Sir Sam

Sold today for $3600.

Did you see the link? Yes I saw the link, watched the trailer..... is that a real movie or just some spoof trailer? Just don't seem real to me.... would be kinda cool if it was, but I have my doubts. Seem like something that would be shown on Robot chicken or adult swim. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1612774/

Did you see the link?

http://rubberthemovie.com/ OMG! :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :rotf: :doh: :doh: :doh:

No, it was the hall effect sensor that did it. FYI these cost like 98 cents at radio shack. Or just grab a good plate with the hall effect sensor in it. Or grab a whole distributor, take the plate off of it, and then return the distributor with your old plate on it to the junkyard and get a refund. But I would only do that to the junkyard that screwed me over.

yup have him email me soon if he wants it zlusterdenver AT colorado4wheel.com

them wheels were hard to find and I think I got all the one's that were in stock in colorado from two separate junkyards in denver. I think I still have the sheet somewhere from performance wheel/tire for the junkyards, the next closest one was la junta, and they only had 2. :eek: Yup they are rare, I have a set on my KJ CRD, one on my yellow XJ freedom, one set for my MJ, and other set or two hiding in the backyard. Ya I pick em up whenever I can. :D

The freedom even came with factory with silverstar wheels like you have you have on your MJ. Unfortunately someone took them off before it found its way to me.

Ya its got a bit of lean to it, when you load it up with cargo it gets more pronounced too. The rear springs seem pretty well used.

Posted it on CL tonight:

I'll agree with you about the bug being a death mobile, and I used to think the same about the vanagon, but the other vanagon owners convinced me otherwise. They found statistical crash data from the 80's showing vanagons had a much lower than expected death rate. That combined with anecdotal evidence from owners who survived crashes: That guy walked about without any real injuries, mostly bruises, soreness and a broken heart from having his baby destroyed. Now sure I would rather be in an accident in a brand new mercedes, but between the van and an XJ I think its a toss up. (and for being a unibody vehicle it sure is quite a bit stiffer than the XJ is). Ya somewhere in the archives are the photos from the white van buildup if you want some casual viewing. This is also the gallery for my AK trip: http://colorado4wheel.com/content/ak/index.html I look back on the photos and it makes me long to go back, the trip was epic, with amazing scenery and I wish I had had more time. I don't plan to live in it fulltime, my dad sorta does, he has a job in LA but a house in colorado, he lives in the van during the week, and between work travel and personal travel he manages to find a good deal of time back in colorado, so maybe half the week he lives in the van, the rest of the time he gets the hell out of LA. The subaru engines are real popular, I've toyed with the idea of doing a SVX swap(3.3L 220hp 210torque), I lucked out and found a van that had a subie conversion, so I yanked the adapter plates and exhaust and have them sitting on a shelf(though the exhaust fits a 2.2, the adapter will fit any subie). The white van will probably get a subie at some point, but its got a real strong engine in it for now. I really want to do a diesel swap on the syncro, TDIs are pretty common swaps, but will eat up a big chunk of cash compared to the subie. There is a guy doing a subie diesel swap right now - the first one ever, and I think that would be the ultimate engine swap, but its super expensive and looks like it will require lots of fabbing.

Full camper Syncro Westy: 4WD with rear locker, optional front locker and driveshaft decoupler(standard viscous coupler) Sleeps 4, seats 4. 3 way refrigerator, 12Volt, propane, 120V AC, (which I will replace with a newer 12V unit) 2 burner stove with 9 gallon propane tank sink with 12 gallon fresh water tank swivel front seats 1 rear table 1 front table rear closet and cabinets for storing all that stuff you need Rear seat folds down into a bed about 50" wide(not huge, but enough for you and little honey to spoon in and be comfortable) Pop top with additional bed for 2 people up top. Takes less than 15 seconds to pop the top and less than 30 to lower it. The Unibody, rear engine, RWD, with front seats over the front of the rear wheels means that there is a BIG large low "cargo" area. Stepping into the van is a single short step, stepping into a ecoline type van is a pita compared to this thing. Overall the van is 1 foot longer than a stock XJ, but has a tighter turning radius. The van is small enough and easy enough to see out of and drive that you can DD it, or its not a PITA to drive around like an RV is. You can pull over anywhere, climb into the back easily, and have a nice bed all made up for you. You can 4wheel to the top of the rockies and then pop the top and cook up some food. With the top popped you can stand up and cook, or without you can hunch over a little and still be comfortable cooking. This summer we took our 2WD to alaska, the fridge kept the beer cold(nothing like breaking canadian laws by drinking an american beer while going down the road), I cooked popcorn, eggs, and even used the pressure cooker to make stew while going down the road. Dogs sleeping in the back: Cooking some lunch: Co-pilots while my dad was sleeping in the back: Van at the arctic circle(this was at 10:45 PM, local time) A few mins later the sun broke through the clouds in time for the sunset sun to hit the van: The next day a little further north: Further north still: Later that day, my foot in the arctic ocean: Getting gas in deadhorse AK, as far north as you can drive in North America: My dog crapping north of the arctic circle: Under the AK pipeline: That big white mountain in the background is Mt Mckinley, the tallest mountain in North America: In Chitina AK: In Valdez AK: By Lake Kluane, Yukon Territory Canada: Some tiny unnamed glacier in Canada: In Hyder AK: MT Rainer National park: Pretty much the ultimate excursion/4wheeling/camping rig to me. It's not so much about the vehicle, but what you do with it.

someone has certainly been spoiled by living in a rust-free zone... :rotf: We get some rust here, just look at how rusty the seams are on this VW after 24 years: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: I'm not looking forward to dealing with those rusty seams. Stock XJs and MJs. The problem isn't the XJ or MJ, or me. I can drive just about anything at 150 MPH if the engine has the moxie to get it there. It's when some idiot cuts you off and you have to slam on the brakes while making a violent evasive maneuver that the high, narrow SUV chassis decides it wants to be upside down before you even have time to blink. I have survived three serious accidents (none my fault, one as a passenger) and several near misses at legal speeds. I know how fast things can turn to zhit -- and if you're going 20 or 40 or 50 MPH over the speed limit, the zhit just happens even faster. These are off-road vehicles, not sports cars. I won't argue with you that a stock XJ isn't a sports car(although in 1991 a HO XJ would have given a 300zx non turbo a pretty good competition off the line). And I won't argue with you that driving fast in heavy traffic is a good idea either. But there are lots of places where its safe and legal to drive 75 or 80 mph, I drive on the interstate quite often at 80-85 mph in my XJ. I'm not talking about talking about doing 20+ mph over the speed limit on the interstate, just the legal 75 or 80 mph(I usually run about 5 mph over so 80-85mph when its clear).

So when I converted my 91 to a westy I just kinda lucked out and found a good fiberglass top on CL(from a guy who told me about the samba) at the same time that I bought the van. I figured I would make the top work while engineering my own hole opening and bunk rails. After getting that top and seeing how most people did conversions by drilling the spot welds I decided that would work better. I found a van at a junkyard, got all the westy interior out of it, then went back and cut off the roof. That worked nicely, and it looked stock. But that method is super labor intensive, I cut a corner by leaving the roof section over the driver intact, and making a seam/splice just above the B pillar. Even so as anyone who has done a conversion knows, thats super labor intensive. The other option at the time was to take the roof skin to just outside the aluminum rail that holds the canvas top down, I think this is the method I am going to use on the syncro because: A) it saves time, and labor, lots of it B) the outer parts of my donor westy roof are mangled up in a few places C) its just as strong and water tight if you weld the sheet metal fully around. So this is the donor van, an 87 full westy that was rolled. It's still a nice driving van, none of the suspension was damaged, the engine still runs fine, has a rebuilt trans, was a super super clean westy, but the whole upper body is tweaked to the left, so it really is beyond repairable. Really though, I just want it for the pop top conversion and the newer grey interior(no offense to the guys with the exterior brown vans and brown interior vans, but yuck, the grey interiors feel clean and modern to me, despite being almost 25 years old)

Well the time has come for me to start a build thread. I've had this syncro since november of 09, and the project has just been on hold since then. Basically I picked up in town, drove it home and then around the neighborhood a couple of times, and then parked it. So, this is what I am starting with, '87 7 pass syncro with ~225k, a broken odometer(perhaps the next thing on the list), single rear locker, plenty of minor body damage around(the kind that takes many hours for such a small thing), rust free body, minus the usual seams. It had a "clutch problem" when I bought it that turned out to be broken rear lower bellhousing studs. In this video you can see that the greasy gap changing size is the transmission and the engine mating surface, they should be completely together, but with only the upper bolts in place the action of pushing the clutch in and out causes the whole shebang to articulate there, made the clutch engage super close to the floor and almost un-drivable, lots of throttle and slipping was required to get it started in gear. This is the broken stud I was able to remove: I wasn't able to find an allen head bolt that was long enough to replace the stud(the longest I could find was m10x1.5x70mm, and a 80mm is needed. Because of the clearance a regular 80mm hex head bolt won't clear either. Ended up using a 80mm threaded rod on the passenger side. The drivers side was tighter and I couldn't even get the old stud out, ended up threading the stud back in and leaving enough to get a new nut on the old broken part, so theres a little less thread engagement there, and theres now a threaded rod on the passenger side, but it sure beats a transmission pull, its much better than it was, and the van is actually somewhat drivable now. The clutch still feels "soft" compared to the brand new one in my 91, and it feels like it "chatters" when engaging it, so I'm sure a new clutch would be good, but for now the van is drivable, which is the important part. Plus I don't really want to goto the PITA to drop the trans and throw on a new clutch when I want to convert to another engine anyway.

What kinds of junk are you guys driving that you won't take a MJ or XJ above 75?

had my 00 XJ up to 110 a couple of times. Felt surprisingly stable, sucked gas though. Had my diesel KJ up to 118, that thing just wanted to keep going.

Drill it out deeper and tap for a new thread size return fitting?

Ah you mean like cummins engines in dodges, mercedes engines in jeeps, navistar engines in fords, isuzu engines in chevys, toyota engines in chevys, italian engines in jeeps, or chinese engines in jeeps, or Valmet engines in jeeps......... I could go on, shall I?

what about the atlas t-case? or the NV3550 I think the main reason not the replace the gauge cluster was so that no one could say anything about the mileage being off. Eh... when I went to a full gauge cluster in both my MJs, I kept the original speedo in the new cluster. I'm not saying its not possible, or to even reset the mileage on a new cluster, I just think he doesn't want anything to comprimise the integrity of his mileage claim. Most of the reason to own a vehicle like that is for the mileage bragging rights, mercedes owners are the same way. Jeep really needs to have a mileage club just like mercedes does.

Might be just fine, judging by the condition of the seat its a skinny little guy not some big fatarse who uses the door like a crutch getting in and out.

oh my......that willys....

Yup, and if you have a clean receptacle you can drain it, inspect it, and pump it right back in.

what about the atlas t-case? or the NV3550 I think the main reason not the replace the gauge cluster was so that no one could say anything about the mileage being off.

yay! free reign while the dictator is out!