Snowy's 3-Linked 98 Xtra Cab

Looks sweet!!

 

2 weeks until PYS 2020 shenanigans....

 

Looks life fun!

 

So life happened and we had our offer accepted on a house a couple hours west of Chicago. Less than 24 hours from it being posted for sale until they accepted our offer out of the five offers they got. Super excited to move out of Chicagoland and back closer to where I grew up on some property with a 60x35 shop.

The downside is that I’ve woefully neglected prep on the Tacoma. I drained the oil tonight and got a bunch of glitter out of the pan. I’ve been fighting an oil pressure problem on climbs and cut the balance shaft chain but the glitter keeps coming out. So off the pan came and I rolled new mains and rods in from under the truck, plus a new oil pump and pickup tube gasket. Fingers crossed I’m all fixed up now, should be able to fire it up tomorrow after I run the oil pan through the parts washer at work and wrap up the home inspection. #1 main was toast and a couple others were a little worn, but the crank was still perfect so I think I caught it just in time.

 

If you need help moving, I'm here.

 

Congrats on the new digs, Connor! Looking forward to seeing that shop build soon!

 

Thanks! Fortunately my work pays for movers and I can just bring a liftgate trailer to the house if I really need for anything I don’t want movers handing in the garage so I should be good.

Thanks! The shop needs finished with concrete, insulation, soffit, etc but it’s at least upright and has a mezzanine in it already I can build from

 

Paying for movers is the best money I have ever spent, fuck moving!!

Good score on the house and job man!!

 

New bearings and oil pump are in. Went for a drive and my oil pressure is up 7 psi at idle and 25 psi at 3k so hopefully I’ve got my oil control issues fixed. Just need to swap the fuel pump and get loaded up to leave for vacation on Friday

 

Have you managed to fish your float out of the fuel tank yet?

 

Negatory ghostrider, the patten is full.

I still laugh at myself fishing around the bottom of the tank for the float...I’ll do it tonight now that the motor is buttoned up. Just swapping a whole new pump in to be safe. I guess the Spectra branded one that’s in it is pretty well known to be junk. The SKP one I bought is definitely higher quality than the Spectra

 

Ahead of me. Have to mount a beadlock and put the skid plate back on.

 

Fuel pump is replaced after a massive fuel spill at the gas station because I didn’t realize there was a small tab that was bent in shipping folded between the tank seal. Of course I didn’t realize it until I filled the tank brimming full and it was pouring fuel out.

Put new decal badges on to cap off the night and put me in a better mood after swimming in gas for an hour

 

Stuck the fire extinguisher on inside the bed side on a quick release mount so someone can actually get to it quickly if needed too

 

That mounts pretty sweet isn't it?

Did you get a real extinguisher and not some cheap piece of chinese shit, or halon that will kill you inside the can after you put the fire out?

 

Oh that’s a full on Chinese special lol

 

Dude for an extra 5bucks or even cheaper you could have gotten a real, non chinese one!

 

I need to get another one, this one just happened to be laying around. Where do you buy the decent ones?

 

Amerex or buckeye on Amazon.

 

Successfully made the whole week of wheeling at Flat Nasty. Not without some carnage but we were able to piece humpty dumpty back together.

The good news is that my oil control problems are completely solved and I no longer have any problems with losing oil pressure on climbs. I'm not normally that accurate with the parts cannon. Ran it all week with some road miles and no rattles or changes in oil pressure so hopefully I've got all of that behind me.

The bad news is that I broke a Detroit carrier in half on day 1. I found a v6 carrier with spider gears but no carrier bearings in Ron's shop so there was hope of a fix...



Ended up cutting the Detroit apart to get an angle on the bearings to pound them off







Warmed the bearings up on a camp stove until they changed color and then they fell right onto the new open carrier. Then we hooked up 3 batteries to the ready welder and welded the open carrier into a beautiful orb of a traction device. Had to be careful on 3 batteries because it had enough amps to blow entire teeth off the side gears.



Slapped the old ring gear back on the new carrier and threw it in the third with zero pattern checking and setting the backlash by hand. Then we had to reassemble the front axle and clean up the murder scene I created on @Robertocritser ’s trailer. I owe him many beers for the cooler donation that turned into an oil pan along with some new stains on the trailer



Less than 24 hours after the break, we were back on the trail and went straight to the spot on the bears where I broke the Detroit and ran them again