Pitchblack Rally Recce Raider Build
- Thread starter irish44j
- Start date
irish44j
Well-known member
Ah, good thinking there! Since the only "Don" I know is my great-uncle, who lives on an old farm, I was picturing it being driven by an old country doctor with a big belly in a flannel shirt, lol. Maybe because I watched Doc Hollywood a few weeks ago, where this guy is the local doc. His name could be "Don" in cursive script and he could drive a Raider
irish44j
Well-known member
This morning after running out to get some wheels for the e30, I made some templates for mudflaps, to use once my "material" arrives. I used the stock ones as a template, but made them a couple inches longer and wider to cover for the larger tires. I know guys who wheel don't tend to put mudflaps on since they just get in the way, but as this truck will be used on stage roads and stuff, people get pissed if you're firing gravel at them. Fun fact: actual rally cars are required to have mudflaps.
So a few days back I found a couple of the ebay LED mini-floods I use on the sequoia's roof and for backup illumination. Did a test-fit and wiring but didn't really like how they looked on the Raider.
So back to ebay and some cheap flush-mount LEDs that arrived today. I know they're not all that good, but this is just for reverse illumination so they just need to light stuff up
So after some measuring, I drew my templates and cut the hole for the left one:
And, you can probably see my issue right there. I thought that support was a bit farther over, so it hits the back of the light. GRR. Usually I'm more careful than that, I think I got distracted by something else. So, with the hole already cut, had to improvise, and that meant taking the cut-off wheel to two of the heatsink "fins" on the back of the light to make it clear correctly. I didn't take a photo of it, since I was pretty annoyed at myself. In any case, once that was done it fit fine - but that was a nice way to make an easy job more difficult.
(yes, I painted the bolt heads black)
Lights stuff up pretty well, and that's only one of them.
Soo....unfortunately since I want them even, I'm gonna have to do the same thing on the other side tomorrow....and yes, right above the exhaust, but that's getting routed a bit differently at some point when I get around to it.
What else? Ah so that old Jensen amp I found from 25 years ago blew out/stopped working pretty fast, unsurprisingly. I was amazed it worked in the first place. Since I do want to use the bazooka tube but don't really need anything excessive, just picked up another cheap Jensen amp off amazon for like $30. Hooked it up, works fine. If it dies in a year, it's $30.....
So a few days back I found a couple of the ebay LED mini-floods I use on the sequoia's roof and for backup illumination. Did a test-fit and wiring but didn't really like how they looked on the Raider.
So back to ebay and some cheap flush-mount LEDs that arrived today. I know they're not all that good, but this is just for reverse illumination so they just need to light stuff up
So after some measuring, I drew my templates and cut the hole for the left one:
And, you can probably see my issue right there. I thought that support was a bit farther over, so it hits the back of the light. GRR. Usually I'm more careful than that, I think I got distracted by something else. So, with the hole already cut, had to improvise, and that meant taking the cut-off wheel to two of the heatsink "fins" on the back of the light to make it clear correctly. I didn't take a photo of it, since I was pretty annoyed at myself. In any case, once that was done it fit fine - but that was a nice way to make an easy job more difficult.
(yes, I painted the bolt heads black)
Lights stuff up pretty well, and that's only one of them.
Soo....unfortunately since I want them even, I'm gonna have to do the same thing on the other side tomorrow....and yes, right above the exhaust, but that's getting routed a bit differently at some point when I get around to it.
What else? Ah so that old Jensen amp I found from 25 years ago blew out/stopped working pretty fast, unsurprisingly. I was amazed it worked in the first place. Since I do want to use the bazooka tube but don't really need anything excessive, just picked up another cheap Jensen amp off amazon for like $30. Hooked it up, works fine. If it dies in a year, it's $30.....
Those flood lights will work great, just if you are going to drive during light rain to full on storm use silicone to seal the glass around the edges, the back little vent hole(?) And the around the wires going into the light. After that those lights should last you a while...ask me how I know lol
irish44j
Well-known member
yeah, I got you. all the LEDs on the Sequioa are the same ebay stuff. The six at the rear/on the rack have been good so far, but the big curved 40" bar on the front of the rack has definitely gotten a bit of water inside and needs to be resealed. I did the wire pass-throughs on these but didn't realize that hole actually went into the body of the light, will have to look again.
