A-man930

Here's an update video from this guy on tdiclub. He's got mounts and trans. adapters for sale here If this guy didn't live in British Columbia I'd totally be taking a road trip and beg for a test drive :bowdown:

I've got the full console in charcoal grey.

A dirt drag MJ would be first on here I believe... Do it!

+1 for pulling the pan. If it were a more difficult job than it is then I'd say do some more checking but since its so easy...

I've heard of ATK cam bearing failures as well...

I spent a bunch of time pondering under it last night and all but decided to pull everything out of the way, strip the entire floor (inside and out) down to bare metal, fix the actual holes, weld in a Claytons crossmember, and seal it all up fresh. I'll deal with the rockers later.

Well I've given it all I had and held off the rust cancer for a long time, but I think the day is near when I'm gonna have to get serious and do some major work before its too late. I've all but decided on Spadano Enterprises ROCKer panel sliders to take care of the pinholes developing on the outer panel (http://spadanoenterprises.com/-mj--comanche.html) but I'm not sure about the inner rockers' condition. Is there any way (short of drilling a hole and poking a flashlight in there) to get a heads up on how they are? I took pictures of the floor issues. Water likes to sit here and I was prompted to peel up the bedliner coating and found this: The driver's side was patched with fiberglass years ago and is finally failing; I'm not so certain a replacement floor pan would cover this far up the footwell... The passenger's side isn't as bad, but the firewall looks different to me... has this been fixed before?

Satisfied to say that I set the brake and walked away from the truck with it idling for the first time in 6 or 7 years; never though something so simple could be so great! :clapping: I had my students clean, lube, and adjust the rear brakes and I adjusted the front cable. Now I just need to find a pedal pad and "stop" to put between the bracket and the pedal. WELL WORTH THE EFFORT!

We did kind of run away with this one, lol A good discussion for sure.

Actually, no. The lathe only turns the rotor, not the pad. These shims require the pad friction material to wear to a slighty (0.5-1.0°) tapered condition. Not helped at all by turning the rotors, other than that the freshly turned surface will help them seat in to the proper angle faster. :) I'm guilty of typing before thinking completely, in this thread anyways :doh: Turning the rotor on the hub would address any run-out condition of the hub flange itself but these shims would be moving the plane the hub rotates in (hence the camber adjustment). So yea, the only way to adjust for this would be some kind of tapered shim in the caliper bracket... not worth it ;) I'm going to have to call you out on this one. I grew up in the era of muscle cars and standard (non-power) steering. The shop manuals of the day (of which I still have a few) occasionally mentioned that positive caster contributes to tracking and return-to-center of the steering wheel. But the increased return to center meant increased steering effort, so caster was generally specified as less for manual steering than for power steering. Camber was to be zero. For example, here are the alignment specs from a 1966 American Motors factory shop manual: Caster: . . . . . w/o power steering = 0 to 1/2 degree positive . . . . . w/ power steering = 3/4 to 1-1/2 degree positive Camber = -1/4 to +1/4 degree, 0 preferred Toe-in = 1/16" to 3/16", 1/8" preferred These specs are typical of that day and age. Benefits of positive camber (according to my textbook): -decreases spindle leverage (vehicle load closer to the inner bearing) -decreases road shock Benefits of negative camber: -increases spindle leverage (vehicle load closer to the outer bearing) -increased road shock -quicker wear on wheel bearing and suspension components I was in agreement with 1stDuce on his camber comments but the more I read into spindle leverage and its effects I think its backwards. BTW I've always heard from the old-timers to increase the caster specs when aligning a classic car that now has radial tires on it to maintain directional stability... not sure if that comment adds anything to the discussion but hey.

I'll add that any concerns with the brakes could be addressed with an on-car lathe if so desired.

If you've experienced the ridiculous roofing tar dielectric grease mess on this connector you'll appreciate how clean this guy is now This one is a little harder to clean out This combo worked really well I sealed the bulkhead connector and the clutch master cylinder against the firewall with some black RTV to keep the leaks out of the cabin. I really need to replace the weatherstrip across the cowling to keep the water from getting there in the first place.

Correct me if I'm forgetting something, but a failed ball joint or bent part (knuckle, inner-c, axle tube, etc) is pretty well the only way you'll get a significant cross-camber condition... The OP hasn't mentioned checking the ball joints. +1 on the dragging brakes. A partial hose restriction or sticky caliper can and will cause a pull. You've got me thinking really hard here. Trying to alter caster with shims behind the LCA on one side only would accomplish nothing but trying to twist the axle. But would you perhaps influence the setback condition?? I guess it depends on the condition of all the bushings (especially the UCAs)...

Road crown, caster, camber (not so much on our trucks), tire conicity, and (new to me) front setback can all contribute to a pull or drift; hard to say what explains your situation. Alignments regularly hand me my butt at work. To the OP, I would encourage you to switch your front tires left to right and verify you don't have a tire pull; I'm tellin' ya its worth a try ($$) before you pay someone to measure it up and perhaps find nothing wrong with it...

Projects always seem to snowball around here. I took advantage of the park brake pedal being out to clean up the firewall a bit.

Installed it last night. This is a picture of where the bolt passes through the dash brace and the pedal. This is welded to the body from the factory.. 25 years ago. A replacement nut with some RTV does the trick just fine. I'm not sure what else to post besides to say that it works sitting still in the garage

Ok I'm reading about front setback...

Have you tried swapping the front tires left to right? This solves "my car pulls" concerns just as much as alignment adjustments in my experience. I'm not against the "old fashioned" way of doing things very often, but I say get it measured up at a reputable alignment shop and see what's what. Maybe It's just Friday, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how a shorter wheelbase on the left would compensate for road crown...

Got the two larger bushings as a birthday gift!

I think I dig it! When the time comes to fab up a front bumper I'm likely to mimic something like that over a "stinger" hoop-style... Great pic too . :MJ 1: .

Shoot. If your teeth are in reasonable condition I would recommend Cruiser's method before going crazy like I did! I guess your results were good?!

Who is the push bumper from?

Here's the other threads I have read: ftpiercecracker1 had this one http://comancheclub.com/topic/34536-diy-e-brake-fix/ cruiser54 your pictures are down and we never got a verdict... http://comancheclub.com/topic/47303-new-parking-brake-fix/

Here's another version of the fix: http://comancheclub.com/topic/48483-parking-brake-pedal-fix-unverified/

My primary issue was the pedal having a bunch of lateral play that caused poor teeth engagement with the pawl; and it had been happening for a while (hence the uneven wear that I had to correct). Simply changing how hard the pawl teeth bit into the pedal teeth would have been a band-aid at best in my case. This should be a permanent fix so long as the stud stays put in those lousy threads I tapped.