What? Another Jeep?

I'm not sure how dot approved trailer tires can be so bad on the new trailers. My in-laws got a camper the same as ours a month before and two of the three tires were bad within a month and maybe 300 miles.

 

I kept having tire and wheel bearing problems with my 2 axle, 9900 LB. rated skidsteer trailer. With a load of about 7K the 15 in tires were just not heavy duty enough to reliably handle the load day in day out. I bought a 12K rated trailer with 16in, 8 lug steel wheels and load range E tires. Capable of 80 PSI. Problem solved. Over kill for my little 7K skidsteer? Maybe. But I can haul without worry. Peace of mind is worth a whole lot.

 

Progress on the delivery vehicle.

This:


Is out of there:


Now to fight the new on in.

 

3 different pry bars, screaming at the truck in a blind rage, and 20 minutes later, the new turbo is in place:


Good Lord, these things are a pain in the rear to work on.

 

Back together and running:


Code cleared:

• P0299 - Commanded boost not achieved
• P0234 - Overboost detected

Time for a test drive with some hills.

 

Fixed!

Makes 20 psi of boost at 1800 rpm climbing a hill in high gear and tops out at 24 psi of boost no matter the throttle/load/rpm. No more check engine lights or limp mode! It even makes 10 psi of boost at 1200 rpm. No oil leaks, no exhaust leaks, and no boost leaks.

For those interested, here's what goes wrong with these garbage 6.0l turbos. It's only been 70,000 miles since I swapped the previous one and it was brand new at the time.

These vanes:


Are controlled by this annular ring:


That is rotated by this hydraulic actuator:


Vanes full open:


Vanes full closed:


As you can imagine the whole works gets gummed up corrosion and soot and stops working while the rest of the turbo is perfectly fine.

This turbo is definitely showing signs of wear though. Lots of erosion on the vanes:


And more on the turbine:


You can see where the machined surface for the annular ring has eroded. There are only small hints of the original surface left. This seems to be where the ring was bound up.

Even though it's got some erosion issues, I cleaned it all up with brake cleaner, a wire brush and some 00 Scotch-Brite and put it back together as a spare:


On the shelf it goes to help my wife complain about too much junk in the shop.

 

Seems like someone rolls a little too much coal.

 

It's a stock tune! I just live in hill country and mostly use the truck for towing.

 

Well Duffer, I call the first ride in it! I'll sit in the back with the dogs

 

Dug a latch out of the parts pile and made a quick hold down bracket for the passenger seat. Since it has hing pins with flats for removal, I don't want it bouncing up and falling out.

Pre-paint photo:

 

Took the ol blue Jeep out for the last family drive before it moves on. I'm out of town all week and need to get it packed up next weekend for a mid week delivery. This was the weekend for family goodbyes.

Filled the tank while it was out:


The dogs seemed to enjoy it:


Now I need to do some cleaning again before I deliver it. The fun of living on gravel roads.

 

I wouldn't worry about that. It will have a repeat performance here.

 

I'm delivering this thing midweek so it was time to wrap things up.

Used this surprisingly high quality syringe from the Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08H4Y3ZWW to fill the transmission full of oil. It worked well and I would recommend it:


The future oil spots on John's floor should help keep the dust down.

A last moment together between siblings:


Hardtop loaded into the back of the truck:


Jeep loaded and strapped down along with trailer spare tires. Tires are on the trailer because I don't want them damaging the hardtop in the back of the truck:


Tire pressures and fluids all checked. The whole menagerie will sit in the shop until Wednesday morning.

I'm glad the shop is 46 ft long. There is about 1ft to spare front and back:

 

I'm glad it is going to a good home.

 

Well, that ends my portion of this build thread. The Jeep has been delivered to John. It was a beautiful drive and I took Bodie along for company.

The Jeep at its new home:


It was really fun to look at the 3b. The amount of work that has gone into it is mind boggling. Shear awe for semi-lazy people like me.

John's friend with the red flatfender showed up so I got to see that too. Nice rig!


While I was there, John gave me beer, fed me a delicious dinner, and took me on a tour of the the property.

The view from his driveway:


One the way up his old lunch walk:


The view from the top of the lunch walk:


Amazing. Really a great day.

We chatted so long I didn't have time to see the other old Jeeps down at the shop. Luckily, I'll be back in town with the TJ in a few weeks and will have to bug him again to see the rest of the stuff.

 

It seems only appropriate to post this one here too.


After driving this around the place a bit, the steering most definitely needs more attention before any extended road time. I have a 2 hole knuckle and one piece tie rod (3B discards) that it will inherit and will look into a roller bearing bell crank-where most of the problem appears to be. I can't see just replacing the stock setup. Those only lasted 12-15K miles when, in ancient history, you could actually buy quality replacements.

The red flat fender is member Jesse73's.

 

Agreed. Most of the remaining slop seems to be in the bell crank in spite of the new bearings. I did throw in the crossframe bracket for larger diameter bell crank pivot which seems to be much better in my '69. Really, a taper bearing bell crank is the way to go. The tie rod ends and steering box itself don't seem to have significant slop.

I have a set of 4 degree caster shims I'm happy to send your way. I never installed them because it always tracked straight down the highway in spite of the slop in the bell crank.

 

Welp, an hour and 15 minutes at the Belgrade DMV office this morning and old blue has new plates. Now to see what sort of herding instincts I have remaining

 

Did you manage to get a “Duffer” vanity plate or was it already taken?