Freerider15

I stepped off my project for a little while, as I lost a close friend due to a car accident here in Fort Collins around the first week of May. He was involved in an accident on March 6th on Taft, his parent pulled life support on March 8th, it was his 30th birthday. I won't lie, its been incredibly hard but as with all things life must move on. So I've gotten back at it as it has and always will be one of the best ways to keep my mind off things and not end up sitting around staring at a wall contemplating many a thing about life...

Soooooo updates:

- Got the hydro done (steering linkage just needs a little work). Got the system filled and as bled as I could without the motor running. I used a cordless drill with an allen bit to run the pump so fluid would actually circulate...as otherwise I was essentially just dry turning the system. Took about 2.5 quarts so far. I anticipate another quart or so after its all said and done and bled.

- Got the cooling system all hooked up and filled...took about 4 gallons.

Coolant bonging my system

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- Got the Doubler and Rear Diff breather hoses done
Both cases Teed together with a 3-way brass barb fitting:
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- Got all the brake lines hooked up to their respective cutting brakes, and finished the rear completely. I decided to run the line through the brackets in grommets for security and "ease" of routing.

What do you do when you're not sure which grommets would work best? Order $30 worth of grommets from McMaster Carr [/URL]

Rear line run:
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Line running through the brackets:
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Line and breather running up the arm:
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You can kind of see in this picture the fun that is brake line connections coming into and out of the cutting brakes:


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- As well, I got the vacuum hose for the fuel pressure regulator hooked up and routed.

Next things to get done are:

- Finish front brake line routing and connecting, bleed brakes (REALLY REALLY not looking forward to this)
- Install Front Diff breather
- D300 Cable shifters (currently waiting on paint to dry)
- Fill Front Diff
- Fill Doubler
- Fill Tranny
- Get the electrical done enough to get the thing running on its own

Once this thing fires and is running again...it will pretty much be ready to load onto a trailer and take for a shake down run (minus interior panels).

I'll still have things like body panels, front and rear lights, blinkers, etc. to all do...but those don't matter so much right now. I just want the damn thing running and moving under its own power again. I'm hoping to finish most of the list above this weekend. Who knows...maybe I'll get her fired up as well!

Freerider15

Well, after nearly 6 years....it drives!!!




Got the brakes bled (kinda) and drove it around the block a few times

There is a bit of air in the front brakes (I can see quite a few large bubbles), but I can stop it even in low range.

My to do list still has quite a few items, but most should be done before I load it up onto the trailer this friday and head to Carnage Buena Vista!

To do over the next few evenings:

- Bleed the front brakes more to try and get the air out
- Paint and mount dash and center console pieces
- Get enough of the floor boards in to keep feet off stuff
- Get seats and harness bolted in
- Finish up new rad. overflow tank plumbing
- Mount winch
- Throw steering shaft clamps on
- Wire trans gauge and fan
- Hook up fan wires to switch
- Maybe throw some more pressure in the ORI uppers in the F&R

Little bit of a list...but I'm sure I can knock most of them out in one evening.

Skins and finishing of the interior panels will come in time

Freerider15

Thanks everyone, its been a long hard road to say the least! This thread definitely won't die, I've still got work to do!

Now...for the long awaited wheeling trip

We hit up Carnage Buena Vista last weekend...a trail I've only walked part of before back in 2005-ish. Holy crap has this trail changed...it makes Penrose Indy look like a cake walk. We hit the trail around 9-10am-ish, got off around 7:30...LONG day. We had ~10 rigs in our group, and there was a group ahead of and behind us. Once we got to the V-notch...it started raining. Rain in Buena Vista makes the rocks a virtual ice rink whether or not you have stickies.

Everyone had to winch the wall to the v-notch...that wall is becoming nearly impossible to drive with the mud hole at the bottom (maybe a trail drain needs to be made ). It took us a while to get everyone up the wall and through the v-notch.

