The 1300 dollar fixer upper surprise project

[Whuntmore]

I love that steering wheel.  where did ya get that??

[tougeagle]

Your welcome , It's allways that break that comes your way or the chance to go after it,that pays off.When I was younger,like 25,I was pumping gas, washing windows and checking oil, turning an occasional wrench.A steady customer , who I guess noticed my work ethic and determination to do it right even with the most menial jobs , scribbled an adress on an envelope and told me I should go down and put my name on the list at the hall,and asked if I knew anything about sheetmetal.I did not, but he said go anyways. Two months later I was starting my union apprenticeship,only to learn he was on the comittee,and had got me up near the top of the list.I still am thankfull 27 years later for that break. ( sorry all, I know this is a weee bit off topic)

That's one heck of a job hookup

[tougeagle]

Now that the conversion writup has been completed and posted and the new trans is in place, it's time to figure out where to go with her.

Rotated tires today and inspected the rear drums/shoes for the first time since the (second) axle swap. Drums are in good condition and the shoes have pad left, but they're cracked. The fronts have TONS of miles left on them, so I may just pick up some ceramics for the rears for now.

I've got a few little bugs to figure out in the mean time..
I think I've ridded the driveline of most of the vibration, I haven't had it to the speed it's worst at, yet, since rotating the tires, so we'll see on this one. If it's still present, it's the warped steel wheels, and it would be noticible in the steering now since the wheels are on the front...

The engine vibration is pretty intense, but I think much of that is due to the PU bushings on my fabbed trans mount. Though she's still running pretty lean on E85, and just inside the safe zone on gas, so I've got my eye on the Bosch 044 fuel pump, twice the flow rate .

The rear end hops and binds a bit, I'm not sure why. The diff and transfer case are in excellent shape. It's full time awd, but that would normally cause hopping up front, and it doesn't hop up front. It's probably the double slip drive shaft deal I've got going on, I need to find a Comanche driveshaft or an SYE kit, though I don't feel like cutting the shaft for the only kit on the market for it.

Alignment needs to happen soon as well, before I wear my tires out prematurely. They've got very good deep tread on them but they're sensitive to things being out of spec, the siping is gone on two of them in the middle, though they both were inflated properly.

Cv shafts will need done eventually as well. The parts car shaft on the driver's side has held up well, but now of course the passenger side is starting to make noise at full lock >_<. I may switch the front axles out at that point, the non-disconnect axle behind the driver's seat would seem to be stronger because the passenger side axle shaft is whole, and not held in line by coarse gears and a collar, which allows for some axle play.

The one mostly free thing I can do in the mean time is patch up the exhaust. When it was separated, my friend and I didn't feel like regasketting it or even scraping the surfaces, since it was behind the primary cat, and there are holes that have been present since initial fabrication. This noticibly dropped the available low end torque I had, and the engine seems to run a bit leaner as well. I have two jars of exhaust clay, and just need to get two gaskets and a metal plate (street hookup flanges) to go between the two.

[tougeagle]

Got a few things taken care of since the last post, finally....
For some reason, the driveline isn't binding up at full lock anymore, not exactly sure why, but hey, as long as it works
Installed the two front speakers from my dad's 95 Bronco ( I had replaced them with aftermarkets before he sold it), so now I have decent quality sound again Pics coming soon.

Finally figured out how to modify the ax15 shifter so I wouldn't have to overextend to shift to fifth. You can see the new (old) speaker in the background


replaced the steering damper after she developed a very bad deathwobble, it was the original damper with over 136,000 miles on it. The guys at the shop said it was doing nothign more than holding everything in place.

I also picked up some new wheels



Though, I will never go to Peerless tire ever, ever again. The poor balancing job is just the tip of the iceberg of things they screwed up...

Next week, I'm FINALLY getting my 044 fuel pump, and may get a new crank damper as well, it's in dire need of one. Still haven't hooked the power steering back up, but for the time being, I like it the way it is anyway. Too twitchy on the highway with power steering, the ratio is pretty close for a car that sits that tall stock.

I can't wait to get that fuel pump on. She hauls pretty good as it is, but that pump will ensure that I am constantly resisting the temptation that leads to tickets

Plans in the near future aside from those mentioned include:
Replace primary cat, and secondary if needed, after replacing fuel pump. Running lean took its toll, and magnaflow cats are not exactly quality craftsmanship, she no longer passes the emissions trace test (sniffer)
Take her to meineke and have someone weld up the leaks (since I pawned my welder off)
Replace CV joints as soon as possible
Rebalance and road force tires (discount tire only plz, k?)
Replace rear brake shoes, if parking brake does not function properly, tighten cable
Replace seatbelts with properly tensioning ones, or find child car seat belt bracket
Replace cracked fuel tank vent hose
Investigate/repair fuel gauge sending unit
Electric fan conversion
Repair front end damage

Somewhat distant future:
Have pb hood professionally painted, install
replace front coils
replace all front end bushings (fsb aside, already has pu) including strut rods with poly bushings, replace tie rod ends, replace all shocks. This will require me to have a few days off while the shop does this, since I don't have a press or a garage.
Poly RSB bushings
Machine flywheel if engine vibration continues
190 amp alternator conversion

