Thanks John - I actually have suspension bases on both seats now (got the one from the parts truck). I'll cross post that in some of the Montero groups i hang out in....$150 is a pretty fair price for it.
While I'm here, guess I'll update to say that there are no updates. I've been enjoying driving the Raider, haven't had a chance to go wheeling again but use it locally fairly often. Been working on the rally car for the last month or two and don't have much to do on the Raider at the moment!
Not much new to report. I've been building a new suspension for the rally car and some other projects that have kept me busy - plus the Raider continues to run and drive well (I drive it a couple times a week). It does have a small oil leak which I'm almost certain is from the rear main seal (which i replaced). It's mildly annoying, but not annoying enough to pull the transmission and replace the seal. Just a very slow drip so I'm not going to worry about it for the time being.
So a few weeks ago i posted up the old automatic transmission up on FB marketplace for FREE. After a week no takers lol. However, a guy from out west messaged me and wanted the housing for the tailshaft (basically the part behind the transfer case that bolts onto the TC). Since I was giving the trans away for free I didn't want to charge him any money for it (except shipping), but he offered to trades some stuff he had sitting around - said he had four parts Monteros (but none with a v6 transmission with the part he needed). I threw out some things i was looking for and he said he's throw some stuff in a box and ship it to me. The box got here today and it had:
1. A used headlight washer pump (mine basically disintegrated). It doesn't work, but more on that later.
2. The surround "hood" part that covers the 3-gauge center cluster. Mine has some issues and I want to try something, so having another one is good.
3. A bag containing a brand-new body mount kit. So basically, a bunch of urethane bushings and giant washers. I looked up the part number and this is the Prothane set that goes for just under $100 on Amazon. So that's a pretty great swap deal. My bushings are OEM/rubber and feel like they're in pretty good shape, but who knows. I haven't yet decided if I'll install these since I'm somewhat worried that they'll add NVH to a truck that already makes plenty of noise. But still, it's nice to have them basically for free, in case I decide to.
So I tested the pump and nothing happened, so I disassembled it to clean it and check the guts. Everything appears to be in good shape - it's not rusty inside or anything, the seals are good, etc. However, when disassembling I managed to let the little teeny springs that hold the side magnets, fall out. So after an hour with little tiny tools (and my wife helping out), I managed to get those back together. cleaned everything up, added some dialectric grease, cleaned up the magnets and coils, and put it all back together.......and it still doesn't work. So, not really sure what's going on with it, but I got tired of messing with it tonight...
So, a couple things. First: I put in an order for an Aussie Locker for the front diff, only to find out 2 days later that it's NLA/discontinued (even though it's listed on about 20 sites, so apparently Aussie Locker didn't bother telling any of its drop-shippers....)so not sure if I'll be able to get my hands on one. It's not that I *really* need it, but for the $300 price I thought it would be a good winter project, especially since I already have manual hubs. So....we'll see. Maybe I'll track down a Starion LSD to put in there, or look at other options (real locker). Seems that Lokka also doesn't make it any more, so that kind of sucks.
Luckily, I got going on another project. So earlier I noted I didn't plan to do a roof rack, since the goal for rally recce is to keep the truck lightweight. Buuuutttttt.....I'm in need of a project, so I'm going to build one anyhow. In any case, it's not like I can't take it off for recce stuff, and it'll be nice to have for utility purposes and/or if I decide to do some overnight/longer adventures, since this truck has limited interior space.
Now of course there are a lot of off-the-shelf options, whether that be Bajarack, Thule, or whatever. If you know me, you know I prefer to build than buy. I've built some fairly basic square-tube racks for the Sequioia (and for the e30 rally car to haul tires, haha), but for this one I want to see how "nice" I can build one, and I also want to integrate a number of features into it for various purposes. Still planning a lot of this stuff in my head, so we'll see where my low-moderate metalworking and welding skills take me. As with most things I do, I spent a lot of time looking at other peoples' setups so I can try to integrate some of their good ideas into something I like the appearance and function of.