Not long after the v-notch...it started to hail...ugh. Nothing like freezing your **** off *** you get pelting helplessly by hail (rood moved up on the to do list). Otherwise...the day was incredibly nice and sunny (typical CO weather). Unfortunately, the precipitation over the course of the day also made things muddy, and therefore the un-driveable by any of us. The group ahead of us was able to drive it, but it was also dry when they did.

As far as the rig goes...it did fantastic. The only problems I had were the tranny fluid level being too low and causing me to stall out and not being able to reverse on a climb (threw another quart in and was good to go), and my winch rope. The winch rope pulled the thimble off that connects it to the drum...so it took us about 20 minutes to figure out a way to get the rope to stay since the drum was too slick for the rope to grab (adding some grip tape soon). I'll be hitting up MasterPull about that.

I do need to trim a fin on the D60 just a little, since it scraped the engine skid. I'll also need to section out just a little of the engine skid as well since the front driveshaft would rub on it at times. No major issues otherwise...the rig outperformed what I thought it was going to for being so "bare boned". I will say one thing I've got to get used to...is the fact that I have 1 tons now. I'm still in the mindset of having a D30 so I found myself unnecessarily babying it at times

I've got a bit of finish work to do since this was a bare bones run. My fan wiring consisted of screwing a power distribution nut down on the wire

Now for pictures...

Morning Group Shot:



Entrance:

















Obstacle I had to be pulled off of since the tranny was too low in fluid:









Wall and V-notch area:











Overall, a great time with great people.

Bombed through Chinaman's the next morning in about an hour.

Got quite a bit of finish work to get done, but it wheels now!

Now to lose the ~80lbs. I've gained over the course of this build :rant:

Freerider15

So the buggy has been sitting in my garage still since it got back...still has mud on it

Though it did pretty dang well, I still want to make sure its READY ready for the next run...not me crossing my fingers that everything will be ok.

Things I need/want to get done before I go back out:

- Bump up the front ORI's
- Fix winch rope, get grip tape on drum
- Get Rear Main seal done
- Get Tranny pan bungs to seal
- New Dist. Cap and spark plug wires (was getting some ticking from the Dist. cap and the engine would start to stumble a little)
- Shave D60 fin to clearance engine skid
- Clearance engine skid for driveshaft
- Clearance shift bracket on tranny for driveshaft
- Get interior panels/rear firewall painted and mounted
- Get switches in and wired
- Get Tranny gauge hooked up
- Get Belly and Engine UHMW skids on
- Get Steering Skid on
- Re-do fuel cell vent
- Get lugs (was missing a few on the run)
- Get rear axle sealed (pinion and maybe cover)
- Get all jam nuts on all links tightened
- Get front links set (they weren't really *set* when I did the run )

I'm sure there are a few things I'm forgetting...but the list above should get me pretty close to done....though this doesn't touch things I'd like to get done on the tow rig though

Freerider15

So this is what I've been working on (amongst other things) the last couple nights:



Its stainless, wanted to be kind of "fancy". Well "fancy" came to mean PITA. It's 16 gauge stainless, which likes to heat up and discolor when cutting (all I have is an angle grinder really). Overall doesn't look to bad, but its not perfect.

Went ahead end got some switches and holders from OTRATTW.com ...switches are :smokin:

Planning on making most of all the wiring for these nearly stand alone, so all I have to to is remove a couple connectors and the panel will come out (just need to figure out how to mount some relays).

Switches so far will be (not all wired right away):
- Engine Fan Auto
- Engine Fan Low
- Engine Fan High
- Transcooler Fan
- Driving Lights Low
- Driving Lights High
- Dome Light
- Rock Lights
- Stereo

We'll see how this goes...

Freerider15

Well, been working on the rig on and off...hoping to do another run here in the next few weeks.

But before I do another run I really want things actually further done than they were.

So:

Been working on getting the interior actually 100% fit. Hoping to paint this weekend.



A small note...black oxide GR8 bolts rust...quickly

So all the GR8 black button head hex bolt I bought...I now can't use. So, I've got a whole bunch of Stainless pieces coming that should be here tomorrow.

Ebay ****** rocks...been buying more and more stuff off there lately since stuff tends to be cheaper and free shipping. Bolts would have cost me 2x what I used to buy stuff through boltdepot.com for.

