In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
look up "Wicked Cool Customs" on facebook (or maybe they have a website). I saw these on one of the Montero groups and got them from them. $1 each i think.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
look up "Wicked Cool Customs" on facebook (or maybe they have a website). I saw these on one of the Montero groups and got them from them. $1 each i think.
On an unrelated note, I happened upon a few pics of my old XJ (my first truck project) that I bought as a favor from my friend's broke girlfriend long ago. It was a basket case, rusty, with RENIX engine management that I could not solve. But it was a 2-door 5-speed with vent windows (pretty rare). I spent a year refurb'ing it before decided I hated driving it (and really hated the seats and interior), and my wife bought a 4Runner soon after so I didn't have a real reason for it. Only got it dirty a couple times (no idea where those pics are)....Anyhow, it was cool looking, and I think you can see what my visual schemes generally look like (yeah...uh...black)
Got the rest of my fluids today, so did some filling and making a mess. Redline MTL in the transfer case. Redline MTL in the transmission (though I came up a quart short on this gallon, so put in a quart of MT-90 to get it full)
Made a complete mess of my drip pan (thankfully thought to actually put it there for once) since I was pumping a bit too aggressively and filled the trans a ways past the hole. Oops
And filled up the coolant
Since I was filling the washer fluid in my DD, figured I'd fill the rear washer reservoir on the Raider to see if the sprayer worked (yeah, the Raider has THREE washer reservoirs - rear, windshield, and headlights - all totally separate....But happy to say the rear wiper works (on regular and intermittent) and the sprayer works fine. Though I seem to have misplaced (or perhaps thrown out) the wiper assembly for the rear window. Not sure why I did that lol..but hardly an urgent thing
So with all that done, I hooked up the exhaust front end (y-pipe, cat, O2 sensor). And then thought, "hey, why not try to start it up?" So I did. And it didn't start. Hmm.
Checked fuel: definitely had pressure at the fuel rail.
Checked wiring and stuff: everything seemed tight.
Shot a bit of starting fluid into the TB and didn't even get a stumble, so...no spark. Fk....pulled a wire off one plug and stuck a spare spark plug in it and had the wife crank the engine while I tried to ground it....no spark. Hooked my timing light up just to see if it would flash....nothing. This is my nightmare since electrical stuff is BY FAR my weakest aspect of car stuff - and I have almost no experience in distributor electrical systems - the Porsche never needed anything, and the BMW has always had electronic multi-coil. So did a bit of troubleshooting and didn't really come up with anything obvious. Timing I'm not sure is perfectly set, but if I'm not getting spark, that's irrelevant anyhow.
Keep in mind all this stuff came right out fo the Blue Raider, which was running when I pulled the engine. I did replace the coil and distributor cap/rotor and wrap up some wiring. Double-checked all the wiring connections and seemed find. Double-checked the ECU and noticed one of the plugs wasn't totally in. FOUND IT! Plugged it in fully and.....still nothing. Damn.
So, sometime this week I'll be running through all the various electrical test procedures to see if I can figure it out. And hating every minute of it. There are a few seemingly typical things that cause 6G72 Montero no-start/no-spark so will start with those - apparently the optical sensor in the dizzy goes bad, though not sure why that would have happened in the few weeks since the car last ran. I'll swap my other ECU in to see. But I put the Blue Raider ECU in, so again, it was working a few weeks ago. Then a matter of tracing wires and hoping I just forgot to hook something up or something else dumb/obvious. I don't know enough about these engines to immediately know where to start.
On an unrelated upside, I did confirm my repair of the 4WD indicator sensors was successful, as the 4WD light comes up when I put the case into 4HI or 4LO. So, that's good. Also got a little bag of tiny LED bulbs the mail, so will redo all the gauge cluster lights with those to get a bit more brightness.
So, usually I'd stress about stuff like this, but I suspect this is just something dumb that I'll eventually figure out - and since I am months ahead of schedule on this build I'm in no rush at all, really.
