DirtyComanche

How far away is he? Do you know anyone in the area that owes you a favour? Do you want to destroy his life? Is he registered on Pirate4x4? How much money is in question?

I'm against financing such an item. I'd finance a house, but only if I had 20% as a down payment minimum and reasonable job security. Otherwise, no, I won't finance a damn thing. It'll be $200 cars before financing.

Let's put it this way... If I was that guy I'd be watching the classifieds. After all, I'd need a replacement set of tires/rims.

I'd not heard that before. But generally everything regarding the 8.25 I disregard. Not enough strength to bother or care.

Visteon wasn't spun off until 97. Sterling in 98. These axles showed up in the late 80s, IIRC. Visteon also makes no mention of building axles, just interiors and electrical. Whatever, it's largely irrelevant. Referring to is as a 'Ford 10.25' might well be most correct.

Yup, so he showed up tonight with an 07 A4 w/ the 2.0T, 6spd, Quattro, and some sort of 'winter package' (all seats are heated, and a nifty pass though for skis from the tunk into the cabin area). It was dark by the time he got here, so I couldn't say much other than the interior looks nice. And there's an overwhelming amount of features, it seems. He'll figure it out, eventually. I have some faith in the old fart.

Does Visteon own Sterling? Or, did they? Ford owned it, spun it off, bought it back... Anyways, the 10.25 is probably cast nodular iron. The sparks were more consistent with cast iron, shorter and more orange in colour. Also, it feels soft when grinding, cutting, drilling, etc, which is consistent with cast nodular iron. Cast steel would also be very atypical for an application like this. As to the 8.8, I wouldn't comment, but I'd assume the same. So, I welded this thing on. I pre-heated to about 500*... Welded 1"~ segments, peined the weld, blah blah. Used the MIG, and did it seriously hot... Image Not Found Ground around the edge to smooth it all out. Image Not Found I shouldn't have made the plate as wide as I did, it was slightly counter-productive. Ohwell. Also, I welded the inside but neglected to take a picture. And I hate wire wheels. Image Not Found

But... To what pressure? Shop air is gonna be 120PSI, you don't want THAT in a tire. And they aren't going to read the manual; how dare anyone suggest such a thing. It's unfortunate, but most people don't have a clue. So the light comes on and they take it in. Or they drive around with the light on forever.

Carfax? Here you can just take a VIN number to the insurance office and have them run it for $10.

Hey! Who you calling stupid! :D . I've been prefilling oil filters for 30 years I mean the process, not the intention... Fill filter, flip filter over to install, spill all the oil out of the filter and onto the engine and floor, swear. With a remote setup with the filter oriented correctly, I could fill it and stick it on there without spilling it. I'd actually bother then. As it is I just grumble, put some oil on the gasket, and spin the new filter on.

I like how that cost you $2300, and I was looking at one on the stealership for $8900 CND a couple months ago (a 98, also white). Looks good. Treat 'er well. And umm, I'd avoid financing $2000 vehicles in the future (at least you aren't financing a $30K vehicle that you can't afford).

I often pull the plug cold. I don't really care. I imagine there will be a little sediment on the bottom of the pan, but I have trouble believing there would be a lot that wouldn't have been caught by the filter that could actually be suspended by running it. Maybe I should waste half a quart and flush a little clean oil through it when I do that, just because. Whatever, my oil change interval is way more often than recommended anyways. And pre-filling is stupid on these things. I'm dead set on running a remote mount oil filter on my XJ (when I get that far).

Actually, it's a brand/trade name, like NiArc or Nickel-99 or such. It's just a rod that has a high nickel content so it welds better to cast iron. It's expensive. I have some, but it will have to go in the oven before I use it (if it is still in decent shape). Also, I haven't used my stick for much more than burning out bolts/stuck stuff recently (now that I think about it, it's probably been 2 years, that rod is probably garbage). To complicate things a little more, I didn't want to just plate it in with regular hot rolled steel. So I tried to buy some A-50 or T-1. Turns out neither are easy to get here. But they had a chunk of .375" AR (Abrasion Resistant), which is brutally hard. It requires to be preheated to 300* minimum before it'll weld nicely. So, there's going to be a fair amount of heat in this process. I'm thinking I might go rent an oxy/acetylene torch to aid in pre-heating. I have a little oxy/mapp torch that take the small torch bottles (1-lb?). I don't know if it'll throw enough heat. Also, I'm going to need some serious heat to get the freaking pinion yoke off. I broke my harmonic balancer puller trying to get it off. Durr. I would have tried my little torch to get it hot first, but I had no oxygen left.