Then the not so sexy or fun stuff:





Bought a new oil pan from Advance Auto ($60 after online coupon and in stock) since mine had seen better days.

Replaced the rear main, oil pan, and oil pan gasket. Also doing Cap and Rotor since I noticed mine ticking and when I pulled it off it had rub marks on the inside.

Biggest PITA of the whole oil pan deal...is that...I couldn't get my oil pan out...it didn't clear the passenger side engine skid arm

So after cutting out the arm and redoing it some the pan can now come in and out.

Headed to the JY's tomorrow to get a new tranny pan, another steering shaft piece, and another speedo unit since I can't find mine.

I'll get some pictures up once I get the interior finished...should look much better after!

Freerider15

Alrighty...been a whirlwind lately with things.

The tranny pan was the biggest PITA. Got a pan from a junkyard, got some bungs of JEGS...welded bungs to new pan. Well I went ahead and got it all installed to get back to where I was...or so I thought.

I noticed the new bungs were leaking as well...and decently heavy from the rear passenger corner of the pan. Well, turns out one of the holes in the tranny stripped out some and couldn't keep enough pressure on the tranny pan gasket to seal it.

So, drilled and tapped the hole to a bigger size, good to go. Well the bungs weren't leaking from the fitting this time thankfully...but some of the weld. So, I went and threw another ring of weld around the original weld. Well...I didn't think to take the temp probe out for the Autometer gauge :shaking:

After a quick pop and sizzle...the plastic in the probe was melted and the probe in two pieces now. Made sure to take the other probe out...then got all the welding done. So, $13 and 3 days later...there was another probe from JEGS.

Skipped the tranny pan gasket and used some Permatex Right Stuff.

Well, the pan doesn't leak a drop FINALLY :smokin:

I notice the doubler leaks a little...but I've given up on that ever 100% sealing.

THEN...went to reinstall the power lead back on the starter...only for the plastic that holds it on the solenoid to break off :shaking:

So, a quick trip to Advance Auto and I've got a brand new clean and shiny starter in.

After that was all said and done, I pulled it out to the driveway and gave it a spray down. Well, that only worked so well. I ended up really just needing to resort to a bucket of water and a rag. This revealed a bit of touch up paint and adding of paint since with the moisture I can see rust in some spots.

So my fuel cell...I had noticed it not fully sealing at the fuel cell cap. So I went ahead and order a gasket from JEGS. I special ordered some stuff from Grainger for rubber seals to sandwich the cap. So I took the cap off, only to find the inner rubber seal...missing. So much for fuel resistant it claimed to be :shaking: It was in pieces all over the inside of the cell. Put the actual meant for fuel cell gasket from Jegs on, so hopefully that should hold.

Got a new vent breather on. Original breather was -6AN, new one is -10AN:



Got the same type of rollover valve in the tank. Went with the FATS routing instead of around the back like before, since its more of a PITA for me to do 3 sides and down.

Got the rear "firewall" in, I really think it starts to make it look like a true rig



Been working on getting the interior panels done. Currently have the exterior parts of the passenger side painting and curing:



Looking to have the interior side painted and curing tomorrow, and the drivers prepped so it will start to be painted Tuesday.

I've got until August 5th to get the interior fully done and the UHMW skids on. Headed wheeling for 4 days in Buena Vista!

Goal is to have all the interior panels painted and mounted by this coming weekend, so that I can use the weekend to do little finish work and get the UHMW belly panels on.

Oh, and as a note...do NOT use black oxide bolt...they rust the moment they get any moisture Working on switching them all out for stainless.

Freerider15

So...how about a long overdue update!?

So I got the interior pretty well done. I've still got some work to do on it, and I've still got to finish some electrical (wire up switches, dccontrol engine fan controller, tranny gauge, tranny fan, etc.).







Only issue I've had...is that some of the paint of the driver's side floorboard came up due to the floor getting hot enough, and the GF's shoes being on it. I'll pull it up later some day and put something on the bottom to try and reflect the heat better.