Oh yeah....a couple other things.
1. I'm tire shopping (trying to stimulate the economy with my government-given check, which i kind of think is dumb they sent to me, but whatever....I'll put most of it in the girls' college accounts and buy some tires with part of it). Most likely going to go with General Grabbers. I've had the popular BFG A/T's on the XJ and didn't love them in rain/snow. The Grabbers are supposedly much better in those conditions. And a bit less expensive. So really now just deciding if I'm going to go 30x9.5 or 31x10.5. Seems like the 31s are the popular choice for non-lifted Gen1 Montero guys doing light wheeling. I will mostly be on tarmac and dirt/gravel fire roads with this rather than mudding or rock-crawling, since don't really feel the need to go with anything bigger. We'll see. John Williams and Sean Leeper posted up pics of theirs on 31s and Poms for me, and that looks about right to me...
2. Got in some sample chips from Monstaliner. It's a roll-on bedliner-type paint that a lot of 4x4 guys use to do their exeriors. I don't plan to do the whole truck, but my intent is to paint the rocker area below the belt (currently that gold-ish color) as well as the roof above the gutters. So the goal is to try to get something that's a good shade to match the wheels and interior. Probably a summer project but figured might as well get some samples. This stuff is pretty cool - much better than other bedliner textures I've used before.
My grabbers have been fantastic in all weather, on both a 2wd ranger and the newest style grabber on my f250 but we didn't get much snow since I got the f250. I also really like the master craft courser axt we put on the wife's escape but it's not as cheap as the grabber. The courser ran about 50 more per tire.
if your order black wall grabbers they are 60 cheaper per tire and my friend who runs the tire shop I use was surprised when they came in that they are just white letter tires with blemished letters.
I have driven on snow, sand, mud, gravel, ice, slush, and multiple recce passes combining all of those things on Grabber AT2s- I think they're a good choice for you.
31x10.5 were just about the perfect size for my Gen 2 Montero. I would think they would be a good fit.
31x10.5 are also the factory size for the SR models in Gen 2, so they fit perfect.
For no-start you are on the right track, start with the distributor and go from there. Can you manually turn the distributor when its removed and see spark going to each plug wire when its keyed on? Also worth checking grounds.
Starters also commonly die on these. Do you have the FSMs? If not theres many posted here:
I liked my grabbers on my tow pig Suburban, but by the time they were about half worn it was hard to keep them in balance for some reason, so I replaced them sooner than I normally would have. Went with a Falken Wildpeak AT3W and have been very pleased with those for 2 years. They are reasonably priced and have a pretty aggressive tread.
Quick morning update (since I had to go try something before getting on my computer to do some actual "work")
Went out first thing and switched in my other ECU, and now we have ignition. Started up after a couple tries, good oil pressure, sounds pretty lumpy but I may not have one of the plug wires totally seated, and I'm certain the timing is off. But it's running and nothing exploded, so that's a good sign!
Yeah Kevin, I have the FSMs, parts catalogs, eletrical guide (and a Haynes), etc.
Sonic said:I liked my grabbers on my tow pig Suburban, but by the time they were about half worn it was hard to keep them in balance for some reason, so I replaced them sooner than I normally would have. Went with a Falken Wildpeak AT3W and have been very pleased with those for 2 years. They are reasonably priced and have a pretty aggressive tread.
Yep, I've heard good things about them as well. I tend to like to buy from Tire Rack though, and they don't carry Falken i don't think. The Grabbers I'm looking at are the new A/TX, which I think are the AT2 replacement model.
These old Mitsu ECUs have a bad habit of failing due to exploded or leaking capacitors. You can probably find an ECU shop to rebuild the old one.
nice, congrats on first real fire though!!! That's impressive considering you said t was going to be a "slow build", haha.
