Crunchy Taco? - 1st gen on 35s BS

Ahhh yes the tube method lol. Spilling gear oil in the engine bay is haunting. Forever smellz

Honestly when I heard about it I was skeptical but I saw it in action on a few trails last year and was sold on it. I'm sure I could have made my own but for the price it's hard to beat.

 

ya that's a good price. Just ordered one.
I wanted to pick one of those up, but the other companies that sold them were asking more than I wanted to pay

 

Great tip!!! Left the oil containers in a hot water bath for 15 min while i did some other stuff and just used the good ol squeeze with no issues.

Fucked with the tcase ebrake a bit, they always rattle a little bit but mine stopped working and has been extra noisy. I guess I wore down the pad enough for it to fall out there's a bunch of gokart pads on Amazon, I guess I should order a few and see what fits




Clutch fluid was a little over seasoned



I forgot what a bitch this clutch was to bleed the first time. I have been doing the one person bleed for years but had to pick up a pneumatic bleeder.

 

Poking along....

Got the Stage 8 locking fasteners in.

Spent way too long getting the bottom right installed but I was victorious in the end. Pictures really do not convey how little room there is to stick your hand in there and line up the nut on the backside. The angle of the tube means you cannot install the bolt from the other direction either. Great design by DNA. Anyways the Stage 8 stuff is nice. When facing the flange the tang didn't give more than a mm or so of engagement so I flipped them over. Should be good to go for a while, at least at this connection.



I also confirmed the elocker does work after fucking with the harness some more. I need to pop it apart and add a weather seal and the pin lock but it's good to know it might be usable again

Last I swapped out the factory rear breather for a hose fitting @Kwikvette gave me out of his spares and hooked it up to the breather hose that's run to the fuel door.

 

With the exhaust hardware in place and the fenders bolted up the truck is much less of a rattler POS. I've been enjoying getting groceries more, at least

The last major annoyance is the tcase brake. The inner pad fell out a long time ago and it's been bouncing around since. The remaining pad isn't looking too hot either.

I think I'm just going to slap on a cheap caliper from Amazon in the meantime but I'd love to pull off the whole setup, take some measurements, and see if we can't find a way to make a better caliper setup fit under there.

 

Not a lot of pics to show but I've been poking at all kinds of stuff that really annoyed me about the truck in preparation for summer. This truck can be a lot of fun to drive and I've been missing it quite a bit... Little things that needed R&R included my window cranks, slider latch, seatbelt, ans the tiny manual mirrors which were replaced with the updated chrome foldaway ones. I also put on a fresh set of KO2s I picked up for a deal from a buddy.



The low range elocker harness has been a thorn in my side since the very first off-road trip. After having it pull wires out of multiple pins multiple times I deleted the connector with heat shrink adhesive butt connectors. Not really concerned about water intrusion, when I stripped the wires back they were already corroded from water intrusion that happened with the LRO harness connector. Gotta make sure to add corrugated tube and zip ties to hide your sins make things tidy

 

The wheels make the truck....

 

The heat shrink but connectors are pretty clutch for that kind of stuff. That or the solder tubes that you just hit with a heat gun

 

They can be yours for 4 easy payments of $99.99

 

damn, I didn't know that was a thing! Those look really neat... I'll have to order some to keep on hand. Is there a brand you'd recommend?

 

I just got whatever Amazon kit had the most reviews. No problems so far

 

Been punching out more todos the last couple months: Welded up my cracked bedside, added bed stiffeners, fixed some vacuum leaks, adjusted the TPS, cleaned the IAC valve, replaced my 4 speakers, and probably a few other odds and ends I've forgotten about.

Took the truck out for a shakedown today and it ran great. I need to remount my compressor, pull and reseal the rear third, do LCA bushings, TREs, and probably the steering rack but it's well enough in order for now

 

Moar wheeling pics

 

I guess I'll just have to go wheeling again soon and grab more pictures next time

 

How'd you crack your bedside?

 

By not having stiffeners from the get go

 

Went back out today and ran a couple more trails (Ironclads/Bunce/T33). Even stopped for some poser pics this time




The truck is running great. I'll need to shake down the front end because I have a pop in the steering now but I knew I'm already due for new TREs at a minimum and carry them with me

 

Nice!

Was Bunce super crowded with the damned rental SXS idiots?

 

I expected it to be but I actually only ran into 2 SXS. I had to flag down one of them to tell him his passenger side plastics were loose and dragging. In true SXS fashion he must have smacked a tree and didn't realize his fender/taillight were hanging on by the wiring lol.

 

Last night I swapped in an IS300 wheel and airbag. It's 1" or so smaller in diameter and gives me much better ergonomics to help manage my hip pain. It made a decent difference on the trail today