Minuit

Suspension stuff.. yep, that's definitely on the radar. Don't know when, but if I keep the car for a long period of time the suspension will be restored and/or upgraded. The reason it's not a higher priority is that this car, now that the MJ is back to reliable DD status, sees maybe 10 miles a month. The car drives OK right now with exception of a clunk on tight turns, but I'm definitely aware that the front end ain't pretty. Apparently it also can't be aligned to spec (probably due to ruined bushings) but it drives decently straight with a slight pull to the right. OEM Ford strut rod bushings only, correct? I found a receipt from a few months or so before I got the car to replace the upper ball joints (which did NOT fix the clunk - it was the complaint on the receipt and I still have the same problem), rear brakes, rear CV axles and something else I'm forgetting. Odometer... have the gears to fix it, don't have the time. Will get fixed soon Transmission... one thing I did note when I got the car was that the ATF looked very clean and red. Level is where it should be and it does not seem to have lost any since I got the car. Will try the Restore stuff in the engine to see if it makes a difference. The oil burning is not severe (only noticeable on startup if the car's been sitting - valve stem seals?) and it doesn't bother me much, but I will check the Restore out. Am I correct in believing that this is a common 4.6L problem? The paint wasn't neglected, it was downright abused. This car has been driven into stuff with alarming regularity by the looks of the bumpers and the paint had moderate swirls (and lots of misc. scratches) before I polished them out. I still have no idea why the paint is chipping on the roof, but it definitely hasn't been treated too kindly. I'm surprised it's not in worse shape. With that said, the paint quality on my specific car (yours looks fantastic for example) seems quite poor. On the passenger side fender I noticed it had tiny bumps in it (almost like something got stuck on the fender and was painted over) and the door jambs have small spots of what seems to be visible primer where not enough paint was applied. The main spot where the paint is peeling is the roof at the very back, but smaller spots seem to be peeling in other areas as well. I didn't mean for this to be this long. If I put this much work into my MJ build thread, maybe I'd be up to date now :doh:

Trim the bushings within the LCAs. You will probably also need to trim a small portion of the axle's LCA mounts to allow for full flex - I didn't show that in my writeup as I didn't feel it was necessary for my truck's purpose. (its stock height and thick sway bar limit flex already) Writeup from my build: http://comancheclub.com/topic/38742-driveway-ornament-to-daily-driver-1991-sportruck/page-4 Post 76. I pushed the axle forward not because the WJ LCAs are longer (they aren't - they are exactly the same length eye to eye) but because my stock LCA bushings were so worn the caster angle was almost nonexistent. Even before being aligned it drove MUCH better.

Not sure what I'm going to do with this car to be honest. It's been a while since I've talked about it, but the only wrenching I've done to it has been an oil change, putting a factory gas cap on it, and replacing a broken dashboard vent. Shortly after I got it, I also replaced the headlights with NOS Ford units at no small expense. When I got it, the paint on the METAL parts of the car was in fantastic shape (apparently this particular paint color seems to have an aversion to plastic bumpers and side cladding). I even spent a weekend polishing and detailing it, and it looked absolutely fantastic for a while: ...until the paint started falling off. There is no evidence of any clearcoat failure anywhere on the car nor any dents or scratches where it may have been hit by something. I assume the paint just pulled a GM and just decided to walk off one day. At that point this car lost any hope of being "nice" with me, so right now its deteriorating paint, peeling trim, front suspension issues, oil burning at ~105,000 miles, occasionally-functional odometer, occasionally (this car has lots of intermittent problems) harshly shifting transmission and flaky instrument cluster lights pretty much relegate this car to "beater" status. I don't beat on anything I own, but the MJ is 110% the preferred child right now. That's not to say I don't like this car - I love its smooth ride, gas mileage, sound, and the fact that I can do surgery on the MJ pretty much any time I feel like it, but it has me very disappointed. It hasn't earned its right to be restored like the MJ has, so instead it looks like it'll be kept up mechanically until I find something better to do with it or something to replace it with. tl;dr: Ford paint sucks, this car may or may not be falling apart at just over 100,000 miles, and I won't be pouring anywhere near as much effort into it as I do the MJ. My formerly nice car is slowly becoming a beater against my will.

Gasket should match the valve cover. If you elect to use the stamped steel 96+ valve cover (if I'd ever get around to putting it on...) you would use the gasket (with grommets) for that also.

Found mine between the springs and foam on my seat on the passenger side. I scanned it and highlighted the relevant parts as the ink was faded. I have a pic somewhere, will try to find it later.

Your passenger side may be dragging (have you tried spinning the drum and checking the resistance? - there shouldn't be very much) and your driver's side may not even be working at all (you didn't specify what scale that 70 degrees is measured in. If it's Fahrenheit that brake probably isn't working at all) Are both sides assembled correctly? One common problem is the small cable going from the top "crown" piece down to the adjuster lever - it has to wrap around the round half-circle shaped guide and not be tucked under it (and present - it was missing on both sides when I got my truck). Like so: This cable either being improperly installed or missing will cause the adjuster to not work correctly.