--
In brief administrative news, Virginia DMV is now open for appointment-only transactions for things you can't do online. One thing you can't do online is get an initial registration for your car (don't ask me why, since I already have the title in my name...). So I jumped online today and made an appointment for June 10th to go get some plates for this thing so i can test drive it farther than the end of my cul-de-sac. So, that will be helpful.
Back to "in the meantime" projects. Though I don't yet have the A/C set up, I did test the auxiliary electric fan that comes on with it, and it was dead. So I ordered up one of the Summit Racing fans (well, some company, IDK, looks like a SPAL without the logo...). Got that installed after fabbing up some brackets out of some steel strips left over from a long-ago project. It's suppsed to be a dual-direction fan (i.e. just flip the blades and polarity to get it to be a pusher) but when flipped the blades made light contact with the "cage" section, which was annoyhing. I spaced out the hub with a small washer and shaved a bit of plastic with the dremel and now it clears fine in the pusher configuration.
I also wired an override switch into the factory harness pre-relay so I can turn it on if idling for a long time or slow-speed wheeling even with the A/C off. It's also wired to its own coolant temp switch so should come on if the engine temps get too high (to help out the main fan), but frankly I just don't like to have to trust thermostatic systems entirely, and an override gives some peace of mind (both the Porsche and the rally car have overrides for their electric main cooling fans as well).
Oddly, my HVAC blower fan doesn't seem to be working now - not sure if that is related to this or just coincidence (not sure how it could be related, but who knows....)
I also got in my material for mudflaps. Same stuff I get for the rally car - I get them from etrailer - they're 3/16" polymer and made for big trucks (like duallies or other large tow rigs), and I've found them to really hold up well on the rally car with enough flexibility to not get caught up on things. Plus they have a textured surface so they look a bit better than just buying sheet HDPE or UHMW. Anyhow, For about 23 bucks you can get a pack of two of them, which are more than big enough to cut a full set of SUV-size mudflaps out of (I can cut three off each sheet for the rally car).
As I noted before, I used the OEM flaps as templactes but made them a bit wider and longer for the larger tires.
Also, this material cuts really, really clean compared to some other similar materials.
Since they are not really quite black, but more a dark gray, I coated all of them with a thin coat of bedliner I had left over just to make them look a bit better. Will be interesting to see if it holds up.
--
In brief administrative news, Virginia DMV is now open for appointment-only transactions for things you can't do online. One thing you can't do online is get an initial registration for your car (don't ask me why, since I already have the title in my name...). So I jumped online today and made an appointment for June 10th to go get some plates for this thing so i can test drive it farther than the end of my cul-de-sac. So, that will be helpful.
Back to "in the meantime" projects. Though I don't yet have the A/C set up, I did test the auxiliary electric fan that comes on with it, and it was dead. So I ordered up one of the Summit Racing fans (well, some company, IDK, looks like a SPAL without the logo...). Got that installed after fabbing up some brackets out of some steel strips left over from a long-ago project. It's suppsed to be a dual-direction fan (i.e. just flip the blades and polarity to get it to be a pusher) but when flipped the blades made light contact with the "cage" section, which was annoyhing. I spaced out the hub with a small washer and shaved a bit of plastic with the dremel and now it clears fine in the pusher configuration.
I also wired an override switch into the factory harness pre-relay so I can turn it on if idling for a long time or slow-speed wheeling even with the A/C off. It's also wired to its own coolant temp switch so should come on if the engine temps get too high (to help out the main fan), but frankly I just don't like to have to trust thermostatic systems entirely, and an override gives some peace of mind (both the Porsche and the rally car have overrides for their electric main cooling fans as well).
Oddly, my HVAC blower fan doesn't seem to be working now - not sure if that is related to this or just coincidence (not sure how it could be related, but who knows....)
I also got in my material for mudflaps. Same stuff I get for the rally car - I get them from etrailer - they're 3/16" polymer and made for big trucks (like duallies or other large tow rigs), and I've found them to really hold up well on the rally car with enough flexibility to not get caught up on things. Plus they have a textured surface so they look a bit better than just buying sheet HDPE or UHMW. Anyhow, For about 23 bucks you can get a pack of two of them, which are more than big enough to cut a full set of SUV-size mudflaps out of (I can cut three off each sheet for the rally car).