So another update: After being reminded that for the ECU to learn timing, you have to ground this little plug, I did that and that improved things significantly. However, still feels like it has a misfire. So pulled all the plugs and #2 and #4 both look pretty clean (the other four were already sooty). A bit more investigating and it turns out #4's wire end is broken, so that explains that one. #2's wire seems fine and the plug is sparking when grounded, so not sure why it's so clean. I wonder if the injector isn't firing and/or is clogged. Will have to investigate further. And of course, I have no other spark plug wires here that will work for me since all my other cars are coils except the Porsche, and it has different plug attachments that won't work on the Raider.
So...back to RockAuto and order another set of wires. At least they're really cheap...
And yes, I'm quite certain I broke the wire myself with the dozen times I pulled them off when trying to troubleshoot the no-start.
Oh, also did a compression test while there, though engine wasn't warm or broken in so I don't put much credence in the numbers. All cylinders were getting somewhere between about 140 and 160, which sounds about right from what I've read online
#2 arcing so the wire is ok
plugs with my sloppy numbering. With all the cranking i've been doing and rich starts, not surprising everything is a bit dark.
3 things:
Carry on 
In reply to bluej (Forum Supporter) :
I still have some turbo parts for you by the way, if you ever feel like just coming to take a drive
Got tired of messing with mechanicals, so got in the car and pulled the gauges and center console to 1) see why some of the HVAC lights weren't working and 2) put in LED bulbs to see how they look.
Here's a day shot, just for the hell of it
So got them all done, not too tough really. Not sure I like the LEDs since they turn the gauges more yellow than orange (maybe I'll get some orange LEDs). And seriously, Mitsubishi.....so the main gauge faces are basically backlit (light shines through the colored area to light evenly). But the center gauge cluster is super-ghetto lighting....basically the faces are solid and just back about 1/4" from the front so lighting behind it "wraps around" the sides and illuminates the faces. It's annoying how badly they "match" the main gauges. oh well.....
That's coming together nicely! I'm digging the plaid.
Nice progress! I really like the wheel color.
Just a bit of goofing around this evening. So sitting around my garage I have a Jensen 220 amp and a Bazooka Tube sub. I got these long ago from a buddy who had them in his Eclipse GSX in college about...oh, let's say 25 year ago. About a decade ago I had this stuff installed in the WRX for a while until I took it out for some forgotten reason, and since then it's literally been collecting lots of dust under a workbench cabinet. NO MORE. What an 80s truck needs is some old-school bass assistance, especially with the Raider's little speakers (which are still stock - that will be fixed at some point as well, though they sound surprisingly not awful).
Anyhow, getting the main power wire from the battery into the passenger compartment was the most work since all the wiring grommets are stuffed back behind the HVAC on that side of the vehicle. But eventually ran it through, ran the contol and pre-out wiring under the center console (I'll install a cutoff switch there for the amp once I fine one), an basically just hooked stuff up to see if it actually still works.
Anyhow, yeah, it works - and it sounds pretty good once you get the equalizer set up decent. Of course I tested it out with some old Snoop and Dr. Dre. So, tomorrow when I have better lighting I'll figure out exactly where to mount the amp (likely just the passenger floor under or behind the seat.
While it's far from the most impressive part of this build, I am really enjoying the plaid interior you're putting together. I wish the things I put together came out looking as nice.
lxnm said:While it's far from the most impressive part of this build, I am really enjoying the plaid interior you're putting together. I wish the things I put together came out looking as nice.
Thanks. This had really been the first build where I've even ATTEMPTED to do any kind of even basic upholstery stuff (the Porsche has all stock interior stuff, the e30 has no interior at all except coroplast panels). So thought it would be fun to do something a bit different and see if I could make it not look terrible lol. Certainly far from perfect, but good enough for a 1989 trucklet :)
A couple of other random thoughts:
1. I'm more or less suspecting that at least one of my injectors isn't working - either not firing or clogged, so I'm just gonna ge some reman'd ones for cheap and throw them in to see if they solve this misfire, because I'm sure I'm getting spark on #2 and the plug is too clean to actually be getting combustion.
