FJ40 I call Shipwreck

[65RHDEER]

I agree Dan, it was an illuminating post!

[SuperBuickGuy]

actually, it's an illuminated post

[Russell]

I wanted to share this. http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/5905849843.html

[SuperBuickGuy]

what a deal, only 70k

[SuperBuickGuy]

Irritation time. I hate it when I know about something, then rationalize that knowledge away. What happened today? So I'm ordering the bits to redo the electrical system because of the blown alternator - and something simply isn't making sense. I've run countless battery-in-the-trunk set ups without a problem. Never need to do the monitor wire to the battery.... then I start blowing alternators....

when I put the painless system in, I thought "I hope they put a resistor wire in the switch-to-alternator wire. I was going to put the typical 80 ohm, 5 watt (instead of a light bulb) inline but I then thought "well, they don't say it needs it only to protect it from backfeed from the coil".... yeah, stupid me. there is no resistor in the wire - thus the system overcharges, I'd really be lit if it had destroyed my two Optima Yellowtop batteries.... as it is. I'm still pissed. Moral of the story... even the pros who've done this a billion times miss something. *cussing*

[SuperBuickGuy]

coming soon....


time to wire the resistor in


and worked on the rest of the wiring.... I need to protect the connections and make it look a little more pro rather then pirate.

[SuperBuickGuy]

A gift from a friend


I hate wiring


oh look, corrosion.... wonder why the alternator failed?

I drove this thing for quite awhile before the alternators started failing - it needs a good signal from the battery, of course, corrosion would kill that signal.

finished the install of the jumper cable connection


and back




while I'm at this, might as well clean up the ground that runs through the firewall

imagine a hole there... will happen Sunday (I hope)

[silver_bullet]

glad to hear that the troubleshooting is paying dividends!

[SuperBuickGuy]

finished up the wiring and about a zillion other things today... fortunately, it's now mobile again

[SuperBuickGuy]

More parts for the stupidest, most boring build ever



Buick isn't sure


best part of the parts and the build... it's mine and I don't hear the suckers because of how awesome it is.

[hauen]

Like you'd care even if you could hear them. FWIW I like it!

[Russell]

If they are real bead locks and will make it better off road I like, if they are fake bead locks I like the shiny ones better. Thanks for letting me share my opinion

[SuperBuickGuy]

Amazon stole my tires
see?


so I paid extra to get valve stems delivered today.... so I took the tires and raced down to the tire shop to get them dismounted....


but of course they don't get delivered today.... now sometime before the 7th. So let's recap (yeah, a pun). No stems, no tires. I'll go buy some replacements tomorrow and unload on some poor call center chick... fortunately I've been saving my angst so it should be good... except that I go buy more parts. I could have even gotten them from the tire shop - but no, ugh. Still beats the local shops.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Spare removal system completed



I'm quite sure there were 2 billion billion billion bolts - all needing to be tightened evenly...


dynamic weight inserts here

dynamic weights

this is a first for me, so we'll see if I'm next fishing them out with a magnet

hmmm, not too shabby


so after a bit of trial and error - I figured putting taps in roughly quadrants would help... it did. A lot


so light it doesn't even touch the ground


and there it is.


a bit wider track, which is a bit unfortunate because I think I'm on the wrong side of the line to do the narrower trails... ah well, it does look good and gives me a better turning circle.

[STINEY]

I don't normally care for the headlock look........but that is a nice look you have going on there. Maybe it's the fact that these are on a real rig and not a mall crawler.

Steel balance beads? Brave man, but my plastic ones will quite likely powder themselves to oblivion, so who knows. Will be interesting either way.