As I noted before, I used the OEM flaps as templactes but made them a bit wider and longer for the larger tires.
Also, this material cuts really, really clean compared to some other similar materials.
Since they are not really quite black, but more a dark gray, I coated all of them with a thin coat of bedliner I had left over just to make them look a bit better. Will be interesting to see if it holds up.
irish44j
Well-known member
Did some little stuff over the last couple days. First, wanted to check the fuel gauge sender, since even though I have 2-3 gallons in there (I think) it's still showing "E" - so I tested the wiring and the sender manually and the gauge and sender work fine. I guess it's just not enough fuel to make it get up out of E. So that's a good thing. Also found I hadn't bolted the sended down tight previously, which is likely why I was getting occasional whiffs of fuel smell.
So after that, i went to turn on the car to check for any fuel leaks and.....no start. Again. The last few times this happened it would either start fine again later, or after I jigged the wiring to the ECU. Figured maybe the wiring is old and maybe has some bad contacts on the plugs. So I did that again and nothing. Then I swapped to my other ECU. nothing. Getting fuel, just no spark. Confirmed voltage to the distributor plug from the chassis side. was expecting that it must be the optical sensor on the dizzy (though not even sure this '89 has that). Then I noticed no tach bounce when cranking. So I checked the small part (I forget what it's called) that sends signal to the tach (and the DME). It attaches next to the coil (which is new). Pulled the plug and hmm....the pins had a lot of green corrosion on them. Thought I had cleaned all the plugs previously, but guess I missed this one. Anyhow, got some sandpaper and cleaned the pins on both sides and put some dielectric grease on it. plugged it back in not thinking that this could be the issue, but it was.....truck fired right up, much faster than it has been doing previously. So....one less thing to worry about.
With that settled, back to small stuff (as well as home projects)
First, i like to put up a vinyl strip on the windshield of my older cars, which have lousy sun visors and tend to have really big winshields in the first place. So i cut a strip of black (gloss) vinyl and applied.
Then, just for the hell of it, I used the last of my matte black vinyl to cut out our rally team logo to put over the top. Doesn't show up too obviously, except in bright light...
While I had the cutter out, also cut one of our logo stickers for the back
Also, so I took of the "RAM" badges on the front fenders previously - they're kind of ugly, and just look goofy there. Unfortunatley, they took up some of the paint below so I did a quick overpaint with some rattle-can just to turn it black again - but didn't match it very well. So just to kind of "cover" that I cut out a design our rally sponsor uses, except using some copper-colored vinyl I got for a different project. Looks ok i guess...better than a non-matching black square...
in truth, I may get rid of the side Raider badges....I just don't really love how they look. We'll see.
So after that, i went to turn on the car to check for any fuel leaks and.....no start. Again. The last few times this happened it would either start fine again later, or after I jigged the wiring to the ECU. Figured maybe the wiring is old and maybe has some bad contacts on the plugs. So I did that again and nothing. Then I swapped to my other ECU. nothing. Getting fuel, just no spark. Confirmed voltage to the distributor plug from the chassis side. was expecting that it must be the optical sensor on the dizzy (though not even sure this '89 has that). Then I noticed no tach bounce when cranking. So I checked the small part (I forget what it's called) that sends signal to the tach (and the DME). It attaches next to the coil (which is new). Pulled the plug and hmm....the pins had a lot of green corrosion on them. Thought I had cleaned all the plugs previously, but guess I missed this one. Anyhow, got some sandpaper and cleaned the pins on both sides and put some dielectric grease on it. plugged it back in not thinking that this could be the issue, but it was.....truck fired right up, much faster than it has been doing previously. So....one less thing to worry about.
With that settled, back to small stuff (as well as home projects)
First, i like to put up a vinyl strip on the windshield of my older cars, which have lousy sun visors and tend to have really big winshields in the first place. So i cut a strip of black (gloss) vinyl and applied.
Then, just for the hell of it, I used the last of my matte black vinyl to cut out our rally team logo to put over the top. Doesn't show up too obviously, except in bright light...
