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This time I finally started digging in on some fun stuff. Ordered a 4 bolt driveshaft conversion kit to replace the 3 bolt rotoflex unit that was badly beat.
When I got the driveshaft off I found some more nasty surprises, and the spigot had to be removed with an air hammer!
Some of the damage shown was from an angle grinder, but it was very trashed to start - the bolt holes were like this!!
New driveshaft went in with not much drama! I also replaced the front with a used unit that was known to be good for peace of mind.
A quick oil change, new spark plugs, new wires, a transfer case and diff fluid change and we were done with another couple of jobs. It gets real fun from here out as in the next installment Ill show some of the wiring fun that Best4x4 helped me out of a hole with!
Some more odds n ends:
Added some cup holders so the wife had somewhere to put her beer lol
Started some troubleshooting and cleaned up some contacts on the fog light switch that controls my obnoxious light bar that I secretly love. And let there be light!!
on the subject of lighting, we added some LED bulbs inside and on the license plate lights. Added some brightness and brought her into the 21st century a bit! This also brought up a headlight switch problem and all I had was the small lights, no headlights, no side markers, no tail lights. A quick swap (thx best4x4!) and we had lights again!
Back to the cosmetics. Another buddy grabbed me a radio bezel as mine was literally falling apart, I changed that out, the HVAC controls went to the "fancy" wood, as did the non working clock that was swapped out for a non working wood clock
Scooped up a spare tire insert from the junk yard to insert into my original Michelin that I hope I never have to ever use!
At this point I was feeling pretty good about the truck so we took it on a road trip where we covered approx 550 miles. Not a single issue thank the lord!
The next set of prep is going to be in preparation for an 800 mile road trip to South Texas with some mild off roading at my friends ranch. Tune in next time!
Ok so a bit of fun back story before I crack on and add any pictures. Underneath my hood is(was) a sea of wiring. We’re talking, e – fans, random wiring going nowhere – example: one wire tapped into the passenger headlight and powered by the ignition switch. A bypassed high pressure switch on the a/c which only work off of a switch by the mirror adjustment switch. Couple all this with a bonkers alarm that sometimes will kill all power to the ignition until a certain sequence of electrical switches are activated (bonus anti theft device).
As mentioned in my previous post, I then took it on a road trip after some basic maintenance. It did around 800 miles, carried 4 adults with both a/c units on full blast, did some off-roading at my friends ranch and made it back without major incident (217F sitting in Houston traffic when we got to within 15 miles of home).
So it was at this point with the help of my buddy Best4x4 that we ripped out approx. 50ft of wiring over 3 sessions, replaced the ignition switch, and a bunch of wiring was repaired or removed due to being poorly spliced or damaged or just completely being pointless. There were splices on splices! The major aim of these sessions was to get the condenser fans to run, which had somehow stopped working even with the ac on. Again, some parts were donated, and a known good condenser fan installed. Unfortunately this didn’t help, and another session of wiring troubleshooting ensued another day and now the fans run off of a switch which is great because I can run them after a long drive with the key out, or after riding trails all day.
While the dash was out I added a wood trim panel onto the hvac and we replaced the bulb to light up the controls.
Also, during one of our troubleshooting the high pressure switch was replaced for the ac, this involved having the system discharged and recharged to the amazement of my VW master tech friend who couldn’t believe how much R134 it took for the ac units.
Im probably way off time with how some of these repairs happened, but this is about 75% of the story so far!
When the wiring was all tidied up a bit, I removed the pathetic e fan set up finally. I went back to a fan clutch and shrouding. I used a HD fan clutch from a dodge, yes it works! While I was at it I also covered up the terrible off centered holes on my hood with a cheapo eBay vent. Looks tacky, but I love it.
The aim of the game was to be ready by Texas Rovers Hill Country Rally In November. This update brings us up to about Mid July this year.Pics and more to come
10-23-2019, 03:17 PM