He just phoned me and said he drove an A4 today (guess he got their early enough). It sounds like he'll be buying one if he can find exactly what he wants (that one was a toupe colour, whatever that is, it's not one of the 16 colours I know, but apparently it didn't look great).

Ugh. Well, if they fry your nuts it's just cheap birth control. Good luck with everything :cheers:

I actually couldn't even tell you if those are available here. I can't say I've seen one. And I haven't randomly gone to the dealership to get the salespeople wet, not in the last year at least.

It's what he wants. Mom has got a WJ that they use if they 'need' a SUV. And he wants something small/short that is easy to park downtown; since the wonder of city planning has produced parking spaces much more suited to smart cars (if you can find one). In this town I drive around all over the place trying to find spots that I can actually fit my stupid 3/4 ton in.

Yeah, he's not exactly the saturday mechanic type. He claims he used to do the oil changes on his VW beetle back in the 70s, I've seen no evidence to support that. :rotf: Anyways, he's going to go test drive some Audis tomorrow, since he has to go to Vancouver anyways (there's a couple Audi dealers there). We'll see.

To use a sawzall you would need a really long blade. With the sterling the area to be removed extends a long ways towards the pinion. A 10" or so disk in the angle grinder would have made shorter work... Might weld it with castarc with the stick... Haven't decided yet. It's that or backtracking with the mig using some preheat and a slow cool. I'm not there yet (the mig would be fine).

Any chance we could get more pics of the truck? The gory details, the innards, etc?

Anybody wanna guess what this was? Image Not Found Here's a hint. I can't say I'd recommend using a 5" angle grinder to shave an axle. Something with a little more reach would make it a lot easier... Now there's a big ol' hole: Image Not Found And this is a view of how much I removed: Image Not Found Versus how it started: Image Not Found Before anybody says anything, I don't wear sandals while working in the shop. Not any more at least. And if I was to I wouldn't be wearing socks with them, I have been told that is taboo by enough females... Anyways, the grinding isn't done, it needs to be trued up a bit first. Then I'll check that the carrier can actually go back in... Then I just gotta stick a piece of .375" on it. Oh, and build a diff cover since I can't seem to find an aftermarket one that I could modify. And the stock on is much like an 8.8, about as thick as that coloured construction paper. Also, I should pull the pinion out before I do the welding. I imagine the bearings are packed full of filings now anyways. I'm not sure how bad that will be, I'm thinking it should just pop out with a gentle sledge-hammering?

It's still unitized, since it's all welded together. The floor (when it goes in) will be at least partially structural. I thank everyone for the kind comments. I've really thrown myself into the insanity with this build :nuts:

He won't go ford, there's some bad blood there. And he has something against 'school teaching volvo drivers'. He waffled on the benz a bit... There MIGHT be a dealer near here, but I'm not really sure. How bad would one reasonably be for servicing, reliability, finickiness, etc? I told him I think the subie is the best bet, since it will probably provide him with the least headaches. We'll see.

We should get Pete to set up a 'Rehab' subforum for people trying to control their jeep related addictions.

He won't buy another chrysler, I don't think. Part of the issue is that him and the dealership don't seem to get along, yet he has his car dealer maintained (I don't see the logic in that). He likes my brother's Jetta (not a TDI). He said he actually liked driving it more than the subaru. But I don't think he'd had enough time to adapt to the subaru, and he's fighting with a shoulder injury right now (subaru was a 5spd, he had a good shoulder when he drove my bro's jetta which was also a 5spd). Volkswagen doesn't offer anything AWD, do they? I'd suggested a passat or a jetta... Oh yeah, I liked driving the subaru... But I'm TERRIBLE to judge a vehicle for handling and ride comfort. After you get used to a 6500lb truck with 165HP as being 'normal', everything else seems like a dream.