While I had the cutter out, also cut one of our logo stickers for the back
Also, so I took of the "RAM" badges on the front fenders previously - they're kind of ugly, and just look goofy there. Unfortunatley, they took up some of the paint below so I did a quick overpaint with some rattle-can just to turn it black again - but didn't match it very well. So just to kind of "cover" that I cut out a design our rally sponsor uses, except using some copper-colored vinyl I got for a different project. Looks ok i guess...better than a non-matching black square...
in truth, I may get rid of the side Raider badges....I just don't really love how they look. We'll see.
irish44j
Well-known member
Well, thanks to COVID, DMV just recently finally opened, by appointment only. If you make an appointment today, the soonest you can get it for is mid-July. Luckily, I made mine three weeks ago
So at 3:45, right when i was scheduled, I walked into DMV and walked out 10 minutes later with some temporary tags (I ordered personalized plates, so those will take a few weeks to get here). Best DMV visit I've ever had, they should do appointment-only all the time
So, got home, threw the tags on , and the girls took me for the first drive in the Raider.
Kidding of course. Nope, but I jumped in an headed a mile up to the gas station since as noted, the gauge was showing empty (happy to report, it works fine and now it shows full after about 17 gallons....).
So, a few thoughts after putting a few miles on it:
- 1 make sure you windshield wiper tabs are engaged. I used the washer and watched one of my blades fly off in my neighborhood (stopped and got it). So that was pretty funny.
- Loud clunk from the right rear turned out to be that I put the hitch in the little side compartment where the jack goes. Oops.
- Brakes work ok, but are pertty mediocre. Since it's all new stuff I have to assume it's just a combination of sucky front pads and sucky rear shoes. I'll likely upgrade both to something more performance-oriented to get better bite.
- The rear end starting from a stop has some "lumpiness" to it. I'm not sure if it's just the brand-new A/T tires and I'm just feeling the sharp lugs gripping on their own, or if the LSD isn't "slipping" as much as it should. May add some LSD modifier, though I'm already using LSD gear oil.
- Steering is pretty dead on-center, but that was expected. It's actually not too terrible.
- The seats are a bit higher than I'd like. Still plenty of headroom but I feel like I'm on a booster seat. Then again, I'm used to sitting low in small cars. Not sure if there's any real way to make them lower anyhow without losing the trucker bases. The windshield sunshield/banner made it hard to see stoplights when i was sitting at them, so may have to reduce the size of the banner at least.
- Engine feels and sounds good, and pulls as strong as a 160hp Mitsubishi V6 should. Shifting is fine and fairly smooth, but long throws and long travel on the clutch. No speed shifting, that's for sure. I think I want a taller shifter/knob so I don't have to reach as much. Downshift into 2nd gear is still pretty difficult. It doesn't grind at all, just takes a conscious effort to kind of jam it in there, even when rev-matching - so not sure what the solution is there, other than get used to it and realize that 3rd is generally fine to go through slow turns anyhow. Otherwise, everything feels fairly smooth.
- Definitely have to get used to the funky motions of this suspension and the short wheelbase, even on the smooth roads around here. The front end feels like it could use some additional spring rate, honestly. Will look into uprated torsion bars at some point. But, it corners well and is way less tippy than I thought it would be. Really surprisingly little body lean with swaybars and fresh bushings/endlinks.
- I heard a couple little noises here and there under the car, but on a short drive it was tough to tell what they were. Could have just been a rock flipping up underneath. Could be bushings seating themselves, will need to do a longer drive and try to duplicate.
- Got some annoying wind noise anywhere over about 30mph but I'm almost certain it's the vent "smoker windows" just not sealing well. I'll lube up the seals a bit so they close more flush and I think that will take care of that.
- All the electrics and lights and gauges, worked fine. So happy about that.
- Smelled a bit gassy - I figured out the tank drain was not totally tight and had a slow drip. Also the smell of burning paint off the exhaust, so that should go away after a couple good drives.
Overall, it's going to take some getting used to as someone who usually drives very precise, sporty cars (GTI, Porsche, BMW racecar), but I already like it way better than i ever liked my XJ Cherokee.
So at 3:45, right when i was scheduled, I walked into DMV and walked out 10 minutes later with some temporary tags (I ordered personalized plates, so those will take a few weeks to get here). Best DMV visit I've ever had, they should do appointment-only all the time
So, got home, threw the tags on , and the girls took me for the first drive in the Raider.
Kidding of course. Nope, but I jumped in an headed a mile up to the gas station since as noted, the gauge was showing empty (happy to report, it works fine and now it shows full after about 17 gallons....).
So, a few thoughts after putting a few miles on it:
- 1 make sure you windshield wiper tabs are engaged. I used the washer and watched one of my blades fly off in my neighborhood (stopped and got it). So that was pretty funny.
- Loud clunk from the right rear turned out to be that I put the hitch in the little side compartment where the jack goes. Oops.
- Brakes work ok, but are pertty mediocre. Since it's all new stuff I have to assume it's just a combination of sucky front pads and sucky rear shoes. I'll likely upgrade both to something more performance-oriented to get better bite.
- The rear end starting from a stop has some "lumpiness" to it. I'm not sure if it's just the brand-new A/T tires and I'm just feeling the sharp lugs gripping on their own, or if the LSD isn't "slipping" as much as it should. May add some LSD modifier, though I'm already using LSD gear oil.
- Steering is pretty dead on-center, but that was expected. It's actually not too terrible.
- The seats are a bit higher than I'd like. Still plenty of headroom but I feel like I'm on a booster seat. Then again, I'm used to sitting low in small cars. Not sure if there's any real way to make them lower anyhow without losing the trucker bases. The windshield sunshield/banner made it hard to see stoplights when i was sitting at them, so may have to reduce the size of the banner at least.
- Engine feels and sounds good, and pulls as strong as a 160hp Mitsubishi V6 should. Shifting is fine and fairly smooth, but long throws and long travel on the clutch. No speed shifting, that's for sure. I think I want a taller shifter/knob so I don't have to reach as much. Downshift into 2nd gear is still pretty difficult. It doesn't grind at all, just takes a conscious effort to kind of jam it in there, even when rev-matching - so not sure what the solution is there, other than get used to it and realize that 3rd is generally fine to go through slow turns anyhow. Otherwise, everything feels fairly smooth.
- Definitely have to get used to the funky motions of this suspension and the short wheelbase, even on the smooth roads around here. The front end feels like it could use some additional spring rate, honestly. Will look into uprated torsion bars at some point. But, it corners well and is way less tippy than I thought it would be. Really surprisingly little body lean with swaybars and fresh bushings/endlinks.
- I heard a couple little noises here and there under the car, but on a short drive it was tough to tell what they were. Could have just been a rock flipping up underneath. Could be bushings seating themselves, will need to do a longer drive and try to duplicate.
- Got some annoying wind noise anywhere over about 30mph but I'm almost certain it's the vent "smoker windows" just not sealing well. I'll lube up the seals a bit so they close more flush and I think that will take care of that.
- All the electrics and lights and gauges, worked fine. So happy about that.
- Smelled a bit gassy - I figured out the tank drain was not totally tight and had a slow drip. Also the smell of burning paint off the exhaust, so that should go away after a couple good drives.
Overall, it's going to take some getting used to as someone who usually drives very precise, sporty cars (GTI, Porsche, BMW racecar), but I already like it way better than i ever liked my XJ Cherokee.
Great stuff! I'm jealous! I really need to find myself back into a gen 1 again.
Brakes weren't great on my gen 1 either, even after good pads and shoes. I didn't get around to it, but maybe look into using gen 2 brake parts. It's a pretty easy swap and documented pretty well on the wire iirc.
I don't remember lumpiness when starting off in my old gen 1, but I did feel it in tight slowspeed corners. In my experience the factory LSD is pretty tight.
Gen 1 drives pretty boaty for sure! I added 1" spacers all around and it helped tremendously with stability during cornering. Still floaty, but much more stable. Gen 2 rear springs (and maybe the torsion bars as well?? I can't remember if that was LWB only thing) are a cheap upgrade in spring rate and ride height too.
Seems like you're getting this thing pretty dialed! I'm excited to hear more about it now that it's on the road!
Brakes weren't great on my gen 1 either, even after good pads and shoes. I didn't get around to it, but maybe look into using gen 2 brake parts. It's a pretty easy swap and documented pretty well on the wire iirc.
