it's in that general location.

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MrMoose said:
Andrew, any chance you know where these three guys go?

They come off the same loom as the injectors. I can't remember if there was anything I unplugged when I did the smog delete? I don't think there is, but it's in that general location.
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I have 4 plugs on the end of my FI harness that go to some smoggy lookin' stuff(1 plug hidden behind a hose below the row of 3):

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The rest of the plugs (4) from the harness seem to go the the thermostat housing (1 top left 3 bottom right in picture):

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Gettin' greasy:

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Yup. After research I think they all had to deal with smog equipment. One on the piece deleted with the block off plate, and two that were on the crap mounted to the fender well, I removed as well.

Maybe I can get it cranked tonight. Wife's gonna be gone all night so I get all night to myself in the garage.
 
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karas said:
When I get the ball joints I will definitely take you up on that. One guy said his 12 ton barely worked. It is just one thing after another now on all the vehicles it's a little hard to keep up.
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That's how it was with me when I had the FJ40. One extra vehicle adds way more work. Welcome to try the press, dang thing scares the cr@p out of me when it's bound up. Punched out a lot of bushings with it though.
 
I literally need one more hose that I forgot to grab last night.

Got the plug wires on, new air filter and all the crap leading to the throttle body on, oil in the transfer case, ATF in the Trans, shifters in place and linkages connected. Put the battery on, and it has power.

Also, took a minute to trouble shoot the ARB compressor since it wouldn't turn on. Gave the pressure sensor a rap with a wrench and it kicked in. Gotta order a new one of those.

I can't wait to drive this thing. I have a feeling that it's gonna be a rocket with a fresh(ER) motor and the 5.29s. Well, as rocket as a 3FE can be lol
 
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I put them in when I first lifted it and put 35s on it. I didn't realize the motor was as weak as it was. Should be a different animal!
 
Tried my hand at MIG welding aluminum today. Got some 0.035 5356 wire, a clean new tip and borrowed a small tank of argon from a friend. I had no feed problems at all - guess I don't need the spool gun. But it's really tricky. Started trying to run some beads on a piece of 1/8" 6011 plate - won't be posting any pics of that! It's really hard to control the heat, and aluminum conducts heat so well that you can have a cold wel at the start of your pass and blow a hole through the end of the pass all while moving the same speed. Anyway, I finally decided to try on some actual joints, and found that having more material in the vicinity made it much easier - more thermal mass.

So here's what I ended up with...
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It's not pretty, but it's a start. I leaned on the corner joint hard enough to bend things a bit, and the welds didn't break, so I think it has decent strength also. The other cool thing is that the sheet metal didn't pull/warp/distort at all like it does when I've done steel sheet metal the same way.

I also got some of that 3M VHB (Very High Bond) tape, which I used to stick another piece of sheet metal to the opposite side. I've heard of guys attaching sheet metal to trailers with the stuff, so I'm curious how it does.
 
Bret said:
I have been told with a new liner you can push AL with little trouble, I bet with a little practice they will look sweet.
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Yea, I'm looking into that also, but more from a contamination aspect. Not supposed to use the same liner for steel and Al because steel particles & rust contaminate an Al weld. My feeding was fine.

I think with some more practice and playing with the settings, I can clean this up alot.
 
Yea, clean stainless steel wire brush that you don't use for anything else. Clean metal is more important then for steel. Wipe it down with acetone also.

The project may be a new lid for my trailer. The hinges on the current one aren't adequate and are twisting out of shape, the whole thing is crooked and warped - not my best effort, and I've always intended to replace it at some point. Thinking about doing it in aluminum to save weight and keep it flatter/straighter - the stuff just doesn't warp and twist like steel.
 
EricG said:
Yea, clean stainless steel wire brush that you don't use for anything else. Clean metal is more important then for steel. Wipe it down with acetone also.

The project may be a new lid for my trailer. The hinges on the current one aren't adequate and are twisting out of shape, the whole thing is crooked and warped - not my best effort, and I've always intended to replace it at some point. Thinking about doing it in aluminum to save weight and keep it flatter/straighter - the stuff just doesn't warp and twist like steel.
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Is the new lid going to somehow increase capacity? :D
 
I'm going to make it concave and make everybody pack more sanely :D
Actually, It might increase capacity a little bit - like an inch higher. Across a 4'x6' space that amounts to 2 cubic feet :meh:
I just got stuff sacks for all the sleeping bags that didn't have them, and Jenny is looking at compact travel guitars. So these improvements + saner packing, we should be in better shape next time.
 
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