Connect
October 14th, 2008, 11:58 AM
On Thursday DSI messaged me in regards to a post on Pirate from Dave Cole looking for people to go out to the Hammers with him and Rally Track on Saturday to do some race radio and GPS tracking testing for the KOH 09 race :Big Grin:
The second he sent me the link I knew he wanted to go... Here it is 3pm Thursday, his rig was still destroyed from Upper Bronco, leaking engine oil tranny fluid gear oil from the t-case and rear diff, the drive train was rocking back and forth in it's own mounts, the tires were all full of water, the front output of the D300 needed to be shimmed, and the rig had a severe over heating problem that was increased by the fact that the alternator was going out and not outputting enough current to allow the fans to run full speed.
Most of the problems we knew about, figured could be band-aided in time to run for 1 day at the Hammers, but it was still a Tall work order for a short amount of wheeling, and a LOT of driving. Fawk it, don't have anything better going on this weekend, we were going to start tearing his rig apart to be sold in parts to prepare for his new KOH rig... But a weekend of wheeling sounded a lot more fun, and the current rig doesn't need to be torn apart for at least a few weeks until the new chassis arrives.
And so the task was on, after work we went and picked up his other set of wheels and the 40" Baja's because we figured it'd be a real PITA to dismount his 37's to take all the water out, and remount them. Besides, a go fast tire with more diff clearance couldn't hurt when we knew we'd be running some go fast desert. Got back to my place and started tearing into the rig to find the cause of the leaks and rocking, as well as to see if we could fix the t-case front output and shift rail boot that was spewing gear oil out the back. Pulled half the interior out in order to get to the t-case as well as track down the tranny fluid leak, and find out that we would have to reshim the front output, and tighten up pretty much ALL the tranny pan bolts, the t-case adapter, and clocking ring in the t-case. Tighten up the motor mounts, oil pan sensor hole which was leaking oil, and make sure it stayed sealed. We couldn't fix the shift rail boot on the back, but figured Jesse could machine us a nice cover on Friday after work in no time, so we put the D300 back in and left the interior off to be finished up at work on Friday.
Then it was time for a trip down to Vato-Zone for some fluids, an alternator, and a cool little lighter plug so that we could plug his GPS into the rig and do some real time tracking. As we were leaving, we knew the rear diff was still going to leak, even after we pull the cover and re-seal it. The cheap diff cover was flared up in between the diff cover holes, and it was going to be easier to buy a new one. Off to summit it is! I think we got to summit around 8, and took a look at what they had in stock... Ok a cheap chromo steal one, will probably leak again the next time it has to be removed, $25. The next upgrade would be the 16 gauge stainless steel stamped cover, a better option, but still an $80 cover the same as the heavy duty stamped steel ones for three times the cost, but bling stainless. Nah, that's stupid to waste that kind of money on a temporary diff cover. Then it was on to the real bling, the Moser Engineering cast aluminum D60 cover with cap retainers built in. Damn that's a bling ass $180 diff cover!!! It's not going to fit though, we'll have to grind about 3/8" off the top in order to fit under the rear truss. Fawk it, this cover will last a life time, might as well get it now rather then later. It's now 9:30 by the time we get back to my place, after dinner.
It turns out spending a Lot of money at summit has it's benefits, you seem to rack up something called 'Summit Bucks'... And when you work for a fab shop that is constantly making trips to Reno to buy parts, that shit adds up! After the summit bucks discount, the total comes out to $7.53! :eek:
Score.
Back to my place to drop in the alternator, pull the rear diff cover, grind the new one to fit, install the new one, put the D300 back in, and fill fluids. Fawking sweet, it's now 11:30 :rolleyes: Lets mount 4 beadlock wheels with some stiff ass sidewall 40" baja's. After finding the impact and hooking up the too damn small compressor, we mounted all 4 beadlocks and had them aired up to about 15psi. Sweet, one more thing done. now we gotta put them on the rig, shouldn't be a big deal, the 37's are fawking Heavy bitches with water in them, but shouldn't be a big issue. Well his wheels that we put the 40's on have a major recessed bolt hole, and only a thin walled socket can Barely get into the hole to tighten the lug nuts down. Cool, DSI has it all figured out. We got the front done and it's on to the rear... Oh shit, the right rear wheel studs are bent, not an issue on the other wheels as they don't have the small recessed hole, but with these ones, you can't fit the fawking thin wall socket in!! Fawking awesome. So after what seemed like forever fawking with rotating the tire to try and get all the lug nuts tight, we are finally partially done with the rig.
It's now 1:30am Friday. The rig runs, alternator is good, fluids on everything but the t-case is topped off and holding, wheels and tires are mounted. Passenger side of the car is still disassembled so that later in the day after work we could stick the shift rail boot back in place and top off the t-case fluid with some gear oil. DSI Hotlaps around the block spinning tires, revving the motor, making my new neighbors I'm sure, REAL happy with me! :rolleyes: Ok, hook his trailer up to my rig, load the buggy up, strap it down, and pack all the parts into it for the trip to work. The temp gauge in my truck is reading 33 degrees. Sweet, they said it might snow tonight...
