KarmannMarco
Adventurer
Progress!
How are you liking the truck now that is running good?
How are you liking the truck now that is running good?
Mapper's gen 2.5
- Thread starter mapper
- Start date
Like it a lot. Especially after getting the 31s on and cleaning up that list of "little things". Feels a bit slow, but fun to drive. I still don't know if it will be spacious enough for my extended weekend needs but I'm getting her all ready to give it a shot for awhile.
Made an appointment for Wednesday with Russ's Alignment, the alignment gurus here in Salt Lake City. Still having some shaking at speed in the front end and want to rule out alignment issues. The tires I removed were definitely getting cupped in the front and I don't want to damage these.
Made an appointment for Wednesday with Russ's Alignment, the alignment gurus here in Salt Lake City. Still having some shaking at speed in the front end and want to rule out alignment issues. The tires I removed were definitely getting cupped in the front and I don't want to damage these.
jeep-N-montero
Expedition Leader
Russ's and Alignment Specialists are likely the 2 best places in the valley, they both do great work.
Russ' has been highly recommended to me, and used by me a few times now. I was shocked they could get me in so quickly. Montero is going in Wed. and my Volvo next Wed.
And thankfully Russ's is about a mile from my office. I can bring my bike and quick ride back to work...then ride over to pick it up after work.
Edit: Wow, just realized Alignment Specialists is right around the corner from Russ'!
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jeep-N-montero
Expedition Leader
Let me know how it goes, mine has a vibration I'm trying to isolate as well.
Do you have original shocks? I seem to recall you were specing out some Bilstein replacements? I still have originals...well past mileage I'd normally replace, but I love the adjustable aspect...rides like butter on "soft" over rough roads at city speeds . Sadly, because my old tires were getting cupped I think my shocks are a major culprit. Overall the ride is still well controlled on "medium" on the highway and I never use "hard" as it feels too stiff, but I'm concerned that there are smaller scale (low amplitude) movements occurring that feel like vibrations rather than standard "bounciness" of worn shocks.
On the other hand I'm can't completely rule out the end-of-the-day, Friday, tire mount & balance I got at Discount Tire. After the alignment I will be asking them to recheck the tire balance.
Just picked up from Russ' alignment. My shakiness is 90-95% gone. alignment must have been pretty bad. Runs smooth like silk to 65-70 but after that things start getting jiggly. Russ' also leveled my torsion bars out without my asking them to. Not that doing so is much work but I definitely don't mind someone doing it for me. Best $50 I ever spent on an alignment.
I'll probably take the tires back to Discount to see if they can tighten up the balancing of those. I'm sure that completely updating the steering and suspension would improve handling that last 5-10% but I'll probably leave shocks and the rest of the front end alone for now. It is a 15 year old, 180k truck after all. My Passat and XC70 spoil me but the reality is that I probably wont even put 5k miles/year on the Montero. My mechanic checked the front end and didn't recommend replacing anything and Russ' didn't suggest anything either...though they aren't in the business of selling front end work along with alignments like the big chains. Can't say enough good things about that shop.
Oh yeah, one more thing. I filled up the tank before the alignment. Got 17.5 mpgs since my last fill-up after installing the 31" Hankooks. Not bad considering this was all mixed local city/highway/mountain driving. Can't wait to see how the fresh alignment helps things.
Also got to really test the A/C for the first time today (78 and sunny out). Blows nice and cold! Since I bought the truck in Feb. I had to take the previous owner word on the A/C. Happy it works because with an office job and Husky dogs summer in Utah requires A/C.
Also got to really test the A/C for the first time today (78 and sunny out). Blows nice and cold! Since I bought the truck in Feb. I had to take the previous owner word on the A/C. Happy it works because with an office job and Husky dogs summer in Utah requires A/C.
jeep-N-montero
Expedition Leader
Good to hear it, I'll be calling them.
Some updates...Two weekends ago.
Did a quick one weekend trip to do an overnight through hike of The Little Grand Canyon. GF and I both had the weekend free and it's just a couple hours away. My roommate and our 4 collective dogs joined in the fun.
Set the Montero at the end of the hike with the snacks and beer cooler.