In any case, I am *not*confident with cleanly bending tube with my HF tubing bender, so I orderd up some materials - about 40 total ft. of 16ga 1" round steel tube (I'd love to do aluminum, but don't have the right equipment, and steel is cheaper). Also bought some pre-bent tight corner curves (4 of them) so I don't have to ruin a bunch of tubing trying to do that myself. So the straight tubing came in today and I got to work. First order of business was to make a basic fame and make sure it's flat and straight. Once I have the basic frame made, then I can add the ends, more crossbars, and some of the other features I'm planning. So I got out the holesaw and notched the ends of two cross-pieces and tacked them up to the longitudinal main bars, making sure everything is level and square (my garage floor is not totally flat, so had to do a bit of shimming and blocking). Got a little bit of bend from welding heat, even though I was being careful on that aspect, but I think I can work it back once I put the endcaps on.
Test fit of the basic frame on the truck, using some 6" square plate just for mock-up purposes (I wont' be using these for feet).
So that's where I am at the moment. Not very exciting yet, but hopefully over the next couple weeks it'll turn into a nice platform-style rack with a handful of interesting features. tbd.
Heading out tomorrow to do some trail-running up in PA with some friends, but a few little things today:
First - this is kind of putting the cart before the horse since I haven't finished the rack yet, but felt like doing a small project. Many of the trails around here are pretty narrow with tree branches during the growing season. I don't much care about pinstriping on the paint (really, I don't care at all), but I do care about my windshield. The Raider's windshield is very vertical, very old, and probably not all that easy to find a new one for cheap these days. So I intend to have some limb risers (which I'll probably only put on when actually wheeling). In any case, needed a front attachment point, so I got out some metal, and drilled some holes...
and did some cutting and cut a relief groove at the bend point
then bent and welded the seam back to full-strength
after paint, here's where they went. Note that at the moment only being held on by the one fender bolt. You can see I have two other holes drilled that will go into reinforced metal once I get around to it, and before the risers are every actually attached. Anyhow, small project, nothing fancy, but trying to do the small detail stuff while I'm thinking of it.
So over the summer I noticed that my A/C would cut out occasionally (more specifically, the blower fan), and then start working again. At the time I didn't investigate since I'm usually not running A/C anyhow. Obviously, though, the blower fan is also for heat, and now its cooling down. Since it's going to be cold and rainy on the trails tomrorow figured I'd look into this since I'll want heat. After checking fuses (ok), the dash sliders (ok), and directly testing the blower motor off the battery (worked fine), the obvious culprit was the resistor module not working.
IDK what it's "supposed" to look like inside, but there was some gray stuff flaking off of it and making a mess...
Went to the local auto parts store and had the guy dig through his shelves to try to find something that would work, and ended up with this, which had the same plug pattern.
Similar base and screw size, and plugged in it works fine, but it won't fit in the factory hole under the motor housing. I probably could have done some dremeling to make it work, but before I did that I looked closer at the old resistor. No obvious external damage, but the connector was pretty oxidized (and also on the wiring plug). So I spent a few minutes with an emory cloth and cleaned that all off, and applied some dialectric grease. Plugged it back in and now seemed to work fine. So like many things on this truck, maybe it was just a bad electrical connection. Guess we'll see tomorrow.
Headed out today with some friends to do some trail-running in a state forest up in Pa. Andy Thomas (who rallycrosses with us) set it up to take some of his autocross friends out in their mostly stock SUVs. Michaux used to have a bunch of more hardcore ORV trails, but they shut those down years ago, so now it's mostly forestry road (so, reminds me of a rally stage). So we spent most of the time running the roads at moderate speeds, but we did find some fun areas to play in.
Andy has been overalanding/exploring/traveling a lot of the forest and backroads here on the East Coast most of the year so knows the trails pretty well. His weapon of choice is moderately-built fullsize, where he uses brute force to go where he wants to go...
Stephen (from the Pitchblack crew) brought his 4Runner, which is a V8 2WD model so fine for forestry roads. However, he was a good sport and tried to do a big mud pit we found (after Andy bombed through it), which worked out about as expected lol
But he did decent in some climb/descent areas that some of the stock 4WDs had a bit of trouble with...
The Raider continued to pretty much do whatever it wants to do. Not that this stuff is hardcore or anything, but it had no problem with some muddy climb/descents
..though our buddy's Lexus handled that just fine as well
And easily went through the mud pit where the 4Runner got stuck
So anyhow, that was fun to get out of the house...
The Raider is a good trail-runner as well. Running about 25psi it sucked up the chop and washboard, and the suspension seat continues to be excellent. The truck has more than enough power to do whatever i want it to do as well, though I'd like to change on some better brake pads.
A few post-action items:
1. PS belt got really loose about halfway in the trails. So, maybe I didn't have the tensioner tightened sufficiently. It didn't come off, and was working fine, but slipping at high loads.
