Varg In Jeep's Clothing

Got it weighed.... taking your guesses....

 

3280

 

Dang dude, you’re 100# off.

 

Made a dump run. It was 3480 with my daughter and I, who should be around 300# combined.

3180 with a full tank.

 

Fix was in. Thick as thieves you two are...

 

Yeah, something’s up. I think he’s stalking me. There was a newer Chevy pickup behind me....

 

Did it have a bunch of used tool boxes in the back?

 

Yeah, and I think I heard some expletive-filled rants about ungrateful people.... something something “....take it to the dump before I let you have it....”

 

BWAHAHAHAHAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I grabbed a cheap $5 stick-on/magnetic phone mount at Walmart, and I modified the leftover passenger’s side mirror mount to mount this to the spreader bar. I hit some pretty harsh bumps with it mounted yesterday, and it hasn’t fallen off yet. I might move it over a little bit though; I’m not sold on the placement.

 

One thing that’s been bugging me about this is the hokey solution to the axle wrap problem by just sticking a second set of bumpstops in there and angling them in the right direction with zip ties. Effective, but a bit low-rent. The spring rate was still a bit too soft in the rear, and it relies on the bump stops a bit too much with the 4-leaf stock YJ packs. Adding springs to increase the spring rate without adding any height would be nearly impossible, especially due to it being SOA, where adding anything will, at minimum, lift it the height of its thickness.

I was under our ‘03 Dakota the other day trying to diagnose an emissions code issue, when I noticed the overload spring in the bottom of the rear springs is arched just a tiny bit, and it’s tapered from 1/2” thick in the middle, to nearly nothing at the ends. These springs are 2 1/2” wide, the same as YJ springs.

When I was at Pull and Save yesterday morning looking for Volvo parts, I stopped by the ‘03 Dakota they had and grabbed the bottom leafs out of the packs. The kid behind the counter was trying to charge me the full $22 each for leaf springs, but I talked him down to $4 each.

I got them installed today by removing the two bottom 1/4” thick leafs? leaves? and replacing them with this one big spring.



The spring packs in the Dakota are asymmetrical, with the longer half in the rear. I’m running them backwards (longer section in the front) in order to force the leverage of forward torsion against a greater surface area.



Static height is unchanged. They still sit flat at rest.



So far, I’m perfectly pleased with them. Although the spring rate is now progressive, the ride is, if anything, softer under normal driving. I removed the second set of bump stops, and there is no conceivable sign of axle wrap. I left the spring clamps off, since they were attached to the third leaf, so I’ll have to watch for any fanning issues.

 

I finally diagnosed the problem I had on Friday where this thing would die at the top of long hills, then restart 20-40 minutes later like nothing was wrong.

Vapor lock.

This fuel system has a low pressure/high volume pump in the tank, and that feeds the main high pressure pump mid-ship inside the frame, under my seat. I found out today that my in-tank pump failed, and quite possibly hasn’t worked from day one.

Without the in-tank pump, the main pump has to pull fuel from the tank. Once it’s primed, it does an ok job at this, but with the rear section of fuel line being below atmospheric pressure as opposed to above, it makes it very susceptible to vapor lock if it passes by any heat sources. That section of fuel line on mine is in exposed metal tubing, is wrapped around the muffler and crosses over the pipe right behind the catalytic converter. Not exactly a cool place to be after climbing a mountain pass.

I tore it all apart today to see what the problem was, and the pump has been getting power, but was locked up. I found a broken blade on the impeller, so I pulled it out with needle nose pliers. It spins free and easy now. I’ll grab a new pump some day, but this one is going to have to work for now.



I also used some leftover fiberglass header wrap and wrapped the section of tubing that passes over the cat.

 

When I was diagnosing the “death on hills” issue, my first thought was a faulty coil, and I ordered one before I figured out the fuel pump was locked up. I got that installed on Friday, and between that and the pump, this thing rips! It’s now running the way I expected it to. It pulls hard past 5k rpm, and it’ll hold 85 on the freeway, even up slight hills. Not bad for a N/A 4-cyl brick.

I spent the weekend making rain covers for the seats out of duck canvas...



With bungee straps to hold them tight...



Then I coated them in canning wax and melted it into the fabric with a heat gun for waterproofing.



I also made a little shower cap for the fuse box.



Next up, I need to modify my tow bar and make some mounts on my bumper so we can drag this thing to Moab!

 

And the saga continues.

 

Tow bar is ready. I had to cut it into pieces and take about 2” out of its width in order to fit comfortably between the D-rings on my bumper.

Making the tabs for the bumper...



Weld porn...



In place...

 

Those look like tabs you'd find on a bulldozer, especially compared to the brackets that come with Harbor Freight tow bar kit. Do you know in advance the settings to dial into your welder to get a weld like this on that thickness of metal or do you have to make a test weld on scrap first?

 

I know my most common settings by heart. This is 3 on the coarse voltage, 1 on the fine voltage, and 4.1 on the wire speed. I remember them in 4-number sequences for different thicknesses, like 3/1/41 for 3/16” (out-of position) or 1/4” (flat), or 2/2/32 for 1/8”, and so on. Wire speed will get bumped up a hair for overhead or vertical-up welding.

 

Pretty dimes...

 

Never too late to learn...