Well I'll be buying my 3rd AA Yellow D1 next week. This time it's a 96 D1 used in the Eco Challenge Event. It will need some TLC but I hope to have it back on the trails soon! I will update this thread with pictures once I've got the Eco loaded up and we're headed back to TX with it.

 

Well the Eco is home! Me and my 2 best buddies left Thursday evening, and got to FL by 1:30AM (had some lovely construction/traffic delays in LA along I-10). Got a hotel room, and got some rest. Woke up at 7:30 and was at his house by 8AM. Loaded up the spare parts & got the D1 loaded up on the trailer and we headed out about 10:30AM. When we got to the tunnel in Mobile, AL traffic came to an abrupt stop & we had a binder fail and the Eco bounced on the trailer and moved completely sideways!!!!! We crawled out of the tunnel and re-secured the load. We didn't have any more issues with the Eco on the trailer after that thank goodness! We hit Baton Rouge, LA right at rush hour and lost about 1hr of travel time. Once clear of that hot mess it was smooth sailing until my friends F350 boost pipe literally exploded. Limped it off I-10 and we secured a new boost pipe in Jennings, LA. Got it installed and back on the road after a 2.5hr delay. Unloaded it and my friends headed back to their homes.

Eco status as of 12-19-25:

No Brakes
Refurb steering box INOP and puking it's guts out
Dead PS Pump
Dead Optima Yellow Top Battery

Eco status as of 12-21-25:

Replaced battery with a new Marine Battery
Removed Steering box & installed used replacement which came with the D1
Fixed a few misc small things & made a list of parts that need replacing ASAP (coolant hoses & both E-Fan motors)
Adjusted the throttle cable as it was WAY out of adjustment & now she idles excellent.

 

Looks like a good trail truck. Well done!

 

The paint is toast, but body wise it's darn straight. Just has some rust around the windshield area. Rest of the body is completely rust free. Gonna get it mechanically solid and go from there. I have new Eco Challenge stickers for it so after a paint job it should look as close to original as possible.

 

I was digging thru the multiple totes full of LR parts that came with the Eco and I found some really nice stuff! Full set of SuperPro Poly bushings for the suspension/panhard, new power steering pump, new master cylinder, all sorts of good spare parts, and some really cool LR manuals and brochures like a 97 NAS Defender 90 brochure. Makes me remember the good old days of LR that's for sure! The Eco also came with a set of Mantec Sand Ladders, viair air compressor, multiple PIAA Aux wiring relay kits. Also got at least 8 D1 96-99 Fobs in excellent condition.

 

Today I got the PS system restored! The PS Pump that came with the truck had the section the pulley bolts to slightly larger than the OEM pulley diameter. I had a spare pulley so I lightly filed it all the way around until it went on. That got the PS system operating and I was happy with that win. I also swapped out the original steering wheel that looked like something a rat had been chewing on for years it was absolutely gross. The Eco came with a spare that was nearly perfectly. Fixed the Front/Rear TJM bumpers as they weren't level or mounted with the body line (the both were sitting 1inch low). Then I removed the headlight washer nozzle line that was simply hanging under the TJM (washer pump for it was long dead from the looks of it). I also removed the Cruise Control Pump, line, broken CC brake switch, and the destroyed bladder by the throttle body. I've never used CC on a lifted/modified D1 so all that broken stuff just looked awful. I did an oil change and switched it from a PH16 size filter to the PH8A equivalent (I use Mobil1 M301's personally). Spooled out the Spaghetti noodle looking winch line on the Superwinch, and got it nicely wound back up and installed a D-Ring on the front TJM and secured it there vs just wrapped around the TJM hoop. Swapped out a few misc bad bulbs, installed some Auxbeam 9003/H4 bulbs, replaced the back bumper lights (had some good spares in a tote).

Sadly I found yet another hole drilled into the roof........... I have NEVER needed to drill a hole in the roof to get wires up to the roof rack. I've either gone up the front A pilar or neatly out the cargo door and up to the rack 100% out of the way. The rubber boot was long gone and some minor rust was up there that will be addressed before it gets a new coat of AA Yellow.

Next thing I'm going to try and attack tomorrow is to replace the F/R proportioning valve on the brake system (where I suspect it's leaking from as the inner wing shows signs of brake fluid eating the paint on the inner wing) and hopefully I can restore the brakes. My Rock Auto order was delayed due to Christmas, but I'll also be replacing both E-Fan motors as they're INOP and the upper radiator hose. I had a spare HD Fan Clutch and fan blade laying around so I installed that as well today. I've been slowly going thru all the misc totes full of spare parts and there is definitely a lot of misc stuff.

 

Today I got the last front TF HD Shock tower installed (nut on top refused to come off nicely on the passenger side shock the other day), I also replaced the F/R proportioning valve, and bled the brakes. I have brakes now, but I need to bleed it one more time to get a perfect pedal. 4WD Hi/N/Low = INOP and I suspect the interlock solenoid is the issue. Also the CDL function = lever just flops side to side. PS Box that came with the vehicle has started to slowly seep so it'll be getting some Lucas PS Additive to stop that (stuff actually works well on RRC/D1/D90/D110 steering boxes). Took it for a little drive around the neighborhood and it drove good. Got it parked up under the carport now and I got the rest of the totes put away in my shop before the cold front hits. I did a lot of other misc little things, but funny how those little things can add up and take time to do. I'll post some updated pictures when I get a chance.

 

Amen to this. Worse for us that do not have garages. Every job requires unpacking parts/tools/gear and repacking it all when done.

 

Good to see progress happening on such a cool truck

 

I had a fun weekend with my best friends and worked on the Eco on Sunday. We camped on my inlaws property & had a great time. After everyone headed home on Sunday I worked on the Eco. I got the new E-Fans assembled and I had to space out the motors as the design is slightly different on the new E-Fan motors. Installed them and verified they worked. After that I used the Lynx my friend dropped off to program a remote, and to read/delete the ABS fault codes. It mainly had brake switch faults but now at least I can see what fault comes back.