Rad Rally (Dodge) Raider (akaMonteroakaPajero) Build

Isn't it lunchbox lockers that click all the time?   I was gonna weld the diff on my Bronco and just lock one hub since I had manual locking hubs but never got around to it

irish44j (Forum Supporter) said:

mr2s2000elise said:

With you having a big family and raider being set up for two 

 

is it just a vehicle for you to get away from wife and kids ? 

I mean, it's not *that* big of a family, I only have two kids. In any case, my wife has pretty much no interest in any of my adventuring stuff (especially involving driving any of my old cars), and right now my daughters are young enough that anything their mom isn't interested in, they are not interested in (though I hope that will change as they get older) .

In any case, if I need to go off the beaten path with the family, I do have another vehicle quite capable of doing so :)

 

Got it! Makes sense

so your raider does for you what my Ducatis do for me . MY TIME! 

That basically describes all my project cars...e30, Porsche, Raider. I have lots of 2-seaters haha....

Family travels are usually in my wife's CX-9 (or the Sequoia if we're doing a long trip and bringing the dog, just since it has so much space). My GTI  would be my preference to go family places, but that requires moving my daughter's car seat and the kids like sitting up higher. 

Somehow with all my car hobbies, my family has very, very little interest in cars (my daughters have both proclaimed they love minivans.....go figure). 

Well.... I do love a good minivan, but I get your point lol

russ_mill said:

Well.... I do love a good minivan, but I get your point lol

my first "daily commute to school" car was a 1989 Plymouth Voyager. It carried a lot more of my female classmates home than my subsequent (2-seat) Triumph GT6 did :)

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

In case youre still interested. You can buy front lunch box lockers for these from lokka. https://www.lokka.com/. I just got me mine today. Takes about two months due to demand. I believe the LWB v6 differential and yours should be the same.

benzdude42 said:

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

In case youre still interested. You can buy front lunch box lockers for these from lokka. https://www.lokka.com/. I just got me mine today. Takes about two months due to demand. I believe the LWB v6 differential and yours should be the same.

That's where I ordered from. after 2 and 1/2 months I had not heard anything from them and could not get in touch with them, had no idea if they were even in business, So I just canceled the order and PayPal refunded my money. I wasn't even in a rush I just wanted them to tell me that they had gotten the order and I would get it eventually. Apparently that was too much trouble for them.

So I probably mentioned I've been looking for some wheels and a tailgate for my Raider/Mighty Max trailer project (documented separately).  Been to a few junkyards in the past few weeks and come up empty, and everyone parting out stuff seems to be too far away. I really wanted to get matching "pomegranite" wheels liek the Raider has, but none for sale closer than Michigan at the moment. 

Then out of the blue I come across a FS post for an '88 Dodge D50 (aka Mighty Max) in Catlett, which is about 20 miles from me out in farm country. It's listed as being pretty rusty, but complete, for $500. More importantly, it has Pomegranites on it and a tailgate. So I message the guy to see if perhaps he'd sell me the wheels and tailgate for $200. He says no, but if I want the whole truck I can have it for $250. DONE.

So I bust out the trailer and drive the country roads to get there this morning. Truck is actually a pretty rare manual-transmission 4x4 model. Rear frame rust is BAD (it was a farm truck) but the rest of it was in pretty good shape overall, and complete. I figured I'd take the wheels and tailgate, sell off some easy-to-remove parts, and then scrap the truck and more or less make my money back.

Got to use my little hitch-mount winch in the trailer receiver, which seemed to do fine (though my front trailer bar was flexing more than I liked, so may need to reinforce that...)

Dragged it home...

The wheels I want

Magic knobs

Four-banger

And tailgate....paint is a mess, but overall it's in good shape other than a broken latch, which should be easy to fix.

So after that, I decide maybe I'll post it up online for $250 and see if I get any bites, rather than parting/scrapping it. It's a pretty cool little truck and I'd love to see it brought back to nice - though I have no need for such a project myself (seeing as I'm building a pickup-truck bed trailer that will do the same thing with less maintenance/insurance lol).