Distant future (late next year):
Replace head gasket with multilayer metal
replace first gen HO intake manny with second gen EL manny
Replace dizzy with cam sensor and COPI
Replace 4.0 cam with 280 deg comp cam, roller lifters and roller rockers, will be done at same time as head/intake removal
chainless timing set

[tougeagle]

I love that steering wheel.  where did ya get that??

ebay

[68AMXGOPAC]

Good deal man.It looks real sweet and shines up well.Glad you have been so persistant in keeping this beast going along.I am guilty of pushing mine aside and driving something else I have,but with 3 of 4 cars down now, I may be forced to dig into the wagon or the SX/4 and get them going again.

[tougeagle]

Good deal man.It looks real sweet and shines up well.Glad you have been so persistant in keeping this beast going along.I am guilty of pushing mine aside and driving something else I have,but with 3 of 4 cars down now, I may be forced to dig into the wagon or the SX/4 and get them going again.

It's my only vehicle, so I don't really have a choice as to whether or not I can be persistent I am definitely one of those people that believes in replacing things as they break, when I can afford to, instead of waiting until it starts breaking other things.

[tougeagle]

Been a while since I've updated... I installed a tach a while back, along with my bosch pump. The pump is extremely noisy, and I'm not quite sure why. It only does it once the fuel system is fully pressurized, and quiets down as the revs increase. I will most likely find another one, or a quieter pump. The crank damper has been retapped to accept slightly larger bolts, and it did nothing to ease the engine vibration, so I'm pretty convinced it's the clutch/pressureplate. There were no balancing pins installed in the pressureplate, and I've heard stories of engine vibration popping up after installing a cheap clutch, which mine is. As such, I'll be replacing it with a Luk clutch. I also just recently came across a working sending unit for 25 bucks from a local yard, so I now have a working gas gauge for the first time since owning the car . I also installed new strut rod bushings on both sides, and definitely need to get an alignment. I restored power steering, though I don't quite know how long that will last before the belt rolls over and flies off again...I am going to replace the cherrybomb with a universal muffler, I decided I want a quieter ride, and though it will increase backpressure, it will also increase low end power so I can't complain. Also been working on fitting a fullsize spare in the back cleanly with removal of the cargo tray, pics of the finished product will be in that thread and here.

Still need to work out the driveshaft vibration, most likely just going to drill through my slipyoke and install a bolt to keep it from moving around. Once that and the muffler issue is taken care of, along with a good alignment, she'll be a much nicer ride

[j2sax]

So how's your gas mieage with this setup, now that you have had some time to shake it out? 

Have a great weekend,

Jesse

[tougeagle]

So how's your gas mieage with this setup, now that you have had some time to shake it out? 

Have a great weekend,

Jesse

If I'm rough on it, 16-18 (which has been most of the time, but I'm trying to be nice to her) otherwise, 20-24. Seems to vary with every tank.

[tougeagle]

Working on two major projects at the shop this week, should land me enough money to take care of a very nice chunk of the to-do list, including:
Flywheel/clutch - please please let this be the answer to the engine vibration!
Finish rear cargo tray delete
Driver side CV shaft
New cat
alignment
slip yoke correction (drilling slipyoke and putting a bolt through it into output shaft to eliminate walking)
possibly new fuel pump (to replace the expensive noisy one) or new front springs and bushings. Either will cost the same.

For the time being though, I haven't really made any major mods other than adding my original fuel pump in behind my large one, which did provide a decent gain in performance, especially with E85, which I'm running exclusively now thanks to crappy winter gas.

[shanebo]

Hey justin did yours come with those rally guages?

[tougeagle]

Hey justin did yours come with those rally guages?

Nope, I found that center console on a fully loaded Sport wagon in the junkyard a year and a half ago... I'm going to take those gauges out, cut the panel to fit the cubby above the radio, and pick up a set of gauges - oil temp, oil pressure and battery voltage/charge. Never saw the point of having the gauges in a place where you have to look down below the main cluster to see them, taking eyes off the road. I'll then make a large box out of some OSB cut to fit where the gauges would have been, in the center console, as a new storage area...

[shanebo]

They got some pretty cool gauges now with all the indiglo and LED stuff...that'll look sweet having them up top!! By the way...Im probably gonna go down to that junkyard in pueblo in the next couple of weeks. Let me know If theres any parts your lookin for...I can check around down threre what ever you might need and pick it up for ya.

take care
shane

[tougeagle]

They got some pretty cool gauges now with all the indiglo and LED stuff...that'll look sweet having them up top!! By the way...Im probably gonna go down to that junkyard in pueblo in the next couple of weeks. Let me know If theres any parts your lookin for...I can check around down threre what ever you might need and pick it up for ya.

take care
shane

I would love a passenger side chrome headlight trim piece, and the clutch master off that limited wagon (check for leaks inside the car first, it should be dry, if not, don't pull it)...