I don't remember lumpiness when starting off in my old gen 1, but I did feel it in tight slowspeed corners. In my experience the factory LSD is pretty tight.
Gen 1 drives pretty boaty for sure! I added 1" spacers all around and it helped tremendously with stability during cornering. Still floaty, but much more stable. Gen 2 rear springs (and maybe the torsion bars as well?? I can't remember if that was LWB only thing) are a cheap upgrade in spring rate and ride height too.
Seems like you're getting this thing pretty dialed! I'm excited to hear more about it now that it's on the road!
irish44j
Well-known member
Yeah a Gen 2 rear axle and brakes is in the eventual plans, but it is nearly impossible to find a Montero that old in the Pick-n-Pull yards around here these days. So basically I'm just going to have to wait till one pops up luckily lol. as to the springs and stuff I actually don't want to lift it since my goals really are not oriented toward things where I need more clearance, so it just as well prefer to keep the center of gravity as low as possible
irish44j
Well-known member
Today I attempted to tint the rear windows. I mean, they're big square, mostly flat windows, shoud be pretty easy.
Guess how many windows currently have tint on them?
None.
Guess how much of my tint roll is gone?
About half of it.
This is not my first attempt at tinting windows. The Sequoia ones came out reasonably fine. I'm really good at applying vinyl as well. Window tint I just can't do well for some reason. But in general I refuse to have someone else do work on my project cars for pretty much any reason (the GTI is my DD, and I had a pro tint it since I am in it every day and wanted it to be perfect). So, will give it another go once my annoyance goes down in a few days lol...
Guess how many windows currently have tint on them?
None.
Guess how much of my tint roll is gone?
About half of it.
This is not my first attempt at tinting windows. The Sequoia ones came out reasonably fine. I'm really good at applying vinyl as well. Window tint I just can't do well for some reason. But in general I refuse to have someone else do work on my project cars for pretty much any reason (the GTI is my DD, and I had a pro tint it since I am in it every day and wanted it to be perfect). So, will give it another go once my annoyance goes down in a few days lol...
irish44j
Well-known member
So, a few little things:
Went for another test drive to specifically track down a few things and get an idea of what I want to do, and three things post-drive:
First - when driving at higher speeds in particular, the front end felt surprisingly "bouncy" - though that's not exactly the right word. Less bouncy and almost more like a subtle little "hop" of sorts from the front end. After thinking about what could cause that, I got under the front of the truck and saw exactly what i suspected: When I cranked the torsion bars up to raise the front, I got them high enough that the down-travel bump stop was actually touching its base with the vehicle just sitting there static. So basically, when the road dipped or something, the front suspension wasn't traveling downward at all, just kind of "hopping" over the indentation - a very strange feeling. These trucks already have very little droop travel in stock form, so you can't really crank the torsion bars up too far (to get a lift, you need to get higher-tension torsion bars). With the gas tank full and more weight in the back the front was actually sitting higher than the rear anyhow, so I cranked the bars down to get the bumpstop clearance close to the FSM specifications, which lowered the front end about an inch or so.
Anyhow, took it for another drive and massive improvement. The truck is actually really smooth now and even at 60+mph on the nearby parkway there was literally no vibration, shimmy, or strangeness. I honestly think it rides better than the new 2-door Jeep Wrangler I drove last year for a few days as a loaner (which isn't saying much, since I hated that thing, but still, it was a brand-new vehicle). It also handles the corners better, since the bumpstop was preventing the inside suspension from drooping and loading up the outside more.
Second, I've found that my seat setup is too tilted "forward." I mean the angle of the seat base is too low at the front and basically wasn't giving any thigh support at all, and felt like I was gonna fall off the front. (I'm used to a Porsche, a BMW with OMP race seats, and my GTI - all of which have seats that have a much lower rear than front). Anyhow, I put about 1/2" of spacers under the front bolts of the base (1/4" under the middle bolts, and none in the rear) to change the ramp angle, and that seems to have done the trick - feels much better now.
Hard to see with the carpet there, but it is 1/2" higher, or a bit more.