Anyhow, within an hour a guy messages me about it and after some discussion we agree on $200 and he'll come get it tomorrow (bringing his own wheels). Ironically, he wants it for an engine and manual transmission swap on his Raider (which has a seized engine), which looks just like mine. More ironically, he asks if I'm "the rally guy he talked to on Expedition Portal forum a few weeks ago." So, totally small world as always in the automotive hobbyist area. In any case, he's gonna come get it tomorrow (along with the rear half-frame I have here in case his brother wants to build the truck up instead of scrapping it). Either way, I got four wheels and a tailgate for an outlay of about 50 bucks, which is less than I could have bought them for separately. I'm probably losing a bit of money just selling the truck for 200 rather than parting/scrapping it, but this is easy and may allow the truck to continue to live on. And he's getting his engine and transmission for a few hundred bucks as well (and can get some scrap cash for it if he scraps it). So everyone wins, it seems. 

For those not following the trailer build thread, 

1. The D50 departed today and left me a set of Pomegranites and a tailgate.

2. The trailer is coming along nicely

Was mostly doing trailer work today, but had a related thing on the Raider - installation of trailer plug and wiring. For some reason the Raider has NO trailer wiring at all (nor a pigtail for it). Apparently the 4-door Monteros from the same year has this stuff, but whatever. Shouldn't be too hard to splice into the taillight loom since it exits the body behind the bumper anyhow. 

I decided to do a 7-pin connector because that's what I want the trailer to have. Initially the trailer won't have brakes, but I want the option to add them later. Plus, this will let the Raider pull my car hauler if for some emergency reason that needs to happen (not something I'm real interested in). The other nice thing is giving me reverse lights and auxiliary power to the small trailer. 

In any case, had to think about mounting position. I could have taken the easy route and just put it on the included bracket under the bumper, but that's something to get hung up/knocked off/damaged offroad so decided instead to do it right into the bumper. So the only problem is that there's not much space behind the bumper due to the large crossbar and gas tank/bumper support bars behind there. So after much measureing and testing, I drilled in the only possible place:

Even there isn't perfect, as I had to do two other modifications. First, had to shave the plug rear cover to clear the tubular crossmember (and later covered it with waterproof electrical tape)

Second I had to deal with this part of the gas tank support bracket:

Which was dealt with using the Dremel...

So with that done, I wired up the plug with part of the pigtail from the trailer (heavy stuff with really heavy rubber sheathing) and installed. It fits, but just barely. I still have to do the wiring, but that won't be too hard.

Totay cruised up to Annapolis in the Porsche where a buddy had made me some little 3D-printed "wedges" for the mirror project. Because this isn't a very exciting post, here's a couple pics from the trip (and his awesome Lotus)

In any case, it was a good excuse to make a visit to an old friend, who is restoring an old 45-foot cabin cruiser. But he's also probably the techy-est guy I know and has multiple 3D printers. So here's the wedges, printed in some kind of UV-resistant material that I can paint.

Fully aware I could have just made these in steel or something else, but again, was a good excuse to see a friend.

So after drilling a couple holes for the bolts, here are the Defender 90/110 mirrors mounted up with them, now in a vertical orientation. They're bolted through the door skin with some huge fender washers inside. Not the cleanest install, but the visibility is GREAT compared to other mirrors (as I mentioned, they're convex so they give a giant field of vision to the side and back). And they don't flop around or rattle in the wind at highways speeds. So, all in all pretty happy with how that turned out. Too cold to paint, so the wedges will stay reddish for the moment.

Headed up yesterday to Rausch Creek, which is a huge ORV park in Pa about 3 hours from me. Lesson from the way up: on long inclines, the Raider will do about 70 with the pedal on the floor in 5th. The bigger tires and stuff on the roof have definitely added some resistance to speed. But of course, speed isnt' why I built this, so on to the park.

Met up with a handful of frieds to tackle mostly "green" trails there - though a lot of these greens have sections that are very difficult for a lot of stock 4x4s, especially when its 25 degrees and everything has a nice coat of ice on it.  The group consisted of Andy in his fullsize, which he wheels all over the place (it has a lot done to it, but I don't know any specifics); me in the Raider; two friends in stock Toyota Tacomas, Finn in his Lexus (which is substantially more built than it looks in photos, with full lockers, lift, and some other goodies), and a couple of our rally friends came out with their Gambler 500 builds, which are substantially-modified Subarus with some kind of (lunchbox) locker, 30s, and I think one has an H6 swap. 

Anyhow I mean I'm not gonna give a real play-by play, but a few highlights of the day (in photos and text):

We watched a bunch of "built" Jeeps bypass this run, and I thought it was probably a bit much for the Raider, but that didn't stop one of the Subaru guys from running all the way up, mostly on 3 wheels...

At one point we found some frozen-over pits that in the summer are mud pits. But in the winter they are (mystery depth) frozen water. Andy took on one in his truck and broke through halfway across the ice, and managed to extract himself after a few tries. 

However, he did snap an upper balljoint and smashed his winch bumper in (and broke a headlight) thanks to 4" thick ice. But he always travels prepared and replaced a balljoint on the trail.

Soem ice crossings went better

I tried a side section where a Tacoma had just been towed out. I didn't have any better luck....total high-center as the ruts were clearly made by someone with taller tires than me! Got pulled out, no biggie. 

Then playing in a big frozen(ish) lake area, we watched a dozen Jeeps bypass the area wanting nothing to do with it, but we are all stupid so decided to see how deep things got...

I was busy flexing (haha)

Then did some icewater work..

Then one of the subies got stuck in the same area so I got to do some recovery

In any case, there was other stuff, but of cousre I can't take many pics of my own rig wheeling, so maybe someone will send me some later. 

Lessons learned:

- The Raider is more capable than my driving is. A few areas got me pretty sketched out before I did them, but the truck handled them fine.

- Traction is not an issue for this thing, anyplace. I was around 18psi and never had traction issues except a few heavily off-camber tripod moments (though the LSD works fine).

- I consistently got a hard "bang" frm the front end on heavily cambered or flexed areas. Pretty sure it's the front swaybar endlinks, but need to investigate further. I was planning to actually take it off yesterday, but it was too damn cold for that...

- My mudflaps (meant for rally roads), basically drag everyplace offroad. I will be trimming them up substantially.

- Drivetrain-wise, engine, transmission, etc all performed flawlessly for 350 miles of highway driving and 6 hours of wheeling.

- My ignition is STILL wonky, and on occasion won't do anything, just a "click" and nothing else. When it does this it gives no accessory power or starter power, so it's definitely the ignition switch itself. Need to look into this before the next time I go wheeling. I stalled ONE time all day in some technical stuff with one wheel in the air....and the thing wouldn't start until about the 6th try...that was frustrating. 

I'm definitely getting another first gen. I may look for a SWB this time if possible, but we shall see what deals pop up. It's been fun following along this journey.

There's one up here for under $2k....V6 LWB with offroad package. Has some body rust, but mostly on the front fenders (which, I have two replacements for in my shed). Interior looks really nice. Just in case you want to take a long road trip lol.

That said, I see a lot more of them pop up down south rust-free, so you should be in good shape in terms of selection!

Those mirrors look fantastic! Where can they be picked up?

Sweet wheeling shots too, we're too scared to drive our Gen1 in the salt around here so no winter offroading for our Montero.

The frozen mud pit looks crazy! Good for you guys sending it. We don't get weather like that round these parts... 

engiekev said:

Those mirrors look fantastic! Where can they be picked up?

Sweet wheeling shots too, we're too scared to drive our Gen1 in the salt around here so no winter offroading for our Montero.

Here's the link to the ones I got: 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/LAND-ROVER-DEFENDER-90-110-MIRROR-AND-ARM-ASSEMBLY-SET-OF-2-MTC5217-NEW/111690289364?fits=Model%3ADefender+90%7CMake%3ALand+Rover&epid=1653542359&hash=item1a014290d4:g:KIoAAOSwSclXLMFK

Bizwacky said:

The frozen mud pit looks crazy! Good for you guys sending it. We don't get weather like that round these parts... 

It was pretty funny, since we mistakenly were doing the "black" side (i.e. for serious rigs) rather than the green part (for more stock-ish rigs). While we were messing around in the ice pond, a train of a dozen heavily-modded Jeeps took the "bypass" area off to the right and none of them tried the ice pit lol. 

Looks like a fun time up at Rausch Creek.  I love seeing interesting vehicles out on the trails.  I tried it once in my stock Frontier and it was quite the workout for a truck with no modifications but I made it through with my group with only some minor bumps and bruises.  I realized I didn't care for going so slow all day but it was fun to give it a go.

Where are the Subaru guys going to run a Gamler in the area?

Nitroracer (Forum Supporter) said:

Looks like a fun time up at Rausch Creek.  I love seeing interesting vehicles out on the trails.  I tried it once in my stock Frontier and it was quite the workout for a truck with no modifications but I made it through with my group with only some minor bumps and bruises.  I realized I didn't care for going so slow all day but it was fun to give it a go.

Where are the Subaru guys going to run a Gamler in the area?

I believe Gamber is running AT Rausch at some point this year, so they were basically doing recce. Or at least it sounded that way from how they were talking about planning routes and taking note of certain trails. 

I prefer going faster offroad (rally), but I do enjoy the challenge of this kind of wheeling as well, and trying to make the Raider more and more capable. - takes a totally different skill set than the cars/driving I usually do and I'm enjoying the learning experience of it. I don't think I'd go do it on my own or whatever, but it's fun being out there with some friends - especially in a year like this where we all can't go hang out in a bar, and it's motorsports offseason for rally/rallycross that we all do together. 

So on the trip up to PA last week I also found that my rack/fairing STILL makes an annoying resonanace at highway speeds, and I'm pretty sure it's the fairing itself making the noise because it's not stiff enough. So time to try something new. The old fairing went to the front of the roofline above the windshield, but decided to move it back and "gap" it from the roof itself. The whole goal of the fairing is for stuff going over the roof, so fine to have wind go UNDER the rack.

Also wanted to make it more stiff, so got some angle iron and some small square tube and made a solid frame for it.

The tubes are offset on the backside, so the fairing can basically be "slipped into" a slot in the frame from one side and doesn't need any bolts to hold it in (though I did put one). Anyhow, we'll see how this works

You may also notice the light bar isn't there. I'm working on a new idea for mounting it. Just don't like it hanging out over the front of the roof the way it was. 

Oh, I also chopped about 4" off the bottom of the mud flaps to reduce dragging. 

Did you ever learn more about the 1uz or know where I could gather more information? I searched a few forumns, but couldn't find anyone with a completed build talking about it, just a "my buddys done this swap and (insert coment here)" I have an 87  thats been in the nevada desert for most of its life, so very little -  no rust, missing rear window and spun rod,its a manual. I've been following this build since feb 2020 amazing job btw and loads of inspiration and knowledge

trexxit said:

Did you ever learn more about the 1uz or know where I could gather more information? I searched a few forumns, but couldn't find anyone with a completed build talking about it, just a "my buddys done this swap and (insert coment here)" I have an 87  thats been in the nevada desert for most of its life, so very little -  no rust, missing rear window and spun rod,its a manual. I've been following this build since feb 2020 amazing job btw and loads of inspiration and knowledge

Nah, can't say I looked into it really. The 6G72 is plenty sufficient for this truck, it gets up and goes just fine in general. I think the easy(est) button for a swap would simply be to get a DOHC 6G72 (from a Montero sport) or 6G74 from a later Montero, since they both fit the transmission bolt pattern and have been done. I know other guys drop in GM V6s. 

Overall, I'm fine with this engine though....it's never lacking for power offroad (especially in low-range) and while it takes a heavy right foot on long uphills in the mountains trying to maintain 70mph, I'm ok with that. 

Glad to hear the thread is of use though!. 

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :the 6g72/6g74 bolts up to the 4cyl's transmission? I thought that was only for the v6 models of the raider/mk1 montero? I looked into doing the v6 from GM , but if I'm going all out like that, figured I might as well go for toyota reliability under the hood, looking to be able to do some light hauling in the future with this thing, as well as have it be my daily for commuting

trexxit said:

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :the 6g72/6g74 bolts up to the 4cyl's transmission? I thought that was only for the v6 models of the raider/mk1 montero? I looked into doing the v6 from GM , but if I'm going all out like that, figured I might as well go for toyota reliability under the hood, looking to be able to do some light hauling in the future with this thing, as well as have it be my daily for commuting

Oh, sorry.,...no, they bolt up to the 6cyl transmission (and since mine has a V6, that's what I've focused on). I have no idea what works with the 4cylinder stuff. 

Hey, if you want to take a super-long road trip, you can have a V6 automatic trans for free :)