That's the tank itself, the fuel pump, the strainer, and the straps that hold it up. No sender.

Yep. That's a pile of rocks for sure. :D I've always wanted to see stuff like this. Too bad I'm on the wrong side of the continent. (we have some pretty nice scenery here, just not like this)

I don't understand how they could've come away from something like hacking up that wiring and think they did a good job... or even a passable one. (I may not have a limited slip D44, but at least I didn't have Billy Bob go to town on my truck... :peek: ) :D

:agree:

I know, but you two were talking about a locker before, or was that just a joke? Your making me hyperventilate, here. The locker comment was a joke. He's already lucky to have the D44 (open or not), and it would be ridiculous if it also had an aftermarket locker in it. Jokes really don't come through well in text.

Chrysler/Fiat really have outdone themselves on this one.

The Trac-Lok is a limited slip diff, not a locker.

:fs1: I had to... At least it's just a trac-lok and not a full on locker.

:banana: 10,000 views! :banana: I'm internet famous I guess... no, not really. Fine. Although this means that if each time this thread was viewed, you looked at it for 5 minutes, then I've wasted almost 834 hours of your time over the course of the past couple of years. I've been stupidly busy this past two weeks, so that means the update I promised last post may not happen for a while. I'm pretty sure my truck has the factory (for the puny 195/75/15 bicycle tires it came with) speedometer gear in it now. At "70 mph" the tach reads about 2300 rpm, which with my combination of rear end ratio and tire size puts me at about 75 mph. The correct 34 tooth speedo gear has been ordered. Not sure why, but I had the idea in my mind that my truck had the speedo gear for the 215/75/15 tires it had when I got it, which only would throw the speedometer off by less than 5%. 5% doesn't bother me, but I can't live with it being off by 10%. This also means I've been getting way better gas mileage than I thought I was... very nice. Tip: Get your speedometer gears from Ebay instead of buying them at a retailer! Don't pay $40 for a plastic gear. MJs, no matter what year, will use the long shaft speedometer gear. The change to the short-shaft gear happened in 1993.

Damn. Must have been hit HARD.

I agree with the people above that say it would be disrespectful towards the flag, BUT it's your truck and your decision to make. None of us can stop you and you aren't breaking any laws by doing it. Doesn't mean anyone else has to like it.

That would bring this deal from "you suck" to "I hate you" if that D44 was locked.

You shouldn't be able to move a u joint at all. If it has any degree of play it's bad.

:D The only non-photoshopped pic I've posted is the one with the squiggles still in place from last page. That came from the very beginning of my build thread. I'll do something to mark the doctored pics from the real ones next time.

Just to be clear: the Ravine pic is photoshopped. My truck has had the wheels on it now since I've had it. I've wanted to put Ravines on it but never have.

That's my problem. We can almost all agree that the swoosh looks great on Don's truck but the squiggle on mine is... more polarizing. About 75% of people like it and about 25% hate it in my experience. I do kind of like the clean look it has with no squiggles. Looks great with the original Sportruck trim and Ravines. :drool: :drool: I'm for sure going to be putting Ravines on at some point. I've been looking for quite a while now and every time I come across a set without tires, they're either too far or I can't cough up enough. I love the wheels it has now, but the paint's coming off and I have a little feeling in the back of my head that one might be slightly bent. I'm leaning towards this. A friend of mine works at a graphics company and it really won't be terribly expensive to get them remade according to him.

Just for fun, here it is with Ravines (and the old tires. I should probably do this one again):

So.. a little request here. I gave my truck the same treatment (I know, this is an oooooooooooooooooold picture) and I'm basically trying to make the same decision as Don was: Here's the original: At some point in time I'm going to be having my truck resprayed in the factory color but I'm still not sure if I should have the decal remade and put back on. I don't have a topper on it and I have black trim rather than chrome, so maybe I don't need something to break up all of the silver? Not sure what I should do. Despite how it may look, the paint on my truck is done. Almost all of the clear coat on the roof and top of the bed is gone, and there's a ton of smaller damage that you don't see in pictures. Two reasons why I'm trying to decide this: 1. The SporTruck decal is super dated looking and almost tacky IMO. I like the fact that it's there, but I may not end up putting it back on if it comes off. 2. At this point, my truck isn't much of a SporTruck. It has a full gauge cluster, mud flaps, will soon have bucket seats, and a number of other factory options that I've added over the years. From the factory it was highly optioned for a SporTruck (4.0, A/C, AW4) and even more so now. On the other hand, I don't want to turn this into another generic truck. The big black and red stripe down the side sets it apart. I don't want to completely erase its history either.

:eek: