Parei_doll_ia

The last few things before I tow a U-Haul across the country: Finally got the box brace in from KOR, it looks good, and installs in minutes. Cleaned up the ZJ box and adjusted it on the bench, then removed the old box and found one of the universals on the intermediate shaft had a bit of play in it. Summit had them in stock, so I changed that out and the steering is great now. No more wandering on the highway, and the steering isn't way over boosted anymore. Finally tackled the AC, pulled all the lines out and freed the stuck line nuts in a jar of Evaporust. The condenser got some of the vanes broken off because I had to remove it with the lines still attached, so I replaced that too. It isn't the Spectra one that's parallel flow (couldn't get it in time/only on Amazon that I try to avoid), but a new tube and fin should still have better efficiency at rejecting heat than the old corroded one. I don't know the history of this compressor other than it seems like the truck was just filled with r134 without replacing any seals or even the drier, so I replaced the compressor too. Summit has a Vintage Air SD508 that is a genuine Sanden compressor (SD5H14), it just has the wrong cylinder head and a 7 groove pulley instead of 6. I swapped the head, torqued it per the manual, and it works great. It does pull the belt about 0.125" closer to the engine, so I ended up swapping back to the 6 groove after I charged the system. I also had to use the old clutch since the pulleys are different diameters. It held vacuum overnight, so I definitely fixed the leak that it had before. I really didn't want to have to pull the dash to change the evaporator. Charged with 30oz of r134 and I'm getting about 46 degree air out of the vents, now I won't get heat stroke from driving through Arizona. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/VTA-04808-VMA I also raised the shackles from the lowest hole to the tallest one, since it seems like the springs have settled now, and to add a little rake for towing. I have about 1" of rake now.

Ich bin Ausländer

Music where you can't understand the words, you say?

I like Monstaliner. I agree that it's 2-part or nothing, and prep is everything. I sanded all of the base coat down with 120 grit, wiped the whole truck down with MEK and tack cloths, rolled on their 2 part epoxy primer, then the next day did the blue, then gray, then the bed. You have to have a rough, clean surface to get anything to stick. The hardest spots to get to are going to be where a failure starts. I spent probably 2+ weeks prepping and 3-4 days painting. Ignore the Grom, this is just the 1st picture I have. Close up behind these abs sensor plugs I made a while back.

This guy showed up to Canton Cars and Coffee in his 86, he's the original owner. Of course he would bring it while my AC was torn apart, so I took my Grom.

From some more internet searching, I found the same valve on an old RV forum. It's a service valve, probably used during manufacturing. It doesn't really serve any purpose now, but I couldn't figure out a way to gut it without it leaking. I replaced the o rings and it seems to work fine. I could even remove the 3/4 fitting without losing much vacuum. It held vacuum all night, so I just charged it with 24 ounces of r134. The vent was showing 42 degrees, hopefully this lasts.

Also, are these check valves on the drier necessary? It seems weird to put 2 of them in series. Some XJ posts I found said they just gutted them. And the 2nd one is backwards from how I took it out in this picture. It seems like they're opposing each other and don't allow flow?

I did, a little bit. I don't usually have problems getting line nuts loose, this one was just particularly stuck and didn't want to break something that I would have to get custom made for a replacement.

Yeah, I already got it out of the expansion valve, the nut was just rusted to the line. I spent many nights thinking about what way I was turning a fastener that I couldn't see when I worked on F18s. I guess 36 hours was the magic number in the Evaporust, I finally got it loose. Now it gets dunked again to get the rest of the rust off.

I'm cleaning out my AC lines right now, and replacing the o-rings. It has r134 adapters on the compressor, but I don't think anyone ever cleaned the lines out, or changed to PAG oil. Some of the line nuts were stuck, so I had to take the expansion valve/small line and the condenser/lines off as a unit to get the lines off without breaking them. I've been soaking the ends of the lines in Evaporust for about 24hrs now, and I was able to get all but the nut on the small line that goes from the dryer to the expansion valve free. I tried heating it up, but it just starts to try to bend the line when I try to move it. Does anyone have any ideas to get it free? I can't find the 2 smaller lines anywhere on the internet, just the suction and discharge hoses, which mine look ok.