2. I'm getting a coolant drip off the bellhousing. The underside of the two heater hoses where they attach to the heater core were wet the other day so I tightened them up. So this may just be residual stuff from that. The other possibility is that its the coolant pipe running from the water pump down under the IM. This worried me from the start (it's a terrible design, frankly). Can't see the "valley" with the IM on, so I'll check that this weekend when I pull it. If it's leaking, there will be a bunch of coolant in there. That said, no coolant is dripping from the front area of the engine, which I would expect if that was leaking. So, we'll see. Hoping this is just heater pipes, and if so will probably just slather them up in silicone and put the hoses back on.
I did lie on my back with a small light and traced tiny remaining drops of coolant up the driver's side of the bellhousing to the bolt on the bottom of the IM rear mount bracket. And looking up, that is DIRECTLY below the heater hoses. So I'm fairly confident this is just remaining coolant making its way down there and dripping slowly as the car sits. It doesn't seem to be coming from the middle area where it would be if it was the pipe in the "valley."
3. It's mildly annoying that everythign on this truck uses fine thread (1.25 even on M12-size bolts). German cars all use 1.5 thread on the M10-M12 sizes, so I literally have no nuts for things like exhaust flanges and other stuff (even though I have giant boxes of hardware for the German cars. So I just ordered a few boxes of nuts and bolts from McMaster for this vehicle lol.
4. Need to paint the other two wheels and order some tires, just because. Also need to remove the pinstripes and other cosmetic stripes on the other side of the truck.
Swap some injectors around with #2 and see if the miss follows the injectors. Could be a wiring harness issue. This will be faster and cheaper than buying a another set of injectors.
Check if the wire harness takeouts are long enough to swap #1 or #3 injectors for a quick trial.
Great project and nice work.
In reply to bOttOmfeeder :
I considered the wiring harness as a culprit but it was basically doing the same thing in the truck I pulled it out of, so unless it's a massive coincidence that both of the wiring harnesses have the same issue, these are probably the original injectors so figured it would be worth it just to get some new ones. I should have really done that in the first place but for some reason I was just being cheap lol
Nice day out, with a week of rain in the forecast, so spent some time on wheel prep and painting. I did the other two bronze on the Raider. Not surprisingly, they look the same as the others...
Then got the girls to work doing some sanding and prepping on the set of five "snowflake" steelies that came off the Blue Raiders. I don't plan to use them, but figured if they look nice I might be able to sell them. Of course, the girls didn't do this for free.....$5 each and a 10% cut each of whatever I can sell them for, lol
Not gonna win any car shows, but they look pretty good from 10 feet.
Then pulled the IM to take a look at things. Pretty sure now that the coolant drips were from the heater hoses. There's no sign of any coolant in the "canyon" between the cylinder blocks or leak from the coolant pipe from the water pump. But this was mostly so I can test the injector wiring and replace injectors, which will happen later this week. Also pulled the valve covers (everything looks nice in there, and oil is present) to check torque on all the head bolts. I'll also replace the PCV valve while I have the IM off, since I forgot to do that before.
Only new part that arrived was the replacement spark plug wires. Decided to get some better ones this time. The ones I got before were really hard to push onto the plugs due to the insulator design, and were kind of ugly too. These have a much better insulator design and look nicer. Plus they are all a bit shorter and fit perfectly. The other kit felt a bit "universal-ish" to me.
What else...
found my mic for the stereo/phone interface, so installed that. Apparently nothing sticks to the old plastic on this thing, even after extensive cleaning. IDK what the deal is. Anyhow, installed it with a screw, kind of stealth, should work fine. Very exciting.....
And did a final mount for the amp behind the passenger seat (raised with a 1/2 wood panel below the carpet to keep it off the actual floor), and tried to so some hiding of the wiring as much as possible (audio stuff is not my strong suit nor do I have the patience for it, really). The wire you see there is the ground, going to the seat base bolt. That will move someplace else when I get around to it.
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