2. I still have an oil leak. It's all over the skidplate. Before I left I was maybe 1/4-1/2 a quart over full. Now I'm right at the full mark. So, you do the math. It seems to leak more when I'm in places with big inclines, but hard to say. I did about 250 total miles today (about 50 of that off paved roads). Anyhow, I'll plan to pull the transmission this winter and see if it's the rear main (hopefully) or one of the oil gallery plugs inside the bellhousing. Not a big deal, just annoying since I put a new rear main on when I did the engine. Either way, if it loses 1/4 a quart over a full day of wheeling, I can tolerate that to some degree - just have to keep my eye on the level.
3. There's a drivetrain vibration at highways speeds, primarily when at light throttle load. It is reduced when under load, and not there much at all under heavy throttle. Most apparent at speeds over about 60mph. My guess is one of the u-joints on the driveshaft is wonky still (out of balance DS would do it all the time, I'd think). Hopefully not the input bearing of the rear diff or in the transfer case.. Something to investigate and deal with this winter since I'll have to pull the DS to pull the trans anyhow.
So had some time today to get going on the roof rack again. Last post about it I had the main frame put together, I think. Anyhow, first order of business was getting the legs in place. The easy way on this would have just been to have vertical legs but I wanted to have them angle in a little bit, matching the lines of the side of the truck.
So, got them tacked up so I could check the fit:
I bought these feet from an online vendor to avoid having to cut them out myself (which wouldn't look as clean). They were set up to have the narrow part at the bottom and wide part at the top, but I decided to flip them for cosmetic sake. This meant drilling new holes on the other end for the gutter latch. Then I tacked the nuts on the back.
And test fit with the latches.
Alignment is good, all the angles match
Then I added some small steel rectangles at the top to the outer edge of the bar to give some extra support (and perhaps for cosmetics).
So that's where I am at the moment, For the front and the rear, I wasn't confident I could bend the corners evenly and cleanly so I just ordered some pre-bent pieces, so I'll basically weld that together to complete the ends. I have several other ideas for this that I can get to later this week hopefully.
More progress on the rack this week. Basically, it's all put together now
So with the main frame all completed, on to the next step of my plan. Actually in the photo above you can see a pair of flat bars with bends in them, up at the closer (front) end. So those basically dip down from the bars to about 1" above the lower section of the truck's roof up front.
Then there are these brackets I made to accommodate a fairing.
So all of that is specifically to fit this thing:
That's a 48" x 15" weatherproof case (this one was marketed as being for electric guitars, but I expect it's pretty much the same thing as the ones sold for rifles). There are a lot of brands out there, but this one had good reviews, and was one of the few that came in a full 48" length (most are 44"), so i picked it up. Has all the nice pickable foam padding inside too...
It also has what feels like a very good quality/fit seal around the inner edge to keep it weatherproof. Which is good, because it's going on the roof:
Basically, it sits about halfway down between the frame, with about 3" extending above the bars, and fits nicely. Since the Raider isn't huge, it'll be a nice place to put either dirty stuff that I dont' want in the cab, or whatever I decided to stash up there. It has four latches and is lockable (with a padlock). The latches are facing backwards and hide away pretty well.
In front of it, the fairing will go basically from the roofline to flush with the top of the case to keep rain from seeping in the sides at highway speeds and hopefully reduce some noise.
You may notice the fairing is actually BEHIND the forward-most bar of the rack, which is by design since that bar actually overhangs the very top of the windshield. The plan will be to use that bar to hang a long slimline LED flood bar (not yet acquired), and I'll make some brackets for that as well when the time comes. I still have a few other brackets to add to the rack before I paint it all up, maybe next week. Anyhow, it's getting there and I'm pretty happy that I've successfully made what I basically sketched out in my mind :)
Not this weekend, though....off to rallycross in the morning!
Great update. I like the integrated case. How will the case be mounted/secured to the rack?
Looks like fun fall activities!
John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) said:Great update. I like the integrated case. How will the case be mounted/secured to the rack?
Looks like fun fall activities!
I'm going to put four vertical studs on the two flat brace bars that will go up through the bottom of the box with nuts inside, so it can't be removed unless it's opened.
That rack and case are awesome, couldn't agree more with your fab decisions. Will the light are go above or below the bar? Friends have had trouble with glare from light bars directly above the glass.
Justjim75 said:That rack and case are awesome, couldn't agree more with your fab decisions. Will the light are go above or below the bar? Friends have had trouble with glare from light bars directly above the glass.
It'll go below the front bar, but I may put a small "flap" under it to prevent the light from shining directly onto the windshield or hood. I'll have to take a look and see if that's an issue or not, once it's mounted up. It's going to be just a cheapish ebay single-row bar for the time being, since i have no real reason to spring for a higher-end bar (On the rally car I have a nice Hella bar, but no real need for that on something that will be going slow if I'm ever using it - i.e. the Raider.
May want to test before permanent mounting
Justjim75 said:May want to test before permanent mounting
yeah, I'll probably do that. That said, pretty sure that's where it's gonna go regardless. I don't want it above the bar and I'm going to make permanent mount tabs for it (not gonna use the ones that come with it). I actually have an idea for a flip-down cover that will both delflect any downward glare when open, and cover the lens when closed Here in Va. lightbars like that are supposed to be covered on public roads - and though apparently nobody with a Jeep follows that law, I tend to keep my stuff legal because paying fix-it tickets is stupid and a waste of money ;)
In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
Don't know why I thought you might need my advice! Lol
Justjim75 said:In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
Don't know why I thought you might need my advice! Lol
No that was definitely a good thought and I had not really considered it much since the bar on the Sequoia is farther back on the roof so I don't have a glare problem. Basically as soon as I read what you wrote it popped into my head the idea of the flip-up thing, So thanks for putting the idea in my head :) well see If my fabrication skills on that aspect meet up with the ideas in my head lol
irish44j (Forum Supporter) said:the bar on the Sequoia is farther back on the roof so I don't have a glare problem
Except for that one time you turned the lightbar on with the sunroof open and it was like a small sun had appeared in the interior 
So, back to the rack. Rainy day today so figured I'd get some stuff done, including some painting. Before I did that I cut out and welded on some hook/loops to the front for future branch risers
Then got to painting. Did the whole rack with brush-on rustoleum initially, to get a good thick base
Then let that dry for a while and got under the truck to pull the rear driveshaft. As I've mentioned, I've been getting some vibration at higher speeds that I'm fairly certain is driveshaft-related. Figured I'd re-check the U-joints and make sure everything felt smooth, etc.
Well, the problem was pretty obvious as soon as I pulled the shaft. You may recall that I rebuilt both U-joints when I started this project, and it looks as if I didn't fully seat one of the C-clips for one of the rear U-joint cups, and it popped out of the groove and allowed the joint cup to work its way outward a bit., which created some slop in the joint itself and caused the vibration.
So this is supposed to be "in" a bit to the yoke...
And the clip, not in the groove...
So, pulled the clip off and pressed the cup back into place, and put in a new C-clip
So, happy I looked into that. If the cap had worked its way further out that could have been a bad situation on the road :/ Hopefull that's the source of the vibration - there's cars behind the Raider at the moment so haven't taken it out on the road yet.
Once that was done, the paint on the rack was dry and I sprayed over it with spray-on bedliner to finish the coat. Once that was dry, I got the rack back on the truck and bolted on the gearbox. As you can see here, the nuts are inside so it would have to be opened to take it off.
The latches sit just above the crossbar to the rear
So now that's on. I have some HDPE coming to make a fairing for in front of it, so between that and a LED bar light I should be able to wrap up this project in the next week or so.
Finished up the rack today by building a fairing out of some 1/8" HDPE sheeting. Basically the fairing is cut to the height of the roof box and down to the roof itself, hopefully to reduce wind noise as much as possible. The bar in front of it is to mount an LED light bar when I get around to it (will weld on a couple brackets). In any case, pretty happy with how it came out for about $300 in total materials (half of which was the box itself). I plan to add some small stuff to it down the road (brackets to mount other gear, etc) but this is where it's at for now.
Did a quick test drive with two results:
1) The driveline vibration seems to be gone, so the DS fix was indeed the issue.
2) There is more wind noise than there was before, not surprisingly. The Sequioa as a big rack, awning, lights etc on it, but it's a Toyota, with Toyota soundproofing, and you can't hear any wind noise even at 80mph. This is obviously not the case with the Raider, but then again it already had plenty of wind noise so what's some more :)
cutting out the fairing
then sanded it down and painted with some semi-gloss paint. I don't like it too shiny, plus the factory shine was already scratched..
Then installed. Had to add a sticker, because fairings look naked without stickarz.