If these Commander lights fit they would be a good option, they look a little bit too big to me though. I have a pair of Mk5 VW Golf dome lights that work well in mine. Mk4 and I think Mk3 have the same dome lights. They look different, but fit the same hole.

Yeah, NTK uses a metal body now. Mine lasted less than a year. They're using a 4 wire sensor from another application that only kind of fits the specs, and splice 2 of the wires together to make it fit a Renix 3 wire. (I'm assuming this is the same thing Bosch did as a cost cutting maneuver) I bought a Crown from Quadratec and it looked identical to NTK. Do Cruiser's tips first to make sure it is the o2 sensor, lots of things can contribute to poor mileage on a Renix. The simplest route is to find one that still has a ceramic body. Lots of websites show a ceramic body in the pictures, but if you order it, a metal sensor shows up. Renix sensors use an older style o2 sensor element that is starting to disappear from the market. I went a different route, but it requires one of Nick's Renix Engine Monitors. I use an AEM wideband AFR gauge, and send the 0-5V output on that to the REM to convert to a narrow band signal, then send that back into the ECU. I've been driving it since April and it's been doing great. If you already have a REM it costs about $200. Nick has been out of stock for a while now because of the chip shortage, but the REM is becoming a must have for a Renix. I made a write up to make it easy to wire/set everything up correctly. https://comancheclub.com/topic/68935-ditching-the-narrowband-o2-for-a-wideband-with-the-rem/

While waiting for the ECU to come back, I installed some graphics. It's a kit from 77 Decals designed to look like the Mugen Motul Civic Si race car from the 80s. It came out pretty good, I only made 2 small mistakes on the tail since the geometry is pretty complicated there. I also cut off any white that would cover white. It didn't make sense to cover pearl white with plain white unless I had to. Hopefully I'll get the ECU back by this weekend so I can take it to the practice day at OMRL.

I don't even own a CD player anymore, so I've been watching eBay/trolling the music stores here to find old cassettes to play in the truck. Also a few re-releases that some bands are doing as cassettes. I also use a BT cassette adapter when I want to listen to new stuff. This is what I have so far Ministry - Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs Social Distortion - Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell Jello Biafra and DOA - Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors Nailbomb - Proud to Commit Commercial Suicide Sepultura - Chaos AD Cattle Decapitation - Homovore Sevendust - Sevendust Ministry - Moral Hygiene Death - Spiritual Healing The Clash - Combat Rock Judas Priest - Sin After Sin Dio - The Last in Line Bad Company - Rough Diamonds

The mods seem to never end with me. Doesn't help that I'm sitting around for 2 months with nothing to do before I start this job. I knew I was forgetting something from this month, and it was also probably the most successful - I added an external trans cooler. Since I put the gauge in, I've been seeing temps around 210, so it would probably not be enough cooling for towing. From some searching, everyone seems to install Hayden 678, but it look to be discontinued on Summit's site. I looked for coolers with the same-ish dimensions, and found Hayden 698, which looks pretty much the same as 678, but has a thermal bypass in it. I bypassed the stock trans heater cooler, and re-used both of the quick connect lines since I just replaced them when I did the rad. I haven't seen temps above 180 so far, and the thermal bypass eliminates the need for the stock cooler in cold climates. The engine seems to run slightly cooler now too.

So it's very easy to go overboard on spending money on a Grom, and I'm trying to limit myself to around a grand. It already had a Yoshi RS-2 on it, so I did the airbox mod, added a Koso foam filter, and tried an EJK (electronic jet kit) for a fuel controller, but I haven't been impressed by it. I can see what the AFRs are with a Koso gauge that shows what the narrow band sensor sees in the head, but if I disconnect the EJK, there isn't much difference outside of low throttle. It's maybe making it 0.2-0.3 richer at WOT even with the red zone turned almost all the way up, and has the same top speed without it (55-57 aero limited) I should have known something was fishy when the EJK has you just ground the harness O2 plug for some reason, and pretty much just runs the bike in open loop. I only tried it because it was the cheapest FC out there, and I wanted to be able to easily revert to stock. A used ECU only costs $80-100 though, so I sent mine to DHM today to get it flashed and should gain a few HP. Garbage The guy I bought it from already installed Racetech springs in the forks, so I drained and filled them with some 20w fork oil to give it better damping. I bought a YSS rear shock, and replaced the rubber swingarm bushings with bronze bushings that allow the swingarm to actually work as it should. It rides a lot smoother than it did, and should perform well on track. (no adjustability though) I also swapped out the 5yr old stock rubber for a set of Kenda Kwicks, $95 and they're reported to be as sticky as the medium Mitas tires that cost over 2x as much. Also put some proper width Pro Taper bars on with better mirrors and levers. Also a Trail Tech CHT meter and a Ram ball, to transfer the same mount that I use in my truck when I need it. Also my improvised lift using 2 ladders, an engine support bar, and 2 ratchet straps. It was fun doing the swingarm with a car stand holding up the 1 tiny piece of frame that comes down aft of the engine.

It's been a while, I guess I should update this. New Spectra tank, the Carter pump I got from rock auto didn't look like it would fit too well so I kept the old pump since nothing seems wrong with it, but I did replace the upper line on the pump and it fixed the pressure leakdown that would lose ~20psi within a few seconds of the pump priming. I'll keep the Carter as a spare, I could make it work, but didn't want to hack up the sending unit. I found a 100 amp alternator on sale at Summit for $53 a while back, so I threw that one in and I'll keep the old as a spare. I'm starting to transfer and organize all of my tools from the garage into my truck box, still haven't found a good place to put the spare axles or my compressor setup. It doesn't fit too well in the box, my original thought was to put the 450C in the engine bay where the coolant reservoir used to be, but there's not enough room with the shelf installed. I think I may be able to put them under the bed above the muffler? We'll see. The truck has been wandering a bit more on the highway since the lift, not to where it feels dangerous, but not exactly something I want to deal with all the way to San Diego. 1st up was a bigger sway bar, I ended up taking one out of a WJ. Some searches showed it being installed with drilling holes and welding, but I found some Energy Suspension 30mm mounts intended for a TJ aftermarket bar for $30. I took the bumper off to put a bolt in the hole that's already there in the frame, and put the rear bolt in the front swaybar hole. I also had to trim the fender brace. Fits pretty well, and makes up for the added length of the bar arms. It helped a little, but I feel like my box needs adjusting as well. I think the box might have taken a beating while flat towed maybe? idk. I pulled a ZJ box from the yard, and bought a brace and spacer from Kevinsoffroad. I'm still waiting on the brace, I probably should have gotten the spacer from somewhere else if I'd known the wait for the brace would be over a month. When doing the lift, I lost a 17mm socket in the UCA pocket. I thought I lost it for good in the frame, but one day I happened to look in the LCA pocket and... I bought a tailgate retainer from a JT, flattened and cut it down a little, installed with a bolt that not many people have the tool to remove, should at least keep the dumber criminals at bay. I bought a Honda Grom, it's small enough that I can fit it in the bed with the gate closed, even with the box. I'm going to add a tie down point here I think, to keep the strap pressure off of the aluminum box for the 2300 mile trip. My phone takes pretty good night pictures

Update after a month of driving: It's been working great, LTFTs cycling between 126-132. MPG went from 10-11 with the bad sensor to 16-17, which is about 1mpg higher than what I was getting before the sensor went bad, but that was also on 3.55s and 31s, when I now have 4.56 and 32s. I have found that you need to give the wideband a few moments to heat up before starting the engine, kind of like waiting for the glow plugs in a diesel. If you don't, the computer will most likely try closed loop before the sensor is ready, and it will loop fault lean. It's more apparent on a warm engine since it will take less time after start to go into closed loop.

Summit has a 2 part epoxy chassis paint that I like

AC Delco is good, I had a FlowKooler for about 2 days and had nothing but overheating issues and weeping coolant from the pump.

Stud to eyelet shock adapters

I raced an xr100 for a while with OMRL. I'll probably be taking this to kart tracks as well.

Check that vacuum on the booster too. Mine was like that when I first bought it, but it had a leak. I later put a wj booster and master in

I sold the FZ-07 a little early, and Cali has a big mini racing scene like Ohio, so I drove to PA and got this 2018 Grom with 150 miles on it. It should fit sideways in the bed with the gate closed even with the toolbox, I just might have to figure out how to add a few tie down points.