1990 co"MAN"che

[dscowell]

My starter finally decided to kick the bucket. This could be why...

[xaza]

Ooops! Not deep enough to get to intake? That woulda been way worse than the starter.

[dscowell]

xaza previously posted:

[dscowell]

Now that I am finally back home I can start putting some stuff on my truck I have sitting around the garage.

First was the steering box brace. Quick easy upgrade which will be well worth it.

Here is the cliche "This one I bought is so much more solid and strong then the factory one" picture.


Next was volvo injectors. Reading online they should get a little better gas mileage and a little more getty up then the stock ones. The reason being they are four port instead of the stock single port which allows for a better spray pattern.

Here is a bad picture of them. The stock one on top you can see only has the one opening were the bottom has four (you are going to have to trust me because of the glare.)


Everything in place. Just need to get everything tightened down.


When replacing the injectors the fuel rail needed to be disconnected from the fuel lines. When disconnecting the line at the fuel pressure regulator one of the o-rings broke and caused a small leak when running. It was an easy 5 minute fix.

Here is the old O-ring next to the new one. You can see at the bottom of the old one where it ended up breaking causing the leak.


Hopefully more to come as break continues.

[xaza]

What Volvo injectors did you use? Have you noticed a difference? Never mind found that thread.

[dscowell]

Volvo number 0 280 155 746. From my reading these were the best choice for the Renix 4.0L. For HO I think the neon (703) or 5.0L mustang (don't remember the number). If you are interested I'd do research for you engine and get what works best.

Performance wise I have noticed a difference. It has a little more getty up then before. By no means is it a sports car now but I have noticed a difference. My friend who road down with me from college and drove part way noticed a difference as well. The biggest thing I've noticed is now I can accelerate up hills on the highway. Before I could make it up a high and maybe keep my speed but I was rarely ever to speed up. I never thought about passing people going up hill but now I can speed up and pass people going up hill and on flat stretches as well. Gas mileage wise I have seen a small improvement. Before I got roughly 13mpg city and I am now at 15.5mpg. Highway I was at about 18-20mpg and I am now at 20-21mpg. I feel like that is a decent improvement in gas mileage especially for a 25 year old truck.

For the ~$50 I spent on the injectors and rebuild kit I feel like it was worth it.

Installing them was a breeze and I rebuilt them in my dorm room with a screw, screwdriver, channel locks, blow dryer and a small hammer.

[dscowell]

I have not updated in quite some time and I know you guys are all dying to know what I have done if anything. I try and keep it in chronological order and not be too wordy.

Well first off at school I replaced my blinker lenses. I didn't get any pictures of them specifically but you will see in other pictures. I did this to help clean up the front end and to make it look cleaner.

Next I got back from MT and didn't really do much but work. Last weekend though I worked on getting my JKS shackles in my truck. Once again I have no pictures although I thought I had some. These were an extreme pain to get in. Well getting them in was easy getting the old ones out was the hard part. As with everything on my truck all the bolts are fairly rusted and all the bushings are seized. So 3 outta the 4 bolts had to be cut. I also had to replace on of the bushing on the leaf springs. Of course when I need to replace the bushing no auto parts near by had it so I had to travel down to commerce city NAPA to get the bushing. Once that was done it was smooth sailing and got everything in.

The next day I brought my truck into Hill side 4x4. I went there to get my 8.25 in. While I could just about all of this by myself the welding part is what I didn't want to do. I'm not quite comfortable with my welding to attack this and the only welder that I thought would be adequate in power to do the job was a stick. So I decided to leave it to a professional for this one.