4 hours of sleep later, I wake up and finish packing everything I need for a day down at the hammers, and head out to my truck to find snow flurries starting to fall. Sweet, it'll probably die down in a little bit. I tow his rig into work and park it out back, it's starting to flurry pretty damn good. As the day goes on, it starts dumping. Sweet, the seats are going to be soaked with fawking water for the whole weekend. Luckily our new production shop next door is empty, and the boss lets us park the truck and rig in the shop so that the whole thing doesn't get soaked. Ok, can't wait til 4 cause I'm going to the fawkin hammers!!!
4 rolls around, we still have to make a shift rail boot to keep the t-case from spewing oil out at high speeds to that the case doesn't explode. Show jesse the part we need, he's still working at that point and can't help us. He does have a box of miscellaneous stuff in the trunk of his car, I run out and find a small tube with the perfect OD and length of what we need to stick in the back of the t-case. Weld an end on it, and it fits in perfectly. Reassemble the interior, change trucks, and it's off to DSI's to get a few more things and we are off! We had to stop by Shaffers on the way by, but we were out of there by 7pm.
Just about after Topaz, it started snowing. Well scratch that, let me re-phrase it. Blizzarding. Zero fawking visibility straight up blizzarding! Towing a buggy through a fawking blizzard. Good thing we tarped up the seats in anticipation of some light snow... haha. Heading up the hill to Bridgeport in Zero visibility we were passed by several caravans of people coming down the hill, including Two caravans of MOTORCYCLES being police escorted down the hill!!! un fawking believeable, it's below freezing, and here comes a parade of harleys down the fawking snow covered road. It was a site to be seen! Towards the summit we passed an abandoned harley on the side of the road, apparently it was too much for him lol. Grabbed a few pics of the flurries!
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e248/nrminime/hammers%20oct%2008/snow1.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e248/nrminime/hammers%20oct%2008/snow2.jpg
A long time later...
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e248/nrminime/hammers%20oct%2008/gps1.jpg
We were over the summit, through bridgeport, and over another summit, and arrived in Bishop. towards the end the temps were below freezing a good amount, but roads were melted. Makes for a good combo!!
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e248/nrminime/hammers%20oct%2008/bishop1.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e248/nrminime/hammers%20oct%2008/bishop2.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e248/nrminime/hammers%20oct%2008/bishop3.jpg
The second he sent me the link I knew he wanted to go... Here it is 3pm Thursday, his rig was still destroyed from Upper Bronco, leaking engine oil tranny fluid gear oil from the t-case and rear diff, the drive train was rocking back and forth in it's own mounts, the tires were all full of water, the front output of the D300 needed to be shimmed, and the rig had a severe over heating problem that was increased by the fact that the alternator was going out and not outputting enough current to allow the fans to run full speed.
Most of the problems we knew about, figured could be band-aided in time to run for 1 day at the Hammers, but it was still a Tall work order for a short amount of wheeling, and a LOT of driving. Fawk it, don't have anything better going on this weekend, we were going to start tearing his rig apart to be sold in parts to prepare for his new KOH rig... But a weekend of wheeling sounded a lot more fun, and the current rig doesn't need to be torn apart for at least a few weeks until the new chassis arrives.
And so the task was on, after work we went and picked up his other set of wheels and the 40" Baja's because we figured it'd be a real PITA to dismount his 37's to take all the water out, and remount them. Besides, a go fast tire with more diff clearance couldn't hurt when we knew we'd be running some go fast desert. Got back to my place and started tearing into the rig to find the cause of the leaks and rocking, as well as to see if we could fix the t-case front output and shift rail boot that was spewing gear oil out the back. Pulled half the interior out in order to get to the t-case as well as track down the tranny fluid leak, and find out that we would have to reshim the front output, and tighten up pretty much ALL the tranny pan bolts, the t-case adapter, and clocking ring in the t-case. Tighten up the motor mounts, oil pan sensor hole which was leaking oil, and make sure it stayed sealed. We couldn't fix the shift rail boot on the back, but figured Jesse could machine us a nice cover on Friday after work in no time, so we put the D300 back in and left the interior off to be finished up at work on Friday.
