Varg In Jeep's Clothing

For this? Or next project?

 

From the "show us your Jeep" posting, it looks like skid plates are still on the list for the Varg.

 

Maybe, maybe not. I’m a little concerned about the heat it would hold if I do a single belly pan like I’d originally planned. I might just do a few small plates under the fuel pump and t-case. The ground clearance is 17 1/2” under the whole belly. I’m not sure I’ll want to be places on 32” tires that need more ground clearance than that.

 

X3!

 

sorry i wasnt more clear. what is on the slate for the next build project?

 

I was hoping to get the experiment rolling before winter, but I need to lay low for a while. My wife has had just about enough of my projects for now.

I have a mental issue where I become obsessed with something until it’s to a point in my mind that pleases me. I don’t eat, I can’t sleep, I have to force myself to interact with my family and not slip away into the shop to sneak a few more minutes of work in... I hit the apex on this the other day. The last two nights I have seen better sleep than I have in months.

If we pick up a bus or motor home of some sort, that’ll get the treatment, but we’re still on the fence on that topic. This jeep still needs quite a bit of work to finish, but at least it’s functional now and I’m not losing sleep (or arguments) over it.

 

I learned something new. Mag polish works on plastic.

I’m frustrated beyond belief that they sell a tachometer that’s works as poorly as the one I bought for this project. It works on a stepper motor that relays the signal around once per second. The needle jumps to a given RPM every second and hangs there until the next signal is relayed. Smooth it is not. Maybe it’s fine for a boat, but not a car. A warning in the description would’ve been nice.

I dug an old Sun Super Tach II out of storage. I took it off Mighty Mouse because it wasn’t working right, but I wondered if it was just Dan’s wiring magic. Nope, still doesn’t work, even after re-flowing the solder connections. It is jumpy and only registers about 1/3 of the rpms that it should.

So, I went to plan C and stole the Autometer tach out of the 3b. For 23 years, this thing has been through countless brutal races, out in the rain, snow, relentless sun, and the face is scratched to a nice shade of cloud from wiping mud off of it with gloved fingers through races. I honestly can’t believe it still works. It’s horribly sun bleached.



I hit the case with 0000 steel wool, then followed it with mag polish. Results were crazy good. It even cleaned up the face.



It’s like looking at an old friend. This thing has been with me a long time.

 

Yeah, toe-in is a little off.
1 5/16” of toe from front to back of tire.

 

That's a good way to make racing slicks out of your front tires.

 

I still need to get the tires balanced, but any hint of death wobble is gone. I adjusted the toe, and it’s absolutely perfect now. There was a little bit of darty-ness when you’d turn the wheel anywhere but straight. I was assuming (hoping) that the toe was out. That issue is now gone. I had it up to 60, and it tracks straight as an arrow.

I shot some off-road video for you hungry fools. Tires at 25psi, sway bar attached. It feels so stable. Between the videos, I did a u-turn on a side hill I’m not sure I’d take my 3b, and it didn’t feel sketchy at all.

I went a little faster than I had to; I’m still getting used to this and didn’t want to risk losing traction.





Something cool about this fuel injection. If you’re idling along in gear and push the brake, it applies power like a governor to hold the idle speed constant. Dip the clutch, and the idle jumps up for a second before it has time to correct itself. Is that normal for fuel injection? It’s killer for off-road.

I also fitted a heat shield on the head pipe to guard the battery and wires. Recycled from some other car. Found it on my scrap heap.

 

Those hills are steeper than they look on video.

 

They always are.
I almost forgot, you’ve been up them.

 

That's pretty typical since the ECU typically controls the idle speed to a target via closed loop. It can be helpful, but I find it annoying sometimes on our truck when I want to go a little slower than the idle speed or you get an occasional unexpected surge.

I like how you can lug a carbureted Dauntless down to 350ish RPM before it dies. ....but that really means I need lower gears.

 

IIRC on the gm TBI stuff if you turned on the a/c compressor it would raise rpm some. If Volvo’s do the same you could use it similar to why you’d run a throttle cable.

 

I never did come across something like that on this. Not saying it’s not there, I just don’t know if it’s supposed to be like a dash pot of some sort, or if the computer bumps up the fuel and... introduces essentially a vacuum leak? No idea. It’s a simple cable operated butterfly with a throttle position sensor.

 

It doesn't have an Idle Air Control Valve that bypasses the throttle plate? Almost all EFI things have one of some sort.

 

*Googles frantically*
Yes. Yes it does.

 

Yep: