I took it to uwharrie national forest last weekend for a veterans day ride. I pulled nearly two all nighters getting it cranked and moving under its own power. It went on the trailer with half the floor boards, a ever so slight fuel drip, and water drip- of my own creation, smh- described below... I went with no intention of getting on the trail, just to visit the veterans and some old friends I hadn't seen in a few years- cuz I been ass deep in the shop...
I had last minute decided to change a fitting at the heater port of the water pump, to get more chassis clearance. After I pulled the current one, I realized I ordered the wrong fitting- soooo, when putting original fitting back in (at 4am mind you) I cracked the damn pump. Well, I wasn't going to miss my day out of the shop...so I cleaned the anodizing from the fitting, drained water and dried the pump, acetone the **** out of it, and tig welded the fitting into the cracked housing. Very slowly (1/2" at a time) so as not to screw up the other port or the thermostat. There is one slight annoying pinhole drip yet, that I'll be fixing this weekend.
Got to the event, unloaded and chatted with a dozen or so build followers and friends, letting it idle for an hour or more. Everything is good, so far. A couple seeping fittings on trans cooler line and steering cooler fittings after the heat and cooling cycle, but really a non issue. All told, a successful afternoon. Oh, except it turns out my used rear grizzly locker is defunct... only powers left tire...smh. But I have a spare drop out with a spool going in this weekend.
Still much left to do before loading for RBD @ Busted Knuckle Off Road Park, thanksgiving night...
-Change rear third
-Change rear lower spring (225/350 now), currently zero pre load at ride height. Front is great 150/150 1.5" pre load.
-finish passengers floor and dog box
-couple wiring tid bits; rear stock taillights, front turn signal led mod, wire heater fan
- wrap and insulate headers
- install skids
- channel tailgate for clearance of racing lights when closed
- bleed brakes a couple more times
Past couple days I've;
- finished interior lighting including dash indicators
- wipers installed
- Yukon hardcore hubs needed a thicker spacer to operate correctly- completed
-headlight relay mod
- fixed fuel and trans leak, still need to fix leaky Lokar dipstick at block...????
-plumbed and installed the fire bottle suppression and interior extinguisher
Initial drive impression...
- comfy and cozy
-a bit stiff but I haven't played with the dsc adjusters yet, currently set midway on both low and high speed compression. Current shims- front 1:1 ratio; 2,2,1 comp/ 30# reb... rear .7 ratio - 3,3,2 comp/ 30# reb, 225 nitro.
- very peppy in both ranges, surprisingly so in 2wd; I was pleasantly surprised with this, but had anticipated it, coming from heavy tons on 43's in the past.
There will be more progress pics through next week and hopefully some video throughout the weekend!
Matt
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