So I went on a wheeling trip at the beginning of August, NAXJA's Colorado Fest. Well...the trip didn't exactly go as planned. Lessons learned:
1.) I REALLY need to get the fan controller in since overheating due to not remembering to turn the fan on can pretty much kill the day.
2.) Sometimes slower is better. Why? Well see the pics below:



Aaaaaaaand:



Total carnage: 3 sheared high steer studs and one punctured Irok.

How'd that happen? Welllll I was coming down Iron Chest (easy peasy more sight seeing trail for those that now) a little too fast. Well, this rock on the side of the mountain just jumped outta NOWHERE

Hit an outcropped rock, which in turn did the damage above. I did this near the top, where to my left the side of the mountain went down a couple-a-thousand feet. So...needless to say it was a fun extraction. When we got to an area we could pull off, we flipped the ram over and threw it on the bottom knuckle holes:

Freerider15

So, from there I had some decisions to make.

After shearing those studs, I decided while I know I'll never hurt the Reid Knuckles...I wanted something with a keyed arm. So, I sold my Reids.

So after going back and forth for a while on what to do, I decided on Solid Knuckles and Artec High Steer Arms. Nothing like 6 bolts/studs, a keyed arm and knuckle, and the arm and knuckle tied together with a 3/4" bolt

Installed:







I will say, as far as fitment goes, the Solid's had me a little peeved when installing. The Reid's were perfect out of the box. The Solids, not so much (but, there is a several hundred dollar difference between the pairs). First, I pretty much had to chase all threads on the knuckles for the high steer and spindle studs to go in all the way. Secondly, the lower kingpin cap holes aren't 100% perfect. I had to take a dremel and sanding stone to one hole on each lower kingpin cap so that the fourth bolt would screw in. I know this was the knuckles, since they worked perfect on the Reid's, and some stock ones.

Oh well, in the end I'm still happy to have them, and they're beefy as hell.

So...now what to do about tires?

Well...that's where these come in:



40" Stickies :smokin:

Going down numerically in size, but physically up in size. These made my 42" Iroks look small

Mounting up:



As of tonight after a trip on them:



All I can say...is that even though they're not really broken in yet...I fawking love 'em!

Freerider15

Went and hit up Indy. Trail run went great and we all drove the exit. The only thing that we had a hang up with was me.

I knew I wasn't in 4low since I kept having to nearly floor it to get it to climb anything. This was causing me to not have the torque to crawl things and not letting me drive with finesse. As well, it was COOKING my tranny fluid. And since my cooler fan isn't hooked up yet, we sat for about 20 minutes at one point to let it cool. While it was cooling we dove into the no 4low issue. Well, my suspicions were true. The piece that connected to the NP231 side of the shift linkage bent, the ears bent out and therefore wasn't shifting.

So, we removed a couple dozen allen head bolts, pulled up my center dash piece and shifted it manually with a pair of channel locks into 4low. Once we did that it was the difference between trying at something for 10 minutes...and walking right up it.

I ran the stickies at 20 psi and they worked great. I might lower them to around 15, but want to keep pressure in them to prevent from killing sidewalls.

As well I still need to bump down the front ORI's (sitting a little nose high right now.

Overall to do list still:

- Fix shift linkage
- DCControl Fan controller wired in
- Tranny temp gauge wired
- Tranny Fan controller and bypass switch wired
- Amp for music wired in
- Skins finish, painted, and mounted :smokin:
- Headlights and tail lights wired

There are still some small things here and there that I want to get done...but overall being pretty well done is an overwhelmingly awesome feeling!

Freerider15

Playing around on Cleveland Rock on Holy Cross Trail in Buena Vista. Didn't make it up, and didn't care to keep trying since I was the only rig who was going to.





Indy Penrose run this last weekend. Everything went great except one hiccup on my NP231 shifter. All of us were able to drive the exit.

Freerider15

Freerider15

Freerider15

Whew....

6 years posted in like an hour

That brings it to now.

Got some stuff to still do, but it wheels

JGrant95XY

Subbed haha. The color looks great.