Yep, we had 4 dogs, 3 people:
Fewer dogs, more landscape:
Shuttling back to trail head stopped to watch/photo some weather in the distance. But here's the loaded up Montero.
Did a quick one weekend trip to do an overnight through hike of The Little Grand Canyon. GF and I both had the weekend free and it's just a couple hours away. My roommate and our 4 collective dogs joined in the fun.
Set the Montero at the end of the hike with the snacks and beer cooler.
Yep, we had 4 dogs, 3 people:
Fewer dogs, more landscape:
Shuttling back to trail head stopped to watch/photo some weather in the distance. But here's the loaded up Montero.
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So, on this trip is where I realized my aforementioned "vibrations" were not solved by an alignment as I previously suspected. Far from it. Extended driving on the freeway over 65 was maddening. On return I had the tires re-balanced twice. The first time the vibrations abated a bit and were now most noticeable around 75-80. Still not satisfied I went back in for another re-balance, after which the windows started rattling at about 65. I started a whole other thread about this.
I told Discount I would be coming back to address the issue BUT I had some time set aside over the next week to replace my brake pads and rotors...4 corners. The rears were pulsing bad and I figured there was a chance the brakes were dragging a bit so I decided to tackle the brake job before heading back for, yet another, wheel balance.
At the suggestion of a fellow member I checked the runout on all 4 tires when I put the car on stands for the brake work. One tire definitely was dragging irregularly for about 90 degrees of rotation. This is the same tire the shop has some difficulty balancing, so it may be the cause, or another player in my high speed vibration issue. I took some pics to, hopefully, help illustrate:
This is how the "suspect" tire touched the ground for most of it's rotation. Note the scrape marks from the ground.
And this is a shot of the larger area that scraped the ground for about 90 degrees of rotation. The other 3 tires did not have irregular spots like this
When I get my "brake job", which has slowly expanded, done I'll come back to the tire issue. :ylsmoke:
I told Discount I would be coming back to address the issue BUT I had some time set aside over the next week to replace my brake pads and rotors...4 corners. The rears were pulsing bad and I figured there was a chance the brakes were dragging a bit so I decided to tackle the brake job before heading back for, yet another, wheel balance.
At the suggestion of a fellow member I checked the runout on all 4 tires when I put the car on stands for the brake work. One tire definitely was dragging irregularly for about 90 degrees of rotation. This is the same tire the shop has some difficulty balancing, so it may be the cause, or another player in my high speed vibration issue. I took some pics to, hopefully, help illustrate:
This is how the "suspect" tire touched the ground for most of it's rotation. Note the scrape marks from the ground.
And this is a shot of the larger area that scraped the ground for about 90 degrees of rotation. The other 3 tires did not have irregular spots like this
When I get my "brake job", which has slowly expanded, done I'll come back to the tire issue. :ylsmoke:
Here's some information on my "brake job".
My rear sway bar links were toast so I wanted to replace those. I opted to order the fronts at the same time, figured it couldn't hurt and would be an easy swap. Ummm...wrong. Rears were cake, noticed rear sway bar bushes were bad too so I ordered those up.
As for the front end....The lower nuts came undone easy enough but all other components of the hardware on the fronts was completely seized up. Since you can't get a decent wrench on the upper link nut I had to pull the front shock and shock mount. Once I got good breaker bar and socket on that nut the opposing ball just spun in it's socket. I probably could have left it alone because it was VERY tight in it's socket...but I bought the new part, damnit, and I wanted to use it.
So I had to buy a grinder and some cutoff wheels. I've always been able to eventually get my stuff undone with hand tools, this time it seemed there was no choice.
Figured after I cut the upper link from the bar I could spin the lower link off the stud with a vice grips....Nope, that bush was bonded tight! Link just bent
So, I had to cut the link off of the bush and remove as much rubber as possible. Then, I'd be able to grab the inner sleeve with a vise and twist it off...right? Big no, again.
Ultimately had to shave a section of that inner sleeve off before I could twist it off the stud.
My rear sway bar links were toast so I wanted to replace those. I opted to order the fronts at the same time, figured it couldn't hurt and would be an easy swap. Ummm...wrong. Rears were cake, noticed rear sway bar bushes were bad too so I ordered those up.
As for the front end....The lower nuts came undone easy enough but all other components of the hardware on the fronts was completely seized up. Since you can't get a decent wrench on the upper link nut I had to pull the front shock and shock mount. Once I got good breaker bar and socket on that nut the opposing ball just spun in it's socket. I probably could have left it alone because it was VERY tight in it's socket...but I bought the new part, damnit, and I wanted to use it.
So I had to buy a grinder and some cutoff wheels. I've always been able to eventually get my stuff undone with hand tools, this time it seemed there was no choice.
Figured after I cut the upper link from the bar I could spin the lower link off the stud with a vice grips....Nope, that bush was bonded tight! Link just bent
So, I had to cut the link off of the bush and remove as much rubber as possible. Then, I'd be able to grab the inner sleeve with a vise and twist it off...right? Big no, again.
Ultimately had to shave a section of that inner sleeve off before I could twist it off the stud.
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If you're following along you'll recall I mentioned removing the shock to access the sway bar link bolt. Removing the shock was a straight-forward affair. But upon removal I noted the lower bushing was looking pretty beat. Rock-Auto currently has the KYB Gas-a-just on clearance and KYB is offering a $40 rebate on the purchase of 4 shocks. It seemed the prudent thing, given my shocks are likely originals, was to order a set of 4 shocks...add that to the list.
Pulled all 4 brake calipers, front guide pins had basically zero grease. add new guide pins and boot kits for all 4 wheels. That way I know the brakes are good and proper all around.
Also, while poking around down there I noticed the inner boots on both my CVs were starting to crack apart...add inner CV boot kits to the list.
Oh, hell, since I'm pulling the joint anyway. May as well do outer boots too, though it appears those were done relatively recently. At any rate...add outer CV boot kits to the list.
So, now I'm pulling CV joints. Of course that means pulling the whole hub spindle. Upper and lower ball joints came out relatively easy after some proper whacking with a 3lb hammer. Upper ball joints in pretty good shape, must have been replaced along with outer CV joint. Lower ball joint...hmmm, both are tight but driver's side wont take grease, and feels dry. Grease fitting is not the problem, it moves grease? Alright, I'm here...add lower ball joints to the list.
I think that pretty much covers it for now. Should have all parts here by the end of the day and I've got everything disassembled except for cutting out the lower sway bar link on the passenger side and pulling that CV joint.
Then I'll move on rebuilding the CVs and reassembling everything. Been working on the rig about 2 hours each night, so the project is slow, but progressing. Now you know why I call it my "brake job"
This is how she sits at the moment. You'll notice I keep a very clean work space
Will be cleaned up before I deal with regreasing and reassembling it all!
Pulled all 4 brake calipers, front guide pins had basically zero grease. add new guide pins and boot kits for all 4 wheels. That way I know the brakes are good and proper all around.
Also, while poking around down there I noticed the inner boots on both my CVs were starting to crack apart...add inner CV boot kits to the list.
Oh, hell, since I'm pulling the joint anyway. May as well do outer boots too, though it appears those were done relatively recently. At any rate...add outer CV boot kits to the list.
So, now I'm pulling CV joints. Of course that means pulling the whole hub spindle. Upper and lower ball joints came out relatively easy after some proper whacking with a 3lb hammer. Upper ball joints in pretty good shape, must have been replaced along with outer CV joint. Lower ball joint...hmmm, both are tight but driver's side wont take grease, and feels dry. Grease fitting is not the problem, it moves grease? Alright, I'm here...add lower ball joints to the list.
I think that pretty much covers it for now. Should have all parts here by the end of the day and I've got everything disassembled except for cutting out the lower sway bar link on the passenger side and pulling that CV joint.
Then I'll move on rebuilding the CVs and reassembling everything. Been working on the rig about 2 hours each night, so the project is slow, but progressing. Now you know why I call it my "brake job"
This is how she sits at the moment. You'll notice I keep a very clean work space
Will be cleaned up before I deal with regreasing and reassembling it all!