GonzoTheGreat

Do you want commentary here, on those threads specifically, or otherwise? The radiator one is way off. Also the end result doesn't really seem necessary, I kind of wish I'd left mine stock.

Sorry Mike, I haven't forgotten you. As I mentioned, it's quite primitive. The cooking situation is a single-burner stove for one-pot meals and coffee. It's pretty snug in the bed. We upgraded along the way to a 3" foam mattress on plywood, across the top the the storage bins, but the tent was still the preferred locale, weather-permitting. We've got just enough space at the foot to keep backpacks, and daily-use stuff. I put a 12v socket in the back, running off the auxiliary battery to run the Coleman electric cooler. That sits in the back while driving, and up front at night. The shower tube holds about 6 gallons. I made that in Costa Rica, because everyone else down there has one, and I got jealous. I have a ~20' female-female hose to fill it from the spigot, the top valve is just a vent, and it's about a 10' regular hose with a spray nozzle, and a shrader valve in the end cap for the Stanley compressor to attach and build pressure. I had planned to upgrade from ratchet strap mounting, but then I kind of preferred looking like a contractor versus a tourist. All in all it's super basic, but we mostly stayed at real campgrounds with real facilities, and only roughed it a few times.

I hadn't planned on being as far north as Chicago, but since we ended up there, I hopped up into WI for a day to visit a friend, then I ended up swinging by Kenosha to see the site of the old AMC plant where the 4.0L was made. Not much to see nowadays, but I couldn't resist the detour. I also stopped by my favorite museum: From there it was back down to Chicago, where we hopped on US Rt. 20, which, in addition to being the longest road in America, and celebrating its 100th birthday this year, also runs right through my hometown, so I figured it'd be a good way to get home with better views than I-90. That plan eventually changed. I detoured into Toledo, so see where the MJ was made. We visited the old Willy's Overland factory smokestack, and took a quick pic at the Stellantis factory. That detour, turned into a trip to Detroit (I had never tried Detroit-style pizza, and I am sooo glad that I did). And then we pursued my ferry interests with an international ride across the Detroit River. Canada was the only remaining North American country that had not been included in this road trip, and I just couldn't let that happen. So we drove across Ontario, and spent a couple days at Niagra Falls. I had never been to the Canadian side, and I was always skeptical of those who claimed "the Canadian side is better," but no joke, it's way cooler. The view of the falls is a little more complete, but there is also just tons of stuff to do. Of course, there was plenty of Molson and Poutine to be had, but there's also a huge wine culture in the area, and the Welland canal ended up beeing super cool. Now, we had been to the Panama canal visitors center on this same trip, and we paid admission, squeezed in with thousands of tourists, paid way too much for a cup of coffee, and basically stood in a cage to watch the ships. And yes, it was historical, unique, and I would do it again, but, at the Welland Canal, you literally park just a few feet (meters) from the lock, and the museum, parking, everything, is free. After that, we were on the home stretch. We jumped back on rt 20 in Buffalo, and followed it all the way back. We stopped at the Historic US 20 visitors' center in Seneca Falls, NY to get a little Rt 20 swag (I didn't know such a thing existed a month ago). And then that was it. Home. over 2 years and 20,000 miles later, back in Mass. I had 3 days from arrival to get my (deferred) annual inspection sticker on the truck. Of course I took a rock in the windshield in upstate NY. So monday and tuesday saw a new power steering pump, a windshield, and a sticker. Now we're unpacking 2 years of vagabonding, and hopefully now that this is done, I can give some much-needed attention to my '88

Well, we took rt 66 from OKC almost entirely up to Chicago. We saw all manner of road side attractions, museums, and visitors' centers. The grand total of muffler men sighted was 7 on this leg. We jumped on the interstate a couple times across MO and IL to get up to Chicago a little faster, so I could fly home for a funeral, but we tried to hit all the big attractions. of particular interest upon arrival were the deep-dish pizza, and the Chicago dog.

Thanks! I'm glad to hear my vagabonding is appreciated! Same. I always loved my local sears. I have a lot of tools from there. It was a real shame seeing them go. It was a weird nostalgic trip seeing this one. It's EXACTLY the same as any sears I've ever been to, just has all the price tags in pesos.

Pachuca, MX, I didn't see anyone outside any of the houses to ask, and I felt a little weird knocking on random doors, so I didn't meet the owner, but it looks like it's in very good shape. Someone has definitely taken care of this one.

After CDMX we went up into Hidalgo for a bit. We visited a canyon that was made by the same volcanic process that created devil's tower in WY. I also tried "Pulque" which is typical from that region. This is fermented agave sap, which historically was the beverage of the clergy in the Aztecs' religion. Slimy, yet satisfying. From there we traveled up in the mountains for a couple days, before coming back down in the state of San Luis Potosi. There was a super cool river that is vivid blue from the mineral deposits in the soil. Then we worked our way up Tamaulipas toward Reynosa, where we crossed into Texas, then up to Mustang Island in Corpus Cristi. We took the decidedly non-sketchy ferry from Port Aransas to the mainland. I was a little disappointed that I didn't fear for my safety even once. We camped in Galveston Island state park, then visited some friends in Dallas. Spent a night in OK City, and now we're setting out on Rt 66. There's still no official timeline for this trip, but my power steering failed completely on the way to Dallas, and the power brakes are asking me for a lot more pressure than they used to. I could try to micky mouse something on the road (I'm close to Disney, OK at the moment), but I think it makes sense to manually steer back toward basecamp for quite a few reasons actually. I'll try to stay a little more current with my updates for this last leg.

Mexico city was a good time. I've never seen a city with so much green space, and the public transit system is cheap and good. We checked out a couple of museums Including the "Templo Mayor" which is the ruins of the Aztec capital. Also, apparently Sears is still a thing in Mexico. They still have Craftsman tools, they still have an army of perfume pushers at the base of the escalators, and some locations even have auto centers. This one also had a cafe at the top, with a cool view. We also visited Teotihuacan, outside of the city to see the old pyramids. The scale of this place was incredible. I can't imagine what it must have looked like as a thriving city. I will also shamelessly admit, I think my favorite part of Mexico city was "Costra." Which means "crust" in Spanish, and is the most incredible street food/after-a-night-out snack. It's a taco, but they put the cheese and meat directly on the flat grill first, until it starts to get crispy, then you fold up that greasy, crunchy goodness in a warm, fresh tortilla, add the condiment(s) of your choice, and mow down. I'm not gonna say it was a spiritual experience, but I can promise you, I will never be the same, and I mean that in the most positive way. Also, a quick update on my sketchy ferry side quest, this one is hand driven, by a rope across the canal. No cars, but motorcycles are ok. The floor flexes severely with one motorcycle on board. I saw as many as 4 at once. Three pesos (0.17USD) for pedestrians.

Ok, I'm long overdue for an update, so here goes. From Quintana Roo, we cut across the yucatan peninsula, and spent a little time on the gulf coast, then continued up through the lowlands of Veracruz. Outside of the city of Puebla, there is a little town called Chipilo, which was originally settled by a few hundred Italians from Venice back in the 1800s. There are a bunch of "Italian" restaurants that appeal to tourists, but it seems like the genuine Italian descendants are actually all dairy farmers and furniture makers. The old-timers speak a weird blend of the venetian dialect mixed with mexican spanish. It was definitely the most interesting cow town I've ever seen. From there we took the "Paseo de Cortes" to Mexico city. This is the route that Cortez took during his final invasion of the Aztec capital. It passes between two volcanoes, which are Mexico's second and third highest points. At the visitor's center at the top of the pass, my dash-mounted altimeter read 3.600m (11,800ft). We could have gone around the volcanoes and taken the highway, but where's the fun in that? Also, Popocatepetl, the southern volcano was actively erupting, and I thought that would be cool to see. As it turned out, the day that we drove through, it was super overcast, and we couldn't actually see anything. Also, about halfway up there, the engine temp started to creep up. The single electric fan couldn't keep up with the high revs, low speed, and hot, thin atmosphere. I pulled over to let it stabilize, and found out that my power steering no longer works at low rpm. That was a bit of a bummer. I have since installed a second electric fan with a toggle on the dash, and have had no more high temp issues, but the power steering remained hit or miss. Generally it still worked until the engine warmed up.

Oh no! I wish I had known just a couple days sooner! We just crossed from Reynosa into Texas. I'm way behind posting updates on this thread. I'll try to do that later today. We stayed in Monterrey on the trip down. It was super beautiful up there in the mountains. If i come back at some point, i will 100% let you know.

Super straightforward. You can do it with the truck on the ground. The only thing that can really cause a problem is if you snap that top stud on one of the links, or one of the frame-mount bolts, but your truck doesnt look super crusty. Just make sure you use plenty of PB blaster before you attack. Oh and that frame-side bushing is available in different diameters. I think 23mm is the most common, but you might want to measure yours before you buy the new ones, just to make sure.

I only ask because I have been guilty of this myself, but did you fully tighten the hose clamps on the filler neck hoses?

Sounds like you got a great platform! That's gonna take a lot of juice for that blower to be electric. Is the battery bank going in the bed, or is there space underneath? Good luck on the rest of the trip! That's a lot of ups and downs for that little motor.

Okay. The eternally evolving itinerary has brought me back to Quintana Roo, and I have retrieved the Comanche. I don't have a lot of pictures yet, but I think that's ok, because the forum is dealing with storage issues right now anyway. This is where it sat. I'm again, a little sad to see the result of storage in a tropical jungle, but all in all, things weren't too bad after a good deep-cleaning. I spent a couple days cleaning and organizing, slapped some crisp Michelin blades on my '97+ wiper arms, and headed for the border to get my permit to drive it. I'll work on this as soon as we get it presentable But here's a pic of the "office" I wouldn't call it ergonomic, but it's saved me quite a bit of hassle having my own printer on-board. Here it is after a bath. We just finished the documents yesterday, and hit the road. Stay tuned for updates. I'm not sure what the timeframe is, or the destination for this leg, but for sure we'll cross Mexico, and eventually get back to the states, then who knows

Thats the number one choice for stainless in the superyacht scene, at least on this side of the atlantic. Excellent product!

Can we talk more about this CCV situation? Is the crankcase able to relieve blowby pressure through its vent on the valve cover, as its supposed to? If its building excess pressure in the crank, that pressure is gonna want to find a way out. The dipstick tube looks pretty central to the oily mess. Any chance thats whats going on?

This is awesome. You've gotta post pics when its done.

Looks like there are not a lot of options on rockauto.com for the dana 30, but USA Standard gear does have 3.54s available. There are many options for bearings/seals/rebuild kits.

I also used the '95 pre-bled, pre-assembled kit when i swapped in the ax-15. It bolted up fine in my '88.

This looks like an incredibly clean truck. I think we need more pictures!

This is awesome! I'm glad to see it moves under its own power again! Its a beautiful truck!

The european market was completely different. Check out this stick shift turbodiesel zj. Who knows what else was available. And this one definitely has drums in the rear. @Caspar can we get a closer photo of the passenger side shock mount? It may just be an XJ c8.25 with a shock mount swapped. I don't know why it would have the 4 stanchions by the pinion, but the KJ (which is called "Cherokee" in europe) may have overlapped some parts with later XJs

I love the super detailed work, followed by excellent documentation. This is one of my favorite builds on the site. Very well-deserving MJOTM.

Side of highway MX-1 in San Jose del Cabo across from Chevron. Someone tried with some body work at one point, and a 97+ front clip. Most of what remains of the interior is in the bed. Looks like it used to have a cargo lamp. Currently sitting on 3 slicks and a jack stand. ...Its not dead yet.

It should be a 10a, using oversized fuses can be risky. I had that happen to me once. All the lights worked fine until i turned the knob for gauge brightness. The switch was bad. Turns out the rheostat coil snapped and was shorting out on something behind the dash.