Third, did a quick check-over all my suspension bolts. Everything felt fine when driving, but I like to check stuff after I've put a few miles on a new build, and re-torque all the nuts and bolts. Looks like I forgot to torque the rear lower nuts on the lower control arms up front - not a big deal since the torsion bar holds them on anyhow so they can't go anywhere. The LCA nuts had been left loose during the initial build so I could tighten them with full engine weight on the suspension so as not to tear the rubber bushings with the wrong preload). I torqued the front pair, but apparently just forgot to do the rears. So, those are done now.
In addition, since I filled the tank I'm getting a gas smell after driving. Figured it was the pump assembly gasket leaking so I sealed that up, and then discovered that it wasn't that - it was a pinhole leak someplace in the pipe that I repaired/replaced (if you remember that a while back). Wasn't an issue until I topped off the tank. So, will have to pull the assembly back out and clean it up and put another bead of weld down, which is annoying. Though on second thought, I'll probably just use some JB tank repair putty, since it's just one or two very small holes at the top that don't need to hold much pressure. That should hopefully do the trick.
Went for another test drive to specifically track down a few things and get an idea of what I want to do, and three things post-drive:
First - when driving at higher speeds in particular, the front end felt surprisingly "bouncy" - though that's not exactly the right word. Less bouncy and almost more like a subtle little "hop" of sorts from the front end. After thinking about what could cause that, I got under the front of the truck and saw exactly what i suspected: When I cranked the torsion bars up to raise the front, I got them high enough that the down-travel bump stop was actually touching its base with the vehicle just sitting there static. So basically, when the road dipped or something, the front suspension wasn't traveling downward at all, just kind of "hopping" over the indentation - a very strange feeling. These trucks already have very little droop travel in stock form, so you can't really crank the torsion bars up too far (to get a lift, you need to get higher-tension torsion bars). With the gas tank full and more weight in the back the front was actually sitting higher than the rear anyhow, so I cranked the bars down to get the bumpstop clearance close to the FSM specifications, which lowered the front end about an inch or so.
Anyhow, took it for another drive and massive improvement. The truck is actually really smooth now and even at 60+mph on the nearby parkway there was literally no vibration, shimmy, or strangeness. I honestly think it rides better than the new 2-door Jeep Wrangler I drove last year for a few days as a loaner (which isn't saying much, since I hated that thing, but still, it was a brand-new vehicle). It also handles the corners better, since the bumpstop was preventing the inside suspension from drooping and loading up the outside more.
Second, I've found that my seat setup is too tilted "forward." I mean the angle of the seat base is too low at the front and basically wasn't giving any thigh support at all, and felt like I was gonna fall off the front. (I'm used to a Porsche, a BMW with OMP race seats, and my GTI - all of which have seats that have a much lower rear than front). Anyhow, I put about 1/2" of spacers under the front bolts of the base (1/4" under the middle bolts, and none in the rear) to change the ramp angle, and that seems to have done the trick - feels much better now.
Hard to see with the carpet there, but it is 1/2" higher, or a bit more.
Third, did a quick check-over all my suspension bolts. Everything felt fine when driving, but I like to check stuff after I've put a few miles on a new build, and re-torque all the nuts and bolts. Looks like I forgot to torque the rear lower nuts on the lower control arms up front - not a big deal since the torsion bar holds them on anyhow so they can't go anywhere. The LCA nuts had been left loose during the initial build so I could tighten them with full engine weight on the suspension so as not to tear the rubber bushings with the wrong preload). I torqued the front pair, but apparently just forgot to do the rears. So, those are done now.
In addition, since I filled the tank I'm getting a gas smell after driving. Figured it was the pump assembly gasket leaking so I sealed that up, and then discovered that it wasn't that - it was a pinhole leak someplace in the pipe that I repaired/replaced (if you remember that a while back). Wasn't an issue until I topped off the tank. So, will have to pull the assembly back out and clean it up and put another bead of weld down, which is annoying. Though on second thought, I'll probably just use some JB tank repair putty, since it's just one or two very small holes at the top that don't need to hold much pressure. That should hopefully do the trick.
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irish44j
Well-known member
If it was $100 here, I'd definitely have someone else do it. My GTi was closer to $300 last year and even a guy I race with who owns a tint place was talking $250 or so. For those prices, I can ruin a couple rolls while learning to do it myself and still save $200 lol.