Some full-on shots. I may cut an inch or two off the top edge of the fairing. I know, it looks a bit odd with that bar in front of it and the fairing being so tall (10") - but I think once the lightbar is on there it will look a little bit more as intended.
So for roof lighting, I was having trouble figuring out a good way to get the wires down from the roof. I really don't want to run them in door seals or outside, just seems a bit ghetto. So I bit the bullet and drilled some holes in the roof and put a couple plug-style connectors there. Why plugs? weatherproof and also will be easy to disconnect lighting harnesses if I want to take the rack off.
So, got a couple of these things off Amazon and installed them. I'll only show the outside, since the inside isn't as clean as I'd like - I didnt' realize the upper sides of theroof are actually double-walled, so my plan on hiding the wiring didn't really work as well as I'd like. But it's fine, not too noticeable inside. I put one up near the front behind the fairing so I can hook it directly to the LED bar, and then another one by the B-pillar for mid/rear lighting TBD. Sealed them up good with black silicone and riveted them on, so hopefully won't leak. In retrospect, I should have hidden them better behind the rack feet, but not really a big issue.
This truck is cool as E36 M3, well done!
UPS rolled up today and delivered the ebay light bar I picked up. I know, people will say "oh get the high-end ones" etc etc....but for ORV speeds, in my opinion who cares. These cheap ones provide plenty of low-speed fill (the stage rally car has a long-range Hella pencil-beam bar because it's going 100mph through the woods...)
So this is a 43" bar
First order of business with any cheap ebay bars is to disassemble and seal up everything good with some silicone or (in this case) windshield sealant, since it flows into gaps better. These bars are notorious for getting condensation inside so I usually seal them up and never have that issue.
Once that was done I mocked it up in place and secured the bar and some modified mount tabs with some tape and clamps. Thanks to stupid daylight savings time change, it's already dark at 5pm which is pretty annoying, and I swapped the rally car into the garage so the Raider is outside. So we weld in the dark.
End tabs on
And mounted up. Pretty much fits just as I had hoped, with a small gap to the fairing. We'll see how much additional wind noise comes from this (not that I'd probably notice at this point). I'll do the wiring tomorrow, but should be more or less good to go.
Got the lighting all set up and wired today. Decided to put the switches on the panel to the right of the steering column, since I'm getting low on switch space lol. The second one isn't hooked to anything yet, but it powers the second outlet on the roof for whatever I put up there in the future. The relays I tucked down below the stering column for easy access.
Hard to see, but I ran the wiring THROUGH the fairing so it's hidden pretty well. In any case, everything works as intended.
It lights up stuff
Also rolled out to my cousin's to help him out with some BMW work. I found that over around 45 mph I'm getting a loud low-pitched resonance from the front of the rack. I initially thought it was the lightbar or the front mount bar, but now I think it's the fairing, and the vibrations were transmitting ot the roof where the fairing touches. For the moment, I bent up the brackets so the bottom of the fairing is about an inch off the roof now, wich reduced the noise substantially. I think I know what is causing the sound so I'll add a middle bracket to the fairing which *should* elminate it.
So freaking cool
Getting there :) I asked for a few things for Christmas, so we'll see what Santa brings me lol.
Spent a good chunk of the day today rebuilding the e30's LSD with upgraded clutch plates, but while I was doing that DHL showed up (for the second time) with the large mirrors I ordered. These are the so-called "JDM large mirrors" or whatever, but I ordered them from South America where they're a lot cheaper (under $100 shipped). I totally hate the stock mirrors - they're tiny, they make a ton of wind noise, and they constantly move even though I have the set screw fully tightened. I have some other mirror ideas I want to investigate, but that's gonna take some pick-and-pull days to find what I'm looking for and it's late November, so not real interesed in doing that right now. Maybe in the spring. In the meantime, got the big suckers, which I think look kinda silly (especially on a SWB), but they'll be fine until I find what I want, and then I can just sell these since they seem to be pretty popular.
In any case, they fit correctly and though not amazing quality, they still feel like better quality than the OEM POS mirrors lol.
Here's a size comparison
Installed
The seller also put a top-quality extruded RalliArt sticker in the box, which is actually pretty cool looking. So figured I'd slap it on the rig in tribute :) I know, kind of silly but whatever. If you can't put stickers and stuff on your wheeling rig, where can you put them? (I mean, unless you have a vinyl-covered rally car, of course.....)
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