Arctic Offroad Forums

Resurrection plans in the works for 3 vehicles.

Blazer - incredible list + EFI 454 (which will be pulled from donor sometime this week!)

Skitzo - trans swap should happen this weekend (Sat afternoonish)

83 Blazer - rent-a-rig which James should be driving at meet N Greet.
Needs rear end swapped, a locking something in the rear axle, some wiring, a trans-cooler, and some better 33's (or fender trimming for 35's! - but with 1/2 ton axles, 33's preferred)

LJ:
Guess what...Gene's blew it again. They couldn't get the engine RPM to surge like I told them it was doing - I even wrote out a clear description of the symptoms and how to re-create the "condition". Turns out the service advisor forgot to tell the "tech" that there was detailed info behind the RO in the plastic sleeve. This just re-confirms that no-one over there could find their @$$ with 2 hands and a map.

I'm going there tomorrow morning having been promised I could personally take the "tech" for a test ride.

Grizzlybeaver:
Now the brake lights aren't working. I jumped the wires together and the lights work. I put an ohm-meter on the pressure switch and it reads when I press the pedal. Plug the 2 back together and nothing. I quick tour of some hotrodder forums and it sounds like the overall quality of pressure switches has gone WAY down over the years and there's lots of guys with button or lever switches on the pedal and blown pressure switches serving only to plug thier own hole. My best guess is that the switch is blown in such a way as to read across the terminals but not allow enough current through to work the lights. A new switch will be located and a bracket fabbed up tomorrow to work off the pedal.

Unless I can remember where I stashed the old Mil pressure switch. It was 40 years old and still working like a champ. I'll try it first. The blown one is practically brand new. I got it from Summit along with the proportioning valve when I convered to disks and it only has about 3000 miles on it.

XJ if in need of an electrical upgrade, mainly a higher amp alternator. This last trip killed the battery winching me and chris alot. The tranny is getting hot and worse now. It's in need of a rebuild, new TC, or a replacement, not sure which just yet. Starting to accumulate parts to fix the firt issue along with upgrading to dual batts, snorkel and a few other small things. Maybe, just maybe I can get it all done before M&G or my other big trip.

Steve use a test light to put a load on the switch to see watts up.

zukman1993 Wrote:Steve use a test light to put a load on the switch to see watts up.

Did that too. Lights up the the test light but not the brake lights. Seems to me since the test light needs so much less juice to work than the 2 big incandescent bulbs in the tail lights that the switch is pretty much fried but not completely. Napa has a push button type for under $7. I can hack together a bracket and yank those 2 wires into the cab.

"watts":lol: - now that's either a really clever word play or a sign of your typing skills...:p

I don't alway miss spell things, was it a bulb test light or an l.e.d. light.

LED. No biggie, a $6 switch, a scrap piece of flat bar bent in an "L", a couple holes drilled, some misc hardware and my brake lights are all good again.

I got the LJ back from Gene's. Both crank seals replaced and an idle-air control solenoid on order after I took the shop foreman on a test ride to show him the problem. They charged me 1/2 hr labor for the Tummy Tucker r/r :nerd: and $16 to put on a new oil filter when re-filling the engine. $68 for 6+ hrs of work + parts really aint that bad.

Kevin graciously let me borrow his trailer to tow the Jeep home since Megan had to work late. Yeah, I could have bummed another ride there to pick it up but I really wanted to try it. I've been worried for a while that I went too high with the 4.56:1 gears in the Grizzlybeaver thinking 4.88:1 would have been better and now I know for sure. So...can someone tell me if I'm supposed to feel 5000+ pounds behind a truck or not, 'cause I really couldn't tell it was back there.

Spent a couple days working with Ole on my front end. I learned some and made some more plans and he only caught himself on fire once. I now have a winch mounted and decent tow points.

Sweeto looking bumper, Mike.

Skitzo had a transmission removal yesterday - no real thanks to me! I undid 4.5 bolts and Mel, Chris, Mark, and a friend of mine named Shea did the rest.

I had to modify the crossmember with the hot wrench a bit, and replaced the front seal. New (used) Turbo 400/241 is sitting underneath ready for install.

Meanwhile, AKMArk has done a lot of tinkering with other vehicles around here, and hopefully I'll have the 6.5 turbodiesel suburban running correctly today as well as the Old Alyeska 3+3 rig.

Blazer plans are still in progress stage, but getting closer to actual work beginning.

moral support of coarse

since last update in this thread:

New battery

disconnected and rebuilt winch

disconnected air compressor wiring

body lift and Brown Dog Offroad motor mount lift installed

plans for fender work begun

Bronco brake hose blew out, pulled off and broke off the axle vent tube... Once the hardline was connected and started to bleed I cracked the hardlne that runs all the way up... Cannot break free the flare nut at the proportioning valve and I'm scared of destroying it because I don't know how easy it will be to find the right one again...

My little corolla just passed emmisions test for the first time in it's 16 years of life. At least I can drive myself to work now. Too bad I can't wheel with 5 inches of ground clearance and fwd...

PO-XJ is back up and running! Whooo! Drove it around the block today and got the Jeep bug again.

Made a vent tube and lowered the float levels a little which were right up to the sight plug. The tube is 5/16" copper from the plumbing section of Sentry. I filed down the ends to where they fit snug in the vent holes and tapped it in with a little hi-temp RTV. Here's a carppy cel phone pic but you get the idea.



In case you're wondering what the bike derailieur lever is there for, it's part of the homebrewed hand throttle setup. A military throttle locking T-handle is hooked to the end of the lever which in turn pulls on the carb linkage. It gives me a reduction in cable pull so I have a lot better control over RPM using the hand throttle than if I'd run the handle cable straight to the carb. I fyou look close you can see the 2nd cable on the throttle linkage just below the main one. More plumbing section parts for the cable-stop there, too.

That should help out a lot, as long as the fuel level isn't to low.

I scored a set of chains for the zuk so I'll be chain up all the way around.

zukman1993 Wrote:That should help out a lot, as long as the fuel level isn't to low.

Didn't drop it way down. They say 1/6 turn = 1/32" so I figure I dropped it about 1/8". Still have plenty of get-up-and-go on full power launches...at least on flat ground...

Cab roof reinforced and it's more solid now than it's ever been since I've had the truck. It's amazing how much quieter the ride is when the roof isn't flopping around. I had to weld the p!$$ out of the top corners of the tub where the hardtop bolts to because it was cracked so bad I'm surprized the roof didn't blow right off. I still hate sheetmetal work.

Thanks, Shane, for the loan of the riv-nut tool. Fastenall isn't there any more but Denali Ind Supply has nutserts and the guy just gave me some since I only needed about 1/2 dozen.

I still need to replace the foam lining in the top. It's kind of like the stuff that Army sleeping mats are made of, but it's 41 years old and all dry rotted.

New manifold installed. 3rd times a charm.
No visible leaks and only lost one bolt.
Hopefully this will be the last time and I shaved about probly 40 Lbs off the engine.
Now I just need to take a trip to North Pole to see what problems pop up.

12" cut off the frame and 8 body mounts done 2 left but they will be waiting till I start building a front bumper. Also chopped 3 steering shafts and made one good one with the u-joint thingy at both ends.

Skitzo - transmission works well (may need an adjustable vaccuum actuator thingy)

Radiator is again trashed. No fault of Mark's - it just blew holes...
it had been fixed and repaired and fixed again and ... it's time for it to go away!

Plow truck drove up the snow bank - backwards! Got farther than the hummer :whistle:

Friday afternoon, had Avy washed.

Today got really dirty towing Skitzo back and forth down Transmitter.

Picking up my next probable rig real soon. It just may be awhile before it sees a trail.

Mini me tuned up and ready for logging duty/Repp Rd fun.

last I heard sitting in the garage with a laundry list of issues I have to get fixed up in order to be able to go play when I get home.

trailkilla Wrote:last I heard sitting in the garage with a laundry list of issues I have to get fixed up in order to be able to go play when I get home.

Your rig is currently w/out gas tank as the thing doesn't fit up there very nicely. And the jury is out on wether to run the OE vent line or possibly just try a vented gas cap instead. I should have that worked out today though.