Then it was time for a trip down to Vato-Zone for some fluids, an alternator, and a cool little lighter plug so that we could plug his GPS into the rig and do some real time tracking. As we were leaving, we knew the rear diff was still going to leak, even after we pull the cover and re-seal it. The cheap diff cover was flared up in between the diff cover holes, and it was going to be easier to buy a new one. Off to summit it is! I think we got to summit around 8, and took a look at what they had in stock... Ok a cheap chromo steal one, will probably leak again the next time it has to be removed, $25. The next upgrade would be the 16 gauge stainless steel stamped cover, a better option, but still an $80 cover the same as the heavy duty stamped steel ones for three times the cost, but bling stainless. Nah, that's stupid to waste that kind of money on a temporary diff cover. Then it was on to the real bling, the Moser Engineering cast aluminum D60 cover with cap retainers built in. Damn that's a bling ass $180 diff cover!!! It's not going to fit though, we'll have to grind about 3/8" off the top in order to fit under the rear truss. Fawk it, this cover will last a life time, might as well get it now rather then later. It's now 9:30 by the time we get back to my place, after dinner.
It turns out spending a Lot of money at summit has it's benefits, you seem to rack up something called 'Summit Bucks'... And when you work for a fab shop that is constantly making trips to Reno to buy parts, that shit adds up! After the summit bucks discount, the total comes out to $7.53! :eek:
Score.
Back to my place to drop in the alternator, pull the rear diff cover, grind the new one to fit, install the new one, put the D300 back in, and fill fluids. Fawking sweet, it's now 11:30 :rolleyes: Lets mount 4 beadlock wheels with some stiff ass sidewall 40" baja's. After finding the impact and hooking up the too damn small compressor, we mounted all 4 beadlocks and had them aired up to about 15psi. Sweet, one more thing done. now we gotta put them on the rig, shouldn't be a big deal, the 37's are fawking Heavy bitches with water in them, but shouldn't be a big issue. Well his wheels that we put the 40's on have a major recessed bolt hole, and only a thin walled socket can Barely get into the hole to tighten the lug nuts down. Cool, DSI has it all figured out. We got the front done and it's on to the rear... Oh shit, the right rear wheel studs are bent, not an issue on the other wheels as they don't have the small recessed hole, but with these ones, you can't fit the fawking thin wall socket in!! Fawking awesome. So after what seemed like forever fawking with rotating the tire to try and get all the lug nuts tight, we are finally partially done with the rig.
It's now 1:30am Friday. The rig runs, alternator is good, fluids on everything but the t-case is topped off and holding, wheels and tires are mounted. Passenger side of the car is still disassembled so that later in the day after work we could stick the shift rail boot back in place and top off the t-case fluid with some gear oil. DSI Hotlaps around the block spinning tires, revving the motor, making my new neighbors I'm sure, REAL happy with me! :rolleyes: Ok, hook his trailer up to my rig, load the buggy up, strap it down, and pack all the parts into it for the trip to work. The temp gauge in my truck is reading 33 degrees. Sweet, they said it might snow tonight...
4 hours of sleep later, I wake up and finish packing everything I need for a day down at the hammers, and head out to my truck to find snow flurries starting to fall. Sweet, it'll probably die down in a little bit. I tow his rig into work and park it out back, it's starting to flurry pretty damn good. As the day goes on, it starts dumping. Sweet, the seats are going to be soaked with fawking water for the whole weekend. Luckily our new production shop next door is empty, and the boss lets us park the truck and rig in the shop so that the whole thing doesn't get soaked. Ok, can't wait til 4 cause I'm going to the fawkin hammers!!!
4 rolls around, we still have to make a shift rail boot to keep the t-case from spewing oil out at high speeds to that the case doesn't explode. Show jesse the part we need, he's still working at that point and can't help us. He does have a box of miscellaneous stuff in the trunk of his car, I run out and find a small tube with the perfect OD and length of what we need to stick in the back of the t-case. Weld an end on it, and it fits in perfectly. Reassemble the interior, change trucks, and it's off to DSI's to get a few more things and we are off! We had to stop by Shaffers on the way by, but we were out of there by 7pm.
Just about after Topaz, it started snowing. Well scratch that, let me re-phrase it. Blizzarding. Zero fawking visibility straight up blizzarding! Towing a buggy through a fawking blizzard. Good thing we tarped up the seats in anticipation of some light snow... haha. Heading up the hill to Bridgeport in Zero visibility we were passed by several caravans of people coming down the hill, including Two caravans of MOTORCYCLES being police escorted down the hill!!! un fawking believeable, it's below freezing, and here comes a parade of harleys down the fawking snow covered road. It was a site to be seen! Towards the summit we passed an abandoned harley on the side of the road, apparently it was too much for him lol. Grabbed a few pics of the flurries!
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e248/nrminime/hammers%20oct%2008/snow1.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e248/nrminime/hammers%20oct%2008/snow2.jpg
A long time later...
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e248/nrminime/hammers%20oct%2008/gps1.jpg
We were over the summit, through bridgeport, and over another summit, and arrived in Bishop. towards the end the temps were below freezing a good amount, but roads were melted. Makes for a good combo!!
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e248/nrminime/hammers%20oct%2008/bishop1.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e248/nrminime/hammers%20oct%2008/bishop2.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e248/nrminime/hammers%20oct%2008/bishop3.jpg