So this is a Chrysler 8.25 I picked up from a friend last year. I didn't have the time or money to get it put in before school so it sat in the garage for about a year. It has 3.07 gears which are the best for wheeling but they are the stock gears on my truck and will have to do for now cause regearing isn't cheap or something I have the time to attempt at the moment. It also has a LSD which will be a major improvement over the open diff which the stock D35 had. After it was all installed the guy getting in for me noticed my shocks are now about an inch short. I figured after getting the shackles and axle in with large axle tubes that might be the case. I'm not terribly worried about this cause the shocks were the cheapest skyjackers you could by and for now they should hold me over. Looking at this picture you can see my new shackles and notice I have a ridiculous amount of washers on the leaf spring bolt. This is because all the bolts at NAPA were just a little too long. Now I figured with some lock tight and keeping and eye on them they should be fine. If anyone would knows better please let me know.

Today I got some new tires. My old ones were getting a little worn down and driving between Montana and Colorado they weren't going to last too many trips. I got some Cooper Discoverer STT MAXXs. It came down between these and Duratracs but decided on these simply because I heard less negative reviews about them. While that could be because less people use them I figured regardless of what I got they would work for my needs. The tires I have in the picture above are 235/75 which crosses over to about 29/9.5. The Coopers I got are 31/10.50. They fit real well I think and help give about an inch more clearance. Now we just have to see how everything preforms on the trail.



Now I have a couple more things laying around in the garage that need to be installed but there is no real hurry. I'll keep you guys updated as things happen.

[dscowell]

Haven't updated in awhile because not a whole lot has happened. The other day though I was heading up to a friends house in the mountains and one of my u-joints finally broke. I was expecting this to happen but was trying to see how long I could push it before it broke. At least it didn't happen on the way back to Montana somewhere in Wyoming.

Ending up putting my truck in 4wd and slowly drove home with just the front shaft.

[Hypoid]

dscowell previously posted:

[dscowell]

Hypoid previously posted:

[Hypoid]

If you get through this event without having to repair/replace the drive shaft, you came out well.

[dscowell]

Fixed one of my driving lights this weekend. It's been out for about 4 years so it's nice to not have to worry about getting pulled over every time I drive at night. I also got around to some rust repair this weekend as well. I didn't realize how bad my pictures were til I just uploaded them to my computer so my apologies.

I worked on that top spot. The bottom one is a big hole and that's not something I have the skill or time to tackle at the moment.


Cleaned up pretty well. Ended up punching through in one spot but I'm glad I got to it before it got really bad.


There was a big one on my passenger side door and ended up having two little holes. I'm not too worried about cleaning this one perfectly considering it's a door and is a lot easier to replace then my bed sides.


I'm hoping to get my interior torn apart this summer since my dash is cracked, stereo wiring has been bad for about 2 years, the cab is unbelievably loud and unpleasant on my drives to and from school and the carpet could either use a good clean or replaced. I'll try and keep everyone updated best I can.

[dscowell]

Got some work done this weekend. Let me know if you can't see the pictures since that is a common issue I have.

Got a second steering box brace installed since it's been sitting in my garage for a couple years. While I don't need it since I don't have tires big enough it's always better to be safe then sorry.



Also installed a ZJ sway bar. ZJ sway bar was ~1.0175" and the MJ sway bar was ~0.9425" in diameter. ZJ is on the right.


Then finally got the dual diaphragm brake booster in that came out of a XJ. This was more of a pain then what people made it out to be on forums and Youtube. Made multiple brake lines due to breaking some, not making them right or too short but it's done.



Also had to mount the washer fluid about an inch but I can't complain since that took a whole minute to do.

[dscowell]

No more two tone paint job for me!



Also replaced the old small broken side mirrors with larger XJ mirrors


Also got my broken lock cylinders replaced. Hopefully never have to do that again.


Then while I had the doors apart I put some dynamat around the speakers and parts of the door. My dad had some left over from doing his stereo system so he gave it to me. Now it may have been good to cover the whole door in it but what I read on various forums and websites that only 25% of an area needs to be covered in CLD for maximum money to effectiveness. I was reading 25% will change the db level by ~10 db, 60% +1-2db and 100% +1-2db. So covering 100% of an area will only make a maximum of a 4 db change which is fairly unnoticeable. I guess saying it changes the decibels isn't the best way to word it since CLD does not actually block sound but changes the sound vibrations from metal to heat. Regardless you should get what I am trying to get at.


Hopefully in the next couple weeks I will get a chance to tear my whole interior apart and cover it in some of the CLD (used above) along with some other sound deadening material. Also hopefully fix my stereo which has been broken for about 2 years now. With that fixed I'll know if dynamat makes a difference around the speakers. I'll update as more happens.

[JandDGreens]

You really notice the difference in breaking with that booster. Really one of the best up-grades I have done to my 91 XJ

[dscowell]

About a month ago I installed some insulation in my truck to try and help with highway driving. Laid down some CLD, CCF and MLV through out as much of the interior as I could. I also fixed my stereo which hasn't worked for ~2 years. Found out one of the speakers fell and the side of the magnet was touching the door and shorting it out. Unfortunately though I get back up to Butte about a couple weeks later and my stereo has started blowing fuses so I'll try and get this figured out. Driving around with no stereo especially on the 12 hour drive up to Butte is painful.

Drove my truck up to my friends shop near Eaton. (Started a trail repair business I suggest you guys check him out if your close.) Stripped my interior out and surprisingly my floor wasn't in terrible shape. All the rust was superficial other then one tiny rust hole but compared to the exterior of my truck I'll take it. Passenger side was pretty wet since my carpet was moist for some reason.


Got a good deal on some 5x7s so I installed those in the back and took out the computer speakers you can see in the picture above. The previous owner had them wired up and they did a good job but for as small as this cab is they took up quite a bit of space.
Here is a comparison between the new and stock speakers.


Since these speakers are much larger we had to do some cutting and custom mounting but everything worked out good.


After all of that we laid down all the insulation which is extremely tedious and time consuming.
CLD down then the CCF. I didn't get any pictures of the MLV since it was getting late but it looks the same.


Put everything back together and called it good. Now I would love to tell you guys the huge difference this made but it didn't. Driving home was still loud and even more frustrating since I spent all weekend and about $400 to get this stuff laid down and it didn't do anything. Then I realized most of the noise is probably coming from the door seals. I got some new seals but have yet to install them and once I do i'll get back to you guys on whether or not they mad a difference.

[dscowell]

Did a couple small projects this weekend. Brake lights haven't been working since I replaced the boost. I screwed too much with the brake sensor and bent it so I got a new one and got that fixed real quick. I also replaced my headlight bezels since they got pretty beat up during the hail storm at the beginning of the summer.

Old bezel and the new all black front end


Also found a piece of my cat lodged in my tail pipe which was nice...


The major problem with my truck right now is I have cracked windshield from the hail. I tried getting it replace but the guys refused since there is rust around my windshield which has apparently compromised the pinch weld and according to Colorado law they can't replace it. Went to a body shop and they quoted my $2400 to fix it which is how much my truck is worth so I'm trying to figure out some solution to that since I can't afford that nor should I pay that. Man does it suck being a poor college kid.

[Getaklu]

May be able to do the winshield yourself or find an installer that will do it on a moonlight basis. The understanding will be no warranty. Glass is a lot cheaper when insurance isn't involved as well.

[dscowell]

That's what I thought. The guy at the body shop told me he could do it with no warranty but if he pulled it off and it was rusted though enough he couldn't get another one in and that's what I'm worried about. Windshield it's something I really want to do myself either

[dscowell]

Haven't gotten too much done lately mostly because of school but now that I'm working for the summer I can start cranking through some projects.

Got some new front speakers in today. Had some 5 1/4" in but I was constantly having problems with them because wiring and the door panel went straight up to the speaker so it muffled the speakers. Got some JBL 6.5" 2-way 4 ohms to match my rears.


You can see the new speakers are significantly larger.


Putting them in required some cutting since the stock speakers were 5 1/4" and since these are larger they needed to be moved as well. The window crank is awfully close but it'll still work.

I'm hoping this summer to get my T-case rebuilt, get a SYE put in, upgraded steering, new coils up front, shocks front and rear as well as a new track bar. Probably some other little stuff. Stay tuned.