Squeaky Penguin's (Trip Reports) Build Thread

I didn't realize Alcans had become so expensive, no doubt when properly specd they're great springs but that seems way over valued. I mean they're still just leaf springs.

 

My thoughts as well. Thanks for the motivation and insight on the 63s too. Reading through your install convinced me.

 

Glad you enjoyed it! It's a fun project and pretty solid on the bang for the buck.

 

Ballin on a budget

 

I've been able to pick them up, I'm sure shipping isn't cheap.

Sounds like you've got the leafs sorted.

Eco-crawler has been excellent. It has worked flawlessly, doesn't leak a drop, shifters work great, no issues with the clocking, never fallen out of gear, etc.

I do have one issue that I'm sure is my fault, and that is I can no longer shift into 4wd on the fly. Which is odd as it worked fine when I first got the truck back together. I must have messed up when reinstalling the synchros, which NWF now has much, much better instructions on. It's not a huge deal given how much I drive this truck anymore, but I will probably disassemble it this spring and try to find out what I did. My throwout bearing is starting to make a bunch of noise anyways, so need to address that as well.

 

Awesome to hear. I was actually reading through the installation instructions a couple days ago and saw a note about the 2wd-4wd synchro/synchro detents as its necessary unlike the optional L-H synchro and detents. See page 17 of the installation instruction and go from there when/if you decide to tear it apart. What are you clocked at if you remember?

 

Yeah, their instructions were lacking when I built mine. Now, there's a whole separate booklet on those stupid little detents. I definitely put them back in, but maybe they're backwards or popped out or something.

I clocked the full 16 degrees on whatever the max is. Huge PITA without a body lift, but flat belly is pretty awesome.

 

Seems those are the biggest pains of setting it up. Damn i bet haha. I've smacked mine quite a bit, it gets worrisome for sure with the stock case hanging as low as it does.

 

Mine still works on the fly. I can't shift from low to high though

 

FTFY

 

New shifter boot from redline. Must have been a little off of my measurements, but way better than the cut up stock one.

 

It's clearly been a very long time since I've last looked at your 1st gen.

 

Nice! Really puts the finishing touch on it. I talked to redline as well, the price made me hesitate but I’ll probably go that route eventually.

Do you mind sharing your measurements and where you think redline was off, or where the measurements should be adjusted?

 

I was gonna say, gonna steal your specs. I assume you want things a little less baggy?

 

It's still a shitbox, but with a nice leather shifter boot now.

So I sent them a overhead pic, and video of actuating the shifters, and this half ass drawing (ignore the width mistake I caught on shifter 1 and 2, as they are the same).

They made the trans shifter to factory specs, and then I measured each shifter from all 4 corners. These were taken with the levers furthest away from each respective corner when measuring. I'm guessing I just measured these all a little too long/maybe I should've measured a little further down the lever. Everything fits quite well, it's just all 3 tcase boots seem a little long. I wonder if they added in some extra to account for the offset shifters.

Yes, wish the fit better like the trans shifter. I guess overall its pretty good given how cramped everything is.

 

I would love if the OEM boot went all the way up. I hate the exposed neck. Either way the boots came out awesome.

 

They did better with yours than they did with mine. I had similar, but different fitment issues with my redline triple stick boot. I don't think you did anything wrong, I just don't think they properly considered the height of the individual shifters when cutting and measuring for the height of each individual section of the boot. It looks like they made them all as if they were the same height as the trans shifter, despite those shifters being several inches shorter. They realistically only need to be about half as tall.

I actually folded the tops of each leather cone down into the boot on the tcase shifters to deal with the extra material. I also can't get mine secured to the console because the base of the opening for the tcase shift boots is to short front to back, and the shifters pull the leather away from the opening at the back. Surprised yours doesnt do that. So my $200 plus custom leather shifter boot fits like shit and just sits there in the opening not connected to the console. Personally i wouldn't use redline again, but I'd don't have a better recommendation.

@Squeaky Penguin are those numbers at the bottom your diagonals from the corners of the console up to the base of the knobs, I assume?

 

Mine fit the console well, but getting the factory metal piece in was a PITA!

Yes, those measurements are to the base of the knobs. I figured they would get the height correct based on that. Does look like they made them all the same height. The back one on the shorter shift lever is the worst.

 

Interesting, I have had Redline in mind or awhile, but may just leave it as is with my rubber boots, which aren't that bad really. They are starting to crack a bit, but rubber boots are a dime a dozen.

 

Looks like they probably took the longest measurement for each diagonal, and made that the height of the boot, which makes sense if you start from the right corner.

I think the problem with the extra material is that they tell you to measure from the front corners of the console to the knob for the tcase shifters, but they should be having you measure the diagonal from the corners of the rear seam of the trans shifter to knobs 1 and 2, which is midway down the console. For the #3 shifter you would measure from rear seam